Letter to the Community
Oregon Coast Community Action has provided services that house, feed, warm, and educate vulnerable children and families throughout the South Coast since 1965. Thanks to programs such as South Coast Food Share, Head Start, and Court Appointed Special Advocates, children and families can not only survive, but flourish. In the coming year, we will further realize our mission by securing our own facilities to house ORCCA programs in Coos, Curry and Western Douglas counties; strengthening and expanding vital programs; integrating programs to better serve clients; continuing to develop a knowledgeable and healthy staff; securing long-term flexible funding resources; and continuing to promote ORCCA presence throughout the region.
Developing our own facilities is key to fostering ORCCA’s vision and improving services for South Coast families in need. Our construction projects will enable us to build equity in the community, improve the quality of our place of business, increase integration of programming, decrease our overhead expenses, and invest in future client services. With the hard work of the dedicated board and staff at ORCCA, we will continue to achieve our vision of empowering all South Coast households to thrive and live with dignity, security, and hope.
Sincerely,
Mary Schoen-Clark
CEO of Oregon Coast Community Action.
Looking Back: The Year in Review
2008-2009 brought increased partnerships and awareness of ORCCA throughout our region. ORCCA made progress on its partnerships with both Oregon State University and Southwestern Oregon Community College. Local businesses and community members have contributed to more than 20 food drives in the last two quarters of the 2008-2009 fiscal year, donating over 45,000 pounds of food.
ORCCA saw an increase in the number of volunteers and we worked with volunteer groups that we have previously not accessed. Southwestern Oregon Community College pre-schoolers, Harding School students, and members of the Coos Bay Elks Lodge were just some of the many volunteers who gave their time to help their neighbors in need this year. We look forward to continuing to expand our work with community partners and volunteers in the coming year.
We increased services by hiring 22 new staff members and expanding funding. We made significant advances in activities that will provide flexible and consistent funding to our programs. ORCCA piloted “Toy Tales,” an ongoing fundraising activity for our children’s programs such as CASA, and established Building to End Hunger, a food drive involving local youth. We had our first successful South Coast Hunger Awareness Week in June 2008, including Dinner & A Movie – a fundraising event working in partnership with local restaurants.
In Curry County, we hired an administrative staff person and joined the Gold Beach Chamber of Commerce. The Curry County office partnered with the Homeless Coalition to distribute cold weather clothes and items and focused on expanding our services throughout the county.
ORCCA developed a pocket resource guide for homeless individuals and families in need to use, and we completed the Coos County Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.
Looking Towards the Future:
2009-2010 Work Plan
1) ORCCA operations facilities:
Own facilities to fully house all programs and serve all counties
2) Program Development:
Strengthen all programs for long-term sustainability
3) Program Integration:
Integrate programs and information management to better serve client’s needs
4) Universal Staff Services:
Develop a well trained, informed, and healthy workforce
5) Resource Development and Funding:
Develop long-term flexible funding base
6) Outlying service areas:
Equalize ORCCA presence in Curry County and outlying areas
Programs
South Coast Food Share
Over the year, South Coast Food Share handled 1.9 million pounds of food, and added one pantry, one meal site, and delivered food boxes for distribution to ten Head Start sites for needy families with children. ORCCA has seen an increase in the number of families needing food, the number of food drives, and the level of community involvement – especially through the Share Bear Snack Pack program.
ORCCA expanded Snack Pack in two new schools and served 254 children weekly through the academic year. The Share Bear Snack Pack Program distributed 7,707 packs for the 2008-2009 school year with the help of dedicated volunteers, including members of the Sunrise Rotary, staff from Northwest Community Credit Union, and members of the Coos Bay Elks Lodge. Community support is strong for this vital childhood hunger relief program. Marshfield High School’s Mr. MHS raised $10,000 this year for Snack Pack, and high school students have volunteered for Snack Pack as well.
Fresh Alliance and Food Rescue, a program that rescues fresh foods that would otherwise be discarded, expanded from three locations in 2007-2008 to ten locations in 2008-2009. ORCCA also started an on-call driver system for the Fresh Alliance program. We now have back up drivers to drive the Fresh Alliance trucks as needed, allowing us to operate more efficiently.
ORCCA received a refrigerated storage unit to support the Fresh Alliance program, which has revolutionized our operations by increasing our capacity to deliver fresh food and take in new shipments of food throughout the week. The resulting increase in capacity allows us to provide more food and improves how we can serve the community.
We also procured a second refrigerated truck and received donations of a van and short bus. These vehicles have allowed us to expand our delivery to distant food pantries and improved our ability to pick up and deliver food donations. Another first was the addition of corporate sponsorship for our refrigerated truck to help support the program.
