Horizon Bank donated $14,000 to the United Ways of Lake and Porter counties to support their vast network of social services to alleviate COVID-19 economic pressures on Northwest Indiana households.
“Prior to COVID-19, approximately 25% of Lake and Porter counties households were already considered cash-strapped,” said Kim Olesker, president & CEO of United Way of Porter County. “With the recent layoffs and other economic issues COVID-19 has created, we look for those in need of assistance to increase exponentially.”
The donation will go to support programming to help meet immediate needs such as food insecurities, rental and mortgage payments, job placement services and more.
“United Ways of Lake and Porter counties typically help more than 150 organizations during a normal year. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, those needs have grown significantly and they need more help,” stated Steve Dahlkamp, Vice President, Senior Commercial Loan Officer. “These funds will help with food, rent, utility bills and much more as more folks lose jobs and have needs never seen before. We want to do our part to help as much as we can in the communities we serve in Northwest Indiana.”
Lake and Porter counties are providing resource guides to local and state services that can assist residents with immediate needs. In Lake County that resource is ResourceRoundup.com and in Porter County that resource is unitedwaypc.org/coronavirus-resources.
“We cannot thank corporate partners, like Horizon Bank, enough for supporting us in our effort to support the community,” said Lisa Daugherty, CEO for Lake Area United Way. “With United Way’s infrastructure and network, we’re able to help so many more residents and meet multiple needs at once.”
For more information on what United Way is doing in response to COVID-19 and how you can help, visit https://nwicovid19volunteers.org/.