Welcome to Center for People in Need. Providing resources, opportunity, and hope to one person and one family at a time.
Resource Center
The Center prints Resource Handbooks in-house and provides them at no charge to clients, other agencies, and organizations serving the low-income. The Center developed the Resource Handbooks in response to a need identified during our Neighborhood FOOD distribution program. During food distributions, staff and volunteers recognized that many low-income clients had little information about other services available in the community. To address this gap in knowledge and provide a comprehensive source of information, Center staff researched and compiled no cost/low cost community resources into handbooks.
Handbooks are currently categorized according to the following topics: medical, holiday, homeless resources, miscellaneous services, children, food, and Ride for $7.50 bus service. All of the handbooks have Spanish translations and some are available in Russian, Arabic and Vietnamese.
Originally, the Resource Handbooks were distributed primarily to families at food sites. However, the faith community and other agencies serving low-income, high-needs families quickly recognized the potential for using the handbooks in their own programs. The Center soon started receiving many requests for substantial supplies of the handbooks from other local agencies. For example, social workers at Lincoln Public Schools and the Lincoln/Lancaster County Health Department are currently distributing the handbooks to clients needing additional assistance.
In 2007 over 51,000 Resource Handbooks were provided at no charge to clients and other agencies. The staggering demand for the handbooks highlights the need for a comprehensive source of information about services available to the low-income in our community. Improving the capability to print the Handbooks and provide them to other entities at no charge will not only increase the capacity of the Center to provide this essential information, but also increase the program services provided by other agencies.