President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 on August 20, 1964. Thus, he set in motion one of the great movements of our times. Local communities were empowered to organize and "attack the causes and conditions of poverty." And local, federally-funded agencies were created to offer and stimulate needed services while providing what was called "maximum feasible participation" by the poor who were to receive those services.
The Audubon Area Community Services, Inc. (AACS) was born out of that so-called "War on Poverty," which President Johnson later said he thought would be waged and successfully completed in a year's time. In other words, he never envisioned the programs which have lasted some twenty-five years.
National developments led to and have continually affected local agency operations. President Johnson's "War on Poverty" grew out of the civil rights movement of the early 1960's. Some describe it as the heritage of those "activists for equality." There was a consensus in 1964 that the President's course of action was proper and necessary. His proposal, viewed as a partnership involving the federal government, the poor and their community, received overwhelming Congressional support. Regrettably, many in the greater community viewed it principally as a minority program. By 1967, the "concept of consensus" already appeared to be lost and some local governments around the nation were "at war" against the newly created "Community Action Agencies" (CAAs). Fortunately, that was not the case with the Green River agencies. Like most other Western Kentucky CAAs, those in the Green River area, reflecting the character of their local community, were run on a conservative basis and generally received much local government and citizen support.
The 1967 "Green Amendment," named for Representative Edith Green of Oregon, was designed to give local governments more control over CAAs, though it also increased the requirements for the participation of poor persons as well. By 1968, it was clear, however, that the Nixon Administration planned an end to the programs. President Nixon's welfare reform and "New Federalism" proposals were supposed to produce this result. The Nixon Administration separated most of OEO's programs from it and placed them in 1969 under the control of "mainline" federal agencies.
Western Kentucky got into the "OEO business" very late. It missed many of those early political struggles, but joined in time to experience the many Nixon attempts to terminate the program. The federal environment changed in August, 1974, when the Ford Administration took over following Nixon's resignation. CAAs received considerable support during the Ford and Carter administrations. That changed abruptly in 1981 when Ronald Reagan took office. Throughout Reagan's term, CAAs were in a battle for survival. Only Head Start made Reagan's so-called "safety net."
The present organization, AACS, is an amalgamation to two separate Community Action Agencies (CAAs) established under the Economic Opportunity Act in 1966. The Henderson-Union-Webster Development Council, Inc. known commonly as "H-U-W", was chartered in April, 1966, and based in Henderson; the Owensboro Area Economic Opportunity Council (OAEOC), most frequently simply called "Community Action," was chartered in August, 1966. Both agencies were created to provide services and advocacy for the low-income segment of the local communities. By the time these CAAs were created, most of the available OEO money had already been allocated in 1964 to Appalachian and urban programs. The two agencies' early years were characterized by limited financial resources to meet the identified needs.
The H-U-W counties were, thus, the first Green River Area counties to be served by "OEO" (the Office of Economic Opportunity). Ohio County joined ranks with Daviess County in the OAEOC. Then Hancock County joined the organization; McLean County later affiliated with the OAEOC. The State or Fiscal Courts now typically designates a CAA to serve the respective counties. In those early days, the process of forming a CAA was much less structured.
OEO programs of that day included community organization and advocacy, Head Start, Job Corps, VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) and various manpower/economic development programs. Both parent agencies sponsored community-based outreach and advocacy projects; Head Start and Operation Mainstream, a manpower training and development project which was early-on transferred from OEO to the U.S. Department of Labor. H-U-W also administered the SOS (Senior Opportunities and Services) program in its three-county area and the NYC program throughout the Green River Area.
The OAEOC also founded the West End Day Care Center in 1969, and operated the center until it was transferred to the City of Owensboro in 1973. It then became an independent child care center in 1979.
The H-U-W agency was founded through the efforts of Ralph S. Coffman and Superintendent Wendell Johnson, of the Henderson and Webster County Boards of Education, respectively, and Edwin C. "Bud" Calman, editor and publisher of the Sturgis News. These three men spearheaded the initiative to organize an agency to help bring local people out of poverty through OEO manpower, education and nutrition programs then available. Ralph S. Coffman served as the first board chairman (1965-66) and became the organization's first executive director in August, 1966, when OEO funding was made available to the agency. Bud Calman became the agency's assistant director. Wendell Johnson also worked with the agency in 1967-68. His primary interests were the development of Head Start (his primary interest) and an Appalachia-like model health program which was carefully considered but never funded by OEO -- Johnson says because H-U-W had not asked for enough money. Mr. Johnson left H-U-W in 1968 to work with the vocational schools.
The Owensboro Area EOC was organized under the urging and guidance of Dr. Kenneth Estes, superintendent of the Owensboro Board of Education. His basic purpose was to create a conduit for Head Start monies, which were then "delegated" to the local school systems, but required a local CAA organization through which these funds could be channeled. The story of the organization of H-U-W is less clear than that of the Owensboro CAA because its principal founders still reside in Owensboro. Dr. Estes says that the roots of the organization actually reach back into the 1950's. He succeeded Dr. Ralph Cherry as Owensboro Superintendent of Schools in 1954. Under Dr. Cherry's urging, Dr. Estes said he participated in a three-week seminar of top educators and school administrators in New York. He said that the education leaders were encouraged to go back home, get community people together, "let them dream," and get them involved in community needs. He and the Owensboro Board of Education then created the "Committee of Sixty" -- sixty men and women from the community at large who were concerned with education, to study the city, cite its problems and devise recommendations. Educators from the local Board assisted the Committee with data and support as needed.
The Committee divided into four divisions and met for six months on a regular (even weekly) basis. Their efforts ultimately led to a 1959 school tax increase referendum -- which lost, but passed the next year at a lower level -- and led directly to the greatest era of school facilities expansion in the school system's history. A "breakdown period" then ensued in the Committee's efforts, but other committees later formed, says Dr. Estes. One of these studied the needs of handicapped and needy children, and the initiative to create the Owensboro CAA grew from their efforts.
After 1965, the only way the school system could obtain OEO funding for Head Start was to form the CAA. Someone from OEO came and explained the process, said Dr. Estes, and the organization was established. Dr. Estes was the first Board Chairman (1965-66) as the school system continued the organizational process. When the agency was organized and funded by OEO, a new Board was organized according to OEO requirements and James W. Grise became its chairman. But as planned, the Owensboro Schools and other local school systems did receive "delegate" funding for the operation of summer Head Start programs, beginning, we believe, in 1965. The Owensboro and Daviess County Schools were also funded for Follow Through grants. These programs continued the services to Head Start and other low-income children through the early elementary grades. Although these grants were made directly to the schools, the Owensboro CAA had local review and sign-off responsibility for the grants. These grants continued until the program was eliminated in the mid-1970s. Early chairmen James W. Grise (1966-67) and Roy C. Russell (1967-69) recount many early visits to Frankfort and the State Economic Opportunity Office -- and to Washington, D.C. -- to get the OEO funding for Owensboro started. A consultant from Murray State College also assisted the effort.
H-U-W's first central office was located in the old County Garage on South Main Street from 1966 through 1968, and then moved to a location on Highway 60 four miles east of Henderson in the facility (formerly a black school) now used by the Green River Comprehensive Care Center for its "RAR" residential alcohol treatment center. H-U-W moved to the now demolished St. Paul Episcopal Church rectory at 35 South Green Street in 1973. The Owensboro agency's first office was located on Fifteenth Street one "block" west of Daviess Street on property owned by the Owensboro Vocational School. In 1971, the agency moved its central office into the second floor/northeast of the old vocational school building where it remained until the building was set to be razed in June, 1974. At that time, with the financial assistance of the City of Owensboro the agency moved into the Ames Building at West Third and St. Elizabeth Streets. The merged Audubon agency also selected this site as its central office.
