This is a time of great need among non-profits throughout the world and across the East End, and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Fork is again working to meet the need this year with its High Impact Community Outreach grants, which in late July awarded $50,000 to six local non-profits for work reflecting today’s economic and political realities.
Pictured Above: The food pantry at CAST in Southold, which is set up like a market where guests pick out their own food, provides a vital safety net on the North Fork.
The HICO awards were established in 2020 with a bequest from departed church member Paul Berman.
Each of the past six years, the UUCSF has picked a theme in its call for grant applications that reflects the needs of the time.
This year, they were looking for projects that served populations at risk or under stress, support for agencies under duress and projects designed to address income inequality.
Awards ranged from helping to fund a second immigration attorney for OLA of Eastern Long Island to a six-week In-Jail Reentry Preparation Course run by Sound Justice Initiative to funding day care scholarships for the Southampton Day Care Center and a Butterfly Effect Project Chapter at the Shinnecock Nation.
The awards will also fund ongoing food support programs at CAST in Southold and costs for the Maureen’s Haven homeless shelter network.
This year the church received 16 proposals which it says “had tremendous merit and showcased the creativity and dedication of those involved. We only wish we could have funded every project.”
“You’d be surprised how few organizations are really dedicated to giving on the East End,” said David Holstein, who serves on the three-member Proposal Assessment Committee, which recommends projects to the congregation.
He added that, in the past, the All for the East End (AFTEE) charitable organization had funded non-profits that served as a safety net on the East End, but that organization is no longer active.
Mr. Holstein said the focus area in the call for grant applications, which goes out each year in the spring, helps to guide the decision-making process, with an eye toward the impact the award will make.
“We would rather be working with smaller organizations, where $5,000 to $10,00 would really make a difference,” he said, adding that many of the organizations funded this year had made good use of HICO grant funding in the past.
He said OLA had initially been expecting a grant from the Immigrant Justice Corps to cover the cost of the attorney, but that funding was cancelled due to federal cutbacks. OLA had initially used a HICO grant to fund the creation of its immigration services program in 2023, and since that time took on 153 cases and conducted education forums for 323 participants.
The committee “feels helping to offset the end of federal funding was exactly what our 2025 Focus was designed for,” according to its recommendations. It funded the program to the tune of $10,000.
Maureen’s Haven, which received $7,500, “is faced with unprecedented challenges from the increased demand for services, rising operational costs and an unpredictability of the landscape,” according to the recommendation, which adds that the agency is being impacted by the “curtailment of services by neighboring agencies that have greater reliance on government grants.”
Food programs at CAST, which received a $10,000 award, are also being deeply impacted by federal cuts, including the elimination of federally funded food banks and the curtailment of SNAP benefits and school meal programs.
Cuts to Medicaid and the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) are also impacting CAST’s clientele.
“CAST currently serves 1,500 households, representing a client base of nearly 4,000 individuals — approximately 14 percent of the population and 31 percent of the children living in the Town of Southold,” according to the committee.
The Butterfly Effect Project, which was founded in 2014 to serve “economically disadvantaged, primarily black and brown children, who do not have the resources or support systems to elevate themselves out of poverty,” now has 28 chapters across Suffolk County, and $10,000 in funding will enable it to serve 30 children on the Shinnecock Reservation, where 21 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, directly impacting “the mental health and school preparedness for children,” according to the committee’s recommendations, which add that they were compelled by the cost of increased security due to recent hate attacks on the organization.
The Southampton Day Care Center, founded in 1995, has the longest hours and the least number of days closed of East End day care centers, according to the committee, which added that Department of Social Services funding for the program can lag up to six weeks, causing cash flow difficulties, and the high cost of living and low salaries make finding employees there difficult.
“Quality day care is essential to keep individuals at work and families together,” according to the committee, which provided $5,000 in funding for scholarships.
The Sound Justice Initiative works to break cycles of incarceration and economic exclusion with education programs in Suffolk County jails.
The $7,500 awarded through this year’s HICO grant will enable the agency to enroll 16 to 24 people in the In-Jail Reentry Preparation Course, to “build crucial soft skills essential for successful reentry.”
“The Proposal Assessment Committee has seen SJI grow from an idea to a very successful program helping young adults through difficult times,” according to the recommendations.
More information on the High Impact Community Outreach grant program is online at uucsf.org/impact.
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