News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
UCHRA-UCDD network is extending its hand to find new partners for the Opportunity Pilot Initiative.
Executive Director Mark Farley said they are looking for non-profits who specialize in poverty and under served populations. Farley said connecting with these groups can be the missing piece to remaking the Upper Cumberland’s social services network.
“A lot of the non-profit groups that are out there are not tied to those same rules and regulations,” Farley said. “Because they are able to do some innovative approaches that we’ve not been able to try in the past and we want to learn from their successes.”
Farley said his pitch to non-profits is that they know as well as anyone, that no single agency or organization can tackle poverty on their own. Farley said that through the $500,000 planning grant application for the program, he envisions expansion into an individual volunteer network.
“Rather than us recreate, how can we partner with these agencies and these non-profits?” Farley said. “To make sure that all the missing pieces and parts in the Upper Cumberland are provided.”
Farley said that as government agency, their hands can be tied on rules and regulations when it comes to addressing poverty. He said that’s where the freedom to think outside the box about service delivery can be achieved by non-profit partners.
“In the work that we’re trying to do, no one non-profit, no one agency whether it be a government agency or a state agency can tackle this problem on its own,” Farley said. “I think most groups out there realize that we have to work together for the greater good.”
He said any group in the Upper Cumberland who feels they have fresh ideas to bring can contact either UCDD or UCHRA.
