2009 Charitable Organization of the Year Finalist: Ozarks Area Community Action Corp.

The mission of Ozarks Area Community Action Corp. is to provide opportunities, offer assistance and empower people to make positive change.

Changes are brought about through programs that focus on everything from early childhood education to foster grandparents to housing assistance, family planning and home weatherization.

All OACAC programs are geared to alleviating the conditions of poverty, and in 2008, OACAC provided services to 42,000 people in Barry, Christian, Dade, Dallas, Greene, Lawrence, Polk, Stone, Taney and Webster counties.

As the recession continues, however, demand for services continues to grow, says Resource Development Director Matthew Evans.

"We've seen a lot of individuals who have lost their jobs and need more of our services," Evans says.

OACAC operates seven major programs in 67 locations throughout the region, including 45 Head Start/Early Head Start/partner locations, 10 neighborhood centers and 12 family planning clinics.

Programs are available to applicants who fall within federal poverty guidelines, currently $22,050 for a family of four.

OACAC employs approximately 522 people, most of them in the Head Start and Early Head Start programs, which target early childhood health, development and education.

Perhaps OACAC's best-known program, Head Start accounts for $13.6 million in funds, including $2.7 million in local matching funds. Head Start serves 1,535 children ages birth to 5 years, including about 700 in Greene County alone, said Kimberly Shinn-Brown, Head Start program director.

Screenings for child health and development allow early prevention or intervention on issues ranging from tooth decay, hearing loss and obesity to developmental delays.

Among the benefits of early intervention are cost savings to Medicaid, and the advantage of having kids arrive at school ready to learn, not distracted by problems such as dental pain.

"In order to be successful in school you need more than just ABCs and 123s," Shinn-Brown says. "You need to be healthy."

A recent addition to Head Start is the "I Can" project, a family health literacy program aimed at enhancing health and reducing unnecessary emergency room visits.

It costs about $60 to train a family on basic health and first aid, but the cost savings from fewer unnecessary doctor's office or ER visits is more than $500 per family, Shinn-Brown says.

Preliminary results of a recent communitywide needs-assessment survey show a significant increase in the number of people citing a lack of available jobs as the greatest challenge to finding and keeping employment, but a bright spot on OACAC's horizon is additional funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. OACAC will receive an additional $10 million, most of it for the weatherization program.

"The government will be funneling some money though our agencies with different programs to help job creation and job maintaining," Evans says.[[In-content Ad]]