Category: Newsletter

There have been many exciting activities and events throughout all our Head Start and Early Head Start Centers in 2019. On Thursday, May 2, 2019, our Loretto Head Start participated in a Community Clean Up Day. In all, 39 children and 10 adults worked diligently to gather trash and debris from essential community locations. The children and adults helped to clean their school, the Loretto Daycare, the Loretto Community Center, the Loretto City Ball Park, the St. Francis Activity Center and the Loretto City Hall. The children worked while learning about Community Service and how vital it is to play a part in keeping your community safe and clean. It was a wonderful day where the children had hand on experience in making a difference for their community.

            Other family activities and events include Family Game Night at our Meade Center, building and ribbon cutting of the Little Free Library at our Larue Center, kindergarten field trips with those children who will be transitioning into kindergarten, reading and sing along from local attorneys at our St. Catharine Center and participation in a “flower shop” at our Stithon Center! Our Head Start centers pride themselves on being innovative and are always finding new learning activities for their children.

            Also, as we are wrapping up the 2018/2019 school year, all six counties have been hosting and participating in Field Day and Graduations. The teachers have truly gone above and beyond with their events hosted for families and friends at their centers. It has been a special time around Head Start, as we hear the little feet walk across the stage and grab their diplomas to seeing the smiles of parents, friends and family, knowing their children have the school readiness skills to embark on their new kindergarten adventures. We throw our hats off to the graduating Head Start classes of 2019!

Regional Network: CKCAC’s Regional Network began a Build A Bed Program in Marion and Washington Counties. We have collaborated with the Marion County Area Technology Center and the woodoworking class agreed to build the beds. The Family Fellowship Prayer Center provided us with our first $1,000 donation to start the program. We also made connections with each of our lumber companies in both of counties; Parkview Home Center, Lebanon Lumber and Loretto Lumber. All three companies have made donations, deliveries and have made this project possible. We are so grateful for their commitment to this program.

We held a Build A Bed Reveal on May 30^th at the Marion County Library. A bed was available for viewing and we were able to show appreciation to our partners and students. We have made 5 beds so far and are continuing the program as long as there is a need in our communities. We also want to recognize Flanagan’s Appliance Store, for providing us discounted mattresses and also the Loretto Mother House whose donation made it possible to purchase bedding.

In-Home Services: We deliver quality In-Home services to our families and provide professional coaching and support. Right now, we are aiding families in increasing positive parenting and discipline skills, obtaining housing, improving household cleanliness, increasing budgeting skills, financial management, building positive relationships with schools and most importantly providing a positive support for families. We are striving to connect families to available community resources and support that may be beneficial to the family.

We are currently serving 11 families and we have many more on our waiting list. Those on our waiting list have been offered a Family Planning Meeting.  The meetings are a resource used to bring the targeted family and appropriate community partners together in order to brainstorm and create an action plan that will best aid the family. The meetings have been a huge success and are beneficial to the families involved.

Central Kentucky Community Action Council (CKCAC) recently completed an awesome Community Action Month.  There were many activities; including the Senior Celebration in Elizabethtown, sponsorship of the First Friday Forum where Community Action Kentucky Executive Director, Roger McCann, was the guest speaker and a social media information blitz. Also, each of the County Judges in our service area recognized May as Community Action Month during their meetings by signing a proclamation.  

Recently, CKCAC launched our new and improved website.  I want to thank our team here at CKCAC who worked tirelessly on the web site along with our consultant, Mandy Lambert, of Mandy Lambert Consulting, who led us through the process.  Our goal is to provide a site that shows how we are unique, the ability to give feedback, make donations and a clear call to action of what we do at CKCAC.  Please go to www.ckcac.org  and take a look.

Last, CKCAC attended the annual Community Action Kentucky Conference. During the awards banquet we were honored with the 2019 Innovation in Community Action Award for our ongoing Capital Campaign. We would like to thank Spring View Hospital, People’s Bank and Citizens National Bank for their partnership.

Thanks to our team here at CKCAC. I really appreciate all that you do.  It’s going to be a busy summer. Please let me know how CKCAC can be of service to those in your community and how we can give that “hand up” too.

