PERRYVILLE CRISIS CENTER RECEIVES $5,220 GRANT

A grant awarded to a Perryville, Mo., help agency last week could be the beginning of a local presence in the community by the Area Wide United Way.

The Regional Family Crisis Center received a one-time award of $5,220 to help victims of domestic violence and sexual assault gain independence.

The agency was one of 16 in Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Scott City and Perryville to receive funding for programs addressing four areas of need identified by the United Way as pressing local issues.

Crisis advocate Sheri Schultz said the money will be used to cover housing and emergency shelter services, utilities deposits, and assorted transportation costs for the center's clients.

"It really makes a major impact for us because this is the most flexible grant we have received," Schultz said. "Because it encompasses so much, we have lots of latitude to help victims in a lot of ways."

United Way executive director Nancy Jernigan said the grantees shared more than $69,000 to address transportation, affordable housing, youth substance abuse and assistance to low-income families in their communities.

The funding represents about 10 percent of the amount raised in the United Way's 2000 capital campaign.

Jernigan said including nonmember agencies like the crisis center in the one-time grant process enables the United Way to have a larger impact on the communities it serves.

The United Way already provides ongoing annual funding to 32 local programs and agencies in Cape Girardeau, Jackson and Scott City.

"We're trying to be more critical of who comes into our family of agencies so we don't grow that number so large we can't manage it," Jernigan said. "What this allows us to do is have relationships with agencies outside of our member agencies or those agencies we typically fund year after year."

Perryville has long fallen under the local United Way's service area, but only one employer has participated in the annual capital campaign.

Wal-Mart employees contributed $2,610 to the 2000 campaign, and the corporate foundation matched the donation.

Jernigan said awarding the full amount to the crisis center was a good way to raise community awareness about the benefits of contributing to the United Way.

"We felt like that would give them a good example of how it works," she said. "We're not sure if they're going to get coordinated enough to do something this fall, but hopefully, we've planted a seed and created some excitement there.".