The Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock will hold a press conference at 1 p.m. on Thursday, May 26 to announce the awarding of four $100,000 large grants to nonprofits serving the homeless locally and advocating for women’s rights nationally. Light refreshments will be served.
UUCSR awarded the third grant in seven years to United Veterans Beacon House, a Bay Shore, L.I. nonprofit that runs 34 shelters for veterans and others. The Beacon House grant will be used to finish renovating a two-story house on Henry Street in Hempstead to house up to eight homeless veterans. Beacon House president/CEO Frank Amalfitano will be available at the press conference. Additional grants were awarded to the Hempstead-based Interfaith Nutrition Network (INN) which operates 14 soup kitchens, three shelters and 19 other housing units for the homeless; the Washington, D.C.-based National Women’s Law Center and the Trust Women Foundation in Wichita, Kan.
Shelter Rock’s nationally known Veatch Program has delivered $112,686,632 to progressive organizations around the country in 10 years under its executive director Rev. Ned Wight, who is retiring June 30. The large grants program, has made 63 grants totaling $6,415,000 to direct service groups since 2007, plus 20 crisis grants for $2,930,000 for: hunger relief on Long Island; Super Storm Sandy relief, relief for Haitian earthquake survivors, relief for Typhoon Haiyan survivors in the Philippines, relief for Ebola victims in West Africa, legal assistance for Central American immigrant minors on Long Island, and aid to Syrian refugee relief organizations.
