By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Most of the Ellis County residents who seek financial assistance from First Call For Help are employed, but their income isn’t enough when something unexpected happens.

“There are many, many families in Ellis County, as well as individuals, who are working for minimum wage or just part-time,  or they may be on a fixed income, and they are always barely scraping by,” said FCFH Director Linda Mills.

“Any crisis, even if it’s just the battery that needs to be replaced on their car, can cause a crisis in their life because that takes away the money they would use to pay the rent or the utilities.”

The FCFH Emergency Assistance Fund helps 85 to 100 Ellis County families every year, according to Mills, impacting between 300 to 350 local individuals.

“The criteria is not so much an income eligibility as much as it is the nature of the crisis going on in their family or the emergency situation.”

After screening a request and determining their eligibility, First Call may refer people to other programs which will better fulfill their needs.

“It may be something as simple as ‘We’re running low on funds this month after paying rent and now we need food.’  So we might refer them to the food pantries in town or we have a food pantry here if the others aren’t open,” Mills explained.

First Call for Help was established in the late 1980s by local clergy, law enforcement and other community members who began talking about a centralized place for people to contact when they needed help, whether they were local residents or transients.

“People who are traveling through–maybe their car broke down, they ran out of fuel, or maybe they’ve been hitching (rides) to get where they’re going and they don’t have shelter for the night–we can often can give them a ride to a shelter.   Usually, they’ve been in contact with law enforcement first and then LEC dispatch will call us, ” she said.

The Transient Assistance Fund aids an estimated 300 to 325 people annually.

“When you include all the referrals we make, we’re helping about 900 to 1,200 people every year,” Mills said.

First Call For Help is funded by the Ellis County Ministerial Alliance and the United Way of Ellis County.

“We also depend on local contributions.  Each holiday season we conduct a mail-in campaign fundraiser during December.

“Every dollar helps,” Mills stressed.”