Beverly Bootstraps

Beverly Bootstraps is committed to serving people in financial distress. Our programs address our clients’ financial stability through an individualized services approach. Clients are able to directly access programs that respond to their immediate need. Once connected, clients can choose to use services discreetly or as part of a larger, holistic approach to their situation. This individualized, coaching model allows the agency to address clients in a dignified and collaborative way resulting in our clients’ situation improving short-term and, when possible, affecting their long-term sustainability.

1. Access: Making programs accessible to people who need them. Food pantry distributions happen four days per week for a total of 20 hours of distribution, classes and tutoring are available throughout the week and custom to the student and tutor. Case Managers work 5 days per week and hours include morning and evening. Tax appointments are available evenings and weekends.
2. Stability: Staff members have a goal of collaborating with clients in order to stabilize their situation. Examples: creating a plan with a client to use the food pantry as often as they are eligible; encouraging students to attend classes regularly; making a plan to continue rent payments after an emergency payment has been made on a client’s behalf.
3. Sustainability: When we have a client who has the opportunity to create a plan to be sustainable long term, we work to make this happen. Examples: A 75 year-old single man with limited, fixed income might find sustainability by using our food pantry regularly so that he can use other funds to pay the taxes on his home. A 32 year-old single mother might join the HiSET Preparation program in order to achieve her high school equivalency exam. This can lead to college classes or a certificate program that can increase her wages enough for her to maintain her household budget without assistance.

Beverly Bootstraps has been successfully serving people in the community for close to 30 years. Since the inception of the organization, our approach to clients has been as individuals with unique needs and situations. This respectful, partnering approach creates an unencumbered opportunity for the client to make progress immediately. For our clients, small improvements lead to more connections and more aggressive goals.

Following our Strategic Direction, the organization has been responsive during COVID-19 and pivoted programs accordingly. As the pandemic continues, with more and more people vaccinated and "living with COVID" vs. the shutdowns in the past, the organization is reimagining programming.
1. More robust case management will begin with a Case Management Supervisor being hired in FY22 and adjusting how the case managers respond to clients from a discreet problem solving model to a long term supportive model.
2. Already, the organization has incorporated more access to the food pantry, increasing visits from once every other week to once per week.
3. A focus on adult education programs will likely result in hybrid learning - taking the best of the virtual experience and adding back the in-person one to one learning option.
4. The organization is emphasizing College and Career Readiness to support our clients/students in their pursuit of better employment options.
5. Beverly Bootstraps has added to the service area in order to respond to need in adjacent communities.
6. As need is greater, the organization has grown it's seasonal programs to accommodate more children in our back to school supply program and our holiday gift program, and more households in our free low-income tax preparation program.