Community plan beginning to bear fruit, but more left to do

The progress may be slow, but community members who drafted a plan outlining the area's unmet needs in 2002 are beginning to see improvements.

A fixed bus route in July began providing public transportation in Cape Girardeau County. In March, a committee implemented an asset-building initiative to foster positive development of the community's youth. Committees made up of residents in the medical field compiled a list of health-care resources that serve the uninsured and underinsured.

"I think we're finally beginning to see the fruits of our labors," said Kay Azuma, community coordinator at the Community Caring Council.

Azuma heads a 20-member Priority Issue Council, which meets several times a year to discuss the community plan. When the plan was first drafted, transportation, substance abuse, access to medical care and family issues were quickly recognized as the top four problems facing the community.

Since 2002, inadequate public transportation had been viewed as the area's No. 1 problem. Since the Cape Girardeau County Transit Authority began its fixed bus route, Azuma and others on the Priority Issue Council think public transportation has improved.

Nancy Jernigan, executive director of the United Way of Southeast Missouri, said the housing issue will take precedence in the upcoming year.

"It's not necessarily because the housing situation has gotten worse, but it's because the transportation issue has been or is being resolved," she said. "The housing issue will be at the forefront."

Roy Jones, who chairs the housing committee, thinks many in the community don't realize homelessness is an issue in Cape Girardeau County. "We do have a problem, and there's still much that needs to be done in regards to the homeless," Jones said at a recent Priority Issue Council meeting.

'Aren't a threat to us'

Jones, who also serves as the housing coordinator at the Community Caring Council, conducts interviews with homeless people living in the area.

The concept of homeless people has changed, Jones said. The majority of the homeless in the area are women and children. "They aren't a threat to us," he said. "Many of these folks can be productive citizens."

A homeless shelter or a halfway house could solve short-term housing problems, but Jones doesn't think either will be established anytime soon.

"There will be no homeless shelter in this community in the foreseeable future," he said. "The grant money to do that is too difficult to get, and then there's the problem of location. Where would you put a homeless shelter?"

Jernigan said the United Way allocates funding each year for housing assistance to organizations like Habitat for Humanity and Safe House for Women.

Another goal of the Priority Issues Council is to provide information about accessible medical care. Last year, the group distributed cards that list health-care resources in the community that serve people who are uninsured and underinsured.

"These are the people who are very much at risk, healthwise, because they don't seek the care they need," Azuma said.

Grant money allowed the Priority Issues Council to provide several health-care services during the last year. A state grant provided funds for dental screenings and fluoride treatments in public schools and day care centers. The teen substance abuse committee was awarded an incentive grant to provide alcohol abuse programs in area schools.

"The root of it all is education," Azuma said. "We need to make people more aware and get them to assume personal responsibility."

At First Call for Help, an information and referral program for social services in Cape Girardeau County, Denise Wimp records the number of calls for the area's top unmet needs. The No. 1 unmet need in the community last year was utility assistance for electric bills, followed by assistance with rent, water bills, rental deposits and homeless people seeking shelter.

"In relation to the community plan, I think we need to figure out how we can help people be more economically independent," Jernigan said. "We've been talking about the same populations and how we can get to them."

Jernigan also believes its important to create a support system for every member in the community.

"Some people just don't have families, friends, church families. We need to figure out how we can support one another," she said.

jfreeze@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246