Programs: Food & Nutrition: HRDC's emergency food and nutrition initiative works to improve food security across Gallatin County and the surrounding areas. Through the Gallatin Valley, Headwaters Area, and Big Sky Community Food Banks, food assistance is provided in the form of emergency food boxes, providing a 5 to 7 day supply of food. Our KidsPack program provides healthy snack packs for the weekend during the school year for children eligible for the free/reduced lunch program. Our summer lunch program provides free nutritionally balanced lunches during the summer months. Our senior grocery program provides monthly supplemental foods to area seniors. HRDC added the Community Cafe (now Fork & Spoon Kitchen) to its nutrition initiative in 2012, offering dinner on a pay what you can model, 6 days/week. Nutrition is vital for our area's vulnerable senior and child populations, and our services touch 1 in 10 persons throughout the Gallatin valley. Nutrition services comprised 30. 91% of agency activities and expenditures and are made possible by funding from: food donations (71%), community donations (16%), fundraising activities (5%), contract income (2%), private grants (5%), and other sources (1%).
Transportation: HRDC's public transportation initiative, Streamline, provides fare free public transit serving the communities of Belgrade, Bozeman, and Livingston. Systems run 7 days per week with 4 routes and offer special routes to Bridger, linkages with Skyline (to Big Sky), commuter routes to Belgrade and Livingston, and late night service to the greater Bozeman area. Streamline is providing more than 300,000 rides annually. HRDC's para transit initiative, Galavan, serves our senior and disabled residents with a demand-response transportation system to medical and other appointments, providing vital connections for more than 350 area residents. Transportation comprised 14. 7% of HRDC's activities and expenditures and is made possible by funding from: Montana Department of Transportation (68%), Associated Students of Montana State University (7%), contract income (3%), city of Bozeman (8%), Montana State University (4%), Title III funds (1%), Gallatin County (3%), and other funding sources including the city of Belgrade, donations and United Way (6% combined).
Early Childhood Care and Education/Youth Development programming: HRDC's early childhood care and education initiative focuses on early childhood care and education and our Head Start program provides for the healthy development of children and the strengthening of families through education, health, nutrition, mental health, and disability services, offering free preschool for children ages 3-5. This is provided via two classrooms in Livingston, two classrooms in Bozeman, and four classrooms in Belgrade, serving more than 150 families annually. The early childhood care and education initiative comprised 14. 47% of agency activities and is made possible by funding from Health and Human Services (65%), Office of Public Instruction (31%), Department of Agriculture (Child and Adult Care Food Program) (3%), and other funding sources (1%).
Housing: HRDC's housing initiatives work across all levels of housing security, from homelessness to homeownership. HRDC's housing programs work to ensure that every member of our community can afford to have and preserve a place to call home, whether it is in the form of emergency shelter, transitional housing, affordable rentals, rental subsidies, down payment assistance, or home repairs. HRDC incorporates its community development and strategic planning initiatives into a housing strategy to meet both the needs of the community and our customers. HRDC's housing initiative encompasses the warming center, carriage house, Transition in Place program, Housing First program, Resource Property Management, and Homeownership Center offering services from emergency shelter to homebuyer education. HRDC's housing initiative comprised 11. 51% of all agency expenditures and operations. HRDC's housing programs provide: 42 beds of emergency shelter, 2 units of transitional housing, 400 rental assistance vouchers, 291 units of affordable housing, homeless prevention and placement assistance, homebuyer education, and down payment assistance. This is made possible by funding from: community donations (20%), HOME (10%), Neighborworks of Montana (7%), Montana Department of Commerce (MDOC) (12%), private grants (3%), United Way (2%), city of Bozeman (3%), management fees (13%), rents (6%), program revenue (11%) and other sources (4%).
Energy: HRDC's energy initiative combines emergency assistance, heat bill supplements, and home energy savings measures to offset heating costs for limited income households. Heating costs for older homes, mobile homes, and energy-inefficient apartment rentals can cause a household to face significant energy cost increases during the winter months in Montana. Emergency assistance can be in the form of service shut-off prevention and hot water heater or furnace replacement, heat bill supplements are provided to assist households through the winter months, financial assistance is paid directly to the heat vendor. Energy saving measures are conducted for homes of eligible households and create more efficient homes by installing effective insulation and weather-stripping, and testing and tuning combustion appliances for safety and efficiency. We strive to educate homeowners or renters on energy conservation, home health, and safety. Benefits are provided based on the projected savings to investment ratio for the energy retrofit, which must pay for itself within the lifetime of the energy saving measure; this helps families to reduce their overall heating costs in perpetuity. Energy services comprised 7. 9% of agency expenditures and operations, and is made possible by funding from: the Department of Energy (11%), the State Department of Health and Human Services (Low Income Energy Assistance Program) (49%), Northwestern Energy (31%), Energy Share of Montana (8%), and community donations (
