Emergency Relief Fund Helps Glade Valley Residents
Glade Valley Community Services (GVCS) provides financial assistance through The Emergency Relief Fund (ERF) to Glade Valley residents who face challenges meeting their financial commitments. Residents receive assistance for basic living needs, utilities (electric, water, sewer, fuel oil), and rent. Those facing homelessness and needing shelter obtain help through this fund, also.
The ERF Hot Line screens callers seeking assistance through an intake process to determine need based on a number of criteria. The applicant must reside within the local Walkersville feeder school area; regardless of residency, information and resources are offered to every caller.. They must be reasonably able to sustain their financial commitments going forward. GVCS requires applicants to seek assistance from other Frederick county agencies which also provide emergency financial assistance. They must not have received GVCS assistance in the past eighteen months, and must provide documents necessary to ascertain need. The amount of assistance, if eligible, is determined on a case by case basis.
Over this past summer, the GVCS ERF Hot Line received a total of eighty-two phone calls from people seeking assistance of some type. Thirteen callers met all of the eligibility criteria for financial assistance from the fund. GVCS paid $1544.86 to various vendors on behalf of these families.
Of those eighty-two calls, reasons for ineligibility varied. Many callers were from outside of Glade Valley. Some were able to be assisted through GVCS’s Back to School Supplies Program. Others requested assistance that GVCS does not
provide.
The process of determining eligibility, conducting the intake interviews, casework coordination and providing due diligence for each client is a daunting task. Two very committed volunteers with impressive professional and social work backgrounds, Ann Wadding and Vicki Poole, devote countless hours each week to checking and returning every call for the past four and a half years.
If you would like to donate to the GVCS Emergency Relief Fund, send a donation to:
Glade Valley Community Services
Emergency Relief Fund
P.O. Box 655
Walkersville, MD 21793
