After a long day, most people get to go home to a nice bed and sleep, but that is not the case for everyone. That’s where the Furniture Bank of Southeastern Connecticut steps in. Receiving referrals from state agencies, organizations, churches, and more, the Furniture Bank provides beds and furniture to people in need. We recently connected with the Furniture Bank to learn more about their organization:
What is the mission of your organization?
Our mission is to serve people in need of furniture due to hardship. Our goal is to fulfill as many requests for beds, cribs, and other furniture as possible (recently about 400 per year).
What do you love about your organization?
Since its inception in 1982, we estimate that the Furniture Bank has helped over 21,000 people.
How do you serve the community you represent?
We purchase new beds with funds from grants, donations, and twice-yearly tag sales. We give them free of charge to people referred to us by about 60 state agencies, women’s shelters, churches, and other organizations that help people in need. These are people who are experiencing financial hardship, including for example, victims of fire, flood, and bedbug infestations, young military families, veterans, single parents, immigrants, victims of domestic abuse, individuals with physical or mental health problems, the elderly, and the formerly homeless. They are multiracial, multicultural, and always poor.
How has Chelsea Groton supported the organization?
The Chelsea Groton Foundation has been one of our most consistent supporters, having provided funds to purchase beds for people in financial need for the past 17 years (since 2008).
What do you love most about the organization’s community?
Often, the people we help are in emergency situations. We have provided beds for children who have been removed from their parent’s custody and are eligible for return on condition that decent sleeping accommodations are available. We provide beds to people with serious health issues who need decent bedding for their comfort or recovery. We provide people coming out of drug or alcohol recovery programs, prison, homeless shelters, women’s shelters, or mental health programs with beds and other furniture important to their reinstatement as confident, productive members of society. We help victims of fire or flood damage who have lost everything. We provide furniture to young military families and veterans. We help immigrants to establish homes in their new country. We often help single parents struggling to provide their children with comfortable living conditions. We have provided many families with replacements for beds ruined by bedbug infestations in multifamily apartment buildings.
Clients have told us that the beds we gave them replaced old and often unsanitary mattresses, sofas, or blankets laid directly on floors. People with disabilities or illnesses, or their social workers, have told us that a bed we gave them has enabled them to finally get a good night’s sleep. In confirmation of our belief in the less tangible benefits of our service, clients have told us how good it is to know that they’re not alone and that someone cares about them.
If you would like to volunteer to help with furniture pickups and deliveries, and with the tag sales benefitting the Furniture Bank, please email Mike and Karen Wuesthoff at fbankct@gmail.com for more information.
