Whole Village Family Resource Center Acquires AmeriCorps VISTA for Financial Literacy Efforts
Whole Village Family Resource Center, a Granite United Way initiative, has been successful in providing information and referral services, parent education classes, family support case management, and family programming such as playgroups and family fun nights to the individuals and families in our 19 town service area, surrounding Plymouth.
Whole Village has long identified the need for additional programming around financial stability issues, however, they did not have the capacity to address these needs. To fill this gap, Granite United Way applied to United Way Worldwide and was granted an AmeriCorps VISTA position to join a cohort around the country developing economic mobility programming, including job skills and financial literacy efforts.
This past September, Whole Village was fortunate to hire Molly Timmins from Canaan, NH and a 2019 graduate of Plymouth State University, for this position. Molly has many ties to Granite United Way's central region community, having worked at the Common Man Family of Restaurants and the Plymouth and Campton Elementary Schools Afterschool Programs. As an undergraduate, Molly was one of the leaders of ENACTUS, a social entrepreneurship organization on campus. She organized the Climb Above Addiction event for two years, which provided vital funding to treatment and prevention services at Plymouth House and Communities for Alcohol and Drug Free Youth (CADY).
In this short amount of time, Molly has had a major impact on the resource center's programming and operations. Most notably, She is runs their Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site and recruited 11 new volunteers this past fall. Without the additional capacity that the AmeriCorps VISTA member, This VITA site would most likely have closed this year which completed close to 200 tax filings last year, bringing thousands of dollars back to families in our communities.
She has also worked collaboratively to bring a financial education series and home buyers programming to Whole Village this spring.
Molly's marketing expertise has also helped promote Whole Village Resource Center's educational offerings, increasing their reach throughout the community.
This work is just the beginning of expansive growth in the financial strengths in the greater Plymouth area.