December 2016 commemorates the Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission’s 50th year in business. Even if you aren’t familiar with the name “Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission,” chances are you already know what they do.
Services include early childhood programs, which provide quality preschool for low-income children and eight Neighborhood Centers, which offer food pantries and rent/utility assistance.
The agency also offers training programs that lead to self-sufficiency, through financial education, energy conservation, entrepreneurship development, and employment training; and an initiative to ensure all Northern Kentuckians have health insurance.
The Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission (NKCAC) has played a pivotal role in shaping Northern Kentucky, and the agency’s focus has not changed. Its focus remains helping individuals and families develop the knowledge, opportunities and resources they need to achieve self-reliance.
To highlight recent accomplishments, the agency released its 2014 – 2015 annual report to the community. Highlights include:
· NKCAC was awarded 80 Early Head Start slots in 2015; the first ever for Northern Kentucky.
· 85 percent of all children enrolled in Head Start tested developmentally on track or above at the end of the 2015 school year.
· Neighborhood Centers processed 23,174 applications for energy assistance and provided approximately $4 million in local, state and federal funds to help low income families restore or avoid energy disconnection to their homes.
· Center managers provided intensive case management services for nearly 200 families. Out of those individuals, 97 obtained employment, 60 of those maintained that job for 90 days or longer, and another 24 received an increase in income and/or benefits, helping them attain a sustainable living wage.
· In less than one year, participants in the Senior Employment Program provided over 128,000 hours of staff support to more than 100 nonprofit and government organizations throughout a 26 county region.
· YouthBuild students provided more than 500 hours of volunteer community service, including helping install a new playground in Covington’s Goebel Park in collaboration with Make Goebel Great. The Community Collaboration for Children Program served 105 families with 99% of the children in those families remaining safely in their homes.
· Nearly 7,000 individuals and families enrolled in affordable health insurance through kynect. This means that 9,800 adults and children were covered, many for the first time, and could seek preventive, well care, and acute care when needed.
The Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission was established in 1966 as part of the Johnson Administration’s “War on Poverty.”
“In an ideal world, the war on poverty that started 50 years ago would be won by now,” said Florence Tandy, Executive Director of the NKCAC. “The unfortunate reality is that the NKCAC services are needed now more than ever, as many working families, single parent households, retirees and disabled persons struggle to get by.”
Results highlighted in the bi-annual report and substantiated by past reports show the organization’s impact and effectiveness across Northern Kentucky.
NKCAC’s early childhood education programs show a $7-$9 return on every dollar invested, and 71 percent of low-income children who attend a NKCAC early childhood program go on to graduate high school, compared to only 54% who receive no early intervention.
Senior Employment provides $10-$20 for every dollar invested, and YouthBuild (a GED program for at-risk youth) returns nearly $8 for every dollar invested, with returns even higher if the young person was a past offender or had been involved in the judicial system.
“We are all familiar with the adage ‘Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day; teach him how to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime,’” said Tandy. “We focus on providing the skills and training necessary for our customers to lift themselves out of the cycle of poverty and into a life of self-reliance, while also recognizing that there are occasions and circumstances that require immediate assistance.
The NKCAC operates in eight counties in Northern Kentucky—Boone, Campbell, Carroll, Gallatin, Grant, Kenton, Owen and Pendleton, with limited services in 18 additional Kentucky counties.
To view the report to the community, or for more information on the NKCAC and its programs,click here
Northern Kentucky Community Action Commission