United Way helps crucial local agencies, like Family and Children's Service

By Susan Lang

A 57-year-old man needed input on how to provide care for his elderly parents. An 83-year-old woman caring for her 91-year-old husband needed respite from her care-giving responsibilities. A young man who had discovered his mother's murdered body needed help coping with the tragedy. An 11-year-old girl who had been sexually assaulted needed counseling.

These cases are the kinds of cases that the staff of Family and Children's Service of Ithaca encounter on a daily basis. Each year, this nonprofit human service agency serves more than 3,000 individuals in the greater Ithaca community, including hundreds of Cornell families and students. The agency, which just celebrated its 116th birthday, not only provides mental health services on a sliding-fee scale but also offers home health care, employee assistance, adoption counseling, and crime victims and youth services programs.

Last year, for example, F&CS's staff of 96 provided 21,621 hours of mental health counseling to more than 1,500 clients, of whom nearly 450 were children. It served 280 seniors and ill shut-ins with almost 9,000 visits and 16,836 hours of direct service with home health aides, personal care aides, respite aides and care-giver counseling through its Home Care Program, which allows individuals to remain independent for as long as possible.

In addition, F&CS's Employee Assistance Program (EAP), an early intervention system designed to strengthen and preserve workplace quality and productivity, provided more than 2,000 hours of service. F&CS contracts employee assistance services to 63 local businesses and organizations -- that represents assistance to more than 17,000 employees, or about 18 percent of Tompkins County's workforce and their family members. Cornell employees, for example, are entitled to eight free EAP sessions.

"This kind of service, which helps individuals from the community from all walks of life and all socioeconomic levels, just wouldn't be possible without the support of the United Way," said James G. Johnston, president and CEO of F&CS. He noted that last year, for example, United Way provided almost 7 percent of F&CS's revenue.

"F&CS staff are such a committed group of people, that we are not only a 'pacesetter' organization for United Way, but we have a 54 percent participation rate [in the campaign]," noted Johnston. "Our staff contributes to the United Way because it's the right thing to do. Their generosity really inspires me."

"As an Ithaca resident for over 30 years and as a Cornell employee for most of them, I thought I had a fairly good idea about what F&CS does and its various relationships with other entities, especially its Cornell connections," said Gerry Thomas, a retired senior extension associate at Cornell and a member of the F&CS board of directors along with local psychotherapist Carolyn Chauncey Neuman '64, a member of the Cornell Board of Trustees. "However, it wasn't until I joined the [United Way] board earlier this year," said Thomas, "that I realized how little I really did know about this outstanding not-for-profit community resource. The scope of its services to our community, from mental health counseling and helping special needs and troubled youths to providing home care for the ill and elderly and caregiving counseling is truly astounding. Its sliding-fee-scale and the generosity of area foundations, such as the support from the United Way, help ensure that even the most financially strapped can get the help they need."

Thanks to the prompt generosity of the Cornell community, the Cornell United Way campaign stands at 79 percent of its goal of $585,000, as of Dec. 9. Staff and retirees are encouraged to turn in their pledge cards as soon as possible. For donations to be made via payroll deduction, pledge cards must be in by Dec. 31.

UW pledge cards

Cornell United Way campaign pledges can be paid through payroll deduction, in a check, or with a credit card. If you haven't already turned in your pledge card via campus mail, you can send it directly to the University Business Service Center (UBSC) at 341 Pine Tree Road. If your pledge card has been misplaced, a new one can be obtained by contacting Cathy Jenner at 255-8671 or clj8@cornell.edu. You also can download a pledge card from UBSC's Web site at http://www.ubsc.cornell.edu/unitedway.cfm.

Even if you are unable to make a contribution this year, campus campaign coordinators ask that you still return your United Way pledge card by Dec. 31.