Person to Person, Inc.

Person-to-Person provides individuals and families with assistance for basic needs to overcome daily challenges and access to resources to improve their lives.
VISION: P2P envisions an educated, financially stable community, with hunger-free homes for all.

Through food pantries in Darien, Norwalk, and Stamford, plus Door2Door home deliveries of food support, P2P is one of the largest providers of food and economic assistance in the Stamford/Norwalk corridor, a key part of the overall social service network. Purposely low barrier to entry, the agency's goal is to create equitable access to economic stability. Established in 1968, P2P serves the communities of Darien, New Canaan, Norwalk, Stamford, Weston, Westport, and Wilton.

Our theory of change holds that professional staff mobilizing community and volunteer support provides clients with economic and educational inputs that result in well-informed, financially stable and hunger-free homes for all, creating stronger, healthier communities.

P2P Programs:

CRITICAL NEEDS ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (CNAP)
Our goal is to provide assistance to those who had been working hard towards economic inclusion pre-pandemic, and now see that challenge as almost insurmountable. CNAP provides rapid response to critical needs, and consists of the following programs:

1. FOOD PANTRY
P2P is one of the largest providers of food assistance in the Stamford/Norwalk corridor. P2P’s food support is designed by a nutritionist to meet the health needs of a family by providing a balanced array of healthy food to prepare three meals a day for a full week for each person in the family. Groceries provided at no cost to clients include fresh fruits and vegetables, protein, dairy, eggs, and an assortment of staples such as beans, tuna, peanut butter, cereal, soup, pasta and rice.
2. EMERGENCY FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE GRANTS (EFA)
P2P’s largest program, EFA provides rapid response to client emergencies and access to a skilled team of bilingual/bicultural caseworkers who assist clients with a variety of needs including rent, utilities, security deposits, job skills, childcare, transportation, referrals, budget counseling, and guidance for those navigating the social services network.
3. CLOTHING CENTER
The P2P Clothing Center is a free “store” where clients can shop every 30 days for shoes, clothing, outerwear, linens, and small household goods.
4. WRAPAROUND SERVICES
An integral part of CNAP, a team of eight trained bi-lingual caseworkers provide wraparound services by facilitating services from other P2P programs, providing referrals, budget counseling, support, and guidance to those navigating the social services network.
SCHOLARHSIP PROGRAM
For 50 years, The P2P Scholarship Program has helped promising students from low-income families living in lower Fairfield County afford college, bridging the gap between full tuition and available funding.
CAMPERSHIPS
Fully funded enriching summer camp for children K-5

For over 50 years, Person-to-Person has sought to meet the needs of low -income residents in our community. Poverty, both hidden and more visible, and food insecurity is a major challenge in Fairfield County and Person-to-Person (P2P) will provide groceries, including fresh fruits and vegetable, to prepare over 1,200,000 healthy meals to families in the Stamford/Norwalk area in 2019. In addition to food and emergency assistance through sites in Darien, Norwalk, and the innovative new Stamford mobile panty, P2P provides a wide range of much-needed social services. In all P2P will touch the lives of over 25,000 individuals in our community in 2019 – 10,000 of whom are children. P2P meets the immediate needs of families in crisis, and, offers pathways to a brighter financial future through casework support including program referrals, campership, scholarship, and mentoring programs. For clients, P2P helps fill the gaps in the existing social service network.

Person-to-Person is a unique, volunteer-driven agency with the flexibility to respond directly to client needs. We have consistently operated our three key programs since inception 49 years ago. We successfully adapt services to meet immediate client needs and work to alleviate the most persistent challenges in our community. Key strengths include our ability to respond directly to client needs; extensive partnerships in the communities we serve; and our volunteer base of more than 3,300 individuals, which enables us to do the work that we do while keeping administrative costs low so that more than 90% of all donations go directly to benefit clients.
Over the past five decades, Person-to-Person has focused on advancing the agency's vision of communities of financially-stable, hunger-free homes, with educational opportunities for all. This year P2P will touch the lives of more than 23,000 individuals – including 10,000 children – in lower Fairfield County CT. Currently, we operate two sites, in Norwalk and Darien, serving the communities of Stamford, Norwalk, Darien, New Canaan, Wilton, Westport, and Weston. P2P is now in the next phase of our strategic plan, working to develop a presence in Stamford CT to increase services for Stamford-area clients.

Primary objectives for 20178have been met, including strengthening the agency's governance and board structure, stabilizing P2P's sites in Darien and Norwalk, and launching the P2P Mobile Food Pantry to serve Stamford CT. These activities address Person-to-Person's overall goal of strengthening service provision agency-wide in direct response to client needs.

P2P provides rapid response to client emergencies and access to complementary services through partner agencies. To address situational crises P2P operates two Food Pantries, a Clothing Center, and provides Emergency Financial Assistance, primarily for housing and utilities. P2P's team of Caseworkers assist clients with a variety of needs including budget counseling, referrals to partner agencies for additional services, and for services P2P does not offer, advocacy for benefits, and general support as they take steps towards greater stability. Underscored by ample research on the effectiveness of education to lift individuals out of poverty, P2P offers Camperships to support elementary school children during the summer and Scholarships to low-income college students. P2P's pilot program, "Mentoring 4 Success," provides students with financial support as well as the support of an adult mentor who has committed to guide the student for all four years of their college education.

Demand for services at both agency locations continues to remain high, reflecting the high cost of basic necessities in this area.

In providing the new P2P Mobile Food Pantry, together with Casework support, the agency looks forward to intensifying its collaborative work with Stamford partners including Domus, Building One Community, the Yerwood Center and other service providers. Person-to-Person's new Mobile Market Food Bus will not only support our efforts to serve a greater number of people with its emergency services for basic needs, it will also enable P2P to work on-site with partners who provide services for ancillary needs that P2P does not address directly, thereby providing client access to a full wraparound service. In offering a comprehensive package of support in a series of accessible locations, P2P aims to strengthen the City's entire service delivery network and develop collective impact towards helping low-income families move towards stability.