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The Sanctuary Project Veterans and Community Information Outreach Center (VeCIOC) held another Trouble Shooting Workshop when State, County and Non-Profit Social Service Organizations teamed up together to address the needs and problems of the community. Click on image to enlarge
The meeting scheduled by The Sanctuary Project for the VeCIOC event on Tuesday 26 Jan 2010 was held between 12:00 to 15:00 at the Old Magnolia Golf Course. The organizations listed below had tables with information about their services and assisted veterans and seniors get enrolled or signed up for government and state services such as disability payments, subsidized funds for power bills, repair services for homes at no charge, free cell phones, continuing education and more. Many also signed up for The Sanctuary Project Food Bank, which has been approved by 2nd Harvest (Fayetteville) and Feeding America Inc., who also had a table and representative present. The following coalition of organizations
attended and their representatives continue to be available for consultation - (1)
Duplin County Veterans Affairs (Liaison Officer; Laura Drakeford 910-296-2114
fax 910-296-2167)
About 90 veterans and local citizens arrived to be signed up for a variety of programs. Sandwiches and refreshments were served.
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The Sanctuary Project plans to renovate three existing buildings to provide Veterans services for an Internet Cafeteria; a Lending Library; a Thrift Store with Clothing Bank; a Mechanic's Shop; Accounting Services for tax returns and a Notary Public, all aimed at providing Veterans with services at minimal cost. The Sanctuary Project therefore needs donations of hardware, construction materials and furnishings to achieve this renovation. Please let us know if you know of any Federal, State, University, Hospital or Military organizations that might be upgrading or renovating their facilities and could donate the old equipment and fittings for this Veterans Service Center. Call Kip at 910-284-9169 - Thank you!
The Sanctuary Project is the brain-child of Kip Tomkin and was founded early in 2009, providing services for Veterans, Senior Citizens and others mainly in Duplin County. It is currently seeking status as tax exempt under laws "501 (c)(3)". Ms. Tomkin proposes to sell some land for franchises (The premises are beside an active freeway junction); pay off the mortgage bank; donate land to the non-profit organization and develop the rest as ancillary services for the main project. And hope we're not all dead of old age before they break ground and the debts are paid. Speaking of old age, Kip said "If we wait around for the legalities to get settled, and for fifty million dollars funding, we'll be old and grey and hundreds in the county will have died of neglect. We need to provide Sanctuary for the needy now!". So in June 2009 she went to a local supermarket and asked for their rejected food, food for which the sell-by date had passed, as she heard it was being given to hogs. Well, it was and it wasn't, but that's another story. After a few bumps, she was distributing food for a hundred meals per week. She started in July 2009 and by the end of December had handed out the equivalent of over 10,000 meals. (Click to enlarge)
The Sanctuary Project and Kip are now working with "2nd Harvest" (Fayetteville, Ms. Phillip) and "Feeding America" and continue to do food distribution on an ever-increasing scale while pounding the pavement for powerful funding. Kip has managed to attract attention at State level; she is a fearless cold-caller, unafraid to beard any politician in his den. As a result there were nineteen, yes, count them, 19 agencies' representatives who spent a few very productive hours helping Veterans and other Duplin County residents with paperwork and applications for the existing range of subsidies available. This unusual coalition is called "Veterans and Community Information and Outreach Center" (VeCIOC - a perfectly awful acronym; but at least no one has noticed "VetComInOutCen" yet.) This may even be a unique coalition of agencies and charitable organizations - it certainly is for Eastern North Carolina! More such workshops are planned for the near future. -------- ++++++++ oo00oo ++++++++ --------
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