North Ridgeville Community Care Celebrates the Power of Compassion

Founded more than 30 years ago, North Ridgeville Community Care defines the spirit of the city.

When retiring executive director June Yost was approached many years ago to assist those in need, little did she know that she and the organization would go on to touch countless lives.

The mission of North Ridgeville Community Care is straightforward: “Our mission is to care for the less fortunate people of North Ridgeville, Ohio to the best of our ability, based on supplies and funds made available to us. Community Care will always strive to preserve human dignity, and offer assistance and referrals, in whatever area of true concern our clients bring to us.”

Aid crosses a broad spectrum of need – from food assistance to help with utility bills and rent payments. Money is never given, but the bills are paid to the agencies where they are owed.

Families and lives touched are virtually countless. And the need can arise unexpectedly for many – many times do to a medical emergency, a job loss or other unanticipated life crises.

Agency programs include:

Food Pantry: Part of our facility is our food pantry which provides complete and balanced meals to our clients with sufficient food to accommodate all persons living in the home. It is our philosophy that regardless of parental lifestyle, if there are planned meals in the home the children will not go hungry and may also benefit in other ways from the familial value of an organized mealtime. If someone is in immediate need of food and they are not one of our pre-approved clients, our policy is to give them “emergency food” from the food pantry and have them complete an application form for future needs.

Clothing and Household Items: We provide our clients with gently used clothing, laundered by our volunteers, and made available on a daily basis. The clothing is donated by persons in our community. Household items are also donated, and special needs are met whenever possible such as requests for beds, cribs, household furniture, etc.

Utility and Housing Assistance: In order to provide our clients another opportunity to maintain reasonable living accommodations, we assist with utility and rent payments. Clients are allotted $100 per calendar year toward rent/mortgage payments after providing proof that they have received no financial assistance from any church, governmental agency, charitable institution or relative for at least four months. They are also allotted $100 towards utility assistance (i.e. electricity and/or gas) per calendar year. When a client requests assistance, we are able to send the necessary funds directly to utility companies and/or landlords to ease the economic burden that many families have had to shoulder in recent years. We have been proud to pioneer this unique service for clients which, since 1989, has prevented countless utility shut-offs and evictions. New clients are eligible for this program after one month.

Dairy: We provide milk, eggs and butter to our clients. The essential nutrition of dairy products is especially needed for the development of our young children. This program is currently being funded by the Nord Family Foundation, which has renewed our grant this year.

Layettes: When a baby is born to one of our clients, the parent is presented with a layette of personally purchased items including diapers, “onesies”, booties, a sweater set, blankets, bottles, a baby toy, a stuffed animal, and baby hygiene products.

Summer Lunches: Five lunches per week are offered for school age children who have been on a government funded school program which ends with the school year. Their eligibility is qualified by the North Ridgeville City Schools. Food is purchased in bulk and then packaged and distributed by volunteers.

School Supplies: Required school supplies are purchased and distributed to school age children. We feel it is important for all children to begin the school year on an equal footing with their classmates, and to better enable them to focus on their studies in the year ahead, dignity intact.

Easter Baskets: Easter Baskets full of candy and small toys for children 10 and younger are distributed to our client families along with a box of food for Easter dinner, including a ham, spring vegetables, sweet potatoes, pie, and eggs for coloring.

Thanksgiving Baskets: Each Thanksgiving we receive donations of turkeys and other food items for Thanksgiving. The week before the holiday, we offer baskets containing an entire meal complete with a turkey.

Christmas Store and Adopt-A-Child Program: Every Christmas we request donations from the community for new gift items: brand new toys, clothes, games, etc. We place all of these items by category in our specially designated “gift shop” area and, prior to Christmas, invite our clients to shop (with no money) for their family members and loved ones. We also ask our clients to fill out Wish Lists which we pass on to people in our community who would like to “adopt” a child or family for Christmas. Each year we make every effort to ensure that every client with a Wish List receives gifts for Christmas.

Emergency Prescription Financial Assistance: With the prescription expertise of a local pharmacist, we can offer immediate and/or temporary medication. Sometimes there is an urgent need that cannot wait on a free clinic and must be addressed immediately.

Essentials: Twice a month items that are needed on a daily basis, which are taxable but not covered by Food Stamps, are offered to our clients. These essentials include personal and hygiene products such as toothpaste, soap, shampoo, laundry detergent and cleaning supplies as well as paper products like towels, Saran wrap, aluminum foil and toilet paper.

Community Care Garden: Volunteer men and women from the community, with the help of a local farmer and his wife, have coordinated local plots of land throughout the city in order to grow produce to donate and distribute to our clients. We believe it is a great blessing to be able to offer fresh, in-season vegetables to our clients.

About North Ridgeville Community Care

North Ridgeville Community Care was established in 1989 as a response to significant numbers of families and individuals whose basic needs seemed to fall outside the range of local government support programs. A number of local churches, schools and community groups formed a support coalition committed to serving those in need in the community of North Ridgeville, Ohio. For 30 years NRCC has provided support to income-constrained families, strengthening their health, education, dignity and general well-being when no or few other human service resources were available. Currently, Community Care is the only known program of this type in the state of Ohio, and has received inquiries from outside communities inspired by the mission to help others in their time of need.

From 1989 to 2002 Community Care stored food and clothing in local churches for distribution and over the years was able to rent local office space for operations. In 2000 the Board of Directors and a number of community business leaders began to design and build a facility appropriate to the needs of the community. The facility was built on donated land and opened in 2002. The mortgage was paid by individual and corporate donations in less than three years.

North Ridgeville’s sole non-profit human service agency draws predominantly on volunteers and private donations to provide goods and services including; free food, clothing, rent and utility assistance, counseling and holiday programs for those less fortunate.

For Questions about their programs or how you can help their mission, please visit or contact: 34015 Center Ridge Rd., North Ridgeville, Ohio 44039, 440-353-9716, nrccare@windstream.net