Local nonprofit YS Emergency Assistance provides financial help ‘right now’
- Published: December 24, 2024
This time of year, heading into the general extravagance of the holidays, has a tendency to magnify corners of the community where need exists: Cozy moments with family around a well-appointed dinner table in some homes brings to light the need for warm clothes or heat and adequate food in others. And so the season is also often one of generosity — and Yellow Springs has one long-running organization that aims to take that largesse and turn it into aid for those who need it.
The News spoke last week with Joseph Giardullo, trustee of the longtime local nonprofit YS Emergency Assistance, or YSEA. The charitable group — previously known as STARFISH — works to help folks living in Yellow Springs with one-time gifts of financial assistance.
Over the last two years, Giardullo said, YSEA has helped 111 villagers — that is, those who live within the 45387 zip code — by providing funds quickly and quietly, with little fanfare.
“The funds are for emergencies,” he said. “We don’t make people jump through hoops, and we take care of [the need] right now.”
Most of what YSEA funds, Giardullo said, is past-due utility bills to avoid loss of service — a special need around this time of year, when temperatures can get dangerously cold without heat inside a home. But YSEA has also met requests for other needs, including medical co-pays, repairs for vehicles and, on one occasion, a training course that helped a person obtain employment.
The bulk of the requests YSEA receives are fielded through YS Police Department Community Outreach Specialist Florence Randolph, who directs folks to YSEA when their needs align with the local nonprofit’s particular mission. Giardullo credited Randolph — who was unavailable to speak with the News this week — with bringing the same care to people in need for which YSEA strives.
“She’s a wonderful person,” he said. “She maintains people’s dignity.”
Giardullo serves as trustee for YSEA with fellow villagers Joe Ayers, David Casenhiser, Giardullo’s wife, Denise Swinger — whose letter detailing some of the history of community service that led up to the founding of YSEA can be read in this week’s “Community Forum” section of the News — and their daughter, Elyse Giardullo.
“We’re trying to make [YSEA] generational, because we want to keep this thing going,” he said. “We want to reach the 100-year mark.”
Helping YSEA potentially reach that mark was the late Bob Baldwin, who donated around $60,000 to the nonprofit. YSEA has invested that gift, Giardullo said, and uses its annual yield to help continue its work.
Giardullo pointed to Baldwin’s donation as an object lesson on the power of community to affect the longevity of homegrown organizations like YSEA. And he stressed the importance of such organizations — particularly now, as the incoming president has repeatedly threatened cuts to social benefits that could include Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, among others.
“We’re anxious about that,” Giardullo said. “With this new administration, it’s going to get a lot harder for people — but there have been community programs [like YSEA] in Yellow Springs since before there was government aid, and we’ve got to embrace that now.”
See Denise Swinger’s letter on page 4 of this week’s issue for more on the history of YSEA and the community aid initiatives that preceded it, as well as how to donate to the nonprofit. For those in need of assistance, call Community Outreach Specialist Florence Randolph at 937-767-3716.
Contact: chuck@ysnews.com
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