The Pennsylvania Furniture Mission (PFM), a nonprofit that provides household items to Pennsylvania residents living on or below the poverty line free of cost, was awarded a Level-Up & Launch grant by United Way of Lancaster County for staff development. Prior to the grant, the organization had a total of 3 full-time employees.
The small staff was a pain point for the organization because it need the staff to be able to clean items that are donated, assist clients with choosing furniture and, occasionally, deliver furniture to their clients. The organization has volunteers to help with these operations, but they had a need for additional and consistent support.
“So, with the delivery, there is a cost for the moving, because we have to pay movers. We have our team that gets paid to do that, but the Level-Up & Launch grant has been used for employment,” said Pashk Sokoli, co-founder and executive director for PFM. “Basically, we cannot cover a hundred percent of everything that we’re doing, so obviously we have to use that money towards employees.”
The grant has been used to hire two more employees which makes them the “Five Guys” as Sokoli joked. Both new employees are teenagers, 18 and 19, that started as volunteers for the organization.
“Most of the time, the volunteers are actually kids, teenagers, who were homeless, but basically get into housing with nonprofits and instead of getting into trouble they come here, and they work two-three hours a day organizing, cleaning everything and learning about the organization,” Sokoli said.
Sokoli went on to explain that he wants to be a positive figure in these teenagers’ lives given that they didn’t grow up with a stable background.
Additionally, the organization used its grant funds to buy new mattresses to offer to clients since the furniture they get is donated and typically used. The used furniture the mission gets goes through a sanitization process before being offered to clients. Sokoli recently acquired a steam cleaner to remove any dirt from mattresses or furniture that can’t be removed during the sanitization process.
For more information on what the The Pennsylvania Furniture Mission is doing for the community as well as ways to get involved, visit their website.