As the Agency grew following the merger, it increased its occupancy until it became its only Ames Building tenant. Although the Board had earlier decided to build its own central office building, a major fire July 17, 1987 sealed the need for the Agency to seek other quarters. The AACS began operations at its present central office location on June 30, 1988. Executive Directors.
The first director of H-U-W was Ralph Coffman, who served August, 1966 through December, 1971, before leaving the agency to join the Kentucky Department of Transportation in Frankfort. E. C. "Bud" Calman replaced Coffman as acting director December, 1971 through February, 1972, and remained as H-U-W assistant director through December, 1973. William C. "Bill" Staples, a past H-U-W Board Chairman (1970-71), was appointed H-U-W executive director March 1, 1972. Staples came to H-U-W from the Henderson Health Department, where he was a health educator. He has been the associate director with the AACS since 1975. William O. Munsell of Carlisle County, Kentucky, was appointed the first director of the Owensboro Area EOC. He served late 1966 (the agency was chartered in October, 1966) to January, 1971. Beverly Thruston served as acting director for eight months in 1971, and continued with the agency as manpower coordinator until her retirement in June, 1980. Harry Glenn was originally hired to succeed Munsell as executive director, but -- other than attending one board meeting -- Glenn never assumed that office. Ronald Lee "Ron" Logsdon became executive director of the Owensboro Area EOC November 30, 1971, and was selected to that same position upon the effective date of the H-U-W/OAEOC consolidation March 1, 1975. Logsdon's background includes two church pastorates, work with the Mississippi and Kentucky employment services and a stint as a social worker with the Kentucky public assistance office.
In the early years, the H-U-W agency gained a very solid reputation for its programs -- and earned the solid support from its Fiscal Courts, local officials and communities. Many leading edge programs, including nutrition, manpower, transportation and family planning, were implemented.
"Community action" in the Owensboro counties was somewhat more controversial, due to internal strife, than was H-U-W. In fact, by 1970 the OEO was threatening to defund the agency. Only Head Start received broad community and grantor support. A concerted effort was required by local officials -- particularly Owensboro Mayor C. Waitman Taylor, the agency board and management during 1971-73 to keep the agency in operation. But by 1973, the agency was on its feet and well on its way to respect and broad support.
During 1973, negotiations to consolidate the H-U-W and Owensboro Area EOC began. In fact, the AACS Charter was issued by the Kentucky Secretary of State on October 15, 1973, although the Agency was not formally recognized by OEO to begin operations as the AACS, Inc. until March 1, 1975. The dedication of the Agency was held August 21, 1975 at the Ramada Inn (now Day's Inn), Highway 41 North in Henderson. First District Congressman Carroll Hubbard, CSA Regional Director William "Sonny" Walker, Head Start Regional Bureau Chief William Sadler and Kentucky Association for Community Action Executive Secretary Jesse L. Amburgey were the principal speakers.
A number of alternative names were considered before the name of "Audubon" was selected. These included "Green River Area Social Services" (GRASS), "Big Rivers Area Social Services (BRASS), Western Kentucky Social Services, and others. Many wanted to avoid proliferating the "Green River" name; the other choices just didn't catch on. Some thought a more Henderson-oriented name would be better since the central office would be in Owensboro and Henderson area people might otherwise feel alienated. It was Bedford L. Walker, then administrator of the Henderson Health Department, later the Green River District Health Department, who suggested the name Audubon Area Community Services. It was adopted.
The Owensboro Area - H-U-W "merger" was probably brought about as much as anything by President Nixon's efforts in early 1973 to eliminate the OEO and defund the nation's 900 CAAs. Howard Phillips was appointed by President Nixon to "dismantle" OEO and the CAAs. H-U-W was funded in the area of $1.2 million at this time; the OAEOC was funded in the range of $700,000 then. Every CAA was put on notice to prepare to close operations and each was given a "close-out grant." Every CAA was to lay off its OEO-paid staff and by June 30, 1973, have no such staff on board other than the Executive Director and the chief financial officer. Further, the CAAs were to cease operations altogether as OEO-funded entities as of September 30, 1973. Elaborate plans were set in place to dismantle the CAAs. So-called "consultants" were to assist -- or rather ensure that the deed was accomplished. However, in May, 1973, a Washington, D.C., federal judge ruled the close-out illegal, ordered the Nixon Administration to cease close-down efforts and that Howard Phillips was serving illegally since he had neither been nominated nor confirmed by the Senate.
During this supposed "phase-out" period the local CAAs, understandably, had a nearly impossible time bidding for new programs and even had a struggle to hold on to their existing programs. Operation Mainstream, their large manpower/jobs programs, were discontinued in March, 1973. The agencies' Head Start projects and the Department of Health, Education and Welfare (now DHHS) began exploring other sponsoring options, including "LPA" (Limited Purpose Agency) status. Locally, the Owensboro Board of Education put in a bid for the four-county Owensboro Area Head Start program. Too, a number of Kentucky Head Start Association meetings were held on this matter. On other fronts, the H-U-W Board resolved to seek continuation funding support for the agency from the three local Fiscal Courts. Later in the year, after the phase-down effort had subsided, the agencies were still having a very difficult time convincing potential grantors of their viability. H-U-W did receive a family planning grant from OEO, and the OAEOC received an RSVP grant. Those helped put the agencies back on a stable track.
Also during 1973-74, the CAAs were forced into a process called "realignment" whereby the boundaries of the various CAAs were brought into conformity with the respective fifteen Area Development Districts (ADDs), the sub-state planning regions in Kentucky. Though this process had no effect on the Green River and Pennyrile CAAs, a number of Kentucky CAAs did relinquish or gain counties in order to conform to the ADD boundaries. This process did not force merger (and a number of ADDs still have multiple CAAs), but it was a contributing factor in some areas of the state. The Lake Cumberland Community Services Organization, Inc., based in Somerset, was the first CAA merger during this period. This consolidation of the former East Lake Cumberland and West Lake Cumberland CAAs was completed as of April 1, 1974.
In 1974, the OEO was replaced at the federal level with the Community Services Administration (CSA) and all CAA programs reauthorized under the Community Services Act of 1974, which superseded the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 as CAA's enabling legislation. Also in 1974, under the Wendell Ford Administration, Kentucky CAAs succeeded in getting the Kentucky General Assembly pass legislation which gave the CAAs legal standing which paralleled the federal enabling legislation. 1980 and 1982 state legislation also conferred Kentucky "Special District" (limited purpose unit of government) status on the Kentucky CAAs.
The consolidation effort also grew out of the perceived need to deliver social services on a Green River "regional" basis. The "parent" CAAs were losing programs they should have received because they, presumably, could not adequately deliver services on a regional scope. For example, while H-U-W already operated its family planning project, it lost out in the heated competition for a seven-county family planning project when the Green River Area Development District organized the quasi-independent Green River Family Services, Inc., to administer the new regional project -- despite cooperative agreements between the two CAAs. Then prior to the March, 1975 consolidation, the Green River ADD/Area Agency on Aging also subcontracted the large nutrition program for the elderly to Green River Family Services, Inc., now defunct, but whose programs are part of the Green River Aging Services Division of the Green River District Health Department.
