City Mission receives NAP grant

The Washington City Mission was recently awarded a Neighborhood Assistance Program grant for $75,000 to purchase a recycling baler and 35 clothing collection bins, according to a Monday news release from Gov. Tom Wolf’s office.
Sally Mounts, City Mission’s chief development officer, said the organization has applied for the grant every year, but the last time it secured money was 2014.
“The grants are highly competitive,” she said. “This year, we were very, very fortunate.”
The NAP allows for businesses to donate money to community projects that assist marginalized populations. In return, those donors receive a tax break the following year, up to 55%. This year, the grants emphasized projects affected by the pandemic, according to the release.
The City Mission certainly was affected, Mounts said, as it had to close all seven of its Hidden Treasures thrift stores in the region.
“Our stores were closed for three months, and we lost about $800,000 worth of revenue,” she said. “We started really early with our COVID planning. When the governor said to shut down, we already had a plan in place.”
Mounts said the NAP grant of $75,000 will be paid to the mission by June 30 by Dollar Bank, which will then get a tax break the following year.
“We are just absolutely delighted that we were awarded with this grant,” Mounts said. “When we approached Dollar Bank with this, they said it looks like a really good project.”
The money will go toward the purchase of a new recycling baler, which the mission uses to recycle materials -clothing, plastic and cardboard – that can’t be sold in their stores. It costs about $15,000, and will replace one of the two the mission currently has.
“If something doesn’t sell, we can recycle them,” Mounts said. “We put them in the baler and sell the bale to companies that will either repurpose it or do shipments to places like Ethiopia. It’s also a way for us to keep things out of the waste stream.”
The mission also will use the money to purchase an additional 35 steel clothing donation boxes, which will be placed at businesses and churches throughout the county. Those bins cost about $1,500 each.
The benefits of this project to the homeless shelter will be threefold, Mounts said. First, it will remove about “300,000 pounds of textile waste from the county waste stream,” Mounts said. Secondly, it will provide work readiness and job training for about 60 residents per year through the mission’s vocational training program.
“This is a whole system with a beating heart at the vocational training center,” Mounts said about the City Mission. “They learn a lot of hard skills, but they also learn soft skills like communication, team building, punctuality and appropriate workplace behavior.”
Lastly, the project will provide a sustainable income for the mission, by supporting its thrift stores and bringing in money for recycled material. Mounts said those stores generate about $2.5 million to the mission each year.
“It’s a huge part of our future sustainability, so we don’t always have to ask for donations,” she said.
The mission’s project is one of 214 community revitalization projects across the state to be funded through $36 million in NAP grants in 2021, according to Wolf’s press release. About 80 of those projects will be investments in the southwestern part of the state.
“The Neighborhood Assistance Program has historically been a valued resource for communities across Pennsylvania, and that is true now more than ever,” Wolf said in the release. “This has been a challenging year for all of us, and the projects we are supporting today will help us grow stronger and more resilient in 2021 and beyond.”