Morro Bay Community Resource Connections receives grant
Sharon O’Leary, Lead Volunteer of the Morro Bay Community Resource Connections office hands over the check from Los Osos Cares Dignity Health Grant to Dana Swanson, Morro Bay City Clerk.
All-volunteer organization provides information to low-income individuals, seniors, homeless, disabled persons
– Spreading goodwill is a large part of what Los Osos Cares does, and recently they spread a more substantial gift to the Morro Bay Community Resource Connections, a city service, and the City of Morro Bay with a check for $2250 that came from the overall Dignity Health Grant of $75,000 they received. Sharon O’Leary, Lead Volunteer of the Community Resource Connections presented the check to City Clerk, Dana Swanson.
The Morro Bay Community Resource Connections, a city service, is an all-volunteer organization that provides information to low-income individuals, seniors, homeless, disabled persons, and others in need of assistance. In 2011, then city councilperson Nancy Johnson wrote a staff report regarding community needs that Mayor Jamie Irons took to heart, and the Community Resource Connections and the Estero Bay Alliance for Care were established. As a city service, the city provides office space and phone service, for the volunteers who staff the resource office.
O’Leary, who sits on the Board of Directors of Los Osos Cares, runs the office where several community agencies spend a day a week to connect with people in need. “We are grateful to the city for this space,” O’Leary said, “and we operate on a shoestring budget so sharing in the Los Osos Cares grant money is helpful.” The $2250 will aid the city in covering the costs of the office space.
Individuals looking for help can obtain information from the office as to the resources available such as aid with housing, food distribution, free hot meals, mental health, medical needs, transportation, and many other issues. They also provide referrals to County Social Services for housing, mental health, crisis counselors, employment, free legal advice, health services, transportation, free hot meals, food banks, and any other service needed.
Representatives from the Resource Connections and other service agencies are always present at the free community dinners held every Monday night in Morro Bay at the Veteran’s Hall. People attending the dinner can spend time talking with these representatives and obtain a detailed resource list of available help in this area.
The long-drawn-out pandemic has kept the office somewhat out of bounds for visitors, but as COVID-19 relents O’Leary and her co-volunteers, Robert Jonez, who presides over the Estero Bay Alliance for Care meetings, Liz Gilson, who helps out with those meetings (that have been taking place on Zoom), members of the Morro Bay Lions Club, and others collaborating offering services are looking forward to this expansion of the center and returning to normal operating hours.
Obtain a lengthy and informative resource list online at www.communityresourceconnections.net.
-By Ruth Ann Angus
