United Community Action Partnership

Head start/early head start helps young children from low-income families prepare to succeed in school through early learning services and active engagement with parents, recognizing health and family participation as key components to successful child outcomes. During the 2022-2023 school year, a cumulative of 632 families received services through the federally funded head start and early head start program.

Transportation is a program that provides transportation resources throughout the southwest region of Minnesota. Community transit (public transit) and Community connection (senior transportation and medical transportation) are services within the transportation program. Community transit is for residents of lincoln, lyon, redwood, murray, cottonwood, jackson, pipestone and rock counties. For 2024, a mndot grant under section 5311 is awarded to cover 95% of the cost for this program, the other 5% will come from farebox revenues. From october of 2022 through september of 2023, approximately 188,000 rides were provided covering over 780,000 miles. Rides were provided with hired drivers in lift accessible buses and volunteer drivers. Four dispatch centers accept and schedule approximately 750 ride requests daily using automated scheduling software. In the same timeframe, just over 9,000 rides were provided under Community connection. These rides were provided using lift accessible buses funded under mndot's 5310 elderly and people with disabilities program, volunteer drivers who drive their own vehicle, and accessible Community connection vans. Vans are operated by volunteer drivers which allows ucap the ability to offer wheelchair accessible service to locations outside Community transit's service area. Approximately 9,400 hours were donated by volunteer drivers.a grant was received in 2020 from the Minnesota river area agency on aging to provide seniors over the age of 60 to qualify for rides on a sliding fee scale and to ensure rides are not denied due to inability to pay. This will continue into 2024.the transportation program also administers the southwest mobility management initiative. This initiative assists with coordination efforts among public and private transportation providers throughout the nine counties of southwest Minnesota. A grant funded by mndot was received to continue with the creation of a regional transportation coordinating council within ucap's service area.

Community and family services department: in fy2023 ucap assisted individuals and families in crisis with emergency food services at our marshall, tracy, westbrook and heron lake food shelves. 3,231 unique visits occurred, and 370,219 pounds of food were distributed. Food shelves are open each week and services are available other times by appointment. Food shelves are open to the public for in-person shopping, curbside, phone orders and appointments. We extended hours on wednesday to meet the increasing need. Usage is up 60% at all food shelf locations in 2023. We also help people meet their nutrition needs by providing application assistance through the supplemental nutrition assistance program (snap). 1,953 households received new benefits and 6,398 households received help with getting recertified. Our emergency housing programs assisted households with homeless prevention and other services that include emergency shelter, first month's rent or deposit, utility deposit, and transportation assistance. Households also received support services from trained case managers in developing goals toward self-sufficiency. In fy2023, 189 households were served with emergency shelter, 26 households were served by transitional housing, 45 youth households were served with our youth transitional living program, and 888 households received services through our family homeless prevention and assistance program. 2,142 federal returns were filed for low-income households and were served by our volunteer income tax assistance program. Our customers had their taxes prepared and electronically filed. Those households received tax refunds totaling $4,606,804.ucap is the lead grantee with four other Community Action agencies to provide health care application assistance by trained navigators to a 30-county area. We obtained a healthcare van this year which enabled us to take healthcare enrollment services into areas without an office thus reducing access barriers such as transportation, gas, and other limitations. The helping people get there vehicle donation program supports individuals in their efforts to obtain or retain employment. We receive donated vehicles from Community members and match them with individuals referred to us from county workforce centers. In fy2023, 7 families were matched with a donated vehicle.

The weatherization program is a grant program that provides services to assist income eligible households with energy repairs to make them more efficient. Services include diagnostic testing, furnace repair and replacement, water heater repairs and insulation. In 2023 we were able to serve 141 household units with weatherization. The energy assistance program provides home heating assistance, emergency assistance and repair of old and unsafe heating systems to income qualifying households. In 2023 we provided energy grants to 5453 households. Ucap also provided 173 households with the energy and emergency repair program and assisted 1918 households with the crisis program. We also completed 50 in home outreach projects. Ucap assisted 821 households with the new water assistance program.the small cities development program provides financial assistance for low to moderate income individuals who are residing in substandard housing. This program encourages the improvement of the general appearance and value of the housing stock while making a visible and substantial improvement upon the quality of life and appearance of the Community. This program offers grant funds owner-occupied, commercial, and rental property owners. This program can provide upgrades to properties, helping them to meet code requirements. During the 2023 program year we had 5 open small cities grants in different communities across our service area. We completed 31 owner-occupied, 0 rental and 11 commercial projects within the program. The murl program offers homeownership to "at risk" households at a 0% interest, no down payment, and contract for deed. This program is aimed at first-time homebuyers with certain exemptions. With funding provided by the mn housing finance agency, wca, inc. Purchases homes to be rehabilitated and sold to qualifying buyers. We currently have 17 murl homes, 15 are currently occupied, with 2 vacant. Mn housing finance agency also offers loan programs for low-income single-family homeowners in need of improvements that directly affect the safety, livability, or energy efficiency of the home. The rehabilitation loan program is a residential, deferred, 0% interest loan up to $37,500. Minnesota housing also created the emergency and accessibility loan program to finance repairs resulting from situations or conditions that could cause or have caused a home to become uninhabitable that offers a deferred, 0% interest loan for low-income households in an emergency situation up to $27,000. In 2023 we completed 17 rlp loans and 5 elp loans. United Community Action's housing development program has built 4 single family homes and sold 1 single family home. We have 5 homes for sale and have secured funding to build 10 additional homes in our service area. Some will begin construction in the spring and summer of 2024.