Potential budget cuts will impact Highland County Community Action Organization, Inc.
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For 46 years, Highland County Community Action Organization, Inc. has worked to ensure that needed resources are available in Highland County.
Most recently, new programs HCCAO has provided include financial literacy and foreclosure counseling as well as a summer feeding program. This local work is now at risk due to proposed cuts in the Community Services Block Grant, announced in President Obama’s budget released this week, according to a news release from Julia Wise, HCCAO executive director.
CSBG is a federal funding stream that provides the core funding that supports locally-controlled programs that meet community needs. With that funding, HCCAO has created a comprehensive, integrated array of services that enable poor families to get on their feet, maintain affordable housing and jobs, as well as assisted with nutrition, education and health services, building a future as active, tax-paying citizens and responsible parents.
“CSBG is an important resource in our county,” said board member and former Highland County Commissioner Rich Graves. “While it is a small part of the HCCAO budget, it is critical funding that allows the organization flexibility when other funding sources are restricted to be spent on specific services and programming which the agency determines best meet the community needs.
“CSBG has assisted our county residents in numerous ways during these difficult economic times," Graves said in the news release. "Recently, when businesses were closing and laying off staff, CSBG dollars enabled HCCAO staff to go on site and provide information on various programming. CSBG leads to additional income streams that fund our community. HCCAO leverages those dollars and uses them to bring about the changes and services that Highland county needs.”
Without CSBG, Highland County Community Action will no longer to be able to operate financial literacy and foreclosure programs which have assisted in reducing foreclosures in Highland County in the past year, the news release stated. The organization will no longer be able to continue the summer feeding program which they offered in Greenfield and Hillsboro last summer at a time when the number of children accessing free lunches in local school districts is greater than ever.
The organization will close its Greenfield Outreach Center which was opened in 1996 to deliver health and emergency services in this community. Cutbacks will be required within the Senior Nutrition Program. The organization will have to discontinue its food pantry located in Hillsboro which is the only local food pantry in the county open five days per week.
“The loss of CSBG will impact our entire community,” said board president Tom Zile of the Hillsboro Nazarene Church. “We recognize cuts must happen and we are willing to take our part in these cuts, but a 50-percent cut in CSBG, which is our core and most flexible funding will be detrimental. The ripple effect will be far-reaching because the impact of these programs is so deep and so strong.”
According to the news release, "HCCAO served over 5,638 different households with 19,311 people during 2010, with the number of residents over the age of 55 requesting services doubling. Services included housing, health care, food and utility assistance, early childhood education, transportation and foreclosure assistance along with others. Many of these individual households received multiple services from the agency. These comprehensive services work together to provide opportunities for communities and individuals."
“For a relatively small federal outlay, CSBG-funded programs pay off many times over as they get people working and paying taxes, prevent expensive emergency shelter placements and keep low-income community residents off the unemployment and welfare rolls, at huge savings to taxpayers,” Zile said.
Highland County Community Action Organization, Inc. is a private nonprofit corporation governed by a 15-member Governing Board representing the public-, private- and low-income sectors. The organization currently employs 100 people.[[In-content Ad]]
Most recently, new programs HCCAO has provided include financial literacy and foreclosure counseling as well as a summer feeding program. This local work is now at risk due to proposed cuts in the Community Services Block Grant, announced in President Obama’s budget released this week, according to a news release from Julia Wise, HCCAO executive director.
CSBG is a federal funding stream that provides the core funding that supports locally-controlled programs that meet community needs. With that funding, HCCAO has created a comprehensive, integrated array of services that enable poor families to get on their feet, maintain affordable housing and jobs, as well as assisted with nutrition, education and health services, building a future as active, tax-paying citizens and responsible parents.
“CSBG is an important resource in our county,” said board member and former Highland County Commissioner Rich Graves. “While it is a small part of the HCCAO budget, it is critical funding that allows the organization flexibility when other funding sources are restricted to be spent on specific services and programming which the agency determines best meet the community needs.
“CSBG has assisted our county residents in numerous ways during these difficult economic times," Graves said in the news release. "Recently, when businesses were closing and laying off staff, CSBG dollars enabled HCCAO staff to go on site and provide information on various programming. CSBG leads to additional income streams that fund our community. HCCAO leverages those dollars and uses them to bring about the changes and services that Highland county needs.”
Without CSBG, Highland County Community Action will no longer to be able to operate financial literacy and foreclosure programs which have assisted in reducing foreclosures in Highland County in the past year, the news release stated. The organization will no longer be able to continue the summer feeding program which they offered in Greenfield and Hillsboro last summer at a time when the number of children accessing free lunches in local school districts is greater than ever.
The organization will close its Greenfield Outreach Center which was opened in 1996 to deliver health and emergency services in this community. Cutbacks will be required within the Senior Nutrition Program. The organization will have to discontinue its food pantry located in Hillsboro which is the only local food pantry in the county open five days per week.
“The loss of CSBG will impact our entire community,” said board president Tom Zile of the Hillsboro Nazarene Church. “We recognize cuts must happen and we are willing to take our part in these cuts, but a 50-percent cut in CSBG, which is our core and most flexible funding will be detrimental. The ripple effect will be far-reaching because the impact of these programs is so deep and so strong.”
According to the news release, "HCCAO served over 5,638 different households with 19,311 people during 2010, with the number of residents over the age of 55 requesting services doubling. Services included housing, health care, food and utility assistance, early childhood education, transportation and foreclosure assistance along with others. Many of these individual households received multiple services from the agency. These comprehensive services work together to provide opportunities for communities and individuals."
“For a relatively small federal outlay, CSBG-funded programs pay off many times over as they get people working and paying taxes, prevent expensive emergency shelter placements and keep low-income community residents off the unemployment and welfare rolls, at huge savings to taxpayers,” Zile said.
Highland County Community Action Organization, Inc. is a private nonprofit corporation governed by a 15-member Governing Board representing the public-, private- and low-income sectors. The organization currently employs 100 people.[[In-content Ad]]