United Way agencies pull together to protect children

Editor’s note: This is the second in a four-part series on the new focus and goals of United Way’s annual campaign.

Anne Ard has learned one very important thing in her more than two decades worth of nonprofit work in Centre County.

“We always are more effective when we work together,” Ard said.

It’s a philosophy that’s served her in good stead as the executive director of the Centre County Women’s Resource Center, one of the United Way’s many local partner agencies.

As a self-contained entity, the CCWRC works to help those who have been affected by domestic and sexual violence, a mission that in print seems straightforward but in reality is infinitely more complex.

Helping a client who is caught in a cycle of violence can often mean addressing other problems that may be exacerbating the situation, such as a shortage of food or finances.

Some of these issues stretch beyond the resources of the CCWRC — which turns to local food banks and organizations such as Interfaith Human Services to help address the core issues at play instead of just treating the symptoms.

Occasionally this means food, other times it means furniture and sometimes it means a roof under which said food and furniture can be enjoyed properly.

“If we’re working together, we have an opportunity to get at some of the root causes,” Ard said.

One of the biggest examples of this collaborative approach at work came in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Ard met with representatives from the United Way, the YMCA and the Centre County Youth Service Bureau to determine how they could prevent something like this from happening in the community again.

“We needed to be clear about what kinds of things a community has the right to expect from a nonprofit,” Ard said.

The conclusion that they eventually arrived at was that adults could benefit from training that focused on how to recognize the signs of child sexual abuse. Together, the interwoven agencies put into motion the steps necessary to introduce Centre County to Stewards of Children — a national program developed by Darkness to Light that does just that.

So far, a little more than 5 percent of the local adult population has successfully completed one of the two-hour training sessions that have been held at various locations throughout the area.

It’s the kind of proactive and forward-thinking problem-solving that the United Way would like to do more of with its extensive roster of partner agencies.

“We are hundreds of local businesses, thousands of employees, thousands of donors, hundreds of service providers and 57,000 service users,” said Tammy Gentzel, executive director of Centre County United Way.

Andrea Fisher is the CEO of the Centre County Youth Service Bureau, which provides family and community-based programs aimed at ensuring the health and welfare of children.

Fisher said communication and cooperation among the United Way’s partner agencies has always existed, but she does believe that a greater emphasis will be placed on these relationships moving forward.

“What I see changing is I think that’s becoming the most important part of the partnership,” Fisher said.

She echoes Ard’s sentiment that Stewards of Children was something that none of the organizations could have accomplished alone.

What the CCYSB brought to the table was a robust staff — which comes in handy when conducting two regular training sessions in the community per month. Trainers also make scheduled house calls to businesses and residences that are interested in exploring the program.

It’s a massive effort, one that can potentially be replicated to address other issues within the community.

“As we see needs emerge we can try and get ahead of those,” Ard said.

When it comes to Stewards of Children, that means trying to negate the lifelong traumatic effect that sexual abuse can carry.

“If we can prevent child sex abuse, we can prevent so many other social problems we have in the community,” said Jamie SanFilippo, director of the community outreach at the YMCA of Centre County.

SanFilippo coordinates all of the Stewards for Children training, which is held in each of Centre County’s four YMCA locations.

She said that each of the four organizations involved with the program feed off of one another, sharing different resources and strengths in pursuit of a common goal.

“Not many communities have the strong collaboration we have with these important agencies within the community,” SanFillipo said.

This story was originally published September 24, 2016 at 6:17 PM with the headline "United Way agencies pull together to protect children."