HOMETOWN HEROES: Erika Alusic-Bingham strives to help family members of all generations

Erika Alusic-Bingham talks about her work with Community Action Partnership Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties.

Erika Alusic-Bingham talks about her work with Community Action Partnership Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties. —STAFF PHOTO BY BILL FONDA

Erika Alusic-Bingham with some of the items available in her room at Peterborough Community Center.

Erika Alusic-Bingham with some of the items available in her room at Peterborough Community Center. STAFF PHOTO BY BILL FONDA

Erika Alusic-Bingham at her desk in the Peterborough Community Center.

Erika Alusic-Bingham at her desk in the Peterborough Community Center. —STAFF PHOTO BY BILL FONDA

”Jellyfish” hang from the ceiling outside Erika Alusic-Bingham’s space at Peterborough 

”Jellyfish” hang from the ceiling outside Erika Alusic-Bingham’s space at Peterborough  —STAFF PHOTO BY BILL FONDA

A saying on the wall at Peterborough Community Center.

A saying on the wall at Peterborough Community Center. —STAFF PHOTO BY BILL FONDA

By BILL FONDA

Monadnock Ledger-Transcript

Published: 01-21-2025 12:02 PM

Erika Alusic-Bingham is the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript’s Hometown Hero for January, but she said the credit should go to the youths and families she works with Community Action Partnership Hillsborough and Rockingham Counties.

"I think they’re the heroes, the kids. They’re working so hard,” along with the families, she said. “I’m just here for some suggestions and hand-holding.”

In nominating Alusic-Bingham, Peterborough Sunshine Fund board member Katie Wilson lauded her for her work as family services coordinator for western Hillsborough County, including after-school and summer programs for local youths and coordinating a holiday gift program with the Sunshine Fund. 

“She's been doing this work for decades and we feel she deserves the recognition and gratitude of a Hometown Hero,” Wilson wrote on behalf of the Sunshine Fund board.

Alusic-Bingham has been with the former Southern New Hampshire Services since 1996, after having worked in special education at Peterborough Elementary School.

She first worked out of Riverview Apartments and Pineview Apartments, and now operates out of a room  across the hall from Peterborough Food Pantry at the town’s community center. Games and activities are stacked all around the room, and sayings such as “Be kind. It costs you nothing” line the walls.

Alusic-Bingham’s efforts include working with families in crisis, including food insecurity, homelessness and housing insecurity. She can help provide fuel assistance, Head Start or WIC nutrition program services, along with access to health and mental health services.

“You’d be surprised at how many young people don’t have a primary-care physician,” she said.

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Alusic-Bingham said her focus is on housing, citing a family she is working with that has been homeless for a month.

“They have good jobs, and we cannot find them a house,” she said. “Moving the needle on housing is really important.”

The items spread throughout the room are for the youth program, which she stresses is “not child care.” The program offers homework help, computers, crafts and science, along with providing older youths a place to hang out.

“You get a lot of different personalities,” she said. “I love offering programming to kids who might be home alone or in an apartment.”

The Recreation Department allows the program to use Adams Pool during the summer, and the group also takes a bus to Cunningham Pond and walks to Evans Flats. Participants also pick up items at the farmers’ market on Wednesdays, including during the winter when the market is inside.

“It’s been really fun for them to learn where their food comes from,” she said.

Alusic-Bingham said she wants to help youths become successful and “understand their potential.”

“These are kids who are looking to make good choices in the afternoon,” she said.

And the main choice she emphasizes is staying in school.

“There is no upside to leaving school early,” she said.

Forty-five youths are enrolled in the free program, and an average of 14 a day attend. The age is 4 to 16, but Alusic-Bingham will stay involved longer than that.

“I’ve driven kids to college visits because no one in their family thought they should go to college,” she said.

Alusic-Bingham said she pays attention to both youths and families, as their issues could be intertwined.

“We try to work with the whole family on a multigenerational level,” she said.

She said she can start conversations on self-sufficiency, which could be as simple as developing a family budget.

“Even if they only qualify for $200 in food stamps, that could be the difference in keeping the lights on,” she said.

The work with the Sunshine Fund is one of multiple CAP partnerships that also include the Salvation Army, town welfare offices and ConVal’s End 68 Hours of Hunger program.

“Anything that makes people’s lives a little bit easier, we try to collaborate,” Alusic-Bingham said.

Last year, CAP worked with 150 families and 527 individuals. Alusic-Bingham said that at one point, she thought it would get easier, but it never has, as poverty, homelessness and food insecurity aren’t going anywhere. It may be harder to see, but it’s there, she said.

“We don't have, stereotypically, people pushing a shopping cart down Main Street,” she said.

Alusic-Bingham, 57, said she will “never go out of business,” but that’s the reason “I can’t imagine walking away. I’ve been working with some families a long time.”

“It would be hard for me to consider leaving this position until I’ve made more of an impact on these things,” she said.