Children begin developing their social and cognitive skills at a very early age. It is necessary for them to interact with other children as well as adults to develop coordination, motor skills and social behaviors. Programs like Head Start offer great opportunities for less fortunate families with children from birth to five years old to help children to process these skills.
Head Start, founded in 1965, creates a stable environment for children, pregnant women, and families to participate in activities for increasing school readiness, and an environment that stimulates social and cognitive development. However, Head Start is not immune from the effects of tight budgets, which means that there are few resources for such items as crafts, toys, or party items.
Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action Agency, a social service agency in Ohio, oversees 10 Head Start sites in 3 counties. Federal and state funding helps to provide most of their services, but other resources are always necessary for all items needed for day to day operations.
701 children, between the ages of 3 and 5 years old, are currently served by the HAPCAA Head Start programs. “Providing items that stimulate and excite children, as well as their parents, is crucial to the developmental success of a child,” says Chris DeLamatre, Child Development Director of the Hocking-Athens-Perry Community Action Agency.
Resource Round-up
Since some of the items needed were too much for the budget, HAPCAA had to look for an outside source that would allow them to acquire those items cost effectively. HAPCAA happened upon NAEIR, the National Association for the Exchange of Industrial Resources, located in Galesburg, Illinois.
NAEIR’s membership program helps loosen tight budgets for nonprofit organizations. NAEIR accepts donations of new, excess inventory from U.S. businesses and redistributes those products to nonprofit organizations needing office supplies, maintenance items, decorations, and other items for children and parents.
To become a recipient, nonprofit organizations pay annual membership dues ranging from $495 to $595, plus shipping and handling, and the merchandise itself is free. Members choose what they need from 200-page catalogs, special offer fliers, and an on-lin site, NAEIR e-xpress, at www.naeir.org.
Hocking-Athens-Perry has been a member of NAEIR for the last 8 years and DeLamatre believes that NAEIR provides her with excellent product variety. Variety in what she requests and variety in how they use the products.
Rewards of Membership
HAPCAA’s allocations have covered a wide range of products over the past 8 years. They have received craft items such as stencils, paint, rubber bands and stickers; toys for Head Start student birthdays and Christmas presents; and also items to use as door prizes for special events or incentives for volunteers.
“We are looking mainly for ‘get and go’ items from NAEIR, things that we can get, that will go out of our facilities fast,” says DeLamatre. ‘Get and go’ items include stickers, small toys or incentive items, sports collectibles, stuffed animals, and NFL travel mugs.
Part of the variety HAPCAA looks for includes ‘get and hold’ items like seasonal paper plates, cups, napkins, tablecovers, decorations, latex gloves, and school supplies.
“We know those parties are coming up, so we make space in our central storage area and hold them until they’re needed,” DeLamatre explains. “We had enough Valentines this year that every one of our children took Valentine cards home.”
DeLamatre also states that children’s items are the most popular, but Christmas wrapping paper and bows are huge with parents who may not be able to afford those items during the holiday season.
“We used to buy things for door prizes, for crafting, and for parents,” DeLamatre explains. “We would purchase incentives and disposable dinnerware, but getting those items through NAEIR saves us a lot of money."
According to Gary Smith, president and chief executive officer of NAEIR, “We have collected and redistributed over $2 billion worth of donated goods over the past 26 years, and many nonprofit organizations such as Head Start rely on NAEIR for supplementing reduced budgets. Our members receive an average of $18,000 worth of new supplies each year, which is roughly a 30-1 return on their dues investment.”
Since 1977, the American businesses that made donations of their excess inventory to NAEIR, have done so to clear out warehouse space, avoid liquidators, and to realize an above cost income tax deduction.
NAEIR, the National Association for the Exchange of Industrial Resources, is a not-for-profit distributor of supplies to churches and other nonprofit organizations. NAEIR operates a 10-acre warehouse full of $100 million worth of inventory from its headquarters in Galesburg, Illinois.
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