COMMUNITY SHELTER BOARD

HONORS “HEROES” AGAINST HOMELESSNESS

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Community Shelter Board (CSB) honored individuals and organizations that have made significant contributions in their work toward ending homelessness with the 2004 CSB Hero Award at an award ceremony held at Nationwide on Monday, September 20, 2004.

The award ceremony was held to recognize and honor the people that CSB works with on a daily basis to assist families and individuals in Central Ohio to resolve their housing crisis.

This year’s Hero Award recipients included: COHHIO’s Youth Empowerment Program; Maryhaven Outreach Team; Gregg Banks, Netcare Access; Denise Cornett, Rebuilding Lives participant; Kara Hill, Salvation Army; Sue Green, Southeast, Inc.; and Jeana Patterson, YWCA of Columbus.

Barbara Poppe, CSB Executive Director, said our community is very fortunate to have people that are as dedicated as the ones that were honored during the awards ceremony, “The award recipients are those who went the extra mile this year in helping individuals and families in our community to resolve their housing crisis. The work that these people do on a daily basis to ensure that persons in our community have a safe and decent place to live often goes unnoticed. This is our way of thanking them and showing them that we appreciate the work they do to make our community a better place to live.”

Agencies achieving CSB’s annual Program Certification Standards were also honored at the September 20^th event. Awards were presented to agencies that have met 100 standards that promote best practices in 12 categories to achieve program certification. These agencies include: Maryhaven, Catholic Social Services, Community Housing Network, Friends of the Homeless, Homeless Families Foundation, Lutheran Social Services, National Church Residences, Salvation Army, Southeast, Inc., Volunteers of America, YMCA of Central Ohio, and YWCA of Columbus.

The Community Shelter Board, established in 1986, is a non-profit intermediary organization that coordinates community based efforts, fosters collaboration, and funds services to assist families and individuals in Central Ohio to resolve their housing crisis. The Community Shelter Board allocates $7.5 million annually to support programs at 12 agencies. Last year, these programs served more than 11,000 individuals. The Community Shelter Board is funded by the City of Columbus, the Franklin County Board of Commissioners, the United Way of Central Ohio, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the State of Ohio, and other public and private donors.

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