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Positive Attitude + Community Resources = Success
   When Monice Butler moved to Oklahoma in 1998, she was facing some big challenges. She was a single mother with two daughters. She had limited job skills and was fleeing an abusive relationship.
   But she had a desire and commitment to turn her life around.
   “I wanted to provide a better home and life for my children,” she said. To help make that a reality, she tapped into a variety of community services.
   When she contacted the Oklahoma Department of Human Services about assistance, her case manager also referred Monice to the local vocational-technical school. The Workforce Investment Act program administered by Big Five Community Services assisted with education costs. Monice also held down a part-time job.
   Big Five also provided assistance with utility bills, school supplies, clothing and gasoline. She received counseling on dealing with the abusive relationship from the Bryan County Crisis Center.
   After completing the two-year administrative services program, Monice applied for a job as a client service assistant at Big Five.
   “I just told myself, if you want this job, you can get it,” Monice said. “No matter what kind of a situation that you come from, you can always turn it into a positive,” Monice said.
   She has worked for Big Five for a year now and is starting to see some of her dreams become a reality.
   “I’m able to do things now for myself and my children,” she said. “I was able to get a new car. I’ve been able to take a vacation. I now have medical benefits.”
   In her position at Big Five, Monice sometimes sees young people who are in a situation similar to the one she left behind.
   “I can sympathize with them. I understand.” Monice said she sometimes tells them her own story.
   “I want other young people to know that the resources are out there,” she said.
   Kerry Manning, workforce development specialist, said the program focuses on assisting clients who are unemployed, underemployed or have been dislocated.
   The educational programs attracting the greatest number of students are nursing, truck driving, welding and computer services, she said.
   Bottom line: To have people who are employable and self-sufficient.

Community Action supporters recognized during conference
   The Oklahoma Association of Community Action Agencies recognized legislators, companies and individuals for their support of community action programs during the agency’s legislative conference in Oklahoma City.
   Legislator of the Year awards were presented to State Representatives Larry Adair (Stilwell), Frank Davis (Guthrie), Danny Hilliard (Sulphur), Ray Miller (Whitefield) and Susan Winchester (Chickasha). Senators recognized included Bernest Cain (Oklahoma City), Bruce Price (Hinton) and Herbert Rozell (Tahlequah).
   Oklahoma Gas & Electric Company and Oklahoma Natural Gas were recognized for their support of community action efforts to reduce energy costs for low-income families through home weatherization.
   Individuals recognized for their support included Wanda DeBruler, DeBruler, Inc.; Randy Snead, Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency; Doug Wilken, BancFirst; and former legislator James Dunegan, Calera.

Road to Work provides transportation to jobs
   KI BOIS Community Action is spearheading a unique, statewide collaborative effort to provide transportation to work for low-income people.
   Nineteen transits systems provided over 170,000 rides to jobs last year, reported grant writer Roger Bartlett. Eleven transit systems are operated by Community Action Agencies, two by substate planning districts, three by municipalities and two by counties.
   “There’s not a collaboration in the United States like the one we’re operating,” Bartlett said. Last year the program won a Distinguished Service Award from the Community Transit Association of America.
   Big Five Community Services, one of the original partners in the program, has seen real benefits from the program. When the Wrangler plant, the major employer in the city of Coalgate, closed in December, Big Five’s transit system swung into action.
   “One of the things we were able to do was establish work routes between the city of Coalgate and the city of Ada -- 33 miles away-- to transport employees to a plant that was remaining open,” said Allen Leaird, who heads up Big Five’s transit system.
   Leaird said the agency is currently working trying to find other work routes for some of the other employees.
Participating transit systems work with local employers to develop routes.
   “Initially it was a tough sell with employers because they had never depended on public transit before,” Bartlett said. However, he added, employers are finding that attendance is better because workers must depend on the bus to take them home. “They can’t suddenly decide they want to go home,” Bartlett added.
   The initial $500,000 grant in 1999 providing funding for work routes in eastern Oklahoma. KI BOIS is expecting about $4 million for the upcoming year to fund the program in 75 counties. The program requires a dollar for dollar match. Only Oklahoma and Tulsa counties do not participate.
   While the program is targeted to help low-income people get to jobs, the services is open to all employees.
   The service is designed to meet the needs of the employers.
   “All of our routes are non traditional as far as Road to Work,” said Leaird.
“Whether it’s midnight...whether its 2 a.m....whether it’s Saturday at four o’clock, we provide transportation.    We schedule our routes to fit the employer’s needs,” he added.
   Big Five currently has seven routes and is expanding.
   Bartlett said each partner is given flexibility in developing the program to meeting local needs.
   “We encourage every partner to charge a fare because the low-income person needs to learn that transportation is something they need to budget in,” Bartlett said. Riders pay anywhere from 35 cents to $4, depending on the situation.
   “People do want to work, but sometimes they just do not have the means to get there,” said Kay Wood, public relations director, KI BOIS. In some cases there may be only one car in the family and both the husband and wife need to work.
   “One can take the car and one can take the transit,” she said.