The Owensboro-Henderson merger initiative was probably the first such efforts to begin, but the consolidation of the Hopkins-Muhlenberg and Pennyrile CAAs into the nine-county Pennyrile Allied Community Services, Inc. (PACS) and Gateway Community Services Organization (West Liberty, Kentucky) in July, 1974, followed the first consolidation (Lake Cumberland Community Services Organization, Somerset) as the second and third to be completed. The West Kentucky Allied Services, Inc., based in Mayfield, was also organized later -- in 1976.
The organizational history of the CAAs in the Pennyrile area was somewhat different from that in the Green River area. In the Pennyrile, the county judges in the original five counties served by the two parent CAAs reportedly organized those agencies in order to bring a broad range of available federal programs into those five counties. Then after the remaining four counties (Caldwell, Crittenden, Livingston and Lyon) were brought into the area configuration through the formation of the Pennyrile ADD, those counties were also interested in receiving the services available through a CAA. The organization of PACS, therefore, was completed rather quickly after the two existing CAAs and the Pennyrile chief-elected officials agreed to the initiative. During the time that the Owensboro-Henderson merger appeared stalled or side-tracked, both Logsdon and Staples attended the PACS dedication. It was at this meeting that their enthusiasm for consolidation in the Green River area was rekindled, and the merger was completed rather quickly afterward. In November, 1975, AACS Executive Director Ronald Logsdon proposed a further natural extension of the merger process that had occurred in the Green River and Pennyrile areas with the "merger" of the AACS and PACS. Actually, Logsdon proposed a "consortium" arrangement between the two agencies to allow them to perform joint or shared programming, particularly in the area of manpower services, in their combined sixteen county services area. The "human services consortium" proposal failed to take root.
Audubon Area Community Services, Inc. began consolidated operations with a million dollar budget and some sixty-five staff. Obviously, nearly $1 million in funding for the program(s) had already been lost over the two years between President Nixon's attempted CAA close-down and the 1975 merger. The first new grant funded to the new agency was a small disaster relief grant (to address wind and flood ravages that occurred in the Spring of 1975 in Ohio County) from the State Economic Opportunity Office. The first eighteen months was a time of uncertainty, second-guessing and perhaps resentment. Some H-U-W supporters even secretly maneuvered for a breakup of the merged agency and a return to the former separate entities. Fortunately -- due to the strong support of Associate Director Bill Staples -- the new agency weathered those crucial early months of the merged operation and its strength and stability really began to mature.
The first major new program the Agency received was the Senior Companion Program (SCP), which began operations in October, 1976. It was begun in the counties of Henderson, Union, Webster and Hancock, and based at the old Douglas High School in Henderson. SCP's first director was Nancy L. Doctor. In 1979 through "Project Independence" home-care money, SCP was expanded for several months into a regional program. In 1981, SCP's management office was moved to Owensboro and through the use of Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) money, the project was again expanded into a seven-county program. Cindy Ferrell has served as SCP/FGP Director since late 1987; Roxie W. McCool served in that position in 1987.
The AACS Senior Companion Program was selected in 1983 to operate an Acute Care Component. ACTION funded ten slots ("VSYs," or Volunteer Service Years) for this specialized component. This helps transition persons from institutional care to their homes. But by 1991 -- at ACTION direction, all SCP slots were once again homebased. In September, 1990, the program received four additional "VSYs," bringing the total SCP slots to eighty. Over a three-year span from 1991 through 1994 the agency will receive an additional fifteen SCPs to be funded through the Kentucky DSS and GRADD under an Administration on Aging/ACTION joint discretionary program, bringing the total "slots" to ninety-five. The latter program was based on a joint proposal of the AACS and GRADD. The AACS was the only project in the six-state Philadephia Region (III) to receive the four-slot "national significance" grant; and the AACS-GRADD discretionary program was one of only eleven such grants funded in the entire nation in 1991.
The Green River ADD (GRADD) contracted two major projects to the AACS during the late 1970s. In 1978, GRADD received a Section 147 National Rural Transportation Demonstration Program -- the smallest such grant in the nation. The AACS already operated a three-county transportation service, begun in 1973 by H-U-W, under an Emergency Food and Medical Services (EFMS) grant from OEO. GRADD contracted the operation of the demonstration program to the AACS.
Buddy R. Fuqua, former owner-operator of Fuqua Bus Lines, was hired in October, 1978 to manage the system, known as "GRITS," which stands for the Green River Intra-county Transit System -- a name devised by Tanya Gritz, human resources planner at GRADD. The system was carefully planned, organized and coordinated in its beginning under the guidance of GRADD transportation planner David A. Doctor, the GRADD Transportation Committee, Buddy Fuqua and the AACS. The "147" Demonstration grant ended at the close of FY1981, but the GRADD-AACS GRITS connection remained two more years. In 1983, the DOT-GRADD-AACS linkage for GRITS became a direct Kentucky DOT-AACS operation, as it remains today. In 1985, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet recognized GRITS as the "Outstanding Multi-county Rural Transit System."
In 1980, GRITS (AACS) became the Lead Agency for applicants in the Green River area applying for capital assistance (vehicle purchase subsidy) under UMTA 16 (b)(2). Thus, all area applicants apply for new and replacement vehicles through the AACS. In 1987, GRITS paging/dispatching was centralized in the Owensboro Central Office with an "800" WATS (area-wide toll free line). Previously, the dispatching for the system had been performed in each local county out of the respective county CAA offices. An areawide radio system is in constant contact with each vehicle and driver during operation hours and the busses are dispatched from point to point through this means, as well as prior scheduling. Audubon Area Community Services, Inc./GRITS contracted with Greyhound Lines in 1988 to serve as a "feeder" service under the Greyhound "Rural Connection" program. In September, 1988, the Agency also became the Greyhound commission agent for Morganfield. These Greyhound programs ended in mid-1990 with the nationwide drivers' strike against Greyhound and Greyhound Lines' subsequently filing for bankruptcy. In late 1990, GRITS -- which is the holder of Kentucky's first Non-profit Bus Certificate -- applied for expanded operating authority for "operating over all points" (except Henderson) in the Green River Area. As of May, 1991, the Transportation Cabinet has yet to decide on the request.
In 1979, GRADD also contracted major portions of its fee-funded home care for the elderly program, Project Independence, to the AACS. The Agency provided in-home services through SCP, home repair in association with its weatherization program and information and referral/casework services in association with its Title III Older American Act Senior Citizen Program. Most of the services delegated to the AACS continued less than two years. These were ultimately discontinued or consolidated with the elderly nutrition project -- as was the Title III social services programs for the elderly in 1985 -- under the Green River District Health Department/Green River Aging Services.
The Title III program grew from its initial administration of the Hancock County senior citizens program in 1974 to the AACS contracting with GRADD for services in all counties, other than Daviess, by 1979. The AACS assumed responsibility for Title III social services in McLean, Union and Webster Counties in 1975, Henderson County in 1978, and Ohio County in 1979. The program operated from the following centers: Hancock County, the Courthouse and later the County Administration Building; McLean, the Courthouse, then the Livermore Senior Citizens Center and finally the Calhoun City/County Building; Union, the Union County Community Center across from the Courthouse -- and in addition utilized the Uniontown Multi-purpose Senior Center; and Webster, the West Lieper Street Center in Dixon. Henderson had its own Senior Citizens Center, the Fire Barn, at 1228 Helm Street. The Ohio program was operated out of the Community Center building in Hartford.
