To the Editor:

There has been a great deal of press during the past few weeks about the Community Service Grant program, and we feel that it is imperative to offer our perspective. These grants are used to provide critical services to our neediest Rhode Islanders. The funding received by our respective agencies is essential to continuing these services to the Rhode Island community.  Collectively, over the past year, these grants have had enormous impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of Rhode Islanders:

• The RI Community Food Bank assisted 60,000 people per month providing food for families in need.

• Crossroads Rhode Island helped 3,000 people experiencing homelessness with housing, basic needs, case management, employment training and supportive services.

• The RI Coalition Against Domestic Violence and its member agencies provided court advocacy, shelter, safety planning, advocacy and counseling to 8,934 victims of domestic violence and responded to over 18,800 calls for help and information.

• Day One provided outreach and services addressing sexual assault and trafficking to over 7,000 Rhode Islanders.

• Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island assisted 2,400 immigrants and refugees with applying for citizenship, obtaining or maintaining their legal permanent resident status, work authorization, and other humanitarian relief, provided free walk-in immigration consultations to 3,800 individuals, and provided 1,250 people with contextualized workforce training, English as a Second Language, and family literacy classes.

• The United Way assisted 1,600 children, leveraging an additional $450,000 in private funding to ensure children can access summer programs that increase their learning over the summer.

All of these services are vital to stabilizing lives and removing barriers in our state so that people can recover, heal, eat, sleep, work and move toward empowering their lives. These organizations, and many others that receive community service grants, rely on this funding for core services.

We are grateful that this funding exists; we urge the legislature to continue providing these grants; and we welcome any additional measures necessary for transparency and accountability.

Karen A. Santilli,

President & CEO,

Crossroads Rhode Island

Peg Langhammer,

Executive Director,

Day One

Kathleen Cloutier,

Executive Director, Dorcas International Institute of Rhode Island

Deborah DeBare,

Executive Director, Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Andrew Schiff, CEO, Rhode Island Community Food Bank

Anthony Maione,

President & CEO, United Way of Rhode Island