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We're excited to report CRCKY will be part of the GoodGiving Challenge this year! The challenge starts on Tuesday, November 29th (Giving Tuesday) and ends on Friday, December 2nd. We're counting on our supportive community to help us raise the funds we need to continue to operate. Look for our emails and texts in the coming weeks.
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97% of donations to CRCKY went directly to our clients in 2021.
If you are able to do so, could you commit to making a MONTHLY PLEDGE? Even $5 a month can help. Your monthly donation allows CRCKY to plan how many families we can assist and how much help we can provide them with. To donate online using a credit card or bank account, click below.
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To donate through Paypal, click below |
Language Access Leader
One of CRCKY's core values is our belief in the importance of communicating with clients in their native language. As a consequence, CRCKY has become a language access industry leader. Our website, crc4me.org, is now accessible online in Spanish, French, and Creole.
A regularly curated list of community resources is also available in more than 100 languages! For a list of the languages our resource packet is now available in, click here. Online referrals cover issues such as:
- where to find free food, clothing, and baby supplies,
- where to get information about Covid-19,
- domestic violence resources,
- where to obtain legal assistance,
- medical, pharmacy, and mental health resources,
- how to obtain phone and internet access,
- where to get housing and utilities assistance,
- school information and activities,
- transportation options.
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$25 can buy diapers and wipes for an infant or toddler
$60 can pay for one hour of interpretation services.
$100 Can pay for a one-hour consultation with an immigration lawyer.
$140 Can pay for a two-hour consultation with an immigration lawyer.
$6000 can pay for a family's immigration lawyer
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Checks can also be mailed to:
CRCKY
237 Tahoma Road
Lexington, KY 40503
Finally, payments can also be made through Venmo
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COMMUNITY PARTNER UPDATES
CRCKY has been working closely with the Jewish Community and assisting its effort to help Ukrainians. Thank you to Temple Adath Israel's Social Action Committee and the Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass for their logistical and financial support.
A major shout out to Trader Joe's for continuing to be such a fantastic partner. So many families have been fed because of their generosity.
Thank you Mary Fund for your support and generous $10,000 donation! This donation will help families in the Passport Program have a more secure future
Major thanks to our community partners, Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church (MSPC) and Global Lex for their ongoing support and generous use of their space to meet with clients.
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OTHER NEWS
CRCKY was fortunate to work with its first practicum student, Sam Belza, through UK's Anthropology department. Thanks to the Appalachian Studies Program for lending us Sam! Sam helped run the Food Program, created spreadsheets that could help us track deliveries and donations, worked on our Cars for Afghans program, and worked directly with clients.
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Assisting immigrant families in need
- CRCKY worked with over 160 households in 2022.
- We paid initial consultation fees for clients to see a reputable immigration lawyer, as well as for interpreters when needed.
- For clients who requested it, our advocates accompanied them to their legal appointment.
- Our volunteers deliver food donated by Trader Joe's every Saturday to food insecure immigrants.
- We deliver emergency food packets to immigrants in need on an as needed basis.
- We've delivered food to close to 460 households to date this year. (Our households can get food deliveries for up to three months.)
- For those immigrants who do not have access to medical insurance and have life-threatening illnesses, CRCKY paid up to three months of rent while they recuperated.
New Programs
- Thanks to the generosity of the Mary Fund who contacted us to start this program, CRCKY will be launching a Passport Program this February. We're happy to announce we will be collaborating with the Neighbors Immigration Clinic, offering assistance to the US citizen children of parents who do not yet have legal status in the US. They will be offered the opportunity to obtain free US passports and their parents can obtain Special Powers of Attorney. This will ensure that the children are cared for and can be reunited with parents who are required to leave the U.S.
- We are in the final test stage of a new program, Cars for Afghans. In cooperation with Lexington's Global Lex, which worked with us to develop a financial literacy and car ownership training program for potential new clients. we are working with our first client to help her find a used car to buy. CRCKY will pay up to $12,000 toward this car, with the expectation that the client will pay us back $1,000, through $50 monthly payments. Clients able to prove they were never late in making an insurance payment after 2 years, will receive $500 back. This is an expensive but much needed program. We need donations to fund future car purchases. How many Afghans we can help will depend on how much money we are able to raise.
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A Painful Reality - Asylum Seekers Need Help
CRCKY is working with more and more asylum seekers. Most of these clients need everything: housing and food assistance, furniture, legal consultations with reputable immigration attorneys, clothing, medical and mental health services, and bus passes to name but a few. The number of clients coming with nothing but the clothes they are wearing and a pair of plastic flip-flops seems to grow every day. Just like most of the U.S., Kentucky is dealing with increasing numbers of asylum seekers.
In response to this, CRCKY has started to rent storage space to hold some items of furniture and household goods. As our resources permit, when we work with clients who don't have coats, we bring them some. When we see they don't have boots, we bring them some as well. And when they have beds with no blankets, we bring them blankets as well.
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Did you know you can choose the Community Response Coalition of Kentucky Inc. as an Amazon Smile recipient? Every time you shop on Amazon, they will donate 0.5% of the cost of your purchase to CRCKY through their Amazon Smile program.
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Our organization earned a 2022 Gold Seal of Transparency on Guidestar! For details, look us up at guidestar.org.
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VOLUNTEER FOR CRCKY
Interested in volunteering for CRCKY? Email jenniferclay433@gmail.com and dominiqueolbert@gmail.com. Volunteer applications can also be submitted at:
bit.ly/crckyvol
We are currently in particular need of:
- Intake workers
- Food delivery volunteers
- Social Media savy volunteers
Background and reference checks are required.
For more information about volunteering for CRCKY, click here. |
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COMMUNITY VOLUNTEERS MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE |
CRCKY has no paid employees. Every staff person is a volunteer. Our volunteers care deeply about clients and work tirelessly to make sure no one falls though the social safety net. They do intake work, partner with community partners to help obtain financial assistance when we cannot provide it, deliver food and baby supplies, collect and deliver coats and boots, run our FaceBook page and social media, do our bookkeeping, and staff our Board. Whether you are 16 years old or a retiree, speak another language or are monolingual, there is probably something you can do to help. |
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