Tis the season for giving, and the Mineral Springs Center needs community assistance in the form of donations in order to help them continue to serve their current clientele and to keep the center operating now and into the new year. “We really still need people’s help,” said board member Donna Stuart.
Mineral Springs Center, Inc. is a registered 501c3 non-profit organization whose mission is to “provide community access and personal support to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities with the focus on prioritizing independence, purpose, and meaning as defined by each individual.”
In order to fulfill their mission in service of those with disabilities, it takes money and community support.
While past financial support from donations has been there to support the center and its mission, their fundraiser this year was impacted by significant lower attendance due to COVID-19, which impacted the funds typically raised at the event.
To begin to make up for the deficit at the fundraiser, the Mineral Springs Center is asking for continued donations.
In addition, “we still have not received a rate increase from the state. The only funding we have received from the government to offset our losses during COVID has been $12,669 from the American Rescue Plan. We are facing about a $68,000 deficit at the end of December and projecting around a $40,000 deficit by the end of June 2022. So, the $12,669 barely puts a dent in our projected deficit. …Without the donations of our community thus far, we would not be in operation right now and we would not be able to continue to operate into 2022,” said Director Robin Davenport.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the center has lost several clients for various reasons, and several have not returned nor plan to return, or they have turned to only using virtual services, which are few and only provides a small portion, about 25%, of the funding received when a client attends and uses in person services at the center.
Stuart said, “we rely totally on the Medicad billing for our income, and when clients aren’t there, we can’t bill. The loss of some of the clients, decrease in some of the services and that sort of thing, has really put a huge burden on the center financially, and we’d really like to get to a place where we can feel comfortable that at least we’re breaking even, which we’re not. That’s the only way the center is gonna stay open.
“We don’t want to lose any services for our people, and want to continue taking care of our clients and make sure that they can get the services that they need in order to live an enriched life.”
The center currently services about 29 clients with some of them only using virtual services.
While continued financial help is needed to keep the doors staying open, Davenport said, “We are so grateful for the generosity of this community. We also want the community to know that because of their generosity, we are in operation and supporting individuals with ID/DD to live lives of purpose and meaning. Donations have helped us to do needed repairs on our facility and our vehicle fleet that is imperative to our operations of community access.”
Anyone who wishes to help and support the mission of the Mineral Springs Center can make a donation on their website at www.savemineralsprings.org/SaveMineralSpringsCenter or checks can be mailed to Mineral Springs Center, P.O. Box 28, Blue Ridge, Georgia, 30513.
Learn more about the center and their services at www.mineralspringscenter.org.