Utah Community Action

Utah Community Action provides services designed to assist income eligible families and individuals on the path towards self-reliance. The agency serves 51,000 individuals each year through our six core programs: head start, adult education, case management & housing services, heat energy assistance, weatherization, and nutrition.head start provides early childhood education and care for over 2,324 vulnerable children ages 0-5. Head start is a no-cost, high quality early education Program that promotes school readiness through academic education, health assessment and support, social/emotional learning and family well-being. We do this while engaging parents as partners in their child's development every step of the way. Additionally, our early head start child care partnership Program brings together the best of early head start and childcare through partnerships that provide comprehensive and continuous services to infants and toddlers from low-income families, thereby expanding high-quality child-care options to families in need. In fiscal year 2024, head start served 1,921 children ages 3-5 and early head start served 404 children ages 0-3. Almost all of these children fall below the federal poverty rate (approximately $30k for a family of four). Those who are over the poverty threshold quality for our Program due to disability or other special needs for which they need the intensive resources we provide. Early head start childcare partnerships served 109 children.

The weatherization Program is a federally funded Program that improves the safety and energy efficiency of homes for income eligible households in Salt Lake, tooele, weber, morgan, and davis counties. Weatherized homes save an average of $583 per year in home energy costs. This equals a 35% average energy cost reduction per household. During the 2023- 2024 production year 145 homes received weatherization services and 2922 households received crisis assistance to repair or replace furnaces, air conditioners, and water heaters, 56 children under the age of six, 223 disabled individuals and 199 elderly clients benefited from the services delivered by this Program.

Housing & case management services focus on assisting individuals and families in achieving self-reliance through holistic case management. Clients receive assistance to stabilize housing, while engaging with our staff to maintain and improve employment, access educational opportunities, and ensure their health and well-being. - in fiscal year 2024, 3,793 individuals were served (1,674 families, 936 disabled and 256 seniors). 240 households received deposit assistance, and 992 households received rental assistance dispensing $2,587,858 to clients in need. In addition to case management and housing services, uca provides the coordinated intake and diversion services for the homeless system in Salt Lake county and staffs a coordinated intake line for the county to provide live bed location and resources for clients, providers and first responders. Uca began providing diversion services--assisting clients identify options alternative to shelter--in 2015 at the midvale family shelter. We have since expanded to provide diversion services for all the homeless resource centers in addition to the midvale family shelter and the weigand day center. In fiscal year 2024, uca conducted over 6,448 coordinated intakes at shelters and successfully diverted over 649 households from shelter. For clients for whom diversion is not an option, uca provides intake into the homeless resource centers. In fiscal year 2024, uca strengthened its mediation Program by collaborating with clients and partners to deliver tenant education and mediation services for clients with a 3-day pay or vacate notice. Uca provided mediation services to over 577 households and was able to assist 494 households with avoiding an eviction. Our mediation team also provided tenant education to over 2,921 households. Our workforce development Program supports clients in enhancing their job skills and financial literacy, offering targeted modules to help them achieve self-sufficiency. We also collaborate with local organizations to provide short term intensive trainings (stit), designed to equip clients with skills that lead to livable wages. In fy24, we served over 464 households through the Program, with more than 208 households completing job readiness and financial literacy courses. Additionally, 28 households secured employment, achieving an average wage increase of $1,100 per month.heat (home energy assistance target) is a federally funded utility assistance Program designed to help families pay their energy costs and educate them on energy conservation to decrease their bills year-round. Crisis assistance is available to those who qualify. Priority is given to the elderly, disabled and families with children 5 and under. During the pandemic, water assistance was added for clients in Salt Lake and tooele counties. Uca administered these funds to further help clients during the pandemic. While federal water assistance ended before the 2023-2024 season; uca continued providing water assistance to west jordan residents. During the 2023-2024 season, heat assisted 9,606 households consisting of 25,562 individuals, distributing $5,810,822 in heat utility benefits and $815,256 in crisis assistance. The heat Program had 73 requests by homebound individuals, typically those who are elderly, disabled or have severe health limitations. All requests were completed. The heat Program also completed 92 outreach events to ensure reaching a broad base of low-income families, particularly in the target groups of disabled, elderly and families with children 5 years of age and under.nutrition programming assists individuals and families ranging from infants to the elderly. Services are comprehensive and include: healthy, nutritious meals for all of our head start children and our summer dinner Program providing free meals to all children age 0-18. In fiscal 2024, through our head start central kitchen we served 429,172 meals, providing not only our head start children but also other children in the Community with 2/3 of their daily nutritional value. Additionally, 7,714 meals were served through the summer dinner Program.