The nonprofit has an opportunity to tell the story of how the organization adapted to tremendous external changes in the last year.
2021 was a year of growth and adjustment for BCOC. The pandemic changed the way we delivered services and increased the number of people needing assistance to meet basic needs.
The housing situation in Bucks County has been challenging for many years but the eviction moratorium and increased funding created new challenges. Vacancy rates were very low at 1% and the lack of available rental units drove up costs. We worked with the county to create a landlord incentive program. By offering incentives, developing a marketing strategy, and doing outreach to realtors, we were able to engage new landlords and move households into permanent homes.
Unfortunately Bucks County experienced several natural disasters in 2021 including floods, tornadoes, and a hurricane. BCOC became an important partner in disaster recovery, working with emergency management and partners to address community needs. Staff were reassigned to help people with disaster relief needs including housing, transportation, food assistance, and other basic needs. We temporarily housed over 50 households for several months.
Finally, in 2021 BCOC continued to use technology to connect with the community, clients, and supporters. Our Economic Self-Sufficiency graduation was to celebrate its 25th year, but had to be postponed due to a surge in COVID. We had done the event virtually in 2020, but did not want to miss the celebration of this important milestone. We did host our annual meeting virtually, where we showcased our agency outcomes and highlighted successes for the previous year. The event was done via Zoom and had over 120 participants including county commissioners, partners, board members, donors, volunteers and elected officials. Despite the changes and challenges of 2021, BCOC had a good year.