Category: Newsletter

I hope this newsletter finds you all in good health and high spirits. As we move into the dog days of summer, I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on the latest happenings at Central Kentucky Community Action Council (CKCAC) and share some important information about our ongoing efforts to provide electric and water bill assistance to those in need.

At CKCAC, we remain committed to our mission of empowering individuals and families in Central Kentucky to achieve self-sufficiency and improve their quality of life. We understand that many households in our region continue to face financial challenges due to various factors, including the rising costs of utilities. Therefore, our team is actively working to provide critical support through our Electric and Water Bill Assistance Program.

Electric and Water Bill Assistance: Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) Crisis Component and the new Low Income Home Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP) now thru September 30, 2023.

As the summer heat continues to soar, many families are experiencing increased energy consumption, leading to higher utility bills. CKCAC’s Electric and Water Bill Assistance Program aims to alleviate some of the financial burdens faced by qualifying households. If you or someone you know is struggling to pay their electric or water bills, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our offices. Our dedicated staff is ready to assist you in accessing the available resources and exploring possible aid options.

As we navigate the challenges of the present and look toward a brighter future, let us remember the strength that lies within our community. Together, we can build a more resilient and caring society where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

Thank you for your unwavering support, and I look forward to our continued journey in creating positive change together.

More to come………..much more 

CKCATS continues to stay busy with a vast number of trips coming in daily. Our Medicaid trips continue to increase. Director Kerri Taylor is in the process of working with a Medicare Broker to set up NEMT Medicare transportation in all our counties. Medicare transportation is a need in all our counties, and we are pleased to be able to offer this service. To prepare for this new service, we will be hiring several new drivers in all counties to be able to keep up with the trip volume that we anticipate Medicare will bring.

The Senior Celebration in Elizabethtown on May 25^th was a success! CKCATS transported 64 seniors from Marion, Nelson, and Washington to the Senior Celebration at the Pritchard Community Center. There were over 300 seniors in attendance along with CKCATS and many other vendors.

CKCATS participated in several other Senior Fairs in June. On June 5^th, Spring View Hospital held a Coffee with Seniors Resource Fair; June 6^th a Senior Fair was held at the Extension Office in Nelson County; and the annual Senior Fair in Marion County was held on June 28^th at the Fairgrounds. CKCATS also transported seniors in Marion County to the Senior Fair.

CKCATS renewed their contracts in June with both Medicaid Brokers for the new fiscal year. These renewals came with great news! The subcontractor Covid mileage rates will remain in place for FY24!

CKCATS grant applications are completed and funds have been awarded! Thanks to all those in the Central Office who helped with gathering information and submitting information in the grant application.

CKCATS has already received 3 new SUV’s that we applied for on the FY24 grant application. These SUVs were readily available and will be used for ambulatory trips. We placed an SUV in Nelson, Marion, and Larue Counties. We are still waiting for the 12×2 vehicles that became available several months ago. To our knowledge, none of the agencies that are waiting for these vehicles have received them yet. For now, we will wait and hope that they come in the next couple of months.

If you or anyone you know would like to join the staff at CKCATS please go to careers@ckcac.org to apply. CKCATS is hiring full-time and part-time drivers in Marion, Larue, Hardin, Nelson, Breckinridge, and Grayson counties. 

Larry and Janet Meyers joined RSVP in May 2023. They both enjoy volunteering at Baptist Health Hardin Hospital in Elizabethtown.

RSVP is looking for others 55 and older that would like to volunteer in Hardin or Nelson County.

The current mileage reimbursement rate to and from the volunteer workstation is 50 cents per mile with a maximum of $60 per month.

Contact RSVP Director, Melissa Bland at RSVP.Director@ckcac.org or 270-737-1059 if you would like more information or have any questions.  

From July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023, we served 183,262 meals to 869 unduplicated clients.

Below is a breakdown:

Bardstown – 20,997 meals to 212 clients

Bradfordsville – 688 meals to 19 clients

Grayson – 5,543 meals to 77 clients

Hardin– 8,293 meals to 67 clients

Breckinridge – 5,682 meals to 49 clients

Larue – 7,795 meals to 103 clients

Lebanon – 21,371 meals to 206 clients

New Haven – 950 meals to 12 clients

Radcliff – 5,087 meals to 58 clients

Washington – 6,846 meals to 72 clients

From July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023, 13,187 vouchers were used to redeem meals at Home Plate restaurant in Meade County by 448 clients.

