Community Helping Hands has been helping the Jamestown community for more than 20 years.

Now, the organization needs your help.

The agency reached out to The Post-Journal late Monday with an appeal for monetary donations needed to keep

“This is the time of year when nonprofits solicit donations with great marketing materials that tell their stories. Their media appeals pull the heart strings and urge us to donate,” Community Helping Hands officials wrote. “CHH is still here and still meeting the needs of an expanding population and still doing it without enough workers, without essential staff, and without adequate funding. We continue to exist because we know that without CHH, our community’s vulnerable population would not have their basic needs met.”

Community Helping Hands open. Community Helping Hands was one of the original tenants of the Gateway Center, which was repurposed after the closure of Chautauqua Hardware at 31 Water St. in 2001.

Community Helping Hands provides clothes, household items and furniture to clients sent by churches, other non-profits and county officials. Donations are accepted Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from 3 to 7 p.m., a change made in August.

“So, without the glossy brochure and the convenient return envelope, we are begging you to consider a financial donation to Community Helping Hands,” agency officials wrote to The Post-Journal on Monday. “In order to sustain our operations, we need funding now. No gimmicks, just a simple appeal asking the citizens of Chautauqua County to give whatever you can to help us keep our doors open for those who need our help. Your gift will help men, women and children that you may never know, but who need the help provided by Community Helping Hands. Thank you.”

The news comes a couple of months after the county Industrial Development Agency approved a $325,000 low-interest loan to help jump-start the Gateway Lofts project, which will convert the Gateway Center into a 110-unit, multi-family affordable housing complex anchored by supportive wrap-around services. The project is projected to cost $67 million and includes STEL, the Jamestown YWCA and Community Helping Hands as well as the Mental Health Association while drug and alcohol counseling across the street at UPMC Hospital. Of 110 units, STEL will provide wrap-around services to 40 apartments for people with disabilities and the YWCA will have 15 apartments. The remaining 55 apartments will be “generic affordable housing.”

All of the apartments will be placed on the second, third and fourth floor. On the first floor will be Community Helping Hands, Chautauqua County Mental Health Association, and possibly St. Susan’s.

Tom Whitney, STEL executive director, told IDA officials earlier this year that after years in limbo, a new investor had come forward that led Whitney to hope overall project financing was nearly complete with construction possibly starting in mid to late 2025.

But Community Helping Hands officials are still uncertain about the future of the Gateway Lofts project, and aren’t in position to wait for the project to be finalized. Help is needed now.

“The list of reasons why CHH should not exist is long – the huge, old warehouse building that is costly and difficult to maintain, people drop off unusable items that CHH then has to dispose of, vandals cause damage that has to be repaired, the Lofts Housing Project continues to be an unfunded dream – the list is endless,” agency officials wrote to The Post-Journal. “The list of reasons why CHH must exist is also long – clients depend on CHH for needs unmet by any other resource in the area, simple work offers struggling adults and youth opportunities to learn skills and develop relationships, affordable shopping brings a sense of normalcy to a chaotic life, and most of all, caring people listen and offer a helping hand.”

Checks can be sent to Community Helping Hands, 31 Water St., Jamestown, NY 14701 or at chhny.org and clicking on donate.