LOCAL CHARITABLE PROGRAMS TRY TO AVOID DUPLICATE GIVING

Local charitable organizations hope even more groups will join their efforts to avoid duplicating services next Christmas.

Organizers of several toy and food-basket drives said service duplication is generally not a problem because people do not abuse the services and groups contact each other to cross-reference lists.

They said talking to each other was the key to serving a larger volume of needy families this Christmas.

"If we know a family is going to be taken care of here, we try to leave the list open for someone else," said Scarlett Dittlinger, a social-services worker for the Division of Family Services. "We try to hook groups up with families not hooked up with other organizations."

Dittlinger was one of the organizers this year for the Shop with a Cop program, which provides toys to needy children. The program is cosponsored by Wal-Mart and the Fraternal Order of Police.

She said that DFS checks to make sure they do not refer children benefiting from the Shop with a Cop program to other toy drives. "If we have extra toys, we'll call the Salvation Army," she said. "We also submit names to Target's Angel Tree. We try to distribute (the toys) evenly, and this year I told a couple of people I had to turn down for Shop with a Cop to try Toybox."

Capt. Robert Gauthier of the Salvation Army said his organization also works to avoid duplicating services. "We helped over 1,000 families, and none received double toys," he said.

Gauthier said the referral system between the Salvation Army and the Southeast Missourian was the main reason the organizations were able to help more children. The Toybox applications are processed at the Salvation Army, which helps in the screening of clients, he said.

Organizations planning to distribute food baskets also work with the Salvation Army to avoid service duplication, but the groups are not as successful, Gaithier said. He said the Jackson American Legion is one group that checks its list of people receiving food baskets with the Salvation Army list each year, but few other groups compare information.

Both Gauthier and Dittlinger said service duplication was not a problem in the area mainly because people needing help generally did not sign up for the same services from different agencies.

"I don't think it's a problem," said Gauthier. "We did work with DFS, and provided 21 baskets and toys to names they had provided. Of those, there was only one name duplicated."

However, Gauthier said, it would be even better if more organizations were willing to work together so that as many people as possible could receive help.

"The only problem I see is with the larger groups who don't want to share the information," he said. "There needs to be some screening of clients to avoid duplication of services," said Gauthier.