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 1,400 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 2023, head start served 1,933 children ages 3-5 and early head start served 380 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 qualify 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 128 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 $372 per year in home energy costs. This equals a 27% average energy cost reduction per household. In 2022, 127 homes received weatherization services and 102 households received crisis assistance to repair or replace furnaces, air conditioners, and water heaters in 2022, 62 children under the age of six, 118 disabled individuals and 156 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. During the pandemic, uca stepped up to provide all of the covid rental and deposit assistance for Salt Lake and tooele counties. In fiscal year 2023, 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 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 all diversion services for the homeless resources centers in addition to the midvale family shelter and the weigand day center. Last year, uca successfully diverted over 436 households from shelter. For clients for whom diversion is not an option, uca provides intake into the homeless resource centers. Additionally, in fiscal year 2023 uca expanded our landlord-tenant mediation Program statewide. The focus of this Program is to provide tenant education and mediation services to clients with a 3-day pay or vacate notice. Uca provided mediation services to over 550 households and was able to assist 492 households maintain their housing unit. Our mediation team also provided tenant education to over 1,963 households. Adult education supports clients seeking to improve their job skills through our saute' culinary arts training Program, workshops focused on financial literacy and job readiness, and post-secondary education including child development associate ("cda") and referrals to applied technology degree programs. In fy23, we were able to assist 34 individuals obtain their cda certificate. 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 county. Uca administered these funds to further help clients during the pandemic. September 29, 2023, the pandemic water assistance was ended; however, uca has continued to provide water assistance for individuals in crisis in west jordan city. During the 2022-2023 season, heat assisted 8,902 households consisting of 25,432 individuals, distributing $5,988,037 in utility benefits and over $468,699 in crisis assistance. The heat Program had 85 requests by homebound individuals, typically those who are elderly, disabled or have severe health limitations. All requests were completed. The heat Program also completed 72 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; our summer dinner Program; providing free meals to all children age 0-18; and our partnership with Salt Lake county to provide food services at the millcreek, midvale, and draper senior cafes. In fiscal year 2023, 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.