Bourbon County Inter-Agency Coalition
General Membership Meeting Minutes
March 6, 2024
- Welcome: Eighteen members representing fourteen agencies attended. Billie Jo announced that swim pass applications would be available during the month of April at The Beacon and Buck Run Community Center.
- Member Introductions and Announcements:
- Kathy Romero, Angels Care Home Health: At present the organization provides services to about fifty clients in Bourbon County
- Travis Wilcoxen, Angels Care Home Health: Angels Care has been in Bourbon County since 2004; they offer a variety of in-home skilled nursing care including psychiatric.
- Nick Johnson, USD 234: The monthly preschool screening will be held on March 22. Kindergarten round-up is scheduled for April 10; preschool round-up will be April 12. Contact USD 234 for more information.
- DeeDee LeFever, Community Liaison for Greenbush: Her job is to connect families with services.
- Patty Simpson, Fort Scott Housing Authority: FSHA manages 190 low-income apartments; currently the waiting list is from 3-6 months for all size apartments, but they are always taking applications.
- David Gillen, Beacon: In February, the Beacon assisted 232 families which included 468 individuals.
- Lea Kay Karleskint, K-State Research and Extension: She is partnering with Lisa Robertson, COPE, to start a small class to help newly housed individuals with cooking skills; in April she will begin working with the Core Communities to provide nutrition education. Contact Lea Kay at K-State Research to explore the class opportunities she provides.
- Shanna Willey, Community Health Worker, CHC SEK: Shanna is available to help clients with applications for Medicaid, prescription assistance, disability, LIEAP, etc.
- Lora Wilson, CHC: Lora is the director for the Tobacco Cessation program; contact her if you need help becoming tobacco free.
- Janice Lamb, Core communities: Core communities meets Monday evenings at 5:30 at the Methodist Church for a meal, and then hold classes to help core leaders understand all areas of poverty. The curriculum comes from “Bridges Out of Poverty.” Graduation for the first Core Communities class will be April 22 at the Methodist Church.
- Stephanie Herring, Family Resource Center: Stephanie works in homes, mostly with parents rather than the children, to lower the possibility of child abuse or neglect.
- Larry Jump, Community Liaison with SEK CAP: SEK CAP is looking for employees in the Bourbon County office, especially a lead teacher assistant. Contact Larry for further information.
- Lindsey McNeil, COPE and KU: Lindsey is currently working on a grant with Rachel Carpenter, HBCAT, for drug prevention; they need volunteers to help with this program.
- Lisa Robertson, CHC COPE: The COPE grant funding ends on May 31; they will continue seeing clients until that time. COPE was able to get six homeless people housed during the last few weeks. They have a new partnership with Spark Wheel at Uniontown. The Wash Wednesdays program will be able to continue with assistance from Aetna.
- Angela Handly, Compassionate Ministries, Salvation Army: Angela has taken Allen Schellack’s position with these organizations. She took time to review the services she can provide and reminded members that her office is at 26 N. Main.
- Program: Teri Hamilton, President, Fort Scott Farmers’ Market, presented our program.
It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring who reaps a harvest in the Autumn.
The Farmer’s Market will be in the new community pavilion beginning this year; the pavilion was funded with a T-Mobile grant and other donations. Anyone can reserve the pavilion through the Fort Scott City offices. Farmers’ Market operates from the first week in May through the last week in October on Saturdays and Tuesdays.
This year the Farmers’ Market will be accepting SNAP benefits in support of local nutrition. SNAP dollars will only be able to be used for food and food related items. Through a grant, a person will be hired to manage the snap booth during the hours of the Farmers’ Market.
Venders can set up a booth for $5.00 each week. Potential venders need to contact Teri in order to be approved to have a booth. There are also fundraising opportunities through the Farmers’ Market organization. There are twenty-four planned booth spaces under the pavilion now, but that can be expanded to thirty-six if the need arises. There are many special events that will be scheduled in conjunction with the Farmers’ Market such as Breakfast on the Bricks, the Children’s Business Fair, K-State Research projects/programs, The National Historic Site, etc.
- Open Forum: Billie Jo reminded members that LIEAP applications will close at the end of the month.
- Adjournment: The next General Membership meeting will be April 3, 2024.