Five Questions With: Joseph Dziobek

"We rely heavily on community food donations but need to supplement those donations with food purchases."

Joseph Dziobek is the new executive director of Welcome House of South County, an emergency shelter in the Peace Dale section of South Kingstown. He started in February. He previously served for 29 years as the president and CEO of Fellowship Health Resources, a national provider of behavioral health services based in Lincoln. Here he discusses funding issues at the nonprofit.

PBN: What is the primary mission of the Welcome House and how many people does your shelter serve?
DZIOBEK:
The mission of Welcome House of South County is to shelter the homeless and to provide opportunities that lead to self-sufficiency and permanent housing. Last year 154 men, women, and children from 17 different cities and towns as far north as Woonsocket received services from Welcome House.

PBN: The shelter recently received a $5,000 grant from the Rhode Island Foundation to help support its soup kitchen. What gaps will the money help bridge?
DZIOBEK:
Welcome House provided over 14,000 meals last year to shelter guests and to members of the community who are impoverished and at risk of homelessness themselves. We rely heavily on community food donations but need to supplement those donations with food purchases. The grant from the Rhode Island Foundation helped greatly to bridge that gap.

PBN: What other funding sources have come through lately and how dependent are you on these?
DZIOBEK
: BankRI recently awarded us a $3,000 grant to fund the establishment of a computer lab to help jump-start our employment and training program. Shelter guests can now go on line to apply for jobs, research housing opportunities, and manage their finances.
Another community partner is Corvias Group who is providing landscaping materials and employees to help us beautify our grounds. Blue Cross Blue Shield Rhode Island has also been a strong contributor to our community bike and horticulture programs. These sources of funds are critical because they are a way to fund innovative programs that can be immediately impactful.

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PBN: What amount of transitional and permanent housing do you provide and how big is the need?
DZIOBEK
: In addition to 17 shelter beds, we have 14 adults living in transitional housing and 36 in permanent housing. We turn away between 20 to 30 people a month seeking shelter. Housing is very expensive in South County and the wait lists for subsidized housing are for two to five years, which is of little help to our guests whose housing needs are immediate.

PBN: How many supporters do you have and what are the plans to grow those numbers?
DZIOBEK:
Welcome House has a number of supporters in the community. Volunteers help out in the kitchen and facilitate workshops. Individuals and businesses donate money and support fundraising events. But we are in need of growing our circle of supporters. Both the University of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island College’s School of Social Work have been supportive as well helping us to augment our staff with placement of two student RNs and two social workers.
But public dollars are at a premium and the need is great to offset the depletion of state funding. We are looking to expand our board and have established a professional advisory committee to oversee the development of the Welcome Center, our new interactive learning center.

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