The transfer of those programs, albeit a very small portion of AACS operations ($177,000 and ten staff), represented a real transition of focus for the Agency. For the 1970s at least, services to the elderly were top priority for the agency.
The CAA's had historically operated community-based outreach, information and referral services in each county, although those in the H-U-W area were perhaps more senior-oriented. This one consistent operation has given strength and community support to the agency. In the rural counties, it is often the only such resource for communities, public officials and needy clients to turn to for assistance. During the early days, the services were primarily referral, but the Agency has administered a large number of direct assistance programs since 1982.
If the transfer of the Title III aging programs, then under the direction of Daisy M. James, represented the passing of a focus on the aged, the advent of CSBG (Community Services Block Grant) in October, 1981, represented the passing of an age in community action nation wide. The Community Services Administration (CSA) was eliminated, its former funding to CAAs was block-granted to the states, and a new CAA-state funding relationship was established. As part of that, Kentucky established a new "community services funding" allocation formula based primarily on relative low-income populations. As a result, the AACS -- which had long been under funded in OEO/CSA dollars -- received a sizable increase in community-based funding through CSBG.
The community-based offices in each county have changed from time to time. The original "outreach offices" in Owensboro were located at the Nannie Locke (East End) and P.G. Walker (West End) housing developments. Too, outreach and service offices were briefly operated in the early 1970s in Whitesville and at the Dugan Best Center in Owensboro's far west end.
From 1974-88 the Daviess County community services office was located at 403 West Third Street, in the same building as the central office. Part of the time that office operated out of the ground floor suite that previously housed Western Kentucky Legal Services, Inc. In June of 1988, the community services (CSBG) office moved to the new central office building at 1800 West Fourth Street. But for both 1988-89 and 1989-90 a satelite office on West Tenth Street (across from the Baskin-Robbins plant) was leased for three months each year to accomodate the heavy client traffic created by the LIHEAP program.
Then in November, 1990 -- in anticipation of the 1990-91 LIHEAP program -- the Daviess County Service Center was permanently relocated to the Killian Center at 900 Walnut Street in Owensboro. The facility, which previously housed the Daviess County Head Start center, was renovated for office use, with appropriate space for large client groups awaiting service and for the inclusion of the Daviess County Food Bank.
Hancock County's office has historically been in the Courthouse (second floor southwest) and the County Administration Building since its opening. For a while in the late 1970's an office was also maintained in the Lewisport Community Center. Henderson County's "SOS" (Senior Opportunities and Services) operations were located until late 1976 in the 840 North Adams senior citizens complex, then moved to the Douglas High School building along with other AACS programs. The Douglas High School building was sold in 1980 and the office was moved to the Zion United Church of Christ Rectory at 435 First Street. In 1988, the Agency moved to the former site of the "Pope Pool" on South Washington Street and installed a mobile unit on city property.
As of June, 1991, the Henderson office (CSBG) was moved to 1120 Fifth Street in Henderson. This office is a newly renovated structure adjoining the agency's USDA Commodities warehouse. Just previous to this location, the Henderson office had for the past year been located in the Old Town Center at 410 Second Street in Henderson.
McLean County offices were in the Courthouse (second floor northwest) through 1988 when the Fiscal Court renovated a building immediately behind the Courthouse at 170 Second Street in Calhoun and provided that facility for AACS and its JTPA (manpower) operations. Ohio County's CAA office was located in the Courthouse (second floor northwest) through 1974. In 1975, the office was moved to Beaver Dam adjacent to City Hall. Briefly, a facility near the Bruce community was used in 1975. The Office was moved back to Hartford in 1976 and combined with the RSVP office just off the Courthouse square in the "Baptist Building" facility (formerly occupied by the Cabinet for Human Resources, Department for Social Services); in 1979 moved to an office in the Spinks Shopping Center (Hartford) and in 1981 the office was moved into the Ohio County Community Center. Originally it was in a spacious office on the northeast corner, ground level, but in 1989 the AACS and the Green River Comprehensive Care Center exchanged locations.
The Union County center was located in a building purchased from Camp Breckinridge (now the Job Corps Center) and erected on City of Morganfield property on West Geiger Street. In 1982, the office was relocated to the former Union County jail building on the Courthouse Square and remained there until 1987 when it was again relocated to the site of the former Greyhound Bus Terminal in Morganfield.
In the late summer of 1990, the Union County Center was moved to 519 North Court Street in Morganfield into the mobile unit previously housing the Henderson office. The unit has also been outfitted with handicap ramps by the Union county Fiscal Court, which also provided the ground and parking area.
Webster County's CAA office had been located since the beginning in the old Dixon Elementary School building. However, following renovation and reassignment of the building for Title III senior citizens purposes and the transfer of that program, the AACS moved its office...first into the County Garage Building in 1985 and later (1988) back to the Dixon Elementary School property on West Geiger Street. Presently, the Agency occupies two "mobile" facilities behind the school and the Title III and CAA facilities share a common parking lot. Too, the AACS during the late 1970's occasionally used a community building in Providence for "SOS" senior services.
The AACS invested a portion of its CSBG "windfall" in the expansion of its Senior Companion Program. In 1983, CSBG received an allocation through an Emergency Jobs Bill. Through this the AACS inaugurated a new locally-funded, ACTION-sanctioned Foster Grandparent Program (FGP), which -- after SCP was deleted from AACS CSBG funding -- was supported 1985-1990 through CSBG. The program begin in Daviess County only. ACTION began funding a small FGP grant to the AACS in 1987. IN 1989, additional funding was received from the United Way, which enabled the expansion of the program into Henderson county. The counties of Daviess and Henderson now share 21 FGP slots. In 1990, the United Way took a very hard, yet very supportive, look at its FGP funding in view of a predicted cutback in CSBG funding for the program. In the end, the United Way maintained its funding commitment. Looming CSBG appropriation cuts portended the end of FGP's CSBG subsidy by 1992, but the 1991 otulook for CSBG funding looks very hopeful.
As of April 1, 1991, the stipend earned by FGP's was raised to $2.35 per hour; it has previously been $2.20 per hour. As with SCP, the FGP stipended is "tax-free" and does not count as income against any federal-state benefit for which the senior benefit for which the senior volunteers may otherwise qualify.
AACS executive director, Ronald Logsdon, was invited to 25th anniversary celebration at White House, July 16, 1990, with First Lady Barbara Bush. Logsdon was invited because AACS has the highest percent of non-federal support of any private-sponsored FGP project in the action -- and only the state of Delaware has a greater percentage.
Also as a result of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, its block-granting approach and the elimination of CSA, the AACS is now accountable to the Kentucky Cabinet for Human Resources for its compliance with CAA organizational requirements. The state is then accountable to the federal Office of Community Services, DHHS.
During the 1970s, it was the "Emergency Food and Medical Services" (EFMS) program. Later this services was called "Community Food and Nutrition Program" (CFNP). The Agency has administered a number of food and nutrition programs under funding from CSA and the state since the beginning, but the largest were funded in 1980. These included mobile and stationary canners, nutrition education and gardening programs. Registered Dietician Marianne Smith directed these programs 1980-81. She was succeeded in 1981 by Robyn Mattingly who previously directed the Agency's consumer services program.