Energy Services
The Energy Assistance Program provides support to help households deal with increasing energy costs both in payments and methods to lower energy usage. Energy Assistance has three primary locations for providing services in Coos and Curry counties. These include the Newmark Center in Coos Bay, the Hanscam Center in Brookings and a south county office in Myrtle Point. We provided outreach for the following communities in the course of the program year: 1) Gold Beach, 2) Port Orford, 3) Langlois, 4) Bandon, 5) Coquille, 6) Powers and 7) Lakeside. All clients seeking energy assistance received energy education. Due to the increase in demand, ORCCA will provide outreach on a weekly basis in Bandon during the next program year. Our Curry County office currently provides outreach in Port Orford on an intermittent basis. We are working with the North Curry Families and Children’s Center to establish a permanent presence in Port Orford.
The Energy Assistance Program saw a 44% increase in the number of new households seeking assistance. From 10/01/2008 to 5/30/2009, Energy Assistance helped 2,736 Coos County households, and 732 Curry County households. During this period, the Energy Assistance Program provided assistance in the amount of $1,066,657.25 to families in both Coos and Curry counties.
In an effort to increase sustainability, the Energy Services Program received a grant from Conservation Services Group to install two solar water heaters as part of the Low Income Solar Assistance Program. These solar units will be installed into homes with 3-4 family members. For their part, these families will agree to have their energy use monitored for a year so that savings can be documented.
Weatherization
The program has weatherized 85 dwellings in Coos and Curry Counties from June 2008-May 2009. The weatherization waiting list has seen an increase of 35%-40% in clients requesting services. The list stands at approximately 600 homes for both counties. In response to this increase in need, we have added an energy auditor, bringing the total staff to four in-house employees, and have increased our contractor base by two, bringing the total to four local businesses providing services to our clientele. ORCCA is anticipating the arrival of stimulus funds in the next program year to increase the number of homes being weatherized each year. This allocation will be approximately $850,000.000 with the program running until 3/31/2012. The average cost is $6,500 per dwelling. The increased funds will help weatherize an additional 125-150 homes. The weatherization staff is looking forward to increasing the number of homes weatherized each year and getting much needed help out to the community.
South Coast Head Start
South Coast Head Start worked with 420 children this past year. While each child entered the program with different levels of skills, most children demonstrated progress and ended the year with medium/high skills. Children who complete their Head Start year at the medium/high skill level will most often be successful in kindergarten. In other exciting news, ORCCA obtained local fresh USDA eggs for two of our Head Start sites, and our Head Start bus drivers received regional and national recognition for driving over 500K miles accident free.
Great Beginnings and Great Afternoons
We currently have 40 pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students and 12 infant and toddlers attending Great Beginnings and Great Afternoons. Kindergarten teachers continue to tell us that our work with pre-kindergarteners is working! Our little students enter kindergarten ready to learn. Currently over 60% of our families are low income and are paying reduced rates. In our partnership with the Reedsport School District, we feed an average of 225 students after school each day. We also send 50 packs of food home for the weekend through the Snack Pack program. Over 30 children stay every day for after-school activities with our program. The students do homework with staff and volunteers are available to help.
The Great Afternoons Americorps VISTA garden project donated over 600 lbs of food to the food bank and rented 16 garden plots to community members. The garden currently has a waiting list for more plots as they are built.
The summer program was very successful with an average of 50 children actively participating in outdoor learning and creating an educational fair for the community.
The Great Afternoons program included family nights this year consisting of a make-n-take holiday fair with 350 people attending, the summer school fair with 115 attending, a swim day for 80 children, a family sock hop with over 200 attending, as well as our community garden “dig-in” days with more than 25 people in attendance.
From September 2008 through March 31, 2009, 20 children ages 0-2, 40 children ages 3-5, and 72 children ages 6-12 participated in Great Afternoons and Great Beginnings. Over 350 family and community members attended our family nights, and we had 13 parents and 10 children graduate from our Nurturing Parenting Class this year.
Court Appointed Special Advocates
The Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Coos County provide vulnerable children a voice in court by advocating for their best interests. CASA staff and volunteers believe every child deserves a safe and caring home. One such child is Baby M, who was adopted by her foster parents this year. The same foster parents also adopted her biological mother, a teenager. After nearly a year of legal wrangling for this outcome, a joyous adoption ceremony was finally held. The CASA volunteer’s perseverance in bringing matters forward to the court resulted in the baby never changing homes and long-term stability for the teen mother.
This year, CASA trained 19 new volunteers, bringing the total number of volunteers to 69. Over the last year, these 69 volunteers have logged 4,645 hours working and advocating for children. 197 children had a CASA and 55 cases were closed. Additionally, CASA developed an evening training class during the fall, which brought in a number of young, professionals who joined our volunteers. New methods of volunteer evaluations were implemented that emphasized one-on-one development, personal recognition, and created a positive spin on evaluations. The goal for the upcoming year is to implement a strategic diversity plan to increase diversity amongst CASA volunteers. A new CASA development team member was also added and staff hours were increased, allowing CASA to assist more vulnerable children in Coos County.
