ABERDEEN, Ohio — UWGC Eastern Area in February 2021 formed the Brown County Community Resource Collaborative, which consists of more than two dozen community leaders, organizations and agencies. Its mission: harness community resources to provide outreach to areas of the community that exhibit an inordinate amount of need.

One such area, as identified by members of the collaborative, is Aberdeen, Ohio, a village on the Ohio River about 50 miles southeast of Cincinnati. It’s home to about 1,600 people. On June 26, the resource collaborative hosted a community giving event at the Huntington Township Community Center in Aberdeen.

Partners who participated include Adams Brown County Community Action Partnership (ABCAP); Brown County Board of Mental Health and Addiction Services; Ohio State University Extension; Help Me Grow; Ripley Union Lewis Huntington School District; Ohio Means Jobs; David Benjamin, Aberdeen police chief; Clermont County Board of Developmental Disabilities; and Inter Parish Ministry. 

Residents arrived in 25 vehicles, with many picking up items for multiple families. During the two-hour event, 100 boxes of shelf-stable food from Inter Parish Ministries were distributed, along with 50 fresh food bags. Also available were 100 kid packs from ABCAP, as well as early-childhood resource kits.

Like many areas, Brown County in recent years has experienced increases in opioid and heroin overdoses, as well as a rise in the number of deaths related to those substances. In light of that, a team from the Brown County Mental Health Board attended the giveaway and distributed 14 Narcan kits, which contain medication that can reverse an overdose caused by an opioid drug. 

The event illustrates that members of the resource collaborative are working on outreach efforts to achieve maximum impact in three categories: homelessness and housing; food and basic needs; and physical and mental health, all of which align with United Way’s overall goal of building economic well-being for families.