Category: Newsletter

Hal Goode, Executive Director

Are you making a resolution in the new year? Warning: More than half of all resolutions fail, but this year, they don’t have to be yours. Here’s how to identify the right resolution to improve your life, create a plan on how to reach it, and become part of the small group of people that successfully achieve their goal.

Pick the Right Resolution

You’ll give yourself your best shot at success if you set a goal that’s doable — and meaningful too.

You have a realistic plan for achieving your resolution.

Your goals should be smart — and SMART. That’s an acronym from 1981 for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound. It may work for management, but it can also work in setting your resolutions, too.

Specific. Your resolution should be clear. “Making a concrete goal is important rather than just vaguely saying ‘I want to lose weight.’ You want to have a goal: How much weight do you want to lose and at what time interval?”

Measurable. This may seem obvious if your goal is a fitness or weight loss related one, but it’s also important if you’re trying to cut back on something, too. Logging progress into a journal or making notes on your phone or in an app designed to help you track behaviors can reinforce the progress, no matter what your resolution may be.

Achievable. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have big stretch goals. But trying to take too big a step too fast can leave you frustrated or affect other areas of your life to the point that your resolution takes over your life — and both you and your friends and family fail.

Relevant. Is this a goal that really matters to you, and are you making it for the right reasons? If you do it out of the sense of self-hate or remorse or a strong passion in that moment, it doesn’t usually last long.

Time-bound. Like “achievable,” the timeline toward reaching your goal should be realistic, too. That means giving yourself enough time to do it with lots of smaller intermediate goals set up along the way. Focus on these small wins so you can make gradual progress.

Happy New Year and here’s to a prosperous 2023.  I know it will be a busy one for our team.  More to come…. much more……..

…

Ellen Leake, CSBG Director

This is the busiest time of year for the Community Services Staff. We completed the Subsidy Component for LIHEAP in December, collaborated with other service organizations in our communities for a successful Christmas Program, and began the LIHEAP Crisis Program earlier this month.

LIHEAP SUBSIDY In our eight county services area, we assisted 3281 families with home heating assistance in the amount of $416,371.00 this program began on October 10, 2022 with the pre-registration, and ran through December 16, 2022. The program proceeded smoothly, with few problems, thanks to the hard work of our dedicated staff members. We, in the Central Office, continue to work to pay all of the vendors and balance the program. 

County	Benefit Amount	Families Served
Breckinridge	$55,511.00	440
Grayson	$81,570.00	627
Hardin	$68,658.00	573
Larue	$ 29,101.00	220
Marion	$ 61,559.00	491
Meade	$ 39,004.00	297
Nelson	$ 40,092.00	339
Washington Central Office	$36,698.00 $4,178.00	264 30

LIHEAP Crisis began on January 9, 2023.

We are in the process of completing the annual Needs Assessment Survey Process.  An email link has been sent to the Board of Directors for their input. Please select a board member. This survey information will be entered into a database for accurate compilation. The results of the Needs Assessment Survey will determine the work plan for the next program year. The information will also be available to other programs and to the community.

Wintercare, Winterhelp, Warmhearts – These Programs are available to families for utility assistance. These funds are donated by utility customers as they pay their utility bill, and sometimes matched by the utility company in local areas.

Thank you to all the staff members who work so hard to balance all of these different programs and assist those in need.  Their amazing efforts are greatly appreciated in our communities. We have a great team!

David Lindsey, Weatherization Program Director

The Weatherization Program (WX) is fully staffed and has 60 clients on the waiting list for weatherization services as of January 2023. The Weatherization Program is providing weatherization services to our 8-county area with 8 jobs completed, 16 walkaways, 1 cancellation, and 18 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 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 WX program is fully staffed with a highly trained supporting 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 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’s 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, 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 were no sanctions being levied for non-participation until December 2022 so participation is still low.

 · We currently have 24 clients that are employed in the K-TAP Program, and 6 clients that are at a site gaining work experience. The referrals have picked up with the state of emergency ending and sanctions now being implemented for non-compliance. Our Employment Specialists continue to follow up with each of these clients and track the hours they are working. We served 67 clients in the K-Tap program for the second quarter of the fiscal year ending December 31, 2022 which more than doubles the number we served in the last quarter, and is 41 more than we served for all of the last fiscal year.

· 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 1060 referrals for the SNAP program during the last fiscal year.

· We continue to stay in touch with employers and if we do get referrals, we match the client’s 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 124 sites in our 17 counties that we send our clients and as of now, 67 are open and/or willing to accept referrals due to Covid-19. Staff visited these sites in October to update paperwork and check to see if they were needing workers and are currently in the process of checking again.

· Our staff continues to stay in touch to discuss all relative matters in the program. We have staff meetings every other month. We are now conducting our staff meetings in person.

· 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.

