Maria Protopsaltis, deputy director for Samuel’s House, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.7FM this morning to talk about what’s been happening at Samuel’s House.
There’s a proposal to have significant funding cut from the Human Services Advisory Board. What would that mean for Samuel’s House?
Protopsaltis said, “All of the nonprofits and that includes Samuel’s House, we’ve come together with one voice, and we actually are talking and trying to figure out a way for a compromise regarding this cut. There is a proposition on the table to actually reduce the funding the HSAB funding by 25% instead of the 50%. We understand that there are budget constraints, but we cannot afford to lose what we built. When we talk about all the nonprofits, we are actually talking about the nonprofits that together, we serve thousands of residents, we provide housing, we provide mental health care, we provide addiction recovery, child care, elder care, foster services, services for people with disabilities. So we are the boots on the ground, and we are the safety net for our community. When we heard of this potential 50% cut, one of the agencies was actually considering closing one of their facilities. So the change in the proposition from 50% to 25% will, don’t get me wrong, we will still feel the impact, but it won’t be as catastrophic as the full 50% cut.”
Help is needed.
Protopsaltis said, “We need our community’s help. We can’t do it alone. Together, all of us, nonprofits, we set a goal to have 2,500 emails sent to the commissioners and the county administrators, and we’re asking our community, if you live here in Monroe County, you pay taxes, you know someone that we’ve helped, either we’ve helped you, we’ve helped your neighbor or an employee. We’re asking you to please, we’ve made it very simple to go ahead and submit your email to the county commissioners and the administrators of the Human Services Advisory Board, the administrators of that and this particular grant. We put it up on our on our Samuel’s House homepage. You scroll down, there’s a link that says, send a message to the county commissioners. You click that, you put your name in, you put your area code. There’s a template already supplied in there that you can you can either utilize that one template or you can change it. You have to go in and scroll into the template and type your name, and then you could hit submit right then and there, that one submit, that one button will send it to all five commissioners and two county administrators. We’ve already tried it out and the cool thing is, when you submit it, when anyone goes and submits it, you can see the number of emails go up. So you know you’ve made an impact, which actually feels really good.”
The nonprofits often don’t have funding for lobbyists or people to help protect their interests, so that’s why they’re asking for the public’s help.
Protopsaltis said, “This request is urgent, and it’s timely. We’re aiming for the 2,500 emails before the next meeting, and we do have one scheduled, September 3. So if everyone can go ahead and do that, again, you’re a citizen of Monroe County. We’ve helped you. We’ve helped someone you know, or you’re passionate about the services that the nonprofits we all provide to our community. Please. We could use your voice, and we one button lets our leaders know that this issue matters. We just did it really quick, and we wanted to get the word out there, especially very quick, since it’s urgent, and again, timely. It is an important decision. I definitely don’t envy that for them (the county commissioners), but we understood that this is the way, this is the way to do it. This is the proper channels and protocols. What’s really great is, after you submit this, you’ll actually get a message from their office thanking you for the email that you sent, so that it’s also really good confirmation. Then again, you get to see the number of emails. It tracks how many emails are sent since we are trying to reach a specific goal, and it feels really good if you get to watch it go up after you hit that submit button. Yesterday, after the first launch, all the nonprofits came together, we had a meeting, and after the first launch, I watched that link go all the way up to 438. We want to thank our community in advance for all the support. This is very important to not only Samuel’s House, but to each and every one of those nonprofits, and there’s a long list of them. So thank you all very much for your support.”
For more information, click here: https://samuelshouse.org/