Big Five Head Start hosts reading competition
   Big Five Community Services’ Head Start program is promoting literacy through an Olympic type competition. During the yearlong program, children will read or have read to them thousands of books.
   “It encourages parents to be involved with their children and the school,” said Head Start Director Jackie Watson.
   The program is now in its fifth year.
   At an annual literacy recognition banquet, the winner in each county receives a gold medal and a T-shirt.
   “We recognize the child who has read the most books and the parent who has read the most books to their child,” Watson said. The parent who has volunteered the most hours in each center is also recognized.
   Children are permitted to take books home from their classroom to read or have read to them.
When the parent reads to their child, it show that the parent thinks that learning to read is important, Watson said.
   “The parents get into the habit of reading to their child and spending that quality time,” she added.
The three and four-year-old children also receive a small book each month that is tied in to the subject that they studied that month.

KI BOIS launching after school tutoring & mentoring program
   KI BOIS Community Action is launching an after school tutoring-mentoring program in a pair of Haskell County elementary schools.
   AmeriCorps Promise Fellow Teri Butler is coordinating the effort. Seed money from AmeriCorps and the Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth is helping fund the effort.
   “A mentor-tutor is a person who, along with parents, provides young people with support, friendship, counsel, reinforcement and constructive example,” said Kay Wood, Public Relations Director, KI BOIS.
   KI BOIS is partnering with Haskell County Community of Promise, Oklahoma Commission on Children and Youth, AmeriCorps, Whitefield Baptist Church and the elementary schools in Whitefield and Kinta, Wood added.
   “We hope to have one volunteer per child,” Wood said. The mentor-tutor will help with reading, math and social skills, she added.
   The tutor-mentors will spend at least two hours weekly with the children. They will work in the school facility or church building, Wood said.
   The program is being piloted in Whitefield and Kinta with plans to duplicate it later in other areas of
the county.

Big Five Head Start sponsors Fish-A-Thon
   About 800 Big Five Community Services Head Start children will participate in the annual Fish-a-Thon in April and May.
   The event, held on former State Representative Don Duke’s farm, is tied in to the Fatherhood Initiative.
   “We especially want the fathers to come,” said Jackie Watson, Head Start Director.
   The goals, she explained, are to encourage parent involvement, teach children about the environment and to promote safety.
   State wildlife department rangers lend a hand by stocking the pond with fish, providing rods and reels and talking to the children about safety.
   The program has grown so much over the past five years that the event is spread over a two week period to accommodate all of the children.
   “We have at least 100 children there every day from different centers,” Watson said.
While part of the children fish, others tour the farm and learn about the different farm animals.
   “We’ve had children who have never gone fishing,” Watson said. “It’s just a great day.”

