Author: J Miles

Hal Goode, Executive Director
AUGUST 2022

The below is from the Facebook page of Michaela Ballard Grundy of Lebanon.

It takes a village to raise a child. In our case, it took a village to save our child. These men and women each played a vital role in saving our daughter’s life. Monday morning, while on our way to daycare with my two children, our two year old, Miles, started to choke on a tic tac. I immediately stopped the car, took her from her car seat, and began basic choking first aid. Two women, Ellen B Leake and Judith Moffitt who work for Central Kentucky Community Action Council had already stopped to help and dialed 911 while several members of the community came to my aid. David Alan Mattingly was able to call Jay and stood by my side to help.

Within three minutes the Lebanon police, Marion County EMS and members of the fire department had reached the scene and taken over. It was EMS director, Brian Smith, who took Miles from me and was able to dislodge the tic tac and open her airway.

In three minutes my daughter’s life flashed before my eyes. In three minutes this community came together and saved my daughter’s life. In three minutes our lives changed forever.

We cannot express in words how grateful we are for our emergency responders. We know the outcome could have been different if not for the proactive members of our community.

We will spend every day thanking God for this community, our family, and our daughter.

It does take a community as we know at CKCAC. Thanks to Judith & Ellen for assisting at the scene to what is truly a miracle. More to come……………much more………..  

Martha ‘Jewell’ Bartley, Head Start Quality Assurance Manager

Courtney Campbell, SCP Director

The Senior Companion Program just closed out our fiscal year June 30, 2022. SCP volunteers have served 25,533.45 hours over the last year.

Our program is actively looking for anyone who loves to help serve others and meets the standard requirements. Volunteers do receive a tax-free stipend, along with mileage and meal reimbursement.

The Senior Appreciation Luncheon will be held in October this year in honor of our volunteers who dedicate their time to not only our program, but to those that they serve. 

Tancy Morris, Congregate Meals Director

Congregate Meals continues to serve meals in person and drive thru. From July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022, we have served 58,487 meals to 755 unduplicated clients. I have included a break down below:

• Bardstown- 15,297 meals to 205 clients
• Bradfordsville – 350 meals to 19 clients
• Grayson – 4,043 meals to 66 clients
• Griffin Manor – 6,362 meals to 62 clients
• Breckinridge – 4,924 meals to 59 clients
• Larue – 4,567 meals to 57 clients
• Loretto – 62 meals to 10 clients
• New Haven – 458 meals to 11 clients
• Radcliff – 2,688 meals to 44 clients
• Washington – 5,816 meals to 44 clients

In July of 2022 we served 443 unduplicated clients 5,768 meals.

From July 1, 2021 – June 30, 2022, 6,118 vouchers were used to redeem meals at Home Plate in Brandenburg by 229 unduplicated participants.

This program continues to grow. In July we distributed 1192 vouchers to 147 participants. We meet at the library in Brandenburg on the last Thursday of every month to distribute vouchers.

Gloria Graves at the Washington County Senior Center has retired. Thank you, Gloria, for your service to Central Kentucky Community Action Council and the Washington County Senior Center. We wish you the very best!

Hal Goode, Executive Director
JULY 2022

Gordon Thomas, CKCAC’s past Board Chair and current Board Member, passed away Thursday evening. Mr. Thomas was a huge supporter of Community Action & the many programs. Please keep his family in your prayers during this time of loss. Below is his obituary and service details.

Gordon Earl Thomas, age 60, of Hodgenville, passed away, Thursday, July 7, 2022, at his residence.

He was a member and the Administrative Assistant at Hodgenville United Methodist Church and a LaRue County High School Graduate.

Gordon was preceded in death by his parents, Earl and Claudine McDougal Thomas and a sister, Pamela Thomas.

He is survived by his aunts, Edna Mae Taylor, Mary Blanche Woods and Marva McDougal; several cousins and many friends.

The Hodgenville United Methodist Church will conduct a memorial service for Gordon at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 23, at the church, his ashes will be interred in Hubbard Cemetery.

Everybody loved Gordon. We’re going to miss him dearly. See you again one day, Friend. More to come……………much more……….

Tommy Wheatley, Kentucky Works Director

The Kentucky Works Program supports the Kentucky Transitional Assistance Program (K-TAP) and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the following Kentucky counties: Anderson, Breckinridge, Bullitt, Franklin, Grayson, Hardin, Henry, Larue, Marion, Meade, Nelson, Oldham, Shelby, Spencer, Trimble, Washington, and Woodford. Our goal is to assess these individuals to identify barriers and work to overcome those barriers to make them self- sufficient. We also have job readiness classes to help with resumes, job search, job interviews, etc.

COVID-19 continues to have a significant impact on both of our programs. The state of emergency that the state of Kentucky had implemented with a “Good Cause exemption” where clients are not required to participate in the programs was lifted on July 1^st, however there are still no sanctions being levied for non-participation until December 2022 so participation is still low. Kentucky Works staff have returned to working in the office. 