Martha ‘Jewell’ Bartley, Head Start Quality Assurance Manager

Hal Goode, Executive Director

Have you ever made someone’s day and seen their face light up? Some of the most important Christmas gifts can’t be wrapped—like giving of your time and helping fill someone’s heart with joy. Here’s a list of creative and simple ways to spread the true spirit of Christmas and share the warmth you have at home with others. These random acts of kindness may take just minutes to do, but the memory of helping others will stay with you (and those you help) for so much longer. Here’s 29, go……

1. Bake a pie and bring it to your neighbor. A classic apple pie or seasonal Hot Chocolate Pie is sure to brighten anyone’s day.
2. Buy a coffee for the person behind you in line. What could be better than a surprise of free caffeine?
3. Donate to a toy drive. The holidays can be an especially hard time for struggling families.
4. Surprise your spouse by scraping the snow off their car in the morning. These acts of kindness don’t need to be big. A simple act that shows you care (and gives your spouse a few extra minutes in the warm house) is just as meaningful.
5. Donate extra winter clothes, hats and mittens to a local shelter.
6. Make a batch of holiday treats and bring them to the office. Treats that travel well, that’s a good place to start.
7. Send a postcard to sick children in the hospital. You can send mail to Cards for Hospitalized Kids. This organization sends cards to children who are fighting serious illnesses in hospitals in the U.S. Your kind words could help make a child’s holiday very special.
8. Find opportunities to give compliments. Compliments are free and take no time to deliver!
9. Sing an employee’s praises to a manager or on a comment card. Did an employee help make your experience better? A little recognition goes a long way.
10. Put sticky notes with positive messages in public places.
11. Sing Christmas Carols, play board games, or just visit with senior citizens at a nursing home.
12. Offer to babysit for new parents. Give the gift of time and take care of their little ones so the new parents can enjoy a date night or take care of holiday shopping.
13. Purchase extra dog or cat food and drop it off at an animal shelter. While you’re picking up food for Fido, buy an extra bag for those animals who are waiting for their forever homes this season.
14. Help corral stray carts in a store parking lot while you’re out shopping for gifts. Those cart-return guys have their work cut out for them!
15. Donate clean, new socks and underwear to a local shelter.
16. Offer to take someone’s group photo. It’s the holidays and many people are out celebrating together or sightseeing. See a group that’s struggling to get everyone in one selfie? Lend a hand.
17. Donate coloring books and boxes of crayons to the pediatric wing of a local hospital.
18. Give a hot drink to the person ringing the Salvation Army bell. Show those volunteers some love as they collect donations.
19. Hide a few dollars around the Dollar Store.
20. Invite someone you suspect will be alone to join your holiday celebrations. The holidays can be a lonely time for those with family far away. Give someone an opportunity to make memories with you and your family.
21. Tape cash or a gift card on a random gas pump.
22. Pay the overdue fees for 5 people at the library. We’re all guilty of hanging onto a book a few days too long, right? Surprise someone with a $0 balance this year.
23. Volunteer at a crisis nursery.
24. Shovel your neighbor’s front walkway.
25. Serve meals at a local Senior Center, homeless shelter or soup kitchen. And consider signing up for a shift in January or February, after the holiday volunteer rush is over.
26. When you’re in line at the grocery store, buy a gift card and hand it to the person checking out behind you. If you want to be more anonymous, give the gift card to the cashier and ask them to give it to someone in line who needs it.
27. Pick up trash in a local park. Spend half an hour picking up debris in your favorite local spot and leave the park better than when you found it.
28. Write a letter to a soldier who’s deployed. Operation Gratitude sends care packages, including letters, to soldiers who are deployed. Letters are accepted year-round. And if you need packing supplies for your military care package, the United States Postal Service offers a free Military Care Kit, including boxes that say “America Supports You.”
29. Participate in a blood drive. Visit the American Red Cross to find a blood drive nearest you and help give the gift of life.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.   More to come…………much more…………

Ronda Bertrand, CCC Director

Community Collaboration for Children has been busy collecting Toys for Tots for Nelson County. In-Home services have a few clients waiting but will be opened in the next few weeks. Ashley and Amanda are working extremely hard to keep the waiting list down.

Parent Engagement Meeting Program for Marion County Elementary schools is picking for the year 2022-23. We are working on expanding into other counties.

Trail of Hope Regional Networks Build A Bed program has been extremely busy already making sure 33 children have a bed. We are working on sponsorships to purchase bed frames, mattresses, bedding, and pillows. CCC will attend the next Trail of Hope Regional Network which meet in person at Hardin County Extension Office in Elizabethtown on January 18, 2023 at 10 AM. If you are interested in being a network member please reach out to Ronda Bertrand, CCC Network Coordinator at 270-692-7553.

Wow!! Cakes 4 Kids volunteers have been busy the past several months. CCC has delivered 8 cakes to our families.

Bryan Conover, Head Start Grant Writer/Compliance Manager

Hal Goode, Executive Director

Proud of our team. Wanted to shout out to CATS Driver Steven Spalding who recently with his church group went to Eastern Kentucky and helped with the cleanup. Steven pointed out the gentleman in Pink is the veteran of the group, Ike Peterson of Whitesburg who helped the group with the cleanup. Beside him is his wife Kaye. Steven said all of the crew are in the picture except Ilona Burdette who took the picture. The work consisted of the whole room being gutted, new subfloors, floor, drywall, and insulation. The group were able to salvage all the back except half of the main flooring, baseboards, and painting.
Thanks Steven and all those others working with CKCAC who took time, talents, and funding to assist our neighbors in Eastern Kentucky.  More to come…………..much more…….