Serving Wasco,
Fall/Winter 2008
ENERGY ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
By
Margaret Davis,
Energy Assistance Coord.
ONCE AGAIN IT IS TIME for our annual
energy assistance programs. This program is designed to supplement winter
heating costs for all low-income
households
General Low Income applicants: December 1st will be the
opening day to contact the office closest to you by phone or in person to
get an appointment date or to be put on the waiting list for energy assistance,remember
– No appointment dates will be given BEFORE
December 1st.
Senior
Applicants and for those with disabilities:
Applications for energy assistance will be mailed to households of
seniors and to those with disabilities starting mid October. Those who receive these early applications
need to fill them out and return them to our offices by November 30th. If you want help filling out the application
you must contact either the
If you have a household member who is either a senior (60 years or
older) or has a disability and you have not received an application by the
first of November please contact us so we can send you an application.
There are also three discount programs available to households with
senior and/or disabled members. The
discounts are for PUD customers, City of The Dalles Water and/or
Sewer and garbage, both The
Dalles Disposal (covering Wasco and Sherman counties) and Hood River
Garbage.
All of the discount programs as well as the energy assistance programs
use the same income guidelines. The only
exception to this is the FREE Garbage
Service that is offered to households with a member 85 years or older for
which there are no income guidelines.
LIEAP (Low Income Energy Assistance
Program)
This winter we will be doing
some LIEAP outreach appointments in an effort to help those in our outlying
communities save on gasoline costs. If
you want to take advantage of these intake sites you must contact us, starting December
1st (541-298-5131
Schedule of Outreach Intake
Sites
(Must
call for an appointment)
December
9th –MORO
Community
Center at
8-5:00,
Dec.1st .
December
16th – MAUPIN
Canyon
Rim Manor at
8–
4:00 Dec 1st .
We hope to have sites in
INCOME GUIDELINES
1 person ---------------$20,228
2 people---------------$26,451
3 people --------------$32,675
4 people --------------$38,899
5 people---------------$45,123
6 people---------------$51,347
FREE FIREWOOD
By Harriett Lewis,
The Dalles Office Manager
They arrived in trucks, cars,
vans – with some towing trailers – and throughout the morning of Saturday,
September 27th ; 23 families received free
firewood.
The FREE FIREWOOD program
began almost two years ago when Gene Scherer, Wasco County Facilities Technician
and Jack Bisset, Wasco County Community Service Work
Crew Supervisor thought it made sense to cut & split logs in the forest
areas instead of burning piles of downed wood.
With the on-going support of Wasco County Judge Dan Erickson, the firewood
program has helped many families stay warm during the cold season.
Through
MCCAC Employees, Harriett Lewis
and Mark Mauser keeping a log of the
day’s ev well maybe
just a little)
ents (no pun
intended—
The firewood is available for
Preparing to use their chainsaws are Jack Bisset (left) and Gene Scherer (right)
“A Gift of Time”
By Linda Carroll,
Coordinator
Imagine having a family member with a special
need like a physical or developmental
disability, Alzheimer’s disease, or a chronic illness. Now imagine providing 24 hour 7 days a week
care for this person. You’d probably
find the job rewarding but also difficult.
Providing ongoing care can cause feelings of stress, depression,
frustration and isolation, and negatively impact your ability to provide good
care. Now imagine someone gives you the “gift
of time”…time for yourself—to take a class, take a walk, read a book, or
visit friends. Respite care is the gift of time. It provides relief from the
extraordinary demands of constant care
giving. The Lifespan
Respite Care Program is a part of the Mid-Columbia Community Action Council and
is a central point of contact for families seeking respite care. We have “gifts” of respite funding for many
caregivers including the Family Caregiver Support Program and the Arc Respite
Fund. Call to find out more about respite
care and the program’s respite funding that you, as a family caregiver, may be
eligible.
Connecting Families and Respite Care for providers in Hood River and Wasco Counties
Ongoing Caregiver Recruitment
If you went to the movies this summer you may have
seen this ad on the Big Screen. Its purpose is to encourage a wide range of
people to consider the many care-giving opportunities in the Mid
Columbia.
For more
information please contact:
Linda
Carroll,
Lifespan Respite Care Coord.
Regional Food Bank and
Children & Adult
Care Food Program News
Hi, I am a new part of the Mid-Columbia Community
Action Council team. I was brought on
board to assist Janeal, our Regional Food Bank and
Children & Adult Care
Food Program Director with
both programs. I would like to
begin by letting you know of the big event we have coming up in November.
