By Stephen Smoot
The Family Resource Center of Pendleton County has taken its act on the road during the past two weeks. After a joint community event with Riverton’s North Fork Baptist Church, the FRC invited partners in social services, first responders, and others to undertake a resource fair at the Pendleton Community Building in Franklin.
Representatives from the Pendleton County Office of Emergency Management and the West Virginia Division of Forestry set up tables inside to speak about safety. Children were delighted to find Smokey Bear on hand to help warn about outdoor fire dangers.
Outside of the building, Pendleton County Emergency Rescue Squad and the Franklin Volunteer Fire Department had vehicles on hand for kids to peer into and ask about.
Much of the focus also lay on helping children and supporting families, due to the onset of National Child Abuse Awareness month.
Brenda Witt, who described herself as “one of Edna’s volunteers” manned the Partnership In Prevention table full of brochures for different kinds of people who needed different kinds of help.
That included the SSVF program, which stands for Supportive Services for Veterans’ Families. Eligible families can receive emergency assistance to prevent veterans from becoming homeless or find homes for veterans currently without.
Another program focuses on helping low-income households lower their climate control costs through identifying and repairing leaks, adding insulation, and more.
Wendy Niceler from The Health Plan and Sherry Kuhl from Aetna shared information on how their companies provide assistance and support. Both companies have programs that work with those qualifying for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Plan.
Both companies operate as “Managed Care Organizations.” This refers to their use of business models that try to hold down health care costs. One major way in which they do this is through strong utilization of prevention programs. For example, with some MCO organizations, successful completion of a tobacco cessation program can lead to monetary incentives.
The Pendleton County Office of Emergency Management had a table as well, manned by both Rick Gillespie and Bruce Minor. The table had special refrigerator magnets upon which people can list valuable emergency information in case paramedics have to respond to the home, as well as a children’s puzzle and game sheet that also teaches safety tips.
“It’s pretty important to get that information to the right people,” said Minor about the safety information provided by the Pendleton County OEM. Of the event itself, he stated that “it’s a tremendous asset to have these organizations in the county.”
Also promoting the sharing of vital safety tips was Isaac Bergdoll, representing the West Virginia Division of Forestry. He serves as the Grant County service forester. Curtis Betty, Pendleton County’s person in that position, had a different assignment that day.
Even with the prevalence of wildfires in the past two years, Bergdoll shared that “a lot of people have no idea what the burn laws are.” State code imposes restrictions on outdoor burning to reduce the risk of blazes escaping control.
He added that they wanted to “give everyone a chance to meet Smokey the Bear. We like to spread his message that ‘only you can prevent forest fires.'”
Others offered resources and opportunities for seniors. Sarah Blake, from the Aging and Disabilities Resource Center, offered materials that help seniors to identify attempts to defraud them.
For example, seniors often receive a number of calls for “fly by night” style health insurance plans or supplements. The caller states that the call will be recorded, then asks a series of questions designed to elicit an answer of “yes.” Once they have that call on record, they will edit the recording to make it seem as if the senior approved being added to the plan.
Blake stated that some seniors receive up to four or five scam calls per week.
Help is available for those who have questions about offers of insurance and also for those trapped into plans that charge much and provide little.
Jenny Rogers represents the AmeriCorps Seniors Grandparents program. She shared that “since 1965, we are the best kept secret.”
Most do not know that AmeriCorps also operates three senior programs. These are the Retired Senior Volunteer program, Senior Companion Program, and Foster Grandparent Program.
“What we do is attempt to find people 55 and older, usually to go into schools to help the children that are falling behind,” explained Rogers.
Rogers went on to state that teachers with full classrooms to guide and teach do not always have the time or the ability to reach a child one on one “to give them the attention they are needing.”
While sometimes, a child’s academic problems come from an inability to understand the subject matter, in most cases the problems run much deeper.
Rogers stated that some families struggle to provide the support that children need to excel in school. That could take the form of a single parent or both parents working multiple jobs to make ends meet. They enjoy neither the time nor the energy to help with school or other problems because they are exhausted and overwhelmed themselves.
In other, sadder, examples, the parents, parent, or guardian has developed substance abuse, mental health issues, or a combination of both. In extreme situations, this can lead to child abuse or even a situation where the child must act as the responsible “adult” to take care of siblings, other children, or even the actual adults in the home.
“So many times, there’s nobody there to help the kids,” Rogers noted.
Fortunately, the Family Resource Center of Pendleton County has many ways to help everyone from kids to seniors.
