Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 816, it's the Veterans Day Monday edition of FLX Morning and it's our monthly Zoom with Rhonda Jasper, United Way of Seneca County at uwseneca.org. Good morning and welcome back. Good morning, how are you? I'm doing well, it's great to talk United Way and we always start with our value of the month and here's a good one for November. Personal responsibility, being dependable and accountable for young people, accepting constructive criticism, acknowledging you're responsible for your choices. Do you think we're kind of, it seems like we're heading sort of a blame others attitude in a lot of cases.
Rhonda Jasper: Unfortunately, I think you're right and I think, again, we say it every month but kids are looking to all of us adults to see how we're handling things. And as I tell my daughter, none of us as adults have the answers but we are showing kids what to do and how to handle it and I think that's something to keep in mind. You know, as adults, we need to set boundaries that keep kids safe and present them options and as much as we're struggling, we still got to help the kids around us, whether they're our own or somebody else's, really deal with all this stuff.
Paul Szmal: And it's interesting because when we do that, kids say they like it. Parents, some parents are afraid to be too parental but kids will say that that's what they want. They're not, you know, they don't have all the answers, they're young and confused and want that guidance.
Rhonda Jasper: It's true, we hosted our annual youth summit for middle schoolers across the county and again, one of the things we hear most from the kids is that they want more structure. And I always thought that was interesting or more adults around because they felt safer and I always thought it was interesting to hear it right out of the mouths of kids.
Paul Szmal: Our December value is a positive view of the personal future. Of course, in December we kind of look toward the new year so that will be a good one that we'll explore in more depth next month.
We're in the middle of campaign season so I guess probably the two major things that we want people to understand is the vast reach of United Way and its partner agencies and the importance that every little dollar helps.
Rhonda Jasper: It does. If every household in Seneca County gave just a dollar a month, we would nearly double our budget, which means we can respond even faster to more. We're proud to keep every dollar that's donated right here in Seneca County. And I always say, you know, when I started 70 years ago, we said that one in four was touched by United Way of Seneca County and our services and our partners. But with all of the work with the coalition, with all of the building protective factors we're doing in the schools and everything, I'd say you'd be hard-stretched to find someone in the community who hasn't been touched by United Way of Seneca County in one way or another.
Paul Szmal: And when you look at some of the campaign materials, it talks about their reach, over a million dollars in grant funding over the last 10 years, one and a half million in total community investment, 9,000 family time boxes, over 2,000 doses of Narcan that are literally saving lives, and of course all the Thanksgiving dinners, which we'll talk about in more detail in a moment. So, I mean, it adds up. One dollar, one person at a time.
Rhonda Jasper: It does, and I'll be honest, as we were putting these materials together this year and coming up with these numbers, even we were surprised. I mean, we're in the middle of it, but to really be able to see concrete numbers of what we've done is pretty exciting.
Paul Szmal: So, let's talk about that Thanksgiving community dinner coming up. It's a big undertaking. You can use some donations and some help and some people who want some good food.
Rhonda Jasper: Always. It's fantastic. This is our ninth year. We're so excited. It's become such a family tradition for so many of us doing it. You know, we watched our own kids grow up through it. We've watched kids who have eaten every year grow up through it. We've seen the volunteer families grow up. It's pretty exciting. But, yep, we're planning for about 1,200 dinners again. We're doing the dinner on Thanksgiving Day from 11 to 1, but of course we do all of the pickups and deliveries Wednesday prior.
We are looking for help. We're looking for volunteers starting that Sunday before the 24th. We'll start with potatoes and desserts and go all the way through cleanup on Thanksgiving Day. And the volunteers are needed from the 24th, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, through Thursday, like you said, to do all the preparation and then the deliveries for people who need it and the serving.
Paul Szmal: And where should people direct their donations toward?
Rhonda Jasper: Donations can go through the Seneca County House of Concern. Just make sure they're noted that they're for Thanksgiving. Their website is houseofconcern.org. And then any volunteers can go right through us. And then pre-registration is required for pickup and delivery meals. Anyone can show up on Thanksgiving Day, but we want to make sure we know you're picking up or that we get them to you. So if you want them picked up or delivered, just call House of Concern at 315-568-2433. Make sure to get on the list.
Paul Szmal: And of course, a huge shout out to the Elks Lodge that picked up the sponsorship of this a few years back.
Rhonda Jasper: Oh, yes. Not only allowing us to use the kitchen and whatever we grab from in there, utensils and everything else we steal while we're in there, but their help, a few of their volunteers, we couldn't do it without them.
Paul Szmal: So let's talk about what they say, what they call kitchen table economics. A big factor in this election we just had was people in their economic insecurity. Almost one in two households in Seneca County are living paycheck to paycheck. So tell us about the ALICE program.
Rhonda Jasper: So ALICE stands for Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed. And it's true. Nearly one in two households in Seneca County are living paycheck to paycheck or less. And ALICE bases it on actual cost of living in each area. So you can go to unitedforalice.org for all the details and break it down all the way down to county. But unlike federal poverty level, which is a blanket number across the country, and a lot of times what services are based on, we know that ALICE numbers are actually based more in reality. And I will give the disclaimer that all of the ALICE numbers, while based on realistic cost of living here, do not in any way factor in debt, aside from a house payment, a car payment. If anyone is paying on credit cards or anything else, then that doesn't even factor in. So the numbers would be even worse.
Paul Szmal: So let's talk a little bit about the work of the coalitions. You came on here several years back and said, you know, it's great that we're raising funds. We want to roll up our sleeves and do more. And you've put together these coalitions tackling the real top problems affecting Seneca County.
Rhonda Jasper: We have. We are proud to house the Seneca County Substance Abuse Coalition, the Suicide Prevention Coalition. We work with gambling, education and outreach. And most recently, in effort with the county, we've created SCOOP, which is the Seneca County Opioid Overdose Prevention Task Force, which is just another coalition, which has really been focusing on getting out that NARCAN UC, all of the education pieces. You know, it's been really good. It's been a fantastic opportunity for us to partner with so many across the community, but especially Seneca County Mental Health and Public Health. They've been great partners.
Paul Szmal: We like to talk every once in a while about the Women's Leadership Council. Those are the ones who bring us those values every month. Tell us a bit about the work of the council.
Rhonda Jasper: Our great love, DeeDee Oliveson, that's her group. She's the one who chairs Women's Leadership and has for I believe 12 or 13 years now, maybe even longer. But they do fantastic work. It's really a networking group. They meet quarterly and keep in contact through email the rest of the year. But they are all about improving family literacy, improving graduation rates. They do a lot with, you know, we used to do the fill the bus annual school supply drive. That's going to turn into a snack drive soon. You know, they do all those pieces. It's a fantastic group of people just getting together, men and women, to really figure out how we're going to improve this area for our kids.
Paul Szmal: Do you still have people who do workplace presentations for the campaigns or for businesses that want to set up a giving plan of their own?
Rhonda Jasper: We sure do. One of the great things about being a small United Way and doing all our own materials and everything is we can absolutely cater to whatever your business needs. So whether you want a five-minute presentation or a 20-minute presentation, interactive or not, we can create specific materials if there's something your workforce is particularly interested in. But we are happy to help however we can and cater it to whatever your people need.
Paul Szmal: All right. uwsenica.org is the website for all these things we've talked about and a whole bunch more. Get your donations and get your time to help out with the community Thanksgiving dinner. And Rhonda, thanks as always for the great work you do. It's been just a real pleasure over these years that you've been in charge to watch the growth of United Way of Seneca County and all the things you've been able to do.
Rhonda Jasper: Thank you so much. We have a fantastic team.