More to come…..much more. 

It is always a sad occasion for one of the long-time Family Child Care Homes to close and move on with life, but it is exciting for Brenda Barrett to start her new life as Mrs. Rodney Robinson. She closed her center May 30, 2019 after 29 years on the program and will marry June 22, 2019. The children and families she served will miss her most.

Barrett began child care in 1990 and started with only 3 kids. In 1991 she became certified as a home child care provider through the Kentucky Department of Child and Family Services and increased to 6 children. She also became certified by Central Kentucky Community Action Council, Inc. (CKCAC) to help provide nutritious meals to the children that she was cared for.  She has enjoyed every minute of serving the parents and ensuring the children were getting the proper foods, throughout the years. Brenda’s Child Care is closed and the 500 or so children that have graced her door over the years will be one of the happiest memories that she will cherish forever.  She knows that each one of them will remember “Ninnie” and she hopes it brings a smile to their face. 

There are eighteen counties with sponsored Family Child Care Homes. These Homes serve from 3 to 12 children each day, providing care within a home setting. They work hard to provide good nutrition to the children they serve.

The agency travels to 12 different counties to sponsor the 23 Unaffiliated Centers. One center is non-profit and 22 centers are for-profit serving at least 25% low income children. Some of the centers serve 90% low income children. These children are given the bulk of the nutrition they need during the day with milk at every meal and fresh fruits and vegetables offered every day. 

The Senior Companion Program is in full swing during its busiest time of the year! We have submitted a total of three grants, completed several major reports, and are planning for the annual volunteer recognition.  SCP submitted a grant application requesting donations to United Way of Central Kentucky during the month of March. SCP, CSBG and CCC all applied for funding. An interview with United Way’s Community Investment Team was held on May 1. Notice of allocations will be announced some time during the month.  The Senior Companion Program also submitted its federal grant to the Corporation for National and Community Service in April. If awarded, the program will be operating in its second year of a three-year cycle grant. Notice of grant awards will be announced by the end of the month.  

Client updates, volunteer evaluations, and income reviews are all being conducted at this time. Everyone is doing an awesome job in fulfilling
the program’s mission and is currently income eligible to serve. Of the client surveys completed, each have stated they and their families were extremely satisfied with our services and the vitality of the program. This is certainly reassuring to know that the Senior Companion Program is definitely making positive impacts within the communities it serves. 

The Annual Volunteer Recognition will take place at My Old Kentucky Home in Bardstown next month. The recognition is designed to
show appreciation to the volunteers for the services they provide to clients on behalf of the program. The event has been held here the past couple of years and has been a huge success! Details and pictures from the event will be reported in the next bulletin.

Bingocize continues to be a big hit. Right now Nelson, Hardin, Breckinridge, Grayson, Washington and Marion all offer bingocize classes at the Senior Center. We will be training staff from Larue and Radcliff very soon. Bingocize strategically integrates exercise and health education into a fun game of bingo. 

We recently had three clients from our Lebanon Senior Center express to us that the center has changed their lives. They said it keeps them active and they enjoy having a nice place to go, as well as meeting and congregating with people. I love hearing stories like these – it is why we do what we do!

All Senior Centers continue to get excellent monitoring reports from the Health Departments and the dietitian. We are blessed to have such remarkable participants and staff. Between July 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019, we served 519 unduplicated participants 26,166 meals.
We have also provided 1,497 Bingocize sessions to 171 unduplicated participants and 4,341 nutrition education sessions to 394 unduplicated participants.

CKCATS processed and delivered the 5310, 5311 and 5339 grants to the Office of Transportation Delivery in Frankfort on March 29. All grants were due on April 1 for the 2019/2020 FY. These grants provide operating funds for our day-to-day operations and capital funds to purchase vehicles. 

Our Central Office renovation began in March. Our new office space will house five new offices and two ADA-compliant bathrooms. There will also be a conference room and storage area on the second floor. Additionally, the current office will be renovated to house four offices, new bathrooms and a large work and break area for our drivers. We are very excited about this large project. It’s estimated to take about four months to finish. The project is possible with the 5339b grant funding.