We are excited for the Meade County Senior Center to open its doors again in the near future. Check your local newspaper for an opening date coming soon. We will provide meals to our Meade County participants 4 days per week. 

We have hired Meade County native, Robin Terry to oversee that location. Robin will be a great asset to our team and to the Meade County Senior Center.

The Senior Companion Program (SCP) is actively looking for volunteers! 

The Senior Companion Program just finished out the 2022 fiscal year ending in June. We had 19 volunteers who served over 20,000 hours combined last year to those in need in our communities.

The Senior Companion Program & Retired Seniors Volunteer Program Directors are currently in the process of putting together the details for the Annual Volunteer Recognition Luncheon to be held this fall. Our volunteers look forward to this Recognition each year. It’s a great way to thank them for all of their time and dedication to our programs. We are currently in need of entertainment for the recognition. If there’s anyone available whom you think our seniors would enjoy, please feel free to contact us!

SCP is currently accepting new volunteers to join our program! We currently have 18 active volunteers serving. The stipend for our volunteers was just raised to $4.00 per hour as of April 1^st, 2023. SCP serves in 6 counties including Breckinridge, Grayson, Hardin, Marion, Nelson, and Washington. Great benefits include a tax-free stipend, mileage reimbursement, sickness and vacation time. All applicants 55 and older must undergo background checks, fingerprinting, and must be income eligible.

Please contact SCP Director Courtney Campbell at 270-692-2136 or courtney.campbell@ckcac.org if you have any questions or would like more information about volunteering!

David Lindsey, Weatherization Program Director

The Weatherization Program Staff, as of June 30, 2023, are working to close out our fiscal year 2022/23. The Weatherization Program (WX) will close out the fiscal year with the following final number of clients who have received services during the 2022/23 program year; 24 jobs completed, 29 deferrals, 4 cancellations. The Weatherization Program is fully staffed with an in-house crew, and we are utilizing contractors to perform HVAC and Electrical work that we must perform 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 Weatherization program is fully staffed with a highly trained support and technical staff consisting of Denny Baxter-Dwelling Needs Evaluator EA/QCI, Josh Mattingly-Crew Leader, Mike Burden-Retrofit Installer, Seth Riggs-Retrofit Installer and Barbara Garrett-Weatherization Administrative Support Specialist. We would like to say a huge thank you to all WX staff for their dedication to 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, DOE BIL, LIHEAP, East Kentucky Power, Kentucky Utilities, and Louisville Gas& Electric.

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, 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 has had a significant impact on both of our programs over the past couple of years with a state of emergency “Good Cause exemption” where clients were not required to participate in the programs. This good cause exemption ended 7-1-2022 but there were still no sanctions due to non-participation until December 2022 so it has still had an impact. SNAP E & T just ended their state of emergency and starting July 1, 2023 Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents will be mandated to participate in the program again.

·       We currently have 34 clients that are employed in the K-TAP Program. This is up 10 from when last reported. Our Employment Specialists continue to follow up with each of these clients and track the hours they are working. We served 57 clients in the K-Tap program for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 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 served 442 clients 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 many of them are still unable to accept our referrals. We currently have 67 sites in our 17 counties that we can send our clients to.

·       Our staff continues to stay in touch with staff meeting 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 are under contract for KTAP and SNAP E & T through June 2024.

Ellen Leake, CSBG-LIHEAP Director/Operations Officer

CSBG Bulletin Report July 2023

CLOSING PROGRAM YEAR 2022-2023

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 have 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 CSBG.

The CSBG Staff have assisted 12,535 Individuals; 6,250 Households-unduplicated count.

LIHEAP SUBSIDY 3281 Households $416,371.00

LIHEAP CRISIS 4242 Households $953,247.65

SPRING COOLING SUBSIDY 2,032 Households $280,811.00.00

SUMMER COOLING SUBSIDY 1038 Households $348,300.00

SUMMER COOLING CRISIS 639 Households $136,368.00

GARDENS 168 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. 70 families took advantage of the opportunity. 10 families swim passes or lessons were also provided.

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

Martha ‘Jewell’ Bartley, Head Start Quality Assurance Manager