UNITED WAY ALLOCATES UNMET-NEEDS FUNDS

Area Wide United Way board members have allocated $22,500 of the $90,000 it set aside from the 1999 campaign for addressing unmet needs identified by the Community Assessment Task Force.

The money allocated includes an offer of $10,000 a year for two years to Cape Girardeau County to help fund a coordinator for the county transit authority and $2,500 to collect and analyze data about affordable housing in the county, said Nancy Jernigan, executive director of the Area Wide United Way.

Since January, members of the Community Assessment Task Force have been meeting to figure out how the United Way can impact what the task force identified as the four major needs in Cape Girardeau, Jernigan said. Those are transportation, affordable housing, substance abuse among youths and assistance to low-income families.

Task force members presented their reports last week. While there were some recommendations, the members felt more study was needed in each area.

"These issues are so broad and huge, it's taking more time than we thought," Jernigan said.

She is hopeful there will be more allocations and recommendations at the July board meeting.

"We didn't want to rush," she said. "We want to be sure our recommendations will make a difference and have an impact."

Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce president John Mehner, the task force member assigned to lead the study of transportation issues, has relied on studies Cape Girardeau County has conducted on transportation services here, Jernigan said. Mehner's report agreed with the recommendations of those studies that the county needs a transit authority to coordinate all the federal and state money coming in and fill in the gaps in services. The county is considering appointments to the transit authority.

"We hope the offer to help fund a coordinator for the transit authority will be an incentive for the county to take action on this matter," Jernigan said.

In studying the issue of affordable housing in the area, the task force committee led by Cape Girardeau city manager Michael Miller found there is no coordinating body for housing needs and no central data collection or distribution system to justify or determine housing needs.

While the view of those who work with housing issues is that there is a need for more quality affordable low/moderate income housing, the lack of data made it difficult to determine housing needs, Miller said in his report.

So that report recommends setting aside $2,500 for collecting and analyzing data, which the board approved. The other recommendation was for the United Way to put together a housing needs coordinating committee of social service and private providers. The committee would use the collected data to determine housing needs and make recommendations for meeting those needs.

That committee should be formed and working within the next month, Jernigan said.

In studying youth substance abuse, a committee led by task force member Dennis Marchi, the manager of Schnuck's, interviewed a variety of people who deal with substance abuse from law enforcement, agencies, organizations and treatment centers. The No. 1 priority they named was coordinating existing services.

"There are many people providing services, but there is no one coordinating those services," said Kathy Denton, assistant director of United Way.

The committee's report recommended developing a youth coalition for programs and agencies addressing youth substance abuse. The purpose of this group will be to develop community goals and priorities to help address youth substance abuse.

"We are hoping an existing agency could take the lead in coordinating services," Denton said. "United Way can facilitate, but it would be nice if someone with knowledge and connections would step forward."

The committee studying assistance to low-income families, led by First Call For Help director Denise Wimp, found that poor management of income was a problem that plagued many families that regularly seek help from community agencies.

That committee proposed a pilot project called "Maximizing Your Resources" that would offer to low-income participants classes on money management, life skills, grocery shopping, meal planning, energy conservation, bill paying, self-esteem and family involvement.

Jernigan said no allocation was made for this project because it is still being fine-tuned.

"We will have a better idea of what will be involved and who could implement it in the next few months," Jernigan said.

She said in all four areas of the needs assessment, people who were pulled in as experts appreciated that someone was pulling together resources to address issues.