Community Action Connect, a new program designed to connect those in need to a variety of resources, has helped 63 individuals and families this year. Through Community Action Connect, ORCCA can help meet requests for resources that may not be available from other sources. Requests have been diverse, and have included transportation assistance, furniture, hygiene products, and work boots. To offer these services, Community Action Connect partnered with individuals in the community and local businesses including:
ORCCA MedNet Program
ORCCA Housing Department
ORCCA Energy Services
South Coast Gospel Mission
South Coast Hospice
Harding School Students
Local churches
Farr’s True Value
Colette’s Good Food Hungy Minds
McKay’s Fresh Mart
Ford Family Foundation
Buzz Restaurant
Tracy Clark
Yellow Cab
Roger’s Zoo
Salvation Army
E.L. Edwards
T.H.E House
Books by the Bay
Curl Up N’ Dye
Audrey Albaugh
A few examples of who Community Action Connect has helped:
- A man needed boots to keep his job. Community Action Connect provided him with a $180 pair of boots.
- A blind woman living in a trailer was without hot water for two months when her hot water heater broke. Community Action Connect provided $284.99 to purchase a new hot water heater.
- A 92-year-old woman had her water shut off and she didn’t have resources to pay her water bill. Community Action Connect partnered with the Salvation Army and paid $191.87 to pay her water bill.
- A homeless Vietnam veteran was having problems with Social Security and housing. Community Action Connect provided blankets, toiletries, bus passes, food packs, and a $32.88 tent.
- An employed, single mother from Lakeside without hot water had been boiling water on the stove for her children to bathe in. Community Action Connect contributed $285 to buy her a new hot water heater.
- A Coos Oregon Leasing and Services client was sleeping on the floor with blankets and had no bed. Community Action Connect provided him with a donated bed.
- A homeless man requested funds for a tarp, bike lock, and thermos mug to make his situation more bearable. He received $35.72 through Community Action Connect funds.
- A homeless man and his son had no funds for the costs of moving into a new apartment. Community Action Connect covered the cost of their housing application.
- A student from Southwestern Oregon Community College student lost most of his belongings in a house fire. Community Action Connect funds were used to provide a new backpack, so he could get back and forth to class more easily.
- A disabled woman needed help moving from Coquille to Coos Bay. Community Action Connect linked her to volunteers from the Harding School to assist with the move.
Housing and Emergency Services
Housing and Emergency Services saw an increase in the number of families. In addition to seeing more families this year, ORCCA saw a uniform increase in the percent of people experiencing extreme poverty. We provided counseling to 910 households with a housing crisis during the period, and gave referrals for food boxes, energy assistance, and other resources. Of the 910 households, we assisted 206 with emergency funds. The 206 households were assisted with $126,781, or $615/household. ORCCA anticipates serving more households in the next program year.
Office of the CEO
Development
The Development Department added an Americorps volunteer program, with five positions, in addition to adding Development staff for programs such as CASA. We are anticipating adding 16 new Americorps positions in the coming year.
Development also focused on establishing partnerships with local businesses and clubs, which resulted in several incredible community partnerships for ORCCA programs. These partnerships provided support to several vital programs such as the Share Bear Snack Pack program. Through our long-time partnership with Women’s Safety & Resource Center, we have also begun the early stages of construction on Jane’s House, a shelter for families of domestic violence.
In our ongoing effort to provide the highest service to vulnerable families and meet the needs of our staff, ORCCA has made significant advances towards obtaining our own facilities. This project will allow us to devote more funding to vital services, increase access to programs for those in need, and better facilitate program integration.
We are partnering with the City of Coos Bay to create a facility that will house a Child & Family Resource Center, an expanded Community Food Resource Center to house South Coast Food Share, and a new Head Start classroom building. We believe that locating the Head Start building adjacent to the Community Food Resource Center and Child & Family Resource Center will allow for the delivery of integrated services for families in need. Emergency food boxes, community gardening, volunteer opportunities, meeting and classroom facilities, and many other resources will be available in a centralized location to meet the needs of the community. The new site is likely to facilitate access and coordination with the Department of Human Resources programs, Southwestern Oregon Community College, and other community resources.
We have selected an architect for the campus and have $8 million committed for the project. Funding for the campus project is provided by:
Ford Family Foundation
Meyer Memorial Trust
Cow Creek Umpqua Indian Foundation
Coquille Tribal Community
The Collins Foundatio
Margaret Paulus
M.J. Murdock
USDA
Finance
The finance department has increased in staff this year and has demonstrated its consistent excellence in our positive audit findings. For FYE 6/30/2008, our most recent fiscal year audited, we received an unqualified opinion, which indicates a clean audit. We are a low risk auditee under §530 of OMB Circular A-133. State reviews and individual program audits have reported consistently good findings and no problems. We look forward to continuing to maintain our solid financial record through the next fiscal year. The complete audit for FYE 6/30/2009 will be available December 2009.
CDBG
This project is estimated to be completed in 2011 and will enable us to continue to provide quality service to families in need. Additionally, the Myrtle Point Food Hub is in escrow and the architect has been selected. The completion of this hub will increase food access in outlying areas of Coos County.
