THE PROMISE HOUSE 2019
Non -P rofit Charitable O rganization OF THE YEAR
NOMINATED BY OTTERBEIN UNIVERSITY
A student-led resource center, The Promise House was founded in 2016 with guidance from Otterbein’s Center for Community Engagement (CCE) and Associate Dean Melissa Gilbert. The Promise House fosters community, breaks down socioeconomic barriers to success for low-income students, and provides outreach to the surrounding community through youth programs and the Otterbein Community Garden. It offers a community cafÊ, campus food pantry, resource referrals, peer advocacy, volunteer opportunities, and educational workshops. Opened in April 2016, The Promise House has 610 student members, serving more than 150 students each month who visit the pantry for a full bag of groceries. The house also provides emergency minigrants to an average of five students each month facing economic crises like medical expenses or car repairs, and hosts 70 student volunteers who serve over 4,500 hours a year.
Heroes 5K and Fun Run, support both The Promise House and Westerville Area Resource Ministry. Otterbein empowers students to mobilize their creativity and skills for the greater good. Poverty and food insecurity are prevalent among youth in the Westerville area. More than 640 Pelleligible students (more than 30% of Otterbein students) are financially under-resourced. Surveys of these students indicated that 18% of them meet federal measures of food insecurity. Today, over 150 low-income students do a full grocery shop each month at The Promise House, and another 100 students visit more than twice weekly for a healthy snack between classes. The Promise House provides both a critical service to Otterbein students and an opportunity for service leadership and engagement with citizens and organizations in our Westerville community.
As Promise House members, 70 student volunteers spend thousands of hours each year sorting food, stocking shelves, helping shoppers, and providing answers or referrals to additional resources. They coordinate food drives on campus for neighboring pantries, grow over 1,200 pounds of produce annually for WARM at the Otterbein Community Garden, and host young low-income youth for College 101 visits each December. Students have created recipes and cooking videos teaching peers how to turn pantry items into meals. Food drives and events coordinated by students, like the Westerville Hunger From left: Mayor Kathy Cocuzzi, Courtney Polcyn, Lexi Sherman, Lily Burnside, Sydney Quynn and David Collinsworth, City Manager.
VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR 2020 NOMINATIONS FORMS AVAILABLE Volunteer of the Year nomination forms for 2020 will be available at www.westerville.org/volunteer. Nomination forms can be submitted through January 2021.
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