CommUnity Crisis Services is a volunteer-driven organization based in Iowa City, Iowa that provides immediate and non-judgmental support for individuals facing an emotional, food, or financial crisis. CommUnity provides immediate support through our Food Bank, Financial Support Program, Crisis Helplines, and Mobile Crisis Response. The Food Bank provides grocery items to Johnson County residents. Clients can shop our shelves or receive a delivery once a week. https://builtbycommunity.org/pepperwood/
Financial Support provides necessities such as education and work enabling items, housing and utilities assistance, vouchers for clothing, temporary mailing addresses, transportation assistance, and more. https://builtbycommunity.org/financialsupport/
Crisis Helplines provides free, non-judgmental emotional support to anyone who needs it. Reach us via phone or text at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org/chat
Mobile Crisis Response dispatches mental health counselors to homes, schools, emergency rooms, or public places where a mental health crisis is occurring. To have crisis counselors dispatched to your location, call 1-855-581-8111 and ask for Mobile Crisis. You can support our mission by becoming a volunteer or making a donation. Sign up to be a volunteer at https://builtbycommunity.org/volunteer/
Make a donation at https://builtbycommunity.org/give/
Please don’t hesitate to reach out. History:
It’s 1969 on the University of Iowa campus. Two young freshmen return to their Burge Hall dorm room and find the completely unexpected – their roommate has barricaded the door and attempted suicide. They rush her to care and after a long and scary night, are sent home knowing she is going to be physically okay. But in the following days, as the two women deal with both their roommate’s and their own emotional upheaval, they learn there are simply no resources available to help them. That experience launched a campaign of advocacy, for those two young women and on behalf of all University of Iowa students, to establish support services for others in crisis. The two women began knocking on doors and by 1970, had found an ally in Verne Kelley, the Community Mental Health Center’s director at that time. Kelley’s help, these students established what would become CommUnity Crisis Services. CommUnity was founded with the philosophy that a client should determine how he or she can best be helped, using a process that ensures dignity to all who are served. This philosophy has facilitated CommUnity’s growth as the community it serves has grown in the past 50 years. A small food pantry was added in 1978 in response to client needs. Clothing and household items became available through vouchers from Goodwill and Crowded Closet in 1983. Throughout the 1980’s, CommUnity worked to expand its suicide prevention services and began offering support for survivors of a suicide loss. Services were developed to respond to the needs of transients and the homeless. In the following decade, a collaboration with the local religious community led to distribution of emergency financial support. The Food Bank grew into a weekly operation and began working with Table-to-Table to distribute locally gleaned food. In recent years, CommUnity has added suicide prevention training and crisis incident stress management services. This institution is an equal opportunity provider. Full statement: https://www.fns.usda.gov/civil-rights/usda-nondiscrimination-statement-other-fns-programs
