Echo of Brandon

Emergency food and clothing: in an effort to meet immediate, critical needs, each Echo resource center maintains clean and orderly fresh food and clothing mini markets. Neighbors are invited to self-shop, up to three times per year. Each family member receives a weeks' worth of food (20 pounds per person) and a weeks' worth of clothing (5 complete outfits per family member). Victims of fire are encouraged to take reset items such as linens, kitchen items, and toiletries. Echo currently has 1 fulltime and 2 part time employees, and 1 director. These employees enjoy the support of over 150 weekly volunteers. For this fiscal yearend, 14,308 neighbors picked out their own food and clothing.

Advocacy: a cross between a life coach and a social worker, an Echo advocate works one on one with neighbors to secure shelter, affordable housing, childcare, transportion options, financial assistance, and/or referrals to community partners. Echo currently employs 4 full time advocates and 1 full time director. For this fiscal yearend, 1,576 households found long term solutions via the Echo advocacy department.

Echo serves neighbors in crisis through personalized, side by side service. Each resource center offers one on one job coaching, in house internships, intensive resource navigation, financial assistance, and emergency food and clothing. Back to work: neighbors are encouraged to participate in one on one job coaching, resume rewrites, mock interviews, and a variety of skill acquisition workshops. Echo currently employs 3 part time job coaches and one full time director. For this fiscal yearend, 836 neighbors received coaching and 171 secured permanent employment.