Sterling House Community Center Receives $6,000 Grant For Basic Needs Assistance Program

Stratford's Sterling House Community Center has been awarded a $6,000 grant from the People’s United Community Foundation to support enhancements to the Sterling House Resource Connection Program, which services thousands of families per year.

Sterling House Community Center is pleased to announce that they have been awarded a $6,000 grant from the People’s United Community Foundation to support enhancements to the Sterling House Resource Connection Program. The funding will be used to directly support the efforts of the resource worker.

"From our statistics, since the inception of the Sterling House Resource Connection Program, we have seen that the need for basic needs assistance has increased over the past seven years," said Lou Perno, Executive Director of Sterling House. "We have seen the positive impact a resource worker in the program has on the lives of our clients with many success stories."

The increase in hunger in the community has resulted in the creation of new programs, such as the "The Lord's Kitchen" hosted by Christ Church of Stratford and sponsored by the Stratford Clergy Association. The Sterling House Resource Connection Program resource worker will provide outreach to this program and provide information and referral to individuals who frequent the program.

"The Sterling House Resource Connection Program has grown to become a most viable and needed resource in our community," Perno said. "We are not only providing basic needs assistance, but also coordination and collaboration in order to ensure the most efficient and effective service to those impacted by poverty."

The Sterling House Resource Connection Program is a comprehensive, basic needs assistance program providing food, diapers, pet food, school supplies, Thanksgiving food baskets, holiday gifts, personal care items, and information and referral to families in the Greater Bridgeport area.  In 2013 the Resource Connection Program provided enough food for over 73,000 meals and serviced 8,725 children, teenagers, and adults. The Resource Connection Program started in 1992 as a small food pantry with a single cabinet and refrigerator. The program is now the largest of its kind in Stratford, servicing thousands of families per year.

For more information about the Sterling House Resource Connection Program, contact Ray O'Donnell, Director of the Resource Connection Program at 203-378-2606 x110 or e-mail rodonnell@sterlinghousecc.org.

Established in 2007, People’s United Community Foundation was formed to help support programs and activities that enhance the quality of life for citizens in the communities that People’s United Bank serves. People’s United Bank, founded in 1842 and serving customers from New York to Maine through a network of 418 branches, is the largest independent bank headquartered in New England. The Foundation places special emphasis on programs designed to promote economic self-sufficiency, education and improved conditions for low-income families and neighborhoods. The funding priorities of the Foundation include community development, youth development, and affordable housing.

Sterling House is a multi-service community center located in a beautiful Romanesque mansion in the heart of Stratford. Sterling House services more than 13,000 children, teenagers and adults per year by providing child development services, community services, positive youth development services and adult programs to the residents of Stratford and the Greater Bridgeport area.  The mission of Sterling House is to foster the physical, social, emotional, artistic and intellectual growth of the communities we serve.