Community Fund of Darien awards grants to 26 agencies

The Community Fund of Darien hosted its annual grant awards ceremony last Thursday. During the ceremony, the organization presented grants totaling $640,000 to 26 local organizations.

Child Guidance of Southern Connecticut received $60,000 in funding, and was one of the top-funded organizations in this year's allocation process.

"We're just so delighted by the strong support we got from The Community Fund," said Executive Director Sherry Perlstein. "I know that we got one of the highest allocations that they gave, and it just felt so affirming to our mission and their concern about the struggle we've been having to keep up with a dramatic increase of requests for service in Darien and throughout the communities we serve."

Child Guidance is a mental health center that serves children and adolescents psychological, behavioral, developmental, social or family problems. It serves four communities: Greenwich; Stamford; Darien; and New Canaan. In Darien, Child Guidance serves more than 200 individuals per year, according to Perlstein.

"Our commitment is to try to get kids back on track, because if a kid is struggling with depression, anxiety, obsessive thoughts or other psychiatric issues, it really derails them from being able to do the things that they need to be doing," Perlstein said.

"Our cost far exceeds $60,000, but this helps us subsidize the difference between families and their insurance reimbursements," Perlstein said. In the last two years, referrals to her program have increased significantly. At the same time, grant funding has been reduced due to the current financial climate. Additionally, many families have lost insurance, or switched to insurance providers with higher deductibles, leaving a large gap between cost of services and what a family can pay to afford, Perlstein said.

"So this is a significant amount of money to help us offset that cost," she said.

"We really appreciate it. The money means a lot of course, but the recognition of the needs of our services means a lot too."

The Community Fund allocated money to organizations in nine categories: youth mental health; family strengthening; elderly support; youth/after-school programs; food and shelter; crisis; special needs; self-sufficiency; and broad community service. Child Guidance fell under the umbrella of youth mental health.

Shelter for the Homeless, which is based in Stamford, fell beneath the food and shelter umbrella, and received $2,250 which will help provide food for the organization to dish out to the 65 to 100 homeless men it hosts each night, according to Executive Director Rafael Pagan.

Shelter for the Homeless is the only shelter in southern Fairfield County; like Child Guidance, it serves Darien, New Canaan, Greenwich and Stamford. Unlike Child Guidance, its $2,250 of funding came from the $5,000 pool of money which was allocated by the Youth Community Fund.

"Usually what happens is that between April and October, we average about 75 individuals per night, and then during the winter months, we can go up to 100," Pagan said. The agency provides two meals a day to the men who stay there, as well as semi-weekly clinics to help the men access health care.

The shelter receives about 60 percent of its funding from governmental agencies, and raised the other 40 percent of its funds. The Community Fudn's contribution is part of that 40 percent, Pagan said.

"They play a really crucial role in our service."

The monetary awards come after a two-month long process, during which 50 volunteers reviewed applications from the agencies. Volunteers reviewed applications from area agencies, and conducted on-site visits, before making recommendations to the Community Fund's Allocations Executive Committee.

Other organizations that received funding this year are: Child Guidance Center of Mid-Fairfield County; Kids in Crisis; Liberation Programs/ Darien Family & Youth Options; Family & Children's Agency; Family Centers; Family ReEntry; YWCA of Darien/Norwalk; ElderHouse; Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care of Southwestern Connecticut; The Depot Teen Center; DOMUS/Trailblazers Academy; George Washington Carver Center; Yerwood Center; Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County; Domestic Violence Crisis Center; The Center for Sexual Assault Crisis Counseling and Education Center; Abilis; Laurel House; STAR, Lighting the Way; CTE; St. Luke's LifeWorks; Person-to-Person; AmeriCares Free Clinic in Norwalk; and Housing Development Fund.