EAST COOPER COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo, ECCO was formed as an emergency relief effort and has since grown into a permanent resource for families in financial distress, the elderly and disabled, the unemployed and underemployed – including those in situational poverty and generational poverty. One of ECCO's overall goals is to provide low-income families with holistic, wraparound services and support to help clients address the underlying causes that have contributed to their situations.

Over the last few decades the organization has expanded its programs to adapt to the changing economic environment, especially in the areas of health and education. ECCO has introduced new programs and enhanced existing services since its inception, including the Dental Clinic, Getting Ahead for single mothers in 2008, a Job Readiness program in 2013, and the Partners in HealthCare medical clinic in 2014. ECCO now reaches thousands of low-income households annually and continues to treat all clients with dignity and respect.

As part of the organization's holistic service model, ECCO offers support in three main program areas (Basic Needs, Health, and Empowerment) to address a variety of needs that low-income households experience. The organization maintains a client-centered focus and strives to empower individuals to achieve their greatest potential, an improved quality of life, and ultimately reach economic stability. ECCO programs and services have been designed to help clients address their individual barriers, while filling the unmet needs of our community.

In 2016, ECCO launched a new Fresh and Free Client Choice Farmers Market as part of the organization's increased efforts to bring healthier food options to low-income households across the Lowcountry. Due to the popularity of this new initiative, the series expanded from quarterly to monthly, and we recently enhanced these events to incorporate health education, oral health screenings, and hypertension and diabetes screenings for new clients, with the goal to identify uninsured patients in need of a primary care provider. In September 2017, ECCO transitioned its Client Choice Food Warehouse into a Client Choice Wellness Pantry to provide increased amounts of food for families, and to offer healthier and more well-rounded options. This shift is influenced by the "MyPlate.gov" model that guides meal consumption towards a healthy lifestyle, focusing on variety, amount, and nutrition, and encouraging the community to choose foods and beverages with less saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars. The Wellness Pantry provides a large assortment of non-perishable and perishable food items for our clients with an emphasis on low-fat, low-sodium, and low-sugar options. A variety of produce and meat products are also readily available.

Health Services, ECCO's second program area, helps uninsured and underinsured clients by providing emergency prescription medication assistance and education, healthy eating and wellness classes, counseling, preventive and restorative dental care, emergency extractions, and ongoing health maintenance and medical care. Partners in HealthCare (PiH) was established to address the health needs of ECCO's uninsured clients after staff identified that a significant number of individuals were not receiving basic preventive services and those with chronic disease were using hospital emergency departments as their only source of medical care. PiH is an innovative and cost-effective program that utilizes the expertise of nurse practitioners from MUSC's College of Nursing to provide the continuity of care and personal instruction that remains critical for under-served populations, especially those suffering from chronic diseases or other serious medical conditions.

ECCO has grown from an emergency relief effort to a permanent resource for low-income families. Over the last twenty-eight years, the organization had adapted its programs based on the changing economic environment and community needs. ECCO now offers the wrap-around services and education necessary for families to rise out of poverty. ECCO is able to provide clients with holistic and individualized support, ongoing case management, and the education and resources needed for long-term change. ECCO leverages additional resources from the community in order to spend close to 91% of the budget on direct client services. Thanks to more than 250 generous individuals, the monetary impact of 19,890 volunteer hours and donated professional services equates to more than $706,350 in fiscal year 2016-2017.

A strong partnership with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) allows ECCO to provide clients with high-quality dental and medical services. ECCO works with the College of Nursing to provide primary care and ongoing patient treatments at our facility. Their College of Pharmacy also supports ECCO's free medical clinic through medication consultations. Our work with MUSC's College of Dental Medicine now allows for more complex dental procedures to be performed for clients at the ECCO Dental Clinic as well.

Recent community impact highlights include:
*Case managers completed 750 client assessments, 272 of which were new to ECCO
*315,875 pounds of food were distributed to our food insecure neighbors, a retail value of $442,269.
*Provided $70,017 to help 173 households with emergency financial assistance covering utilities, rent and mortgage payments.
*Performed 5,157 dental procedures - a value of $804,971 - at no cost to the client.
*Saved our clients more than $161,958 by filling 338 emergency medications and assisting with long-term prescription enrollment programs.
*628 patient appointments were scheduled through Partners in HealthCare for free medical care and health coaching, keeping uninsured adults out of the Emergency Room.
*500 families received Thanksgiving dinner, complete with a turkey and all the sides.
*340 children received presents for Christmas through our Adopt a Family Program.
*137 clients engaged in our Empowerment programs, including 38 active participants in ECCO's Individual Development Account (IDA) matched-savings program.