As a non-profit agency, Central Kentucky Community Action, Inc. is required to inform the local community of the Area Board of Director’s Meeting which is open to the public. The meeting will be on Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at 11:00 AM EST. For more information, call the Central Office at 270-692-2136.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Central Kentucky Community Action Council Head Start and Early Head Start Will Pursue a Line of Credit to Maintain Normal Operations on November 1st, 2025.
(Lebanon, Kentucky- October 28, 2025) Central Kentucky Community Action Council Head Start and Early Head Start (www.ckyhs.org) serves 400 children and families across six Kentucky counties (Hardin, LaRue, Marion, Meade, Nelson, and Washington). CKYHS is a federally-funded preschool program and the funding for operations ends October 31st, 2025. With the federal government currently shutdown, there are no funds being awarded or released from the federal government for CKYHS to cover expenses beginning November 1st, 2025.
At a special-called meeting of the Central Kentucky Community Action Council Board of Directors on October 27th, the Board unanimously voted to allow the agency to pursue a line of credit to keep normal Head Start and Early Head Start operations until November 21st. Central Kentucky Community Action Council is deeply thankful to Bobby Miles and People’s Bank of Lebanon for stepping up to support our agency in this time of need.
While this is welcomed news for the children and families of Central Kentucky, this is not a permanent solution. If funding is not restored by November 21st, it is very unlikely that Central Kentucky Community Action Council Head Start and Early Head Start programming will continue. Our sincere hope is that the federal government re-opens, soon, so we can continue to fully support the children and families of Central Kentucky.
Please contact Bryan Conover (bryan.conover@ckcac.org) for any additional information.
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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, 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.
· We currently have 95 clients that are employed in the K-TAP Program. This is up 2 workers since the last quarter and up 45 from three quarters ago. Our Employment Specialists continue to follow up with each of these clients and track the hours they are working. We served 90 clients in the K-Tap program for the quarter ending September 30th, 2025. We placed 78 clients in the quarter.
· 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 served 897 clients for the SNAP program during quarter ending September 30th, 2025.
· 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.
· Our staff continues to stay in touch with staff meetings every other month, either in person or virtually to discuss all relative matters in the program.
· 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 added two new wage subsidy contracts in the last quarter.
The new Hardin County Kitchen has been busy preparing meals for the seniors. Once our Nelson County Kitchen stops cooking then the new Hardin County Kitchen will be cooking for all 11 senior centers.
Now on October 2nd, NO grab and go meals on Thursdays. Dine-in only is now on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Dine-in is available Monday-Friday if your center is normally open except for the Radcliff Center and they may go to Griffin Manor to dine-in.
In October the meals served has dropped to around 1,700 previously the meals have been 2,100-2,200 a month ago.
The Elizabethtown Senior Center at Griffin Manor had a visit from KET to come and spotlight the center and interview one of our seniors. She did a great job telling why she comes to the center.
The Weatherization Program provides weatherization services to our 8-county area. Our new contract year numbers through September 30, 2025: 1 completed unit, 3 jobs in progress, and 6 deferrals. The Weatherization Program utilizes contractors to perform weatherization work, QCI inspections, HVAC and Electrical work that we must perform to the dwellings receiving services.
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 Weatherization Program staff Samantha Ross Weatherization Administrative Support Specialist and David Lindsey Weatherization Program Director.
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, BIL, LIHEAP, East Kentucky Power, Kentucky Utilities, and Louisville Gas & Electric.
The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Summer enrollment will begin on July 28 and run through September 12, 2025.
Our program continues its work from being an immediate emergency assistance provider to becoming a program that really helps the families of low-income change their lives. Although we continue to provide emergency assistance, we also assist with budgeting, developing family goal plans and strategies to avoid future emergencies. As we work with families to develop strategies to prevent future emergencies, tips such as budget billing, paying your rent first, shopping at less expensive stores, and controlling impulsive spending are helpful and sometimes well received. Those not working are encouraged to find employment. Our employment and education programs can assist with small barriers to gaining full time employment or better employment. How do we help? It can be partial assistance with a CNA, CDL class, or proper clothing and shoes for a new job, gas for transportation to work for a week.
PREPARING FOR LIHEAP
Official Dates for Fall Subsidy, November 3rd through December 12th.
We will be taking appointments this year.
The vendor information packets have been sent to over 100 vendors. Vendor advertisements have run in local papers throughout the 8-county region. The vendor agreements must be on file in the Central Office before vendors can participate in the Low-Income Heating Assistance Program. When these agreements are returned by mail, they will be reviewed, filed, and then the information updated in the computers in the county offices.
Applicants must be within 150% of the federal poverty guidelines and willing to provide the documentation below:
Income-eligible residents may apply for the Fall Subsidy LIHEAP benefits starting November 3 – December 12, 2025, by appointment. Walk-ins will be offered an appointment or wait for an opening.
The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Fall enrollment will begin on November 3, 2025, and run through December 12, 2025.
Fall Subsidy Component is designed to help offset the cost of a household’s electric cost, providing eligible households with a one-time benefit depending on income levels and housing category.
Applications will be accepted during the enrollment period, on a first-come, first-serve basis. Income eligibility for the program is up to and including 150% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. The benefits are paid directly to the household’s electric vendor.
Interested households should contact their local Community Action Agency office to apply.
All applicants will be required to supply the following documentation at the time of application:
Fall Subsidy DOES NOT require a disconnect notice, a past due bill, or eviction notice. The Subsidy benefit can be applied as a credit on your account. Assistance received during previous LIHEAP components does not affect household’s eligibility.
Community Action Kentucky administers LIHEAP in partnership with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services who receive the funding as a pass-through block grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
COMMUNITY NEEDS ASSESSMENT for 2025-2026 is underway. The results help determine the CSBG program budget for the upcoming year. We need a broad range of community members to complete the survey, so feel free to share. Your help is greatly appreciated. If you are a CKCAC Board member completing the survey, please choose board member.
Could you please go online and complete this survey for Central Kentucky Community Action? This survey is for our Community Needs Assessment for year 2026-2027.
The survey allows us to continue to have programs in our county. You can do this by clicking on the link below.
As a non-profit agency, Central Kentucky Community Action, Inc. is required to inform the local community of the Area Board of Director’s Meeting which is open to the public. The meeting will be on Monday, October 27, 2025 at 2:30PM EST. For more information, call the Central Office at 270-692-2136.
It is hard to believe that October is already here. My first year as your CKCAC Executive Director has flown by. It has been a whirlwind of a year and we are looking forward to finishing the rest of the year strong.
Unfortunately, most of our current conversations across the agency are about the Federal government shutdown we are all experiencing. As of this writing, CKCAC has not had to make any adjustments to our operations. However, we need this shutdown to end soon or adjustments may have to be made. I would encourage you all to take a moment to let your elected officials in DC know how important it is for us to get our government back open. We all need this. Prior to the shutdown, House and Senate subcommittees who oversee funding many of our programs all passed mark-ups that are good for CKCAC programs. We are hopeful that those funding levels hold when the government re-opens and a final budget is eventually passed.
As I mentioned in my September newsletter, CKCAC did our first CKCAC Connection with Bryan Conover. CKCAC Connection is a chance for staff members to submit anonymous questions to me for me to answer live. The reviews of our first effort were positive, so we are going to attempt it again in October. gng Productions produced a video of this that we will share with our stakeholders, as well.
As always, thank you for all you do.