Did you know that in our community many people do not
have enough to eat? Each month, 3,000 people have to depend on
emergency food boxes, and 2,500 people eat at meal sites. Working with The
Dalles Chamber of Commerce, we are hosting a month long food drive beginning
November 1st with a Supermarket Saturday. This is the kick
off for Hunger Action Month. The food drive will run from
Donations will be accepted at Fred Meyer, Safeway, and
Grocery Outlet. All donations will go
to our regional food bank. This will help keep the shelves full in our
emergency food box sites like: St. Vincent de Paul, Salvation Army, and The
Dalles Seventh Day Adventist. It will also help Community Meals.
Throughout November there
will be opportunities to donate at other business locations, yet to be
announced. If you have any questions or would like to get involved please
contact, Janeal or myself at
I hope everyone will get
involved in giving; as we enter the
“giving season,” but no matter what time of year, donations and volunteers
are always needed.
With Halloween around the
corner Janeal and I wanted to share the following,
fun recipe.
Thanks… Emily
Winter Safety in the Home
By Bill Colmer
One thing I want to tell
people with furnaces is not to
close off the
registers in those unused or underused rooms in your home. Inside your furnace
there is a component called a heat exchanger.
This is heated by the fuel of the heat exchanger to cool the furnace
off. If you close off the registers in
the floor, the air blowing past the heat exchanger will not adequately cool the
furnace and can cause the heat exchanger to overheat and crack. If that happens, combustion gases from the
burning fuel can escape into the air you breathe. Those combustion gases include Carbon
Monoxide.
Carbon Monoxide
is colorless, so you can't see it. It is
tasteless and has no smell, so you can't detect it that way, and it is
insidious in that little bit by little bit it will make you feel sleepy and
listless. Given enough time you can go
into a permanent sleep because of Carbon Monoxide. It is deadly.
It's not worth the savings you may
save. Save your life instead, open up
those floor vents and allow enough air to flow to make your furnace work the
way it is supposed to.
If you don't have a forced air system or if you burn
wood, you don't need to worry about
the heat exchanger. But you should still
be aware of Carbon Monoxide. A simmering
fire can put out a lot of Carbon Monoxide.
If your stove or chimney leaks you should be careful and assure that the
stove does not back draft. Consider
installing a Carbon Monoxide Detector.
If
you have baseboard heaters or wall
heaters, make sure all the furniture, curtains and anything else burnable
is moved away from the heat source.
Vacuum the fins and openings to make sure dust, pet hair and anything
else that might burn is removed from the hot surfaces and does not clog the
free flow of air through the device.
.
Mark
Vampire Electrical Loads?
By Mark Mauser
Yes, it’s a fact. Many folks
do not realize how much electrical power is being
used
after they have already turned off their TV, stereo, radio, PC, cable box, VCR,
satellite
systems. Like a vampire, some appliances
need that continuous power
AFTER they
are “turned off”. These devices
use 5-to 100 watts of power per hour --just to keep their circuits warm, for an “instant on”.
In the light of rising prices
and utility costs burdening millions of Americans,
we
need to keep looking for ways to save energy and money. That’s why
we
don’t to loose power to THE ~~~(scary
music)~~~
VAMPIRE POWER STEALER…
.Till next time – don’t forget the three Rs Reduce
Reuse Recycle
Deconstructing the Poverty Myth
By Corenne Stewart
Housing Case Manager
MYTH #1 Poor people are unmotivated and have
bad work ethics.
REALITY: although poor people are often stereotyped as lazy, 83% of children
from low-income families have at least one parent who works full-time,
year-round.
MYTH #2: Poor
people tend to abuse drugs and alcohol.
REALITY: Poor people are no more likely to use drugs and alcohol than wealthier
people. Indeed, research shows drug use
is equally distributed across poor, middle class and wealthy communities. Research indicates alcohol abuse is far more
prevalent among wealthy people than among poor people.
MYTH #3: Poor parents aren’t involved in their
children’s learning, because they don’t value education.
REALITY: Low-income parents hold the same values and attitudes about education
as wealthy parents do. Unfortunately, they
may not be able to attend as many school functions or help as much with
homework, because they often work more than one job, work evenings and/or have
jobs with unpaid leave.
Poverty is all around us, but its face has been changing. The “face of poverty” is often seen as the
grizzled homeless fellow, sleeping on the city streets. Perhaps one should be aware that the “faces
of poverty” we meet with here at the office on a daily basis, are parents (yes, two parent families) with
young children; the fixed income elderly who can no longer pay the growing cost
of rent; established families who
are facing foreclosures; College students; the list that goes on would
surprise you.
