South Baldwin Director of Ecumenical Ministries (EMI) Pam Meredith presented at Foley’s city council work session on Oct. 17, to explain the valid programs and the services EMI provides. Last fiscal year and this fiscal year, the city of Foley donated $10,000 in October to EMI.

“We’ve done really well spending the $10,000,” Meredith said. “We’ve grown to a total of $87,000, and those are for residents of Foley.”

Meredith also took time to explain a few of the programs.

“The Christmas Sharing program is a community-wide program,” she explained. “The children and elderly in that program are sponsored by churches and individuals and businesses in the community, but it is an outreach of Ecumenical that touches several that live in Foley.”

The program responded to 148 Foley families with 379 children. None of these families were in other Christmas programs according to the countywide database used to track participation.

Meredith said the Repair Baldwin program has taken off.

Repair Baldwin is a program under Ecumenical Ministries that addresses limited home repairs at a critical time to extend the life of the homes owned by low-income families in Baldwin County.

“The money that goes into this program is all spent on repairing homes in our area,” Meredith said. “The waiting list is getting smaller. We do applications and check qualifications; this is not a free program. When we go to evaluate a job, we are also looking at their home and what kind of expenses they have.”

Homeowners are also expected to participate with the repair of their home.

“What we end up doing is at least 10 percent — sometimes that’s $200, sometimes it’s $1,000 — and the homeowner signs a simple promissory note with Ecumenical,” Meredith explained. “We have not had anybody not pay us back.”

This program allows many elderly and disabled to stay in their home.

“The cool thing about Ecumenical is that if a program isn’t working, we do away with it and try something new,” Meredith said. “This program is working.”

The Repair Baldwin program spent $22,435.17 helping 14 homeowners with labor and/or materials to make their homes safe, sanitary and secure.

EMI’s Emergency Aid program assisted 751 Foley households of which 252 received financial assistance totaling $59,094.61. The Medical/Prescription program helped 27 of Foley’s uninsured/under insured individuals, from seeing a physician, arranging for a specific test or completing paperwork to getting life threatening medication. The total spent on these services totaled $5,501.75.