FURNITURE BANK OF SOUTHEAST CONNECTICUT INC

We are located in Gales Ferry, and serve all of southeastern Connecticut. We collect used furniture and give it to people who are experiencing financial hardship, including, for example, victims of fire, flood, and bedbug infestations, single parents, immigrants, victims of domestic abuse, young military families and veterans, individuals with AIDS or mental health problems, the elderly, and the formerly homeless. For sanitary reasons, we accept donated beds only if they are in practically new condition. Thus, while we receive a large amount of furniture by donation, over 95% our beds are purchased new, using funds from grants, donations, and twice-yearly tag sales. We do not have an endowment.

We presently have 11 people, all volunteers, on our board of directors. More than 60 people have volunteered during the past year to help with a tag sale and with furniture pickups and deliveries. There are no paid employees.

The people to whom we provide furniture are referred to us by over 60 state agencies, women’s shelters, churches, and other organizations that help people in need, usually in low-income areas of New London and Norwich. They are multiracial and multicultural, always poor, and usually have little or no furniture to begin with. We help them to establish decent living conditions for themselves and their families. Clean, quality bedding is among the most basic requirements for comfortable, healthy living conditions. We have provided beds for children who have been removed from their parents’ custody, 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, 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, flood, or bedbug infestations 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. Since its inception in 1982, we estimate that the furniture bank has helped over 19,000 people.