[StBernard] Meraux Foundation Donates $20, 000 to Community Center of St Bernard

[Westley Annis]

Meraux Foundation Awards $20,000 grant to the Community Center of St Bernard

The Community Center of St Bernard in Arabi, Louisiana announced today that it has received a $20,000 grant from the Meraux Foundation. The funds will support core organizational initiatives including the Food Pantry, Media Lab, and Community Connections programs, which serve more than 5,100 local residents each year.

The funds will also be used to provide expanded program offerings such as workforce development training to teach small business owners how to set up websites for their companies. And the grant will support investments in the Community Center's infrastructure to enable the Center to keep pace with the rapidly-increasing client numbers and capacity demands that it continues to face in the wake of the Gulf Oil Spill and the ongoing national economic crisis.

Mr RM Iray Nabatoff, executive director of the Community Center of St Bernard, noted: "On behalf of our staff, volunteers, and clients, we are very grateful that the Meraux Foundation has stepped forward as a major community partner in support of programs that provide assistance to so many St Bernard parish residents. With this generous grant, we will be able to fund additional services and development work so that we can more effectively provide local residents with the assistance they need as they continue to rebuild their lives and their communities here in St Bernard."

The Community Center of St Bernard is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to providing residents of the St Bernard parish area with local access to emergency assistance and recovery resources. Services available through the Community Center and its partner agencies include a food pantry, clothing bank, food for seniors, Food Stamps enrollment, Medicaid enrollment, senior citizen employment training, crisis counseling and support, tax preparation assistance, information and referrals, legal aid, public computers, computer classes, and community-building events such as bingo nights, NA meetings, dinner dances, and holiday celebrations. 

For more information about the programs and services available at the Community Center of St Bernard, 1111 LeBeau St, Arabi  LA, please phone 504.281.2512 or visit www.ccstb.org

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