Community Services Consortium

Serving Linn, Benton, and Lincoln counties in Oregon. Helping people. Changing lives.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Clean Out Your Closets and Help to End Poverty in Our Community!

Community Services Consortium (CSC) has partnered with WebThriftStore to launch an online thrift store, allowing users to sell their unneeded items with proceeds donated to CSC’s poverty-fighting programs in Linn, Benton, and Lincoln counties. The site, https://csc.webthriftstore.com/, was launched this week.

The online thrift store is great for those that would rather give items instead of cash, or that are unable to make a monetary donation, to make a valuable gift to those in need in our community. WebThriftStore, with an interface similar to EBay, turns stuff into cash for charities, tax deductions for donors, and bargains for buyers. It's a way for buyers and sellers to do good, and for charities to engage supporters.

According to NPD Group research, the average US household has $7,000 worth of unwanted stuff. Some items have never been used, and most will never be used again. With CSC’s WebThriftStore, that stuff can make someone else happy while allowing CSC to help people and change lives.

“Donations are critical to our ability to help people overcome poverty and become self-reliant. Every day, we experience how it feels to help people and change their lives for the better. Now anyone can help just by cleaning out their closet,” said Dee Teem, CSC Development Director. “CSC is the agency that keeps a roof over people’s heads, heats their homes, keeps the lights on, and puts food on the table. We also provide education, conservation and job training programs. WebThriftStore is a unique and easy way for anyone to contribute to our mission.”

Gleaners Attend Grant Writing Workshop

On June 3, professional grant writer Jana Slater generously hosted a workshop for members of Linn Benton Food Share's network of gleaning groups. Jana instructed the gleaners about grant writing strategies, finding funders, and made sure there was time for the gleaner groups to network, brainstorm, and collaborate on grant writing for their specific group needs.

Many thanks to Jana for donating her time and expertise so that LBFS and our gleaning groups can get food on the tables of families in need in Linn and Benton counties!



Welcome to CSC's blog and e-newsletter!

These communications tools can be used to make announcements, acknowledge donors and volunteers, post videos and slideshows–whatever we want to share with our online community.

There are 3 ways to deliver info to stakeholders:

  1. The blog itself, which can be linked to our current website
  2. Email news blasts (blog articles sent via email as eNewsletters)
  3. RSS Feed (subscribers read in Google Reader or other feed reader, can also send posts to Facebook and Twitter)
We're excited about these communication tools and look forward to both your input and feedback for continuing improvement and positive information-sharing.

If you have agency/program information you'd like posted on this blog, please send full text and/or photos and videos, ideas, or suggestions to Janet Hessel and she will take the next steps.

Enjoy!