What is your Mission?
After seeing so many in need in the community, a group of community and business leaders came together to form an organization addressing the homelessness and food issues in the community, forming Community Resource Center (CRC). Established in 1979, CRC has grown from providing basic needs for families in crisis, to offering programs that create equitable access to healthy food, stable housing and safe homes.
What do you benefit most from being a member of NCPC?
For our staff, a major benefit is the connection to other organizations so we can hear about best practices and trends. For our organization, the benefit is the connection to other organizations with a strategic view to partnerships, to help more of those in need in our community.
What do you offer to the community?
CRC helps the hungry, homeless and hurting in North County San Diego, with wraparound services that include a domestic violence emergency shelter, hotline and prevention/education outreach; a Therapeutic Children’s Center; professional counseling; legal advocacy; a food and nutrition center; and homelessness prevention and intervention assistance.
What was your organization/company’s biggest accomplishment in the past six months/one year?
CRC celebrated its 40th birthday last year, a milestone event for any organization. It was the perfect time to recognize the founders who started CRC, the efforts of the community to support us and the accomplishments we’ve achieved, but also the perfect time to create a long-term vision and strategic plan for the organization, its programs and our people.
Our 40th birthday celebration and renewed vision helped us respond to the increased need for our essential services created by the economic impact of COVID-19, and articulate our commitment to racial equity and social justice.
During the period March 13 – September 4, CRC provided 6,449 emergency shelter nights at hotels for homeless families and individuals and 2,269 nights of shelter to survivors of domestic violence, answered 1,275 calls to our domestic violence hotline and provided 6,570 distributions of healthy food to households in need.
What changes have occurred due to COVID-19?
We’ve had significant change in the way we provide our services due to COVID-19. Our food pantry has moved to a contact-less distribution, our counselors are providing compassionate therapy sessions via tele-health conferencing and our case managers are meeting with clients via telephone and video. The pandemic has increased the need for our programs – food, housing, safe shelter – such that we’ve expanded our services to reach more people and added staff to handle the increase in caseload. We’re also working strategically to streamline and improve our IT capabilities to enable our staff to work effectively from the office or any remote location.
Have you made a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization and if so how are you demonstrating it?
CRC is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion – with a particular focus on racial equity and social justice. We recognized that our Board of Directors does not have the diversity it should, based on our client population and community, and we are taking immediate steps to rectify this. We are also looking for ways to address systemic racism because we recognize that Black, Indigenous and other People of Color disproportionately are represented among the people we help.
For more information go to www.crcncc.org.