United Way donates $45G to Lynn families and aid groups in need

LYNN – Families and aid agencies in Lynn have received an additional $45,000 in extra money for emergency basic needs from United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley on top of the $30,000 announced in December, but according to agency officials, it?s still not enough.?More families in Lynn are in need of emergency funds for basic needs compared to last year,” says Jeff Hayward, chief of external affairs at United Way.?The ongoing economic crisis has hurt several towns especially hard and Lynn is one of them.”Hayward said that several families from Lynn that once donated to United Way are now waiting in line at soup kitchens.?We have seen an increase in the need for basic aid from both calls to our helpline and from our agencies,” he said.The additional funding was initially earmarked to go to the Salvation Army at the beginning of the fiscal year, says Hayward, but Salvation Army declined the donation, allowing United Way to distribute the $45,000 to Lynn families in financial crisis through Lynn Economic Opportunity (LEO) Inc.The Salvation Army did not return phone calls regarding what the exact reason for declining the donation was, but Hayward offered his opinion.?We have a strong partnership with the Salvation Army,” said Hayward. “The Salvation Army sees the demand for aid from residents of Lynn and allowed us to take those dollars and give them to LEO to directly help families in need.”Last year, United Way was able to help more than 10,000 families across Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, but Hayward says there were still approximately 4,000 families that were not able to receive help.?Our helpline received 622 calls from Lynn residents last year, the vast majority of them requesting help for basic needs,” said Hayward. “The calls to our helpline this year have increased 125 percent.”Hayward says that Lynn received $30,000 in emergency aid funds in December, but the increase in helpline calls showed that in order to help more families this year than last year, they needed more money.?Many families in Lynn are below the poverty line, elders are struggling to pay for heat and families need to put food on the table,” said Hayward.Hayward says the way United Way raises emergency funds differs from other agencies and is beneficial in the long-run.?A lot of agencies raise most of their money around Thanksgiving and Christmas,” he said. “We wait until January and February, mostly because by then everyone else has already run out of money. After the holiday buzz there are still a lot of people who need food and heat.”By dialing 211 from anywhere in Massachusetts, individuals will be directly connected to the helpline to ask for assistance.?The call is confidential but our agency keeps track of family size and the region that you are calling from,” said Hayward. “Through our partnership with the state of Massachusetts, if you need anything from fuel assistance to childcare our agency will hook you up with services in your region.”To galvanize additional support, the United Way is calling upon businesses and individuals in Lynn to help their neighbors by contributing to a targeted emergency fund set up by the community at www.chooseyourimpact.org/lynn.