Since 1982, the Agency has administered the commodity foods distribution program -- the first year only under the auspices of the Green River ADD. Ms. Mattingly traveled to Bowling Green in 1982 to receive the Agency's first shipment of USDA commodities -- six hundred pounds of American cheese. When the program peaked in 1986-87, the Agency was distributing 604,000 pounds of cheese and 1.6 million pounds of total commodities to more than 8,700 thousand families per month. The program quickly became very visible and politically popular, particularly with local and county officials. Due to the reduction of cheese supplies -- which were eliminated altogether in 1989 -- and the substitution of less "popular" commodity products (as well as lower levels of supply), the participation level dropped to 4,500 families per month in 1988-89. Federal officials say the commodity program will likely be discontinued after FY 1990.
The Agency also administered the USDA Summer Feeding Program 1980-85. The program was funded through the Kentucky Department of Education. It provided a nutritious meal to low-income youth around a recreational experience. The USDA audited the Kentucky Department of Education in 1986 and claimed that CAAs like the AACS were "not eligible entities" under current law. There was negative publicity concerning this in the Owensboro newspaper as the Southeastern Association of Community Action Agencies (SEACAA) was holding its Annual Meeting (for the only time) in August 1986, at the Executive Inn Rivermont in Owensboro. The news release was erroneous and embarrassing since the AACS had done nothing improper. The only issue was, in the opinion of the USDA, the CAA should not have been a contractor for the program in the first place. The result was that the AACS simply ceased to administer the project.
Manpower programs have also been among the AACS offerings nearly from the beginning: Operation Mainstream (1969-73), (NYC) Neighborhood Youth Corps (1969-74), and (OJT) On-the-Job-Training (1969-74). H-U-W sponsored all of these grants on a seven-county basis, except that the Owensboro Area EOC operated "Mainstream" in its four-county area 1970-73. The AACS has sponsored Private Industry Council (PIC) grants (1981-83), the Young Adult Conservation Corps (YACC, 1975-81) and the Senior Community Service Employment Program (Title V), 1977 to the present. Also, the agency administered a special United Way job search, counseling, and assistance program, "New Ventures," in Henderson, 1987-88.
The late phase of federal manpower Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) programming (during the Carter Administration) saw the agency much involved with Title VI "counter-cyclical" public service employment programs. The AACS sponsored a number of these projects for the so-called "hard-core" unemployed. These were popular locally and provided work - and an initial introduction to the workforce - to many who would have otherwise been unable to find employment. YACC was also a notable program during this period. Considerable work (building shelters and nature trails, drainage and erosion control, etc.) was done through this project both at Audubon Park in Henderson and Ben Hawes State Park in Owensboro.
Consequently, the AACS and its parent agencies were the primary "manpower" agencies in the area through 1973 when the Manpower Development and Training Act (MDTA) was replaced by CETA. Under CETA, the agency remained active with Title VI and Title VII (PIC) and YACC. Under Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) since 1982, the agency has as yet been unable to secure funding for a project, though a number of proposals were submitted.
Home weatherization services were instituted in 1976 through CSA funding. It was originally an energy conservation program - in response to the energy crisis of the mid-70s. With the passing of CSA in 1981, the project became a Department of Energy program. Also, funding for the past few years has been supplemented through Kentucky's portion of the Exxon Oil overcharge settlement in Federal Court and Kentucky's decision to apply 15% of the Low-Income Home Emergency Assistance Program (LIHEAP) toward weatherization. Over time, the emphasis has shifted from energy conservation to housing stock improvement and is now seemingly shifting back to energy conservation. Darrell B. Welborn is the second director of the AACS home weatherization program, serving in that capacity since 1980. Vickie L. Murphy was the program's first director. Between 1979 and 1980, it was administered as part of the Project Independence program with a Residential Services Manager over both projects.
The Weatherization Program was administered at the state level from 1981 through 1989 by the Department for Employment Services/Cabinet for Human Resources. During the '80s, the program's emphasis seemed to drift somewhat - from energy conservation to dwelling "retrofittings." As of March 1, 1990, the program was transferred to the Kentucky Department for Social Insurance - which also administers the LIHEAP and Exxon Oil overcharge funds - and the emphasis has clearly swung back to energy conservation. In 1991, the agency (along with other grantees) also began using blower doors and the latest technology to accurately identify air infiltration routes and where to specifically direct program improvements to maximize energy conservation. Also, a utility survey system has been implemented to document actual energy savings resulting from the home weatherization services.
Crisis assistance somewhat recently became a major part of the agency's community-based programming. During the Reagan years, the federal funding emphasis seemed to change from self-help, advocacy, and developmental programs to short-term maintenance initiatives - like commodities, homeless, and food/energy assistance. The AACS had administered all of these and continues to do so. Food and shelter funding and some energy assistance comes through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the United Way of the Ohio Valley. The bulk of the agency's shelter and energy assistance from the Kentucky Cabinet for Human Resources and Kentucky Association for Community Action (LIHEAP energy assistance).
The agency has been involved with the LIHEAP program since January 1986, when the state Department for Social Insurance (DSI) contracted a "winter emergency" program. Since then the agency has provided extensive "emergency" and "crisis" LIHEAP services. The state DSI continued to administer the "subsidy" program through December 1989, but the Kentucky CAAs picked up the program in early 1990 and operated it entirely along with the previous components in 1990-91. The total program reached $750,000 in 1989-90 and $881,591 in 1990-91.
The AACS and other Kentucky CAAs also conducted a 1983-84 LIHEAP summer cooling program and a 1984-85 emergency heating program under contract with DSI through KACA. Winter Care (utility assistance) has also supplemented the LIHEAP subsidies.
The McKinney Act/CSBG Homeless Program has been a mainstay of resources to serve the homeless since the program's inception in 1987. the McKinney Act program has been directed to meet the needs of two major groups: transients - with short-term emergency lodging, including subsidized stays at the Boulware Center Lodge for homeless shelter services.
In 1990 and 1991, the agency was a recipient of "Street Relief" funds - receiving the largest allocation in 1990. "Street Relief" is a venture of Owensboro's WSTO radio station to help serve the homeless in the Owensboro-Evansville area. The radio-thon is a creation of radio personalities Brian Jackson and Brian Witherspoon - and by station manager Corky Norcia. The annual "Street Relief" radio-thon raises some $25,000 to $35,000 in Owensboro for homeless services.
Prior to the mid-1980s, the AACS community-based staff served primarily through referrals, advocacy, and community organization. The 1980s saw the shift to enormous numbers of direct assistance services. The CSBG client load swelled to some twenty thousand families in 1980. Today, the AACS CSBG staff is involved in some 125,000 client contracts per year. Much of this is accomplished through the regular and continuing support of a cadre of local volunteers.
In mid-May 1991, both the Owensboro City Commission and the Daviess County Fiscal Court, following months of study by a review committee, awarded the delivery of local emergency relief services to the AACS, Inc.-the lead agency and the Green River Health Department - to provide all health-related services. The local services had been handled by the Welfare League of Owensboro-Daviess County since 1915. The new administration was jointly funded by the two local governments at a level of $115,000 including $23,000 to the AACS, Inc. for administration of the program. The AACS provides the primary intake, makes referrals, and provides "last resort" emergency services other than those which are health related. The new agencies began offering services July 1, 1991. The program was located at the Daviess County Service Center at 900 Walnut Street in Owensboro.
