OACAC restructures neighborhood centers

Lindsey Dumas-Bell: OACAC outreach facilities will remain in Springfield, Bolivar and Branson.

Sheila Thomas: OACAC's decision is 'a shame' for Stone County.

Don Currence: In-person service accessibility will be a challenge after Ozark's neighborhood center closes.

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A restructuring of an Ozarks Area Community Action Corp. program will result in the closure of seven of the nonprofit’s 10 neighborhood centers in its 10-county service area. Shortly afterward, OACAC plans to open two “satellite” offices as part of its reorganization plan.

While the neighborhood centers, all seven of which are leased spaces, are set to close Sept. 19, OACAC officials stressed that services would continue in the affected communities. Neighborhood centers will close in Barry, Christian, Dade, Dallas, Lawrence, Stone and Webster counties. The centers are primarily funded through a federal Community Services Block Grant, which is one of seven programs offered by the Springfield-based OACAC. Others include Head Start, Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and Weatherization Assistance.

Although the nonprofit is closely monitoring federal funding for the CSBG program, among others, no decisions have been made on its fate, said Lindsey Dumas-Bell, OACAC communications and development director.

“This change was in motion before any of that,” Dumas-Bell said of concerns regarding federal funding cuts. She added talk of the reorganization plan commenced early in OACAC’s current fiscal year, which started in October.

The nonprofit is moving from a model of a center in each of the 10 counties it serves, she said. It will now operate only three outreach centers: a north one in Bolivar, a central location in Springfield and a southern one in Branson.

The Springfield, Bolivar and Branson outreach facilities also are the locations of the current neighborhood centers servicing Greene, Taney and Polk counties. Additionally, Dumas-Bell said its satellite offices are set to open in Monett and Lockwood in October. Staff will work part-time out of the satellite locations while also responding to client needs out in the community, she said. OACAC is seeking additional opportunities to operate out of shared spaces in rural communities.

The Springfield outreach center is at 560-A N. Stewart Ave., while Bolivar’s facility is at 2110 S. Springfield Ave., Bldg. 2, Unit B and Branson’s center is at 5571 Gretna Road, Ste. A.

“We just want to make sure that people understand that while maybe a center is leaving a community, the services are not leaving the community,” she said.

The CSBG budget for OACAC’s fiscal 2025, which runs through September, is roughly $1.95 million, a slight increase from the prior year’s total of $1.92 million, according to nonprofit officials. OACAC’s total fiscal 2025 budget is $38.7 million. Dumas-Bell said the CSBG and agency budgets for the 2026 fiscal year are yet to be finalized.

OACAC, which started in 1965 and is headquartered in Springfield, is part of a network of 19 community action agencies in Missouri and one of over 1,000 nationwide, according to its website. It is designed to work toward alleviating the causes and conditions of poverty in southwest Missouri. Over nine million people nationwide are served each year by CSBG-funded programs, which includes assistance in housing, nutrition, transportation and utilities, as well as crisis and emergency services. For Missouri, the federal poverty line in 2025 is $15,650 for an individual and $32,150 for a family of four.

Community action agencies offered assistance for over 185,000 Missourians in 2023 and served about 85,000 households experiencing economic instability. According to an OACAC community needs assessment report in 2023, almost 13% of the state had household income at or below 100% of the federal poverty line.

Service transition
OACAC’s CSBG team will continue to provide intakes, assessment and referral services, officials say. Life skills classes and case management services will remain available, as will the organization’s work with community projects such as poverty simulations and its Vocational Opportunities Inspiring Children in Elementary initiative, which addresses issues of vocational aspiration and career awareness.

“Right now, we have a phone number and a website that people can access 24 hours a day to schedule an appointment,” Dumas-Bell said. “When we start this new structure, we will also have schedulers that people can call during the work week if they prefer to schedule with a person. So, we’re really trying to make it as accessible as possible for people to schedule appointments.”

Dumas-Bell said remote services are still relatively new to OACAC, as it started offering them amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Technology advances have eliminated the need for community members to come to the nonprofit’s offices for assistance, she said.

“This gives us an opportunity to really offer them more and then meet people where they are,” she said. “That could be remotely by phone or online over Zoom or in the community somewhere, or that could be their home.”

The CSBG staff will be reduced to 19 from its current 26 when the neighborhood centers officially close, Dumas-Bell said. She said employees will be in new positions divided into family resource and community resource teams. The outreach centers in Branson and Bolivar will each have three family resource specialists and a community resource specialist. Aside from resource specialists, other new staff positions in Springfield include schedulers and team managers. A trio of CSBG staffers also work out of OACAC’s central office at 215 S. Barnes Ave., which is separate from the outreach center.

“They were all guaranteed an interview should they want to apply for one of the new positions, and many people have,” she said of those laid off from the closing neighborhood centers.

Accessibility challenges
While OACAC officials don’t cite funding issues as a reason for closing the centers, Ozark Mayor Don Currence said he believes that’s at least partially behind the move. The Christian County neighborhood center in Ozark is among those set to close Sept. 19. Currence, who serves as chairman of the OACAC Christian County Advisory Board, said Darla Boice, supervisor of the local center, is the last employee remaining at the facility.

Boice referred questions from Springfield Business Journal to OACAC officials in Springfield.

“If you have 10 offices in 10 counties, and you don’t have the funding, you have to make some tough decisions,” Currence said. “As for the resources and things that are offered, it’s not changing. The biggest issue that is going to hit us in Christian County is accessibility. It’s going to be hard for people having to go to Springfield or to Branson.”

He said some people who need services aren’t always able to make an appointment – particularly in an emergency situation, such as losing their electricity.

Sheila Thomas, president and CEO of the Table Rock Lake Chamber of Commerce, said she’s also concerned about accessibility issues for those who prefer in-person services. While still pleased OACAC services will continue in the community, she called the decision by OACAC “really a shame for our county.” Stone County’s soon-to-close neighborhood center is in Branson West.

“Branson is a ways to drive for folks who are in need of OACAC services,” she said. “And if we don’t have the OACAC employees who were here and members of this community, I think we lose that connection with OACAC as a part of a community. Branson is very different than Stone County with different needs, different people.”