Bcmw Community Services

Programs: Head start - bcmw community services' head start program serves 440 families and children ages 3-5 in the counties of bond, clinton, marion, washington, and franklin counties. The program provides a comprehensive pre-school experience for low-income children and their families. Head start is currently in a five-year project period and has set several long-term goals to accomplish in that time. The goals are in the areas of education/school readiness, family health and well-being, family engagement, and program success. The program has met each benchmark set for these goals and has been able to increase them every year. Head start was recently given the silver circle award in the excelerate program which is the state's quality ratings system.

energy assistance to low-income individuals to offset costs of winter heating bills and weatherize homes of low income individuals. In fy 2016, the liheap program took and paid a total of 3805 applications. This is the time period of 7/1/2016 through 6/30/2017. This total includes 3,524 households who received regular liheap assistance, (dvp) and 535 households who received emergency reconnection assistance, (ra) and 12 households who received emergency furnace repair/replacement. The program exists to provide needed utility relief to low income households in the form of payments made directly to the utility vendor. The liheap program continues to be a vital necessity for low-income households, the elderly and disabled. Bcmw community services will be able to weatherize 101 homes in a four county area. We serve bond,clinton, marion and washington counties. Our program starts july 1st and runs through june 30th. Bcmw has its own crews and equipment for the weatherization work. All material pricing is determined by a sealed bid process that is held in june of each year. The weatherization program assessor conducts an energy audit to determine where the greatest air loss is in the home. The furnace is looked at to determine if it needs any repair and if it is sufficient to heat the home. If it doesn't need replaced, a clean and tune is conducted on the furnace. Insulation is always a concern that is looked at in each home. Weather-stripping and sealing of air leaks is also a top priority.

the community services block grant program provided assistance to 1,908 individuals from 801 different households from july 1, 2016, through june 30, 2017. The csbg program continues to provide work programs to help customers become more stable and work toward self-sufficiency. The family and community development program is intensive case management to go alongside many of the other work programs offered to provide a variety of supports for families and individuals including goal setting, budgeting, and adding a person to a customer's support network. The employee support program assists low-income individuals with car repair, insurance payments, gasoline assistance, bus passes, and work clothing/shoes for those already employed or for those just obtaining employment. Fifty-one (51) low-income workers were assisted between july 2016 and june 2017. The csbg program provides ten $750 scholarships annually to assist low-income families with post-secondary education. Csbg offers youth development assistance to summer youth programs to help promote education and nutrition while children are on summer break. Four different organizations from each of our 4 counties received assistance to provide sack lunches, tutoring, field trips, crafts, and reading projects to children from kindergarten through high school. Csbg provided $5,000 to assist our senior nutrition program. Ninety (90) individuals were able to receive either a home-delivered meal or congregate meal in marion county. At christmastime, the csbg program provides christmas gifts/food baskets for low-income children and their families. 1,022 individuals were assisted during the 2015 christmas season. A large component of the csbg program is emergency services such as food, shelter, security deposit, transportation, medication, and health/safety-related home repairs. 553 individuals were assisted with these services. In addition, information and referral services play a major role in csbg. 843 individuals were given referrals or information regarding other services available in the area.