The agency's Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) was inaugurated in 1973 as a result of the promotional work of James Huffines of the Kentucky aging department who promoted the program in the Green River area. Both the H-U-W and the Owensboro Area EOC applied for RSVP grants. The OAEOC wanted to implement a four-county program but the Volunteer Bureau of the United Way was, at that time, required by law to exercise its prime option to administer the program or decline. The Volunteer Bureau opted to sponsor the program in Daviess County, therefore, the AACS was able to acquire funding for the three-county program (Hancock, McLean, and Daviess Counties), with the project based in Hartford. Laura Rickard, first chairperson of the Green River Area Committee on Aging and then director of the Owensboro EOC Community Food and Nutrition Program was appointed the first RSVP director. Rickard went into semi-retirement in the position of McLean County RSVP Coordinator in 1983 and Betty L. Williams became RSVP Director serving 1984-86.
The project operated out of a number of locations in Hartford - 1973-75 Hartford City Hall; 1975-76 the Pendleton Building in Hartford; 1976-79 the present Baptist Building; 1979-81 the Fleener Building; 1981 to present the Ohio County Community Center.
Meanwhile, the Owensboro-Daviess County program was operated by the United Way through 1975 then transferred to the City of Owensboro as its sponsoring entity. In 1986, ACTION approached the AACS about negotiating with the city and its RSVP to administer a consolidated four-county project. The two "Owensboro-based" RSVP projects were consolidated May 1, 1986 and Patricia S. Renner, director of the former Owensboro-Daviess County project, was named AACS RSVP Director. The AACS RSVP headquarters office was placed at the Elizabeth Mundy Center in Owensboro. RSVP is the only AACS project not directly administered from the Owensboro Central Office of the agency.
RSVP expanded its services to Webster County through a short-term ACTION grant in mid-1989. The project worked closely with the Webster County Fiscal Court which also helped fund the expansion. RSVP negotiated with Henderson County interests, including the Fiscal Court, toward the goal of further expanding the program there. As of 1991, RSVP began operating in Henderson County through funding from the Henderson Fiscal Court. The program continues to work toward the goal of further expansion of the program.
In September 1990, the AACS, Inc. applied for and won a contract from the Kentucky Department for Social Services (DSS) to administer a new Family Preservation Program (FPP) in the seven-county Green River Area. The contract was received after a competitive application process with other outstanding service providers. The $150,000 contract was awarded to the agency as of November 15, 1990. It provided FPP with start-up monies and operational funding through June 30, 1991, the conclusion of the first operational year; the second year contract was approved in April 1990, at the same $150,000 level. The FPP project office is located at 900 Walnut Street in Owensboro.
Approximately thirty families in crisis will be served each year. The program grew out of a 1985 DSS emphasis on "family-based services" which focuses service delivery on the family unit rather than the individual. In an effort to provide more intensive crisis intervention with severely distressed families and to prevent unnecessary out-of-home placements, DSS established the Family Preservation Program, initially with three demonstration programs, including one in the Pennyrile Area.
FPP is specifically directed to work with multi-problemed families who have one or more children at imminent risk of placement out of the home. The FPP projects utilize the Homebuilders Model of the Behavioral Sciences Institute in the State of Washington. The demonstration projects successfully provided the effectiveness of FPP in meeting the needs of families and preventing out-of-home placements. As a result, the Kentucky General Assembly passed House Bill 887 in 1990 and enabled the expansion of FPP statewide.
The FPP staff consists of a Clinical Supervisor/Program Administrator, three Family Therapists, and a program secretary. The staff, including the program director Tami Canter-Powell, were hired as of January 1, 1991. The program began formal operations on January 2 and the first clients were received from DSS - the only source of FPP referrals - on February 12, 1991.
The program is generally under the direction of a DSS-AACS Management Team. In 1990-91, the Management Team included DSS' Western Kentucky Family Preservation Program Director Donna Harmon of Princeton, DSS Green River District Manager Bill Horton of Owensboro, DSS Protection Specialist Barry Denton of Henderson, FPP Director Tami Canter-Powell, and AACS Executive Director Ronald Logsdon.
The agency and the FPP staff consider the program an exciting new venture and opportunity for service - in a wonderful arena - the quest to save families! It fits the stated mission of the agency to assist families to attain self-sufficiency.
A couple of long-time programs were recently lost: Section 8 Rent Subsidy and the Boulware Center/Lodge.
Housing programs have been an integral part of AACS programming since 1969 when the Owensboro agency instituted a housing program under its OEO community-based funding. In 1973, the agency became an official HUD Home Counseling agency. In 1977, the Kentucky Housing Corporation (KHC) contracted fifty units of Section 8-existing rent-subsidy housing to the AACS. That number has grown to a total of 283 units in six Green River area counties. This includes twenty units added by KHC in 1989. Only Henderson County - which is administered by its housing authority - is omitted from the AACS Section 8 program.
In September 1990, KHC notified the AACS that it intended to begin directly administering its Section 8 - Existing program in the Green River area. With 292 units contracted to the AACS, it was one of the largest KHC contracts, possessing a sufficient critical mass to justify KHC's own local staffing. Therefore, the AACS staff began concluding all Section 8 recertifications and inspections for client contracts renewing as of February 1, 1991, so that an orderly transfer of services could be completed. The AACS did a magnificent job under adverse circumstances and the records and responsibility for the Section 8 program were transferred to KHC by the end of December 1990. All client services and AACS-KHC contract obligations were current and KHC was able to take over the program with a "clean bill of health." There were few program in the history of this agency that the staff regretted more giving up. The Section 8 program was a natural complement to other AACS community-based services, but the agency can take justifiable pride in the excellent way it administered the local services and concluded its responsibility for the program.
The AACS also administered a community information component of the Owensboro Community Development Program, 1974-84.
Owensboro's Boulware Center was an independent, autonomous operation of the AACS. From March 1979, until September 30, 1990, it was administered by the AACS under a contractual arrangement with the Boulware Center Board of Directors. The Boulware Center is an agency of the United Way of Owensboro-Daviess County. Its operations include senior and children's services. It also includes a fifteen-bed lodging facility for the homeless with a capacity of twenty-one persons per night. The lodge is the Green River Area's only such facility. AACS' administration of the Boulware Center came about when Donald Owsley, chairman of both AACS and Boulware boards advocated the AACS' added capability to manage and develop the Boulware Center, which was then being managed by the Salvation Army. Daisy James, Sue Burcham, and Dale Reusch, the last AACS director, have managed the center on behalf of the AACS. AACS Associate Director Bill Staples assumed oversight responsibility for the center in 1989. All Boulware staff were employees or contractors of the AACS.
The Boulware Center, Inc. commenced independent operations on October 1, 1990. Dale Reusch was named executive director for the center. The Boulware Center's Board eliminated the elderly and children's services and began operating only as a homeless shelter in 1991. That recommendation had been made to the Boulware Executive Board on March 28, 1990. A subsequent consultant's study confirmed that as the appropriate course of action and the Boulware Board acted favorable on the recommendation.
Finally, we close the circle of AACS programs with Head Start, the largest of its projects. More than half the staff and nearly half the agency's funding are in Head Start.
