The needs have grown and so have the numbers of people willing to help meet those needs.
And now the organization that coordinates their effort across the Tucson area is growing, too.
Interfaith Community Services, 2800 W. Ina Road, hopes to break ground by late fall on an 1,800-square-foot caregiving services wing that will nearly double its existing space.
The addition will include a conference room, five offices, a work room and space for volunteer training.
The agency has raised about half of the money needed for the project, expected to cost more than $400,000.
Interfaith hopes to reach its fundraising goal by selling engraved bricks that will honor or memorialize family members and friends. The bricks will be used to pave a "caring garden" between the new addition and Interfaith's existing building.
People are also reading…
The cost is $125 for a 4-by-8-inch brick. Interfaith hopes to sell 2,000 bricks to help cover the $400,000 cost of building the new wing along with furnishings. About half the amount has been raised, and Interfaith has asked for $110,000 from Pima County's Community Development Block Grant program.
The added space will allow the nonprofit organization to work with more volunteers and clients, said Bonnie Kampa, Interfaith's executive director.
Volunteer coordinator Mina Jeffery shares her office with two other staff members. Three or four people to an office big enough for one or two is pretty much the norm, she said.
"Being a volunteer organization, we always want to have somewhere to put a volunteer when they come in to help," Jeffery said. "Now we don't always have that space."
The new space could be ready to move into by early summer 2008, Kampa said.
Interfaith will serve about 22,000 people — primarily families in need, seniors and disabled individuals — this year, she said. Many need rides to doctors' appointments or the grocery store. Others depend on meals delivered to their homes. Bus passes and food coupons also help.
"We expect to increase our services by 10 percent a year," said Kampa, who has been director of the agency for the past five years. In that time, she said:
● The number of churches, synagogues and other partner organizations has grown from 18 to 39.
● The number of seniors who receive home-delivered meals has increased from about 55 to more than 100 daily.
● Interfaith's discretionary funds have increased from about $12,000 a year to almost $50,000. "We use that money for bus passes, food vouchers, medications, a new car battery — things that help a family get through a crisis and back to being self-sufficient," Kampa said.
Last August, Interfaith opened a satellite office at New Spirit Lutheran Church, 8701 E. Old Spanish Trail, where it administers financial assistance to families. Pima County and the city of Tucson helped fund that office.
"It was a tremendous step forward in one of the areas where we knew there was a need for families to have a location to come to," Kampa said.
Northwest Side
How to help
Find a new way to honor a loved one. Spend time this summer helping others. Get help for yourself or someone you know. Contact Interfaith Community Services:
• 297-6049
• 2820 W. Ina Road, on the campus of Christ the King Episcopal Church, between North Shannon and North Mona Lisa roads
Faculty concerned about changes to U of A admissions policy
