CRYP Family Services Provides Valuable Heat Assistance & Home Improvement Programs
As the 2011-12 fiscal year drew to a close on June 30, the Cheyenne River Youth Project® in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, announced that it was able to provide many local families with emergency heat-matching assistance and basic home improvements, thanks to grants from Alexandria, Virginia-based Running Strong for American Indian Youth®. Both the Heat Assistance Program and the Home Improvement Program are offered through CRYP Family Services.
“This past year, we were able to provide heat match assistance to 183 families — that’s 1,187 people — on the Cheyenne River reservation thanks to the grants from Running Strong,” said Tamara LaPlante, CRYP’s office manager and Family Services coordinator. “We also were able to help 17 families with minor home repairs.”
Through the Heat Assistance Program, Cheyenne River families may request matching grants up to $100 to help cover the cost of propane when they most need it. CRYP processes the requests and works with the local propane provider to ensure that each family receives assistance as soon as possible. All a family member needs to apply for the matching grant is a $25 minimum contribution and an annual membership in CRYP’s Family Services.
Family Services members also are eligible for the Home Improvement Program, which provides grants of up to $1,000 per family for making basic repairs. These might include repairs to plumbing, heating units and water heaters, as well as replacing doors and windows.
“Housing is a big problem on Cheyenne River, and many families are living with eight or more members in a single home,” explained Julie Garreau, CRYP’s executive director. “That means wear and tear is nearly double what it might be in a more typical household arrangement of four or five people, but the homeowners typically doesn’t have access to the resources they need to repair and maintain the building.
“This program allows us to address immediate quality of life issues, and it means a lot to our families,” she continued. “For so many of them, they just need a little help getting started, and then they can perform much of the work themselves. Our volunteers can provide assistance if necessary, and if the home was built by Habitat for Humanity, then Habitat can assist as well.”
CRYP created the Family Services Program in 2002 to manage the increasing amounts of donated supplies that the not-for-profit youth project provides to local families year-round. To participate in the program, all local families need to do is pay a $30 annual membership fee. That small one-time payment covers all family members for the entire year, and the proceeds support the program infrastructure so Family Services can remain a reliable community resource in the years to come.
Not only can Family Services members take advantage of the Heat Assistance and Home Improvement programs, they can participate in all of CRYP’s Family Services distributions, from the school supplies, winter clothing and shoes drives to the long-running Christmas Toy Drive. They also can pick up needed household supplies, including baby items, on a regular basis and can receive heating and home-improvement assistance.
According to Garreau, the average member family will receive more than $1,000 in goods and services each year.
“We’ve always taken a holistic approach to assuring the well-being of our children,” she said, “and we decided very early on that one of the best ways to support our kids was to support their families… to help make things just a little bit easier for families trying to make ends meet. Our Family Services department has allowed us to do that.”
Although the annual membership fees cover many of the department’s operational expenses, Garreau advised that CRYP wouldn’t be able to offer such critical services as heat matching and home improvements without Running Strong’s support.
“The Running Strong grants allow us to offer these programs year after year, and we’re deeply grateful,” she said. “In a severe winter like the one we had in 2010, for example, lack of funds for propane is an emergency for many families; the matching grants can mean the difference between staying warm and freezing during a brutally cold South Dakota winter. And the home improvement grants give families the help they need to really take ownership of their homes and feel good about where they live.”
To learn more about the Cheyenne River Youth Project® and its programs, and for information about making donations and volunteering, call (605) 964-8200 or visitwww.lakotayouth.org. And, to stay up to date on the latest CRYP news and events, visit the youth project’s Facebook “Cause” page. All Cause members will receive regular updates through Facebook.
The Cheyenne River Youth Project®, founded in 1988, is a grassroots, not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing the youth of the Cheyenne River reservation with access to a vibrant and secure future through a wide variety of culturally sensitive and enduring programs, projects and facilities that ensure strong, self-sufficient families and communities.