KeyBank Foundation Provides $150,000 Grant To Support COTS Housing Community Enrichment Program

BURLINGTON, Vt., August 11, 2023 /3BL/ – KeyBank Foundation, the non-profit charitable foundation of KeyBank, announces a three-year, $150,000 donation to The Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS) to support a new supportive service role in their Housing program. COTS is a Burlington-based nonprofit that advocates for long-term solutions to end homelessness and provides emergency shelter, services, and long-term housing for Vermonters who are experiencing homelessness or are marginally housed. For more than 40 years, COTS has worked directly with people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Their services include two family shelters, two overnight emergency shelters for single adults, a daytime drop-in center, and four transitional and permanent housing facilities. They also operate the COTS Housing Resource Center, a homelessness prevention program dedicated to helping households in financial crisis avert homelessness or move more quickly into housing if they are homeless.

“KeyBank has long been a pivotal partner to COTS, and we are thrilled to be able to offer enhanced programming and engagement to our formerly homeless residents thanks to KeyBank’s investment in our work,” said COTS Executive Director Jonathan Farrell.

KeyBank’s funding will enable COTS to hire a Housing Community Enrichment Liaison (CEL) to enhance COTS’ housing retention efforts and support their existing affordable housing portfolio. The CEL will connect with COTS residents about quality of life and wellness opportunities that could be deployed in their housing and then implement those opportunities at each of COTS’ properties (The Wilson, Saint John’s Hall, Canal Street, 95 North Ave, and eventually Main Street Family Housing). Activities will represent a wide spectrum of wellness, including but not limited to music, art, photography, storytelling, memoir writing, meditation, therapeutic movement, recovery, gardening, and cooking classes. A unique goal of this work will be to create lasting connections with community wellness partners that can continue even after residents moved on from COTS housing. Funds will be used for personnel costs and program services cost for residents.

“KeyBank is a long-time supporter of COTS and we are aligned with their mission to house the homeless and find solutions to bring affordable housing to all,” said KeyBank’s Vermont Market President Joseph McGowan. “We’re proud to continue to help them expand needed services and resources that will benefit their clients and our community at large.”

Since 2017, KeyBank Foundation has provided nearly $1 million in transformational philanthropic investments in Vermont neighborhoods served by KeyBank, including more than $300,000 to COTS initiatives. KeyBank has 11 branches serving Barre, Brattleboro, Burlington, Essex Junction, Middlebury, Milton, Rutland, South Burlington, and St. Albans.

About COTS:

COTS is the largest service provider for the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless in Vermont. COTS’ mission is to provide emergency shelter, services, and housing for those who are homeless or marginally housed. We believe in the value and dignity of every human life; we believe that housing is a fundamental human right; and we believe that emergency shelter is not the solution to homelessness. We operate 9 locations in Burlington and Winooski. For more information, visit www.cotsonline.org.

About KeyBank Foundation: 

KeyBank Foundation serves to fulfill KeyBank’s purpose to help clients and communities thrive, and its mission is to support organizations and programs that prepare people for thriving futures. The Foundation’s mission is advanced through three funding priorities – neighbors, education, and workforce – and through community service. To provide meaningful philanthropy that transforms lives, KeyBank Foundation listens carefully to understand the unique characteristics and needs of its communities and then backs solutions with targeted philanthropic investments. KeyBank Foundation is a nonprofit charitable foundation, funded by KeyCorp.

About KeyCorp 

KeyCorp's roots trace back nearly 200 years to Albany, New York. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Key is one of the nation's largest bank-based financial services companies, with assets of approximately $195 billion as of June 30, 2023. Key provides deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states under the name KeyBank National Association through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and approximately 1,300 ATMs. Key also provides a broad range of sophisticated corporate and investment banking products, such as merger and acquisition advice, public and private debt and equity, syndications and derivatives to middle market companies in selected industries throughout the United States under the KeyBanc Capital Markets trade name. For more information, visit https://www.key.com/. KeyBank is Member FDIC.