By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
The Celanese Foundation has donated $18,000 to the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky (ESNKY). Kassie HAtton of Celanese presented a ceremonial “big check” to Kim Webb, executive director of ESNKY Wednesday morning.
The Celanese foundation donated $18,000 to the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky to assist with its summer shower and laundry program. (L to r) Brittney Kane, ESNKY operations manager, Jason Reed ESNKY board president, Kassie Hatton of Celanese, ESNKY board members Anne Wildman and Steve Wilde and ESNKY executive director Kim Webb (photo by Mark Hansel).
Webb said Celanese employees have provided a lot more than money to the shelter.
“They have helped us financially, but they have also given up their time, Webb said. They plan outings, we’ve been bowling with them. They have come down and donated in shelter, with cleaning and weeding – you name it, they’ve done it down here.”
Celanese is a global technology and specialty materials company that manufactures a wide variety of products and has a facility in Florence.
The Celanese Foundation is an employee-led coalition dedicated to creating opportunities for at-risk families. The employee contributions are then matched two-to-one by the foundation
“This donation is going to help us with our summer programming,” Webb said. We kicked off May 1. We have 30 guys staying in shelter and they are working to go from homeless to housed.”
The Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky is a non-profit organization that has operated a cold-weather homeless shelter in Northern Kentucky since 2008 and a summer program for homeless since 2010. The mission of the organization, which is located on Scott Boulevard in Covington, is to provide shelter that is life-saving in the winter and life-changing in the summer.
Last summer 115 men went through the program, some of whom automatically rolled into the winter with us because they join late in the season. The shelter keeps 10 beds for summer program participants available through the winter.
“Of the 115 that came through, 92 had a positive outcome,” Webb said. “They either went back to family, they got independent housing, and/or they got treatment.”
This is the second year of the partnership between the Celanese Foundation and ESNKY.
Hatton, site administrative assistant at Celanese in Florence, said company employees feel it is important to give back to the community and they believe in the mission of ESNKY.
“We’ve done a lot of different things with them. During the month of May, we had a lot of fun putting together and packing up lunches as a team,” The production crews that are on night shift it was easy for them to take a break and pitch in.”
Webb said ESNKY runs the only consistent shower and laundry program for those that are not only homeless and living on the streets, but those that are living in substandard housing and have no water.
“We have a growing number of individuals that are coming to us in that position,” Webb said. “They turn off their utilities before they give up their housing.”
Last summer SNKY provided about 1,700 showers from May to November and they are estimating a similar number this year.
“We launder clothes and help them with material needs, but more importantly, it’s an opportunity for us to help these adult men and women who come in for showers with access to referrals to services,” Webb said. “We have community partner and resources such as NorthKey, which helps with mental health services and a nurse practitioner that helps with physical needs. It’s really becoming a collaborative place here in the summer.”
For more information about the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky, click here http://emergencyshelternky.org/.
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com
