Nek-Cap

Early head start/head start program-these programs promote the school readiness of young children from low income families; recognizing the parents are the child's first and most important teachers. These programs provide comprehensive services including educational, social and emotional development, family development advocacy (case management), nutrition and health services for children ages 0-5 years old. Early head start and head start staff build strong working relationships with families supporting positive parent-child interactions, family well-being and connections to peers within the larger Community. Families enrolled in our ehs/hs programs who qualify have an added benefit because of their work with the staff in obtaining the emergency assistance available in their area, such as direct assistance for rent ansd utilities. The early head start home-based services include 1.5 hour weekly home visits and 2 socializations each month in each of the counties. Early head start has funded enrollment slots for 160 children and their families in home-based services across a nine-county area. The head start Program has funded enrollment slots for 238 children and their families in seven counties. Of these 238 children served by the headstart Program, currently 184 children (10 classrooms of 17 to 18 children each) are receiving extended day services that provide 1020 classroom hours for over 128 days of services and the remaining 54 are in part-day classrooms (3 classrooms of 18 children). The goals of the Program is to, in the future, provide all 238 children in the Program with extended-day services depending upon available funding. The child and adult care food Program (cacfp) operated in conjunction with the early head start and head start programs has provided 58,867 nutritional meals to the children in our Program consisting of: breakfasts (20,300), lunches (21,580), and snacks (16,987).

The Community services block grant (csbg) funds provided by the Kansas housing resources corporation is the foundational funding for nek-cap, Inc. In it's sixteen-county service area of atchison, brown, doniphan, jackson, jefferson, jewell, leavenworth, marshall, mitchell, nemaha, osborne, pottawatomie, republic, riley, smith, and Washington counties. These funds are utilized to empower individuals and families by providing family development advocacy (case management), parenting skills classes, nutrition education, and life skills training. Through family development advocacy, eligible clients benefit through assessments using the family development partnership scale in determining where clinets are on the continuum of crisis to thriving in areas such as: education, employment, housing and Community, transportation, services and resources, family relations, family finances, child care and parenting. After the assessment process is completed, families are supported at varying levels with specific services either directly provided or through referrals with appropriate agencies and organizations with whom nek-cap, Inc. has developed working partnerships. Csbg funds have enabled nek-cap, Inc. to secure other resources and funding such as: grants from united way chapters: salvation army; emergency solutions grant (esg) and continuum of care (coc) grants through hud; catholic charities; partnerhsip with local food banks; and other sources that make it possible to provide emergency assistance including rent and utility support. Nek-cap, inc.'s csbg programs "filling the gap" Program provides shelf-stable meals and milk to low-income children for 10 weeks during the summer and over the winter school break (depending on funding availability) in the Kansas counties of jewell, mitchell, osborne, republic, smith, and Washington. In addition, nek-cap, inc.'s csbg Program supports several of the agency housing programs, including the mckinney-vento homeless programs esg and coc, and provides the required match component. Csbg supports esg & coc by funding the housing family advocate positions who work diretly with clients and provide family development advocacy.

Nek-cap, Inc. Functions as the authorized public housing authority (pha) on behalf of brown county governmental unit. As the pha, nek-cap, Inc. housing choice voucher Program that assists very low-income families, the elderly, and the disabled with affordable, decent, safe and sanitary housing in the private market. Eligible participants are free to choose any housing that meets the requirements of the Program and are not limited to units located in subsidized housing projects. A housing subsidy is paid by nek-cap, Inc. Directly to the landlords for the benefit of the eligible participants, who then pay the difference between the actual rent charged by the landlord and the subsidy payment provided by the housing choice voucher Program. The hcv Program assists an average of 145 customers each month of which 45% are elderly, 70% disabled, 45% working and 1% no income. A unique feature of this Program that encourages participnts to become more self-reliant is the family self-sufficiency (fss) Program. Under this Program, enrolled, eligibile hcv participants can work with the fss coordinator. During this time, families set goals in education, financial literacy, and increase employment goals. The final goals set by hud are to reduce reliance upon state programs increasing self-sufficiency. During this five-year, voluntary Program, participants can accumulate rent savings by increasing their portions of rent through increased earned job income, thereby reducing the subsidy paid by the Program. These savings accumulate for the benefit of the participant and are paid to the participant with interest upon successful completion of the Program period. Nek-cap, Inc. also administers the tenant-based rental assistance Program (tbra), providing an average of 35 families each month with rental assistance. This grant also provides security deposit and utility deposit assistance.

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