• We currently have 9 clients that are employed in the K-TAP Program, and the referrals have picked up a little with the state of emergency ending. Our Employment Specialists continue to follow up with each of these clients and track the hours they are working. We served 26 clients in the K-Tap program for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2022.
• On the SNAP Employment and Training program we continue to reach out to these clients and complete assessments when they are referred to us. We had 250 referrals for the SNAP program during the last quarter.
• We continue to stay in touch with employers and if we do get referrals we match the clients skills with the employer needs to have a good match. We call new employers each week and keep a current job listing for each county we serve.
• We continue to see an impact with COVID on our Work Experience Program sites as some of them are still unable to accept our referrals. We have 123 sites in our 17 counties that we send our clients and as of now, only 60 are open and/or willing to accept referrals due to COVID-19. Staff visited these sites in June to update paperwork and check to see if they were needing workers.
• Our staff continues to stay in touch to discuss all relative matters in the program. We have staff meetings every other month. We started in person staff meetings again on May 17th instead of zoom.
• We continue to offer a wage subsidy program where if an employer hires one of our K-TAP clients they will be reimbursed for a portion of their wages during the first six month of employment.
• We just started our new KTAP and SNAP E & T contract for July 2022 through June 2024 on July 1st.
• We recently hired a new employee for the Kentucky Works program, Brittany Henson, to cover Breckinridge and Grayson counties. Her start date was 6-20-2022.

David Lindsey, Weatherization Program Director

Central Kentucky Community Action’s Weatherization Program (WX) completed the fiscal year 2021/22 with 21 jobs deferred and 12 jobs completed. CKCAC’s weatherization program received both compliance and technical monitoring this year with good reviews. Reviews show great improvements to the program in both technical and field monitoring. The Weatherization Program has 51 clients on the waiting list for weatherization services to start the 2022/23 fiscal year. As of July 1, 2022 we are providing weatherization services to our 8-county area with 2 jobs in progress. The Weatherization Program is fully staffed with an in-house crew, and we are utilizing contractors to perform HVAC and Electrical work to the dwellings receiving services. We look forward to the future of the new contract year of CKCAC’s Weatherization Program to progress and better serve our 8-county service area.

Our goal with weatherization is to continue to reduce energy waste and assure the health and safety of each client we serve through testing consisting of: aliening air and thermal boundaries, pressure diagnostics, heating system diagnostics, indoor air quality, and base load energy consumption diagnostics.

Central Kentucky Community Action Council’s Weatherization Program is staffed with a highly trained supporting and technical staff consisting of: Denny Baxter, Dwelling Needs Evaluator EA/QCI; Josh Mattingly, Crew Leader: Tessa Hinton Retrofit, Installer; and supporting staff Barbara Garrett, Weatherization Manager. We would like to say a huge ‘Thank you’ to all WX staff for their dedication for improving the quality of work and the dedication to ensure the health and safety of all the clients we serve.

Central Kentucky Community Action Council has leveraged funds from utilities to expand the reach of the Weatherization Assistance Program. This year we are leveraging funding from DOE, LIHEAP, ATMOS, East Kentucky Power, Big Rivers Electric, Kentucky Utilities, and Louisville Gas & Electric.

Martha ‘Jewell’ Bartley, Head Start Quality Assurance Manager

Ellen Leake, CSBG Director

The CSBG Staff has been busy closing out one Program Year and beginning a new one. Staff members have worked diligently to enter all services that had been provided into the computer. We followed up on many clients so that we could also report the outcome of our efforts through NPI’s and services report for Regular CSBG and CARES.

The CSBG Staff have assisted:

• Regular CSBG 15,437 Individuals 7,372 Households-unduplicated count
• CARES 2,690 Individuals 1,205 Households-unduplicated count
• SPRING SUBSIDY 766 Households $133,750.00
• SPRING COOLING 1865 Households $313,250.00
• GARDENS 267 Individual gardens are planted and flourishing with the recent rains
• YOUTH PROGRAMS – The Youth Programs carried out in the Counties have been exciting. We want to provide opportunities for children who may not have them otherwise.
  • We were able to obtain a discounted family pass for one year with the Louisville Zoo. 157 families took advantage of the opportunity.
  • 3 Summer Camp
  • 2 Families Swim Passes or Lessons

Thanks to all the staff for their hard work with the various programs operated by Community Services.

As change occurs we want to make sure you know our new directors.  Join Central Kentucky Community Action in welcoming Cathy Sparrow as our new Director for the Family Child Care Homes and Unaffiliated Centers program. The Family Child Care Homes and Unaffiliated Centers program continues to impact hundreds of children every year.  Cathy was working in the Central Kentucky Community Action Finance Department and brings experience as a past Director of School Food Services for the Marion County Public School System. In that position, Cathy remarked that she had seen firsthand the need of feeding children and sometimes the whole family.   

Throughout COVID 19, it was a very trying time for childcare centers and childcare homes in Kentucky. There was a mandatory shutdown for all childcares and this shutdown not only left parents without childcare, but childcare owners without income and an emotional toll on their staff.  Since childcare centers have reopened there has been many challenges abiding by increased health and sanitation protocols.  The Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) recently announced that all providers enrolled in the program with our agency would be receiving an emergency reimbursement to help reimburse providers for the payments they missed out on during the shutdown.

Cathy Sparrow will be replacing Jane Claire Hupman who has taken another position in the community and we thank her for her work here at CKCAC and wish her the best.  More to come……………much more……….