By LINDA CHION KENNEY
With tough times continuing as the year draws to a close, the Emergency Care Help Organization reports a record of need as plans are in place to expand services in south Hillsborough County.
“Last school year we served 16,000 people with food, clothes, advocacy and back-to-work assistance,” said Eleanor Saunders, ECHO’s executive director. “The first five months of this school year alone, as of November, we served 10,530 individuals. We’re on trend to jump from 16,000 to 22,000 neighbors, at least. Six years ago we served 10,000.”
It’s been a legacy of steady and, at times, startling growth for ECHO, which started in 1987 as a food pantry under the stewardship of one of its earliest and most committed supporters, Julian Craft, who Saunders said gave ECHO “free space for 10 years on State Road 60 in Brandon.”
Saunders, in her eighth year as ECHO’s executive director, said she was the nonprofit’s second hired employee and that she “worked the front desk eight hours a day 18 years ago.” She credits her predecessor, Stacey Efaw, with fueling ECHO’s growth with the opening of its storefronts to address greater needs.
“I really credit her with opening the doors to ECHO’s odyssey of growth,” Saunders said. “Stacey knew that it was important to address the deeper needs, the root causes of poverty, and she is the one who got the ball rolling on that.”
Saunders said that when she became executive director more than seven years ago, ECHO had four employees. “Today we have 22 employees.” she added. “We have three employees just helping people get back to work. We have three, and we’re hiring a fourth, in our advocacy program, which basically involves social workers, whom we call advocates. They navigate on behalf of our neighbors for affordable housing, immediate shelter, reliable transportation, child care, SNAP benefits and anything that anybody needs to make connections that lead to stability.”
Staffing also includes Savannah Thompson, director of ECHO in Riverview, who handles emergency services at ECHO in Riverview and Brandon, and Steve McKinnon, director of operations for both facilities. Dianne Horncastle directs ECHO’s Back To Work initiative, and Iris Thurman directs advocacy outreach.
“Advocacy meets that need to walk side by side with someone to connect them to available resources,” Saunders said. “A lot of times resources are available, but people don’t know how to get them. We’re creating pathways to resources.”
For sure, the work of ECHO “is a passion of mine,” Saunders said. “The other day I was walking through the outreach center, and it was packed. People were getting clothes, people were getting food, people were shopping for themselves, folks were meeting with job coaches and seniors were meeting with advocates.”
Unique in its range of one-stop offerings, “Every community needs a place like ECHO, where people can come and find a broad range of help,” Saunders said. “And if we can’t help them, we’ll connect them to someone who can. It’s a phenomenal first step, and it keeps me going. I want to open more of these things because it works, and I don’t see anybody else in Tampa Bay doing what we’re doing. You can walk into ECHO and on the same day make an appointment with a job coach and not just get food.”
According to Saunders, the bright spot of increasing services is dwarfed by the many layers of poverty and crisis that darken community life for too many people.
“Underemployment, lack of transportation, lack of affordable childcare, lack of affordable housing, the closer you can get to the root causes of poverty, the better chance you’ll have of creating stability,” Saunders said.
With storefronts in Brandon and Riverview, Saunders said ECHO officials would like to open a location “farther down in south county” and also “north of Seffner or in Thonotosassa.”
“We’re already serving those areas with the 18 ZIP codes we serve,” Saunders said. “We just want to get closer to our neighbors. We want to make it easier for them to get to us.”
Meanwhile, the dramatic need for help continues to advance.
“There are just so many families living in motels and so many families in need,” Saunders said. “Over Thanksgiving alone we delivered 795 meals to motels, which is the most we have ever served.”
One can credit cost-of-living increases and rising rents for the explosive need.
“Florida being a start-over state, a place where people believe they can come and start afresh, they come here and realize, ‘Oh, man, I can’t afford this,’ so it’s been a perfect storm the past 16 months,” Saunders said. “COVID was really hard on our working families. It’s been really hard on a great number of people.”
For its part, ECHO has and continues to depend on donors and donations, including from “faithful, monthly financial supporters, who every month will send support, knowing that it will stay in their community,” Saunders said. “We have a little lady who gives us five dollars a month because that is what she can afford. Everything helps.”
For more on ECHO; on its need for food, clothing and monetary donations; and to learn how best to give, to volunteer or to receive services, visit www.ECHOFL.org/. ECHO in Riverview is at 78078 Capitano St. Call 813-540-9880.