During the '60s, federal funding available to CAAs largely focused on advocacy, manpower and economic programs. By the '70s, the "hot" federal funding initiatives seemed to revolve around services to the elderly. The '80s saw a drastic diminishment of domestic programs, but those programs available were primarily maintenance-oriented - energy assistance, homeless and food assistance. It is now becoming increasingly clear that the emphasis of the 1990s will be children and child development. The AACS is perfectly poised to assume a major role as a children's advocate and provider.
Head Start has played a major role in both the founding, survival, and growth of the agency - particularly in the Owensboro area. Now it is as though the agency is really just "returning to its roots" with the Head Start-child development expansion which looms on the horizon.
Head Start, which began here in 1966-67 as a summer program, was originally delegated to the local school systems. (The first Head Start summer program in the country was in 1965.) The CAAs administered the money through pass-through accounts to the school boards. The participating systems in the Green River area were all summer programs only.
Head Start was transferred from OEO to HEW (Department of Health, Education and Welfare) in 1969. In the early 1970s, the then DHEW pressed the grantors - the four local CAAs including Hopkins-Muhlenberg and Pennyrile - to convert the summer programs to "full-year" (school year) Head Start programs - and to the extent possible consolidate Head Start under their direct management. This process began with the CAAs hiring new full-time Head Start directors. Central coordinating staff were hired, classrooms were arranged and staffed, children were recruited in 1970.
Walter R. Mayes, Jr. directed this operation on behalf of the Owensboro Area EOC; Larry A. Gibson did so for H-U-W. In 1972, only the Daviess, McLean, Ohio, and Owensboro systems remained Head Start delegates. By 1974, all Green River Area Head Start operations were directly managed by the two CAAs, except in Owensboro and Daviess County. Daviess County relinquished its operation of Head Start in 1976 but the Owensboro School System only did so in 1986 with the advent of statewide kindergarten and the lack of classroom space. The coming of statewide kindergarten was coupled with a Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children, Youth and Families (DHHS/ACYF) requirement that Head Start serve only three and four year-old children.
The Pennyrile Allied Community Services, Inc. (PACS), based in Hopkinsville relinquished its sponsorship of the Head Start program in September 1978. A January 1978, lawsuit by the Pennyrile Head Start project against its grantor agency led to the split. Over the next two months, there were local efforts to resolve the dispute, but by November the PACS board decided not to pursue the matter further and notified the Atlanta Regional Office of DHHS it no longer wished to sponsor the program.
With PACS' blessing, the AACS was granted sponsorship of the 480-child Head Start project in the five counties served by PACS: Christian, Hopkins, Lyon, Muhlenberg, and Trigg. The AACS assumed management responsibility for Pennyrile Head Start operations on January 1, 1979. The PACS Head Start centers closed on October 31, 1978, then briefly reopened and closed permanently on November 10, 1978.
The awarding of sponsorship for the 480-child, $577,000 program to the AACS was formally announced by United State Representative Carroll Hubbard of the First Congressional District on December 19, 1978. The AACS began immediately preparing to reopen the program. Staff were hired (including new Area Coordinator Terry Clark), centers were prepared, administrative requirements were addressed, and the centers were finally reopened in late February 1979, after state fire and licensing officials approved the center for operation. All former Pennyrile Area Head Start center-based staff were retained, while the former management staff were not accepted for AACS employment. Understandably, operations were somewhat tenuous the first couple of years, but it has blossomed and matured into a very happy marriage. By December 1982, PACS officials were seeking to regain sponsorship of the Head Start program in the Pennyrile counties. By this time the program had become a solidly integrated whole. AACS operations were proceeding effectively, a quality Head Start program was being provided areawide, and AACS officials were not interested in entertaining the proposal. Indeed, the AACS has repeatedly endeavored to expand its program into the remaining Pennyrile counties. It continues in that resolve to provide service to the two remaining two unserved counties.
The 480 new slots from the Pennyrile segment added to the 418 Green River slots gave the Audubon Area Head Start program a total child enrollment of 898 in 1979. The combined budget was $1.1 million - more than the total of all AACS grants in 1975 when the agency was organized. Initially, all Green River area and Pennyrile area slots were left "as is," but by 1980 the agency began moving slots (in accordance with federal Head Start policy) as dictated by annual Head Start needs assessment requirements.
In a move designed to further improve the quality of services to enrolled children, the program - with ACYF/DHHS, Head Start Policy Council, and community support - cut ninety slots from the areawide program in 1980 to help ameliorate its severely under-funded per-child level. Twenty-eight were deleted from Daviess County, twenty from Hopkins County, thirty from Trigg County, and twelve from Webster County.
In 1985, twenty slots were moved from the Green River area to Marion in Crittenden County. Head Start services began there in September 1985. Efforts to obtain expansion monies to move into Caldwell County in 1988-89 were unsuccessful, but the agency remains committed to that objective - and will do so as soon as possible.
Head Start Centers, of course, have shifted from time to time. The largest move occurred in 1989 with the renovation of Booker T. Washington School. As soon as the 1988-89 school year ended and operations at the Durrett Avenue School ceased, the move to Booker T. Washington began. Head Start operations started there with the opening of the 1989-90 school year. All two hundred Christian County Head Start children are served in the Booker T. Washington facility, which was dedicated in a day-long ceremony on December 5, 1989.
Other major moves were the 1980 transfer of Hopkins County operations to the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church child care center. The move also included the consolidation of the former Earlington Center with the new Madisonville site. In 1987, the Killian Center (named after B.J. Killian) was opened in Owensboro. The Killian Foundation gave $10,000 toward the development of this project. It represented the first permanent new home for the Owensboro Head Start after the Owensboro Public Schools which had housed the program from 1967 to 1986, relinquished the delegated program to provide space for its mandatory kindergarten. The Owensboro-Daviess County program was "homebased" in 1986-87, during which time the Housing Authority of Owensboro provided space for double-session "socialization sites." Killian houses eighty children and the Harry Smith Center, donated by the Housing Authority, forty children. Another forty children were served 1987-90 in a "portable" facility at the Owensboro Girls Club. That facility was closed when virtually all of the Daviess County Head Start programs were transferred to the Mary Mitchell Center in August 1990. Since 1983, the agency has also been a delegate of the Western Kentucky University Training and Technical Assistance office. Twenty slots are provided through this source to serve particularly high risk children. From 1983 through 1989 this program was housed at the Owensboro Area Spouse Abuse Shelter. The program was moved to the Harry Smith Center in 1989. Harry Smith and Rolling Heights day care center remain as the only other Head Start centers in Daviess County; the latter houses a small sixteen-slot "WKU Delegate" program.
The Henderson program (eight slots) was relocated in 1985 from the Hyland Baptist Church to Barrett School and forty slots added to Henderson County in 1985. Muhlenberg County operations were relocated in 1986 to the Catholic School in Muhlenberg County Fiscal Court's Child Care Center in Central City and a portable classroom facility in Greenville ... twenty slots each.
Union County services were in the St. Ann School in Morganfield, since the program began, but in 1985, Head Start was forced to go homebased when the school required the space for its own needs. Since 1988, the program has operate din spacious quarters in the old Morganfield School building provided by the Union County Board of Education.
Webster County operations had long been housed at the Providence Elementary School until 1985 when the Providence School System needed the space. That year, the twenty slots previously in Providence were moved to Marion in Crittenden County. In 1987, twenty slots were reassigned to a new facility in Providence and housed in a privately owned building, a former church and hardware store on Finley Street. Also in Webster County, the facility previously at Poole was moved in 1985 to Dixon.
