Category: Newsletter

Kerri Taylor, Central Kentucky Community Action Transportation Services Program Director

Despite the rise in COVID and Omicron cases, CKCATS has been fortunate enough to remain busy. In the month of January 2022, CKCATS trip capacity was up over 90%. After discussion with Lincoln Trail ADD, we decided to increase our Senior trips in hopes to fill all our units and better help meet the needs of those senior citizens needing transportation.

CKCATS will host a Coordination Meeting on March 10, 2022, by Zoom. This meeting is held every year to prepare the 5310, 5311, and 5339 grants. The meetings are aimed at providing for better utilization of existing services as well as identifying opportunities for planning and coordination to address transportation needs in our service area. The grants are due on April 1, 2022, at the Office of Transportation Delivery and we will meet the deadline.

CKCATS received the three Dodge Durango SUVs that they were waiting for in late December. Two of those vehicles were placed in Marion County and one was placed in Nelson County.

The Central Office welcomes three new Verification Clerks, Myranda Gray, Crystal Livers and Danielle Hayden! Marion County has hired several new part time drivers and we are always looking for more. If you or anyone you know is interested in driving for CATS either full-time or part-time, please go to careers@ckcac.org to apply.

Tancy Morris, Congregate Meals Program Director

I don’t know about you all, but the Congregate Meal seniors and staff are done with winter and ready for spring! The winter weather has been relentless on our area the past few months. Our senior centers have had to be closed several times due to the inclement weather. We are hopeful the snow/ice storms are over and warm weather will return soon.

On Wednesday February 2^nd our service area was under an ice storm warning.  We didn’t know how bad it would be and we wanted our participants to have food in case it got very bad.  We distributed 268 shelf stable emergency meal food boxes to our participants.  The boxes contain 5 shelf stable meals.  They were very grateful to receive the boxes and even more grateful the ice storm wasn’t as bad as predicted.

All senior centers have opened back up to in person dining. However, we are still providing meals via drive thru to those not comfortable coming inside.  I am not sure how long DAIL will allow us to provide both services, but we will continue to do both as long as we can.

July 1, 2021 – January 31, 2022 we have served 32,219 meals to 590 unduplicated clients.

We have mailed 1304 meal vouchers to 166 Meade County voucher program participants for the month of February.  This program continues to grow every day!

Hal Goode, Executive Director
FEBRUARY 2022

You may have read information from the Kentucky Senate on Senate Bill 60 that recently passed the Senate and is making its way to the House for deliberation.  For the last 58 years, Kentucky Community Action Head Start agencies have directly and independently operated Head Start. Collectively, our statewide Head Start directors are the experts for Head Start in 96 of Kentucky’s 120 counties. Just like every school district has a superintendent, every Head Start program has a Head Start Director.

Kentucky’s Community Action Head Start for which Central Kentucky Community Action Council is a member, have asked for an amendment to Bill 60 and work with Head Starts to develop language for a statute that will strengthen the relationships that exist between local school districts and local Head Start programs.

The issue at hand is something called the “full utilization” of Head Start federal funding, and more broadly, who can make decisions for Head Start enrollment in Kentucky.

So why does this matter? Full utilization safeguards every dollar our state has access to for early childhood education—both Head Start federal funding and state taxpayer funding used for public preschool education. Full utilization ensures federal resources are used first in all counties while maximizing the number of children enrolled in Head Start and preschool programs, or both.

So, what is our Head Start asking of our Legislature?   Head Start and school districts should come to the early childhood table as equals. However, the proposed language in SB 60, related to handling disputes when they arise, will erode our current collaboration, and eliminate a fair and equitable process for the Head Start community. Therefore, we ask that the chief state school officer be removed from the language and replaced with an independent, third-party arbitrator that will hold no biases when hearing disputes.

No question, it would be a fair addition to help improve the working relationships and collaborations between local school districts and local Head Start directors, which is our goal with this legislation and the goal of the Kentucky Senate.

Kentucky Community Action Head Start comprises 14 Community Action Agencies directly operating Head Start in 96 counties in Kentucky, which includes Central Kentucky Community Action Head Start.

More to come……………much more.

