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Stimulus spurs new Community Action program

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Marc Perry

The economic recession has created a whole new group of potential clients for organizations such as Community Action.

Many people have been laid off after years of steady employment. They don’t know what kind of assistance is out there or how to get it.

Those people will be the focus of a program Community Action plans to start with a $487,000 stimulus grant.

““We’ve been talking about the need for mobile advocacy, to do more to reach out to those populations,” said Marc Perry, director of planning and development for Community Action of Rock and Walworth Counties.

The organization plans to introduce the Mobile Advocacy Giving Information to the Community, or MAGIC, program at a service-provider fair Monday, Sept. 14, he said.

The program will move case managers from community to community, teaching residents about available assistance and signing them up for services, Perry said.

“We’re going to bring the case management to you,” he said.

The idea sprang from a fair local agencies held to help tenants in buildings owned by Billy Kesselring. The buildings were in danger of foreclosure and losing utilities because most of the tenants couldn’t pay rent, Kesselring said at the time.

Service providers invited the tenants to the gymnasium at the Salvation Army, where tenants walked from station to station learning about assistance options.

“It was amazing to me when we did the project with the Kesselring apartments how many of those people weren’t plugged into our services,” Perry said. “We’re thinking there’s a whole population of people that’s true about.”

The organization also will use the grant, known as a community service block grant, to expand its Fatherhood Initiative and Skills Enhancement Program, Perry said.

The Fatherhood Initiative teaches job and parenting skills to low-income fathers. The grant will boost the program’s participation from 15 to 40.

The Skills Enhancement Program helps low-income adults attending school pay for books, day care, uniforms and other expenses. The grant will allow 20 additional people to participate.

The organization has plenty of needs in its current programs without expanding them or creating new ones, Perry said. Donations to the Twin Oaks Shelter for the Homeless in Darien are down, and a drop in enrollment at the Community Kids Learning Center has forced the center to change its hours and staffing levels.

But Community Action wanted to use the stimulus in the way it was intended: to create and expand programs that help more people find jobs, Perry said. The board has appointed a special committee to oversee stimulus spending.

STIMULUS FUNDING

Community Action of Rock and Walworth Counties has received nearly $3 million in stimulus funds this year, including its latest grant of $487,000. Here’s a breakdown of the grants:

-- $1.6 million to weatherize homes for low-income families. The money will allow the organization to weatherize 600 to 650 houses this year, up from 428 last year. Weatherization can save families up to 25 percent on their energy bills and has created jobs for people doing the work, said Marc Perry, Community Action director of planning and development.

The organization expects the same grant in 2010.

-- $40,000 in emergency assistance for local food pantries. About $14,000 has gone to Walworth County pantries, and $26,000 has gone to Rock County pantries.

-- $45,000 for a 10-week youth employment program in Beloit. The organization hired 35 young people to help with a housing project in the Merrill neighborhood.

-- $741,000 for rental assistance. The organization has received $301,000 for Walworth County and $440,000 for Rock County.

-- $487,000 in community service block grants to expand the Fatherhood Initiative and Skills Enhancement Program and create the Mobile Advocacy Giving Information to the Community program.