CKCATS has just applied for a new Lo No Grant (5339c) that promotes vehicles with low or no emissions along with hybrid vehicles. CKCATS is requesting a portion of the $85 million grant to purchase hybrid vehicles for each county. CKCATS has received a letter of support from the New Pioneers for a Sustainable Future group in Springfield for the grant. We are also asking our County Judges for letters of support.

The Fulton County Transit Authority conducted a safety simulator training session on March 30 at the Nelson County CATS Office. Utilizing funds from RTAP, thirty drivers received this additional safety training and the remaining 35 employees will receive the training in the fall. It’s a great opportunity for our drivers to be more safety conscious.

Spring View Hospital, in Lebanon, recently placed a bus wrap promoting the hospital’s ER on one of our buses. There has been a lot of attention on the bus and other businesses have inquired about promoting their own businesses. This is a new venture that CKCATS has undertaken with the help of our Executive Director, Hal B. Goode.

We would like to extend a “WARM” welcome to our newest RSVP station, Warm Blessings in Elizabethtown. Warm Blessings, Inc. (WB) is a non-profit (501c3) organization dedicated to ministering to the whole person. The corporation is organized for the purpose of providing meals to hungry people with the vision to offer emergency shelter to people in crisis. Their goal is to serve patrons with dignity and compassion. Through the assistance of many volunteers, supporters, contributions from the community, and operating space donated by the congregation at College Heights UMC, Warm Blessings opened on July 17, 2006. They served only two people on opening night. By their first anniversary, the Soup Kitchen served 87 individuals. During their first six months they served 1,542 meals, but today it is not unusual to serve over 1,500 meals a month. The program is operated exclusively by volunteers. Volunteers serve between 550 to 725 hours monthly. 

Congratulations to the Central KY Community Action Council RSVP Program! The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) recently announced that Hardin and Nelson County will receive funding for the continuation of our Senior Corps RSVP volunteers for 2019-2021. The grant, awarded to Central KY Community Action Council, Inc. will help strengthen the presence of Senior Corps programming in the area.

For over 33 years, Central Kentucky Community Actions’ 100+ RSVP partners have been the lifeline to Hardin and Nelson County nonprofit organizations and faith-based groups who depend on volunteers to help meet the increased demand for services. As community needs are identified, they respond quickly. Perhaps it’s providing food to hungry neighbors, offering support to veterans and military families, providing educational and cultural opportunities, supporting our local medical center or simply helping a child with homework. 

April was a whirlwind.  Thanks to the team at Central KY Community Action Head Start & the Community Collaboration for Children who hosted our Community Child Abuse Awareness Walk recently in Lebanon.  There was a record number of attendees and information booths.  It was an awesome way to show our support for taking care of our kiddos.   This type of outreach is essential for our clients to bring awareness of child abuse to our community.   Thanks again to all of those who supported and volunteered.

May is already ramping up.  May is Community Action Month and Central Kentucky Community Action Council (CKCAC) continues to recognize the success of the national Community Action Network. Community Action Month is a wonderful time to honor and celebrate the impact Community Action has in the lives of families and communities across the Lincoln Trail Area, Kentucky and the country.  Community Action offers insight to leaders looking to understand what is working on the ground to help families thrive—creating smarter solutions that can be put to work within our communities.   America’s Community Action Agencies connect millions of children and families to greater opportunity, transforming their lives and making our communities — and our nation— stronger.  This month, Central Kentucky Community Action Council will be engaging in programs and events that showcase our innovative work.  Follow us on Facebook or attend one of many events honoring this organization.  Helping people help themselves, that’s what we do daily.

May is also Older Americans Month and CKCAC will partner with the Lincoln Trail Area Development District for the Senior Celebration on May 16 from 9 am – 2 pm EST at the Pritchard Community Center in Elizabethtown.   The event will feature speakers, workshops, food, raffles and vendor supporters.  For over 30 years the Senior Celebration has been a fun and exciting day to honor our Senior Americans.   CKCAC is honored to be a part, see you there. 

As always, please reach out if we can assist.    More to come……much more.