Veterans Spotlight: A new look at FISH

There's an old proverb that says, "a friend in need is a friend indeed."

For the needy in Carson City and surrounding rural counties, there may be no greater ally than Friends In Service Helping, otherwise known by its familiar acronym FISH.

Since 1979, FISH has served the homeless, the poor and low-income individuals in Carson City, Lyon and Douglas counties by building its reputation as a pillar of community support.

It's a reputation that Executive Director Jim Peckham says FISH takes a lot of pride in, because most of the revenue is raised locally through donations and generated from the three thrift stores operating in Carson City, Moundhouse and Gardnerville.

"Ninety eight percent of what we do is from the community, local charities and foundations, and local donations," he said. "Only two percent comes from the government."

Peckham said becoming entirely local and self-sufficient is important to FISH, because that ensures total flexibility in how funds are delegated according to the changing needs of clients in the community.

It's also a matter of community pride, he added.

"We're trying to make that 100 percent local," he said. "We're continuing to move forward to get away from having to rely on any kind of government grants at all."

One of the means of achieving this long-term goal is through thrift store donations and sales, Peckham said, identified as a key element to generating funds for existing social service programs provided by FISH.

"It's really critical to our overall process in how we develop our clients into being more self-sufficient, and generates income so we can do a lot that we do," he said. "The stores generate about a third of our income, and helps us to buy medicine, food, and allows us to give some products to those in significant need."

Putting retail sales into further perspective, FISH Operations Director Robin Reedy said every transaction from the stores translates into providing an immediate need for clients.

"For every $2.50 we get in, it's a meal," she said.

The Carson City store is putting the finishing touches on a major remodel that FISH hopes will help attract more people to the retail operation.

Among the notable improvements to the building is its elevation. Paying respects to Carson City's Nineteenth Century beginnings, the new facade features an Old West motif complete with false fronts, tin roofing eaves, as well as arches inspired by the city's old railroad turntable and roundhouse.

"When the county supervisors said they felt history was the key and trying to do historical changes to downtown area, we had been kicking around doing something to the facade for 15 years before I was here," Peckham said. "The board and I got together and said let's do something that gives back to Carson City, that reinforces the historical nature that they're looking for."

Exterior facade work began in May 2015, he said, and is now about 80 percent finished.

From the very begining, the project has relied upon the donations of time, resources and labor from people in the community, Peckham said. So has its completion, which is contingent upon the continuing availability of volunteers.

Peckham said he had concerns about the facade remodel to start with, because he didn't want the public to have the wrong impression that FISH was using funds for construction that were intended for clients.

"One of my concerns with the store facelift was that people might suggest that we were putting money to help the homeless on the store," he aid. "I was very sensitive to make sure we asked for volunteer labor to move this along."

Because materials and labor for the exterior remodel come from volunteers, the total cost of the facelift is an unknown figure, Peckham added, and he prefers to keep it that way.

"Priceless," Peckham said, describing the value of the work. "We got a lot of volunteer labor and donations for the exterior work. We accepted the help and didn't inquire about the costs."

Among the volunteers were students in construction classes at Western Nevada College, he said. They did the demolition work of the old facade out in front.

There is also some interior work continuing to be done to the 10,000 square-foot store at the corner of N. Carson and Long streets, he said, and FISH is responsible for this expense.

Inside improvements have been moving slowly over the years because the costs are coming out of the organization's operating budget, Peckham said, and not as direct donations of time, resources and labor.

"It's basically just us," Peckham said. "We've been working on this since 2009."

Until about a decade ago, FISH had leased the store property for more than 20 years before the organization had the money to purchase it outright.

Interior improvements started shortly afterward. They have included replacing wall-to-wall carpet with finished concrete floors, electrical upgrades, new ceiling insulation, higher ceilings, and new exterior windows facing Carson Street.

There is still some roofing work outside and interior window finishes that need to be done, Peckham said.

"We wanted to start with the inside first to get that organized," he said. "It's just trying to do things one piece at a time. Steady progress."

Peckham said he hopes the remodel work will result in more retail business, which will mean more revenue to provide for essential needs and services to clients.

He said donations to the store are equally important as sales, though, because without those, FISH would have nothing to sell.

A major attractor for customers who shop at FISH, Peckham said, are the low prices, which are accomplished through material donations from the community.

"Here people can do value shopping," he said. "When they can't afford brand new, they can come in here and find a pretty good selection of things that are needed."

But store operations do a lot more than just take in and resell products.

"It gives us the opportunity to do on the job training for clients, teaching them how to repair furniture, do retail sales, warehousing and distribution," Peckham explained. "We try to help these individuals and motivate them to get back to the work life."

In addition to on-the-job training opportunities in the stores, vocational learning tracts are available trucking, food services, facilities maintenance, small engine and furniture repair, warehousing and retail.

But vocational training is just one of several services FISH provides clients in the community. The organization is as multi-dimensional as it is dynamic in Carson City, Lyon and Douglas counties.

"I use FISH as an acronym to describe what we do," Peckham said. "We provide food, instruction, shelter and healthcare. We also refer people to other agencies."

Homeless clients also have access to hot showers and laundry services on site, he said, while those seeking employment assistance can obtain interview clothing at FISH, as well as garments and materials needed for specific jobs.

Veterans, Peckham said, are given preference at FISH. They are placed at the top of the list for housing and special stores of food donated by local veterans organizations are set aside for veteran clients in need.

Nine apartments of the new 39-unit Richard's Crossing housing complex on Jeanell Drive in Carson City are reserved for homeless military veterans. The remainder of the units are open to non-veterans, Peckham said, however homeless veterans still receive first priority.

Richard's Crossing is the manifestation of a vision FISH has had for a living complex that could offer wrap-around services within it, Peckham said.

"We had the vision and brought together the partners to pull it together," he said. "It required significant government financial processes, so we went to a full partnership with Rural Housing."

Nevada Rural Housing is in charge of the project's operations, Peckham said. It will maintain financial and managerial control of the property once it's finished.

"They've taken full responsibility and got a management company on board that will be running the day to day operations," he said. "But we're still heavily involved in the processes that will be going on there."

Those processes will be service delivery, including on-the-job training, life skills education, health care and case management, among other wrap-around services.

Original plans for completion of Richard's Crossing are for next spring, Peckham said, around April or May of 2017.

"But right now we've had such good weather that they're running ahead of schedule," he said.

The second floor is all but framed now, he said, and is about ready for the installation of windows, doors "and other fine tuning that is critical to have it weather proofed by the time colder weather hits."

Whether the project continues to operate ahead of schedule will depend on climate, materials and labor, Peckham said.

"With construction it all depends on availability of materials and workers, as well as the weather," he said. "So far, all three of those have been working in our favor."

Richard's Crossing enhances the shelter services offered by FISH, Peckham said, while bringing all of its programs full circle in one place.

Fundamental to FISH's core values is hope, he said. The addition of Richard's Crossing and the Carson City store remodel each in their own way help to instill that value in their clients.

"Whether veteran or not, we try to teach people skills or reinforce skills they already have," Peckham said. "It's a matter of providing hope to people. They get to a point where they are hopeless and we start building back that hope and that confidence so that they can start functioning more successfully in the community."

To learn more about FISH and its services, or ways to help and become involved, visit the organization's web site here or visit it on Facebook here.