April 4, 2001                                                                                    For more information, call
                                                                                                          Barbara Poppe, 614-221-9195

Barbara Poppe provides 100 top community leaders with an update on the first two years of the Rebuilding Lives plan

Matt Habash receives the 2001 Mel Schottenstein Leadership Award

Barbara Poppe, Executive Director of the Community Shelter Board, provided 100 top public and private sector community leaders attending a reception in support of the Community Shelter Board with an update on the Rebuilding Lives plan today. Her update came from the Community Shelter Board’s recently released Progress Report on the Rebuilding Lives plan.

She shared a few of the key benchmarks that indicate the Community Shelter Board’s success with the Rebuilding Lives plan.

• The development of supportive housing units is on track. To date, over 90 units of supportive housing are on-line, and 117 more units will be on-line by the end of the year. Additionally, another 120 units are early in the development process. This represents 96 percent of the two-year goal for supportive housing development.

• Two new men’s shelters will be opening this year to replace the shelters on the Scioto Peninsula. One will be operated by Lutheran Social Services in the Milo-Grogan community. This will replace the CSB-funded services at the Open Shelter. Additionally, Volunteers of America is developing a new shelter, in accordance with the Rebuilding Lives plan, on Harmon Avenue to replace its current facility on the Peninsula.

• Additionally, Maryhaven’s Community Engagement Center for publicly intoxicated persons has been open in a temporary facility since the fall of 1999. It will move into its new facility in August. The program has exceeded all expectations by linking over one-third of the men and two-thirds of the women served to treatment program.

Ms. Poppe stated, "we must continue to address homelessness not as a night-to-night issue, but as part of an overall strategy to reconnect citizens to the community in meaningful ways and to rebuild lives."

Additionally, she thanked the City of Columbus, Columbus City Council and the Franklin County Board of Commissioners for their incredible leadership and support as well as a dozen private sector individuals, foundations and corporations for their support of the Rebuilding Lives plan. (See the list of donors at the end of this release)

In honor of Mel Schottenstein’s founding of the Community Shelter Board, Eric J. Schottenstein presented the 2001 Mel Schottenstein Leadership Award to Matthew D. Habash for his leadership role as Executive Director of the Mid-Ohio FoodBank.

Eric Schottenstein said, "When the Community Shelter Board created the award, we did so in honor of my dad, the Board’s co-founder. In his spirit, we wanted to recognize individuals who are committed, caring, and compassionate and who are making things happen in the battle against homelessness, through their vision and their vigor. We could think of no one more appropriate to receive this year’s award than Matt Habash."

The Community Shelter Board and the Schottenstein Family are grateful for the work Matt Habash and the Mid-Ohio FoodBank carry out on a daily basis to ensure that homeless people in our community are fed and nourished as part of our community’s strategy to end homelessness. The Mid-Ohio FoodBank helps to ensure that the basic needs of families and individuals are met by coordinating the supply of food and grocery products to over 480 charities, including CSB’s partner agencies.

Gary Glaser, chairman of National City and 2001 Lead Corporate Sponsor of the Seventh Annual Mel Schottenstein Birthday Celebration, hosted this reception to honor companies and individuals who have demonstrated their commitment to aggressively address homelessness in Central Ohio. (Please see the list of top donors at the end of this release.)

Mr. Glaser announced that the Community Shelter Board has raised over $650,000 through corporate and individual donations for the Seventh Annual Mel Schottenstein Birthday Celebration. The event is scheduled for Tuesday, June 5, 2001 at the Columbus Convention Center.

Mr. Glaser said, "I am particularly impressed with the ways that CSB is leveraging its funds and building coalitions. As a banker and as a concerned member of the community, their approach makes a lot of sense to me."

He added, "We all know that it was Mel Schottenstein who said that it is "unacceptable" for a person to be hungry or homeless in our successful community. But, even as Columbus continues to grow, some members of our community are being left behind. Too many families - including children - are hungry and homeless. Mel was right. This is unacceptable and we are blessed with an active and informed Community Shelter Board to focus visionary leadership on this significant community issue."

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