Nonprofits We Love – Good Samaritan Network of Hamilton County
This month, we are highlighting nonprofits that we love. One of those nonprofits is the Good Samaritan Network of Hamilton County (GSN).
GSN is a network of nonprofits in Hamilton County, Indiana, designed to ensure efficiency and communication among the different agencies, social services, nonprofits, local government, food pantries, and businesses. Together, they serve the needs of Hamilton County residents who are at-risk or underserved.
The Nonprofit Network
We recently had the chance to speak with Nancy Chance, the founder and executive director of GSN. She founded GSN in 1980, with a network of 20 agencies, nine pantries, and nine township trustees. Nancy says they’ve been successful over the years because they’ve continued to grow together and collaborate together to meet people at their need.
Around 1990, Hamilton County suffered a big flooding event in which more than 400 people lost homes. This caused the network to add disaster preparedness to their long list of needs for the county. Within a month of the flood, nearly 300 men and women were taken out of the local workforce in support of Desert Storm. Families were left without pay, struggling to make ends meet. Around this time is when local churches in Hamilton County reached out with offers to help, and joined the network as well.
In the same year, an ice storm hit Indiana, furthering the need for disaster preparedness and disaster support. GSN delivered food and water, and other necessities like insulin, to people who were stranded and without power. The organization bought sandwiches and coffee and delivered them to line workers who were working to restore power across the northern portion of the state. Bringing food and drinks to the worksite helped save a couple hours per day of driving to get lunch, and ultimately got the power restored quicker. This is yet another example of why GSN became so interested in disaster preparedness and relief.
The Need for GSN in Hamilton County
GSN continued to grow over the years, and now consists of 268 agencies, 42 pantries, 3 free clinics, 5 hospitals, and 9 township trustees. Chance says when someone has a need, the network is able to quickly work together to find the best solution for the person, typically within days.
Although Hamilton County is the fastest growing and the richest county in Indiana, there is still a great need for services like GSN. Growth in the community means there are increased needs for services like restaurants, car mechanics, etc. Those workers need a place to come to for help should they fall on hard times with illnesses, death, or disaster. Something has happened that got them off the rail, and GSN is there to get them back on their feet.
GSN Initiatives
During our recent conversation with Nancy, she highlighted GSN’s Recycled Cycles program. This program takes new or used bikes and bike part donations, makes sure they’re in proper working condition, and donates them to people in need. These bikes are donated to people individuals in the Tower program at the jail, to people who need transportation to work, to families with children who don’t have bikes, and as part of their holiday gift program.
GSN has volunteers who help them on a daily basis in the warehouses, sorting and categorizing donations. They see around 20-25 volunteers during the week, with big groups of volunteers on the weekends, which could have 30-60 people each. It takes a lot of people and time to sort through everything and make sure it gets to the right place to help the right people.
Each year, the nonprofit has a few fundraisers to raise money to help local residents. Their biggest fundraiser is Festival of Trees, which takes place every November. Volunteer designers decorate gorgeous Christmas trees that are auctioned off at the live event. 2023 was the 10th year of Festival of Trees, and more than $100,000 was raised.
To learn more about GSN, check out gsnlive.org.
Our Work with GSN
We have been working with GSN for almost two years now, creating content for the organization’s Facebook page. Nancy says the Facebook posts have brought an extreme increase in awareness in the community about who they are and what they do. They’ve received more questions from citizens about how they can help the nonprofit, as well as how they can receive help themselves when needed. They’ve also experienced people walking in to GSN saying they saw posts on Facebook regarding volunteers and donations for specific events, and wondering how they can sign up.
If you know of an organization that could benefit from increased visibility on the great work they are doing, reach out to us! We’d be happy to schedule a consultation and find a solution to help them be seen and reach their online goals.
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