Instead of accepting the
myths and thereby increasing the division that already exists in our community,
we would do better to re-exam our perspectives and find new ways to understand
an old situation. Why? Because poverty touches us all, whether or
not we believe it.
The concepts listed below are simple, and who
would disagree?
~
Hard working people should be able to afford housing and still have enough
money left over for basic needs.
~
Children deserve an opportunity to succeed in school and life, which is tied
to having a stable home.
~
It’s only fair that everyone has a safe, decent place to live.
~Housing
gives people an opportunity to build better lives. To succeed, you need a place
to call home.
At Mid-Columbia Community Action Council we work to
address poverty, one person or family at a time. In my job as housing case manager and intake worker I
use education, advocacy, and – very important – MONEY, to get the job done. I
can’t do it alone, so I enlist the support and vision of other partners. Partners, other individuals and non
profits such as Bread and Blessings, St. Vincent DePaul,
The Lions Club; Mr. Gene Harris (the “Bicycle Man”) and others, whose powerful,
ongoing, mostly-volunteer commitment to making a difference in people’s lives
is humbling and inspiring.
Other partners are local and state agencies; Social Service agencies, churches and law enforcement
groups; all with the goal
to identify and serve people in need.
Finally, our
work could not happen without the ongoing help and commitment of the local
business community. I am talking about property management
agencies; private landlords; local utility providers and home heating
distributors; insurance agencies; certain members of the local medical and
dental community, stores, businesses, gas stations and auto mechanics. Their
ongoing willingness to accept our vouchers and wait for the money to give a
person a second chance, is what makes it possible for Mid Community Action to keep on doing the
good work it does.
That said, more
support and creative partnering than ever is needed. Health care is
a huge concern, and every month I hear fresh stories about people or families
whose medical issues are resulting in the loss
of their home!
Which brings up jobs -- most
of the available entry-level jobs are part-time, don’t offer benefits, and pay
minimum wage, is it any wonder why so many people struggle to pay their rent
and utilities? Is the problem systemic? Yes.
Can we nonetheless make a difference on the local level? Yes--
together.
To those
already in the fight with us, Thank You for
your ongoing passion. Corenne
The Causes and conditions of poverty are complex and far reaching and it affects our community in many ways. MID COLUMBIA COMMUNITY ACTION is making a difference in people’s lives and with your help and support you can make a difference in someone’s life, too. Why not start today.
Corenne Stewart From one small acorn grows the mighty oak.
Housing Case Manager (The acorn symbolizes potential).
Final
Word From the Director
Wow, six months ago— It seems I had just written my article for the News and Views spring issue! An article
talking about what a busy winter all of us on the staff had just completed and
now here it is fall again and the winter
heating season is just around the corner, what happened to summer?
The staff at MCCAC will be
short one worker this winter as Kimberly
Berry, our Hood River Office Manager has accepted another position and will
not be with us this heating season, we wish her the best. However, we will have
a new staff person on board soon and whom I’m sure will do an excellent job for
the clients in
We think there will be enough energy assistance money available
this winter to help all of those in need. However, with the rising cost of
energy by as much as 30%, the payments won’t buy as much energy as they did
last winter and with a slight downturn in the economy more people than usual
may need help with their higher than normal heating bills, stay tuned.
In
other news, we’ve been in our Community
Food Facility building for about a year now and things have gone pretty
smoothly so far. We are able to receive more donations and store more food than
ever before. We recently received some
state funding and hired Emily Johnson a part-time worker to help Janeal develop new avenues of bringing more food into the
program, as we see the need for
emergency
food increase. This will include working with new local businesses and organizations that
would like to host a food drive or help with fundraising activities for the
facility. We are also working with our local supermarkets and food outlets to
recapture some of the food they had previously been throwing away. This is a win-win situation for all parties
involved.
We also will begin our AARP Volunteer Income Tax Program
starting in late January and running until around the 15th of April.
About 30 of the most dedicated and wonderful volunteers work in this program,
last year they helped with over 2000 returns resulting in over $1.6M in refunds
coming back to our community. Way to go AARP Tax Volunteers!
As we all know, the causes
and conditions of poverty are complex and far-reaching and it affects our
communities in many ways. Mid Columbia
Community Action is making a difference in people’s lives and with your
help and support we can make a difference in someone’s life too, why not help
by contributing today.
Until our paths cross again,
take care and don’t forget to vote,
it’s your duty as an American.
Jim Slusher