Opportunities, Inc. moves into new offices in Watonga
   Opportunities, Inc. has moved into new office space that Executive Director Georgia Forthum says will be very easy for the public to access.
   The offices will house about 30 employees working in the early childhood, senior citizen, weatherization, substance abuse and jobs programs. In addition, the fiscal and procurement departments are housed in the new building along with two stations for tax return assistance. The building features several small conference areas.
   The building was originally part of a lumber yard, Forthum said. There is space at the rear of the building for expansion. Forthum said she hopes to add a child care center on the site.
Opportunities, Inc. was previously housed in an old hospital building.
Renovation of the new building cost about $40,000.

Small business training classes to be offered
   Community Action Agency of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma/Canadian Counties is sponsoring a Small Business Training Course during April and May.
   “This class is valuable in creating the foundation for writing a strong business plan which is essential in the business start-up or expansion process,” said Amanda Alewine, Economic Development Coordinator.
   The course is focused on working through the business start-up or expansion process.
Business development topics covered include: marketing, loan packaging, tax information, personnel management, bookkeeping, financial management and business plan formulation.
   The Economic Development Division focuses on promoting establishment of entrepreneurial business activities.

KI BOIS awarded grant to aid domestic violence victims
   KI BOIS Community Action Foundation has been awarded a $358,207 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide long-term housing and support services to domestic violence victims.
   “It’s going to be a complete case management program,” explained grant writer Roger L. Bartlett. Along with housing, clients will get counseling, job development support and health services.
   The program will pay 100 percent of the client’s rent for the first year, 75 percent for the second and 50 percent for the third year. Bartlett estimates 20 – 40 clients will participate in the program.
   “The idea is for them to become self-sufficient and not go back into that situation of domestic violence again,” he said. Too often victims of domestic violence stay in a shelter for 30 days and then go back into the same situation because they have nowhere else to go.
   The new program will be coordinated with other services provided by KI BOIS. For example, the transit system will provide a way to job training or work.
   “It’s going to be a real coordinated effort to provide support services for these women,” Bartlett said.

United gets Early Head Start grant
   United Community Action Program is receiving a $587,338 Early Head Start grant. It was part of $72 million in grants to 160 local agencies nationwide.
   The funds will be used to increase Early Head Start enrollment, according to HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson.
   Other Oklahoma agencies receiving grants were the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma and Community Action Project of Tulsa County.
   Nationwide, the goal is to bring Early Head Start enrollment up to 62,400 infants and toddlers.

CAAs to get HUD funds for seniors’ rental housing units
   Cookson Hills and Little Dixie Community Action Agencies have been awarded grants by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rental units for very low-income elderly.
   Cookson Hills is to receive $1,443,500 to construct 21 one-bedroom and one two-bedroom units in Tahlequah, said Jerry Latty, Assistant Director/Housing Director.
   Latty said he expects the apartments to range from 540 - 640 square feet. A community center is planned in the complex. The agency has identifed a nearly 3 acre site that is already zoned for multi-family units for the project.
   This type of housing is greatly needed. “We have a lot of retired people living in Sequoyah and Cherokee Counties.
   Little Dixie is to receive $1,141,100 to construct 20 one-bedroom units in Hugo.
   Associate Director Becky Byrd said construction on the complex -- to be called Belmont Place -- is expected to begin this summer.
   Residents will have access to a nearby senior citizen nutrition site and the local transit system. The Hugo Housing Authority will manage the facility.

Sharlotte Key named Washita Valley Executive Director
   Sharlotte Key has been named Executive Director of Washita Valley Community Action Council which serves Caddo and Grady Counties
   A 25-year veteran of the agency, she holds a degree in business administration and has earned the Certified Community Action Professional designation.

Former school to become community center
   Community Action Agency of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma/Canadian Counties has leased the former Garden Oaks Elementary School and is converting it into a community center in Oklahoma City.
   Executive Director Jim Sconzo said he hopes to use half of the building for senior citizen programs and partner with other agencies to establish youth programs in the rest of the building.

OWHAC
11th Annual Statewide
Housing & Energy Conference
August 18-21
Oklahoma City