David Lindsey, Weatherization Program Director

Central Kentucky Community Action’s Weatherization Assistance Program ended the year fully staffed and looks forward to what the new year will bring. CKCAC’s Weatherization program has experienced some setbacks to start out the new year with staff acquiring injury’s outside of work. We have utilized this time to achieve new required trainings as well as cross train staff to meet requirements set forth by the US Department of Energy. So, if these incidences were to arise again we would be able to continue providing weatherization services. Weatherization staff has also assisted other programs such as Head Start with moving into their new buildings and completed renovations to the newly acquired building in Breckinridge County. As of January 1, 2022 CKCAC has 57 clients on the waiting list to receive weatherization services. The Weatherization Program as of January 1, 2022 will be providing weatherization services to our 8 county area with 10 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 have to 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’s Weatherization program is fully staffed with 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 the Weatherization 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, LIHEAP, ATMOS, East Kentucky Power, Big Rivers Electric, Kentucky Utilities, and Louisville Gas & Electric.

Ellen Leake, CSBG Program Director, Agency Operations Officer

This is the busiest time of year for the Community Services Staff. We have just completed the Subsidy Component LIHEAP Subsidy, collaborated with other service organizations in our communities for a successful Christmas Program, began the LIHEAP Crisis Program and the new LIHWAP (Low Income Home Water Assistance Program).

LIHEAP SUBSIDY In our eight-county services area, we assisted 3287 families with home heating assistance in the amount of $565,550.00. This program began on October 18, 2021 with the pre-registration and ran through December 17, 2021. The program proceeded smoothly, with few problems, thanks to the hard work of our dedicated staff members. The number of applicants was up for our agency. We, in the Central Office, continue to work to pay all of the vendors and balance the program.

County	Benefit Amount	Families Served
Breckinridge	$62,050.00	361
Grayson	$124,450.00	693
Hardin	$94,950.00	561
Larue	$ 43,050.00	234
Marion	$ 87,400.00	536
Meade	$ 56,800.00	324
Nelson	$ 58,850.00	371
Washington	$36,050.00	207

LIHEAP Crisis began on January 10, 2022. LIHWAP Low Income Home Water Assistance Program is operating two components simultaneously: Crisis and Subsidy.

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 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 of 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!

Hal Goode Executive Director
JANUARY 2022

Congratulations to Hannah Coulter Center Manager of the Springfield Head Start. Hannah has been accepted for Washington County High School as its new Commanderette Softball Head Coach!

Hannah Coulter said this about taking over the program: “I am very excited to be the new Softball coach at WCHS! I am looking forward to getting to know the players and being back on the field!”

Hannah is one of many of our Central KY Community Action Team that volunteers in the community.   Ellen Leake our Community Services Block Grant Director is the President of the Marion County Chamber of Commerce.  Jessica McFarland & Jane Clair Hupman have participated in Leadership Lebanon.  This is just to name a few, many of our employees serve roles in their churches and other civic organizations in the communities.  Girls Scouts, Boy Scouts, BPW, Rotary & Lion Clubs, CKCAC has always been a helping and leading.  It’s humbling to see our team do what they do best, help others. 

We will continue to have that stand for others and we start 2022. 

More to come……much more.   

As a non-profit agency, Central Kentucky Community Action, Inc. is required to inform the local community of the Area Board of Directors Meeting which is open to the public. The meeting will be on Wednesday, January 19, 2022 at 3 pm EST via Zoom. For more information, call the Central Office at 270-692-2136.

Ronda Bertrand, Community Collaboration for Children Director 

Community Collaboration for Children is excited to share the news of the Parent Engagement Meeting Program that will be starting in Marion County Elementary schools. This diversion program acts as a preventative intervention to reduce referrals to CPS for educational neglect. This service would be ideal for children who are considered chronically truant and will be working with school staff to help these families.

Tina Plowman, CSBG and Ronda Bertrand, CCC worked with Toys for Tots collecting new toys for children. We had over 20 business in Nelson participate in this program. We were extremely blessed with the support from these businesses to help.

CCC In-home workers have been busy linking families with resources for the Holidays. Lincoln Trial Network meeting will be held on January 20th at 10 AM on Zoom. The Network will be starting to plan upcoming events for the year. If you would like to be a part of the Trail of Hope Network please send Ronda Bertrand an email at ronda.bertrand@ckcac.org. 

Jane Claire HupmanFCCH/UC Director

March of 2020 was a very trying time for childcare centers and childcare homes in Kentucky. There was a mandatory shutdown for all childcares from March 18^th until June 15^th. This shutdown not only left parents without childcare, but childcare owners without income and an emotional toll on their staff.

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. The amount of each providers payments was based on a percentage of the difference of the CACFP reimbursements of March-June of 2019 and the reimbursements of March-June 2020.

Since childcare centers have reopened there has been many challenges abiding by increased health and sanitation protocols. This reimbursement will help with those burdens, as well as provide a safety net for any other obstacles COVID might throw at them as we enter the winter months. The agency plans to distribute these funds to each provider by the end of the year.