Contact Information - Chester County Community Foundation

Contact Information:Contact Name: Chrystal DiGioreUniversal Community Outreach Foundation, Inc. Contact Title: Program DirectorAddress: 1100 West Chester Pike Unit D-22Contact Email: cdigiore@ucofi.orgWest Chester, PA, 19382Phone: 610-809-7221Web Address: www.ucofi.org Year incorporated: 2010Have you previously applied to the Community Foundation: NoField of Interest: Community Improvement, Human Services, and Education.Organization Information:Geographic Area Served: Chester County, PAAnnual # of Clients & Description of Population Served:We aim to provide services to over 200 children of incarcerated parents in Chester County.UCOFI will also provide volunteer assistance to other non-profit organizations in ChesterCounty through our volunteer program, and provide services to homeless families inhomeless shelters in Chester County.Parental Incarceration Literature:A trend found in the U.S. Courts is the theme of decisions based on the "best interest of thechild", this doctrine falls to the wayside as decisions regarding incarceration of a parent are madewithout consideration of the child's right to a parent-child relationship. Even in-light ofextremely high incarceration rates, common practice ignores the child’s rights in relation toprison sentencing and visitation policies (Boudin, 2011).Among young adults in the UnitedStates, one in eight report their biological father has ever been incarcerated (Roetteger, Swisher,Kuhl, & Chavez. 2011). Research shows that children with incarcerated parents are more likelyto show aggressive and violent behaviors at pre-school age, and are at greater risk of drugseeking behavior during adolescence (Craigie, 2011; Roetteger, et. al. 2011). With increasedfrequency of violent and illegal behavior among this population of children comes an increasedrisk of future incarceration. This cyclical pattern keeps disenfranchised families in the prisonsystem from one generation to the next. UCOFI plans to aide these families to break this cycle byproviding mentorship and social support to children of incarcerated parents. Through providingadditional support to this population of children in Chester County, UCOFI aims to decreasefamilial risks associated with parental incarceration in our community.

Mission Statement:The Universal Community Outreach Foundation, Inc. (UCOFI) is a 501©3 nonprofit socialservice organization founded in 2010. The mission of UCOFI is to better the lives of childrenliving in circumstances beyond their control due to war, economic factors, or illness throughvolunteer and mentoring activities in both the United States and Africa. UCOFI implements thismission by:1. Identifying Chester County non-profit organizations that serve children with special needs andpartnering with them by recruiting volunteers to assist on special projects.2. Mentoring children of incarcerated parents3. Host local events, conduct food and coat drives that will benefit/serve children.4. Raise funds to provide educational opportunities to African children.Organization Description:Annual Budget: $8000 for 2011 Fiscal Year (0) # of Full-Time Equivalent Paid Staff90% of budget for program expenses (8) # of Board Volunteers5 % of budget for administrative expenses (30) # of Active Non-Board Volunteers5 % of budget for fundraising expenses (30) #Volunteer hours/week per Board Volunteer100% TotalTop 3 Funding Sources: UCOFI Fundraising Events, Walmart Donation & Acme (Store GiftCard)Proposal Information:Grant Amount Requested: $ 2,500Description of Grant Proposal: To support our grassroots initiative to work with children ofincarcerated parents. Mentors will work one on one with an identified child to establish a rapportand help the child with homework, clothes, school supplies, transportation, and any otherservices that the child may need.

Organization's history, goals and achievements:UCOFI serves people faced with challenging circumstances beyond their control. UCOFI'sfounder Jerry Newman, a native Liberian understands first-hand the obstacles that exist whenindividuals find themselves displaced from the security of their home due to war, economicfactors, and illness. Some circumstances one might be faced with include living below thepoverty line, living with debilitating diseases, and living with limited access to education andbasic life-sustaining necessities. UCOFI’s uniqueness lies in its desire to personalize those facingthese challenging circumstances with potential stakeholders and donors; thus making our causemore impactful. In addition, UCOFI encourages volunteerism amongst its stakeholders byproviding specific ways volunteers can work directly with the people being served. Given thefounder’s intense personal experiences along with opportunities to further his education andwork as a social worker in America, he brought on board Mr. Kennedy Oloya, and Mr. UriasCole as Co- Founders. These three created UCOFI as an outlet to help people who have beendisplaced from their homes due to economic factors and are experiencing challenges that havemade them homeless. UCOFI's services also extend to underprivileged children in need ofmentoring due to the incarceration of their parents. In August 2010, UCOFI created an ambitiousaction plan. Critical components of this action plan include fostering volunteerism to increasecommunity involvement in serving those less fortunate and mentoring youth and creating anactive sponsorship program to support their programs and activities in Chester County. Toimplement UCOFI mission, UCOFI has created an active social media website on Face book andTwitter as a volunteer recruitment vehicle and has partnered with community nonprofitorganizations by recruiting volunteers to undertake activities that serve Chester Countyindividuals and families with special needs including:School Supply Drive for Home of the Sparrow, August 16, 2010. With the help oftwenty volunteers, UCOFI was able to provide more than fifteen children with schoolsupplies and one mother with work supplies.Food drive with Landmark Americana of West Chester to benefit the homeless.“Keep Kids Warm” coat drive in partnership with Landmark Americana of WestChester, December19, 2010. Four volunteers. Coats were distributed to His Mission,Inc., Safe Harbor of Chester County & Community Youth and Women’s Alliance.Raised $227.70 along with donated coats.

“Toys for Tots” with the U.S. Marine Corps, December 2010. Over 90 toys weredistributed to children.Autism Walk, September 24, 2011 to raise Autism awareness.“Feast with Friends” December 17, 2011 fed over one hundred families from SafeHarbor, The Salvation Army, and Friends Association.Recognizing that determination breeds success, UCOFI has developed four goals to implementover the course of the next 3-5 years:1. Lease an office space in West Chester, PA to serve the Chester County community. Thisoffice space will be used as a base of operations for the organization and will provide acentralized location that the community can recognize as UCOFI.2. Work in partnership with local social service non-profit organizations to providevolunteers that will assist with projects to benefit the local community in need.3. Help fulfill the needs of and mentor children of incarcerated parents living in ChesterCounty.4. Seek donor(s) to sponsor a high school construction project in Liberia that will providequality education to traumatized Liberian youth.UCOFI Challenges to be addressed:As a new grassroots organization, UCOFI recognizes that it needs to build its organizational,institutional and fundraising capacity in order to fulfill its mission. Although it is young,founders have the passion, energy and enthusiasm to undertake the work and have demonstratedthe ability to attract volunteers to assist them in their efforts; we do not have a vast network ofcontacts in Chester County in which to build partnerships. UCOFI is seeking the advice ofleaders in the community to identify individuals or organizations that might be willing to partnerwith us and help fulfill our mission. As an organization, we bring passion, energy and awillingness to work hard to help others. We are particularly interested in providing hands-onassistance to better the lives of children of incarcerated parents. We recognize that although wehave a lot of ideas about how we would like to help, we are seeking the advice and expertise ofpartner organizations that can expand our social network within the community to ensure that weare servicing the needs of others.