The Trigg County program was originally housed at the same site it presently occupies. It was then moved in 1971 to the McUpton School -- and its enrollment increased from twenty to sixty children. The program lost this space in 1984 and went homebased for one year. It has been housed (with reduced enrollment) back in its original private facility since 1985.
The Lyon County Head Start site has been the most stable location throughout the program. Head Start had been housed there for the entire life of the program at the central school complex in Eddyville, Lyon County. Head Start was located at the High School (yes, that's right) until October, 1979, when it was moved across the grounds to the Middle School.
Hancock County Head Start was located until 1988 in the Hawesville Elementary School. That year it was moved to the Lewisport Elementary School. McLean County's program originally operated at the Livermore and Calhoun Elementary Schools. The Calhoun Center was deleted in 1980 and the Livermore Center moved to the Sacramento Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In 1984, the Sacramento Center was moved back to the Livermore Elementary School where it remains.
Ohio County operations were located at three centers in 1973: Horse Branch, Dundee and Centertown. The Horse Branch space was lost in 1974 and this center became Audubon's first homebased program. The Dundee and Centertown space was also lost in 1976 and the entire Ohio County program was converted to the homebased model. Various socialization sites were used before 1980 when the "portable" facility was moved from Earlington to Beaver Dam to serve the entire Ohio County homebased program. Twelve new homebased slots were added in Fordsville in 1989. Here the Fordsville Rest Home provided the classroom site. In January, 1990, Head Start expanded to Todd County with a homebased program. The Todd County Board of Education provided a classrom in its North Todd School in Elkton for a program "socialization" site. In 1990-91, Todd County was served with a center-based program. Ten children were funded out of the "WKU Delegate" Head Start program; the balance were funded through Kentucky Education Reform Act funding. The center was moved to Guthrie, Kentucky, to a center provided by the Housing Authority of Todd County. Also in January, 1990, Head Start began a Head Start/HANDY-O program in Caldwell County, operating out of a Princeton nursing home. That program operated only the remainder of the 1989-90 school year. The AACS, Inc. has applied for Head Start expansion funds each year since 1989 in order to institute permanent Head Start services in Caldwell County. The agency has also submitted a joint proposal with the Murray Head Start to "delegate" a program in Livingston County. The AACS, Inc. Head Start has maintained its services in Todd County, which is no longer officially an "unserved" county.
Major program-wide changes include the implementation of employee contracts on October 1, 1984. By 1984, the AACS had a 9.25% Unemployment Insurance tax rate, with nothing but certain increases in sight. Its employer reserve fund had a deficit of $166,000, due 98% to summer payments to Head Start staff. The federal grantor and most Head Start grantees explored options to ameliorate the situation. The AACS was among the first to implement Head Start employee contacts, coupled with direct compensation and benefits to the staff. Over the next two years the Agency weathered the resulting UI appeals and the use of contracts have now become standard procedure for virtually all Head Start projects. As a result of this approach, the AACS UI rate has dropped to 2.5% in five years and its employer reserve account has an $85,000 surplus which is building rapidly and portends steeper declines in the UI tax rate. The savings from this approach have consistently been returned to enhanced staff benefits agency-wide.
Too, the Head Start program in a bold move -- with Policy Council, grantor and parent support -- in 1982 eliminated its transportation program. Efforts were made to negotiate an economical rate with the PACS transit system in lieu of the Head Start-provided service. The end-result, however, was the cessation of Agency-paid transportation services for the Pennyrile counties. One immediate benefit was a parent-organized cooperative car-pooling arrangement and much increased Head Start parent involvement. Alternative systems are now back in place in all but four counties, two each in the respective ADDs.
The AACS, Inc Head Start has played a major role in the area's major new pre-school program, the four-year-old "at-risk" program, mandated for each school system and funded by the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). the first year (1990-91) each system was permitted to elect to operate the program or waive participation until the following year. In the Green River-Pennyrile area, fourteen out of nineteen school systems opted to conduct the program in 1990-91 and thirteen school districts contracted with the AACS, Inc. Head Start. Twelve of those contracted virtually the entire program. The Mary Mitchell Center is Owensboro was a "blended" program wherein Head Start and the Owensboro School System amalgamated the KERA and Head Start programs. Livingston County contracted with the Murray Head Start program. Daviess County operated the KERA At-risk Program on its own in 1990-91 but contracted with the AACS in a blended program arrangement for 1991-92. Todd County proposed to operate its own program for 1991-92, but all other KERA contracts with Head Start continued.
A total of 501 KERA At-risk children were contracted to Head Start in thirteen 1990-91 contracts: Crittenden County, 10; Hancock County, 12; Henderson County, 100; Hopkins County, 50; Lyon County, 10; McLean County, 15; Muhlenberg County, 40; Ohio County, 25; Owensboro (Mary Mitchell Center), 120; Todd County, 14; Trigg County, 15; Union County, 40; and Webster County, 50. The 1991-92 Daviess County contract will involve 114 KERA children for whom Head Start will provide all support services; Head Start will also add 24 Head Start "homebased" slots in the Daviess County jurisdiction. Christian County, Dawson Springs, Fort Campbell and Providence will operate their own At-risk Program in 1991-92. As a result of 1991-92 KERA contracts already negotiated through May, 1991, the agency will pick up an additional 241 slots. This alone will bring the AACS, Inc. Head Start total number of children served to a minimum of 1,554, and perhaps 1,561 or more, depending on added Head Start expansion slots which may be received.
As a result of the KERA, there were quite a number of site changes and additions in 1990-91. The thirteen new sites used this school year were: Mary Mitchell Center, Owensboro; Hancock South School; Horse Branch School, Ohio County; Clay School, Webster County; Centertown School, Ohio County; Cairo School, Henderson County; Spotsville School, Henderson County; Pennyrile Village, Guthrie, Todd County; Caldwell Smith School, Hopkins County; Charleston School, Hopkins County; COPE School, Hopkins County; Earlington School, Hopkins County; Pride School, Hopkins County; and Drakesboro School, Muhlenberg County.
Perhaps no other program has had such far-reaching impact on the entire agency as did the KERA At-risk Program in 1990-91. It forced many policy and operational changes in Head Start and the entire agency. For example, all Head Start community-based staff were converted to hourly pay -- at the same rates of pay as their respective school systems' "classified" personnel -- and the agency payroll system was changed to an every two week basis on December 1, 1990, to accomodate the demands of having such a large portion of the agency's staff on an hourly pay basis.
After starting a day care center (West End) in 1969, then transferring it to independent status in 1973, the AACS re-entered the "day care" business in October, 1989 with the development of summer day care at the Harry Smith Center across from the Central Office and the Rolling Heights Day Care Center in Owensboro. The Rolling Heights project was developed through a HUD grant and the joint participation of the AACS and the Housing Authority of Owensboro, Ms. Patti Rayburn, Director. The Housing Authority has provided the space free of charge and has also provided substantial financial support.
The Rolling Heights Family Development Center is a combination Head Start and day care-family support center. It began serving children and families in October, 1989, after more than a year in facility development and preparation. The Center is licensed for forty slots. Under the Advisory Council leadership of Helen Sears, the Center has been both aggressive and successful in getting Foundation support, corporate and private donations, and developing other income...such as JOBS (welfare reform) child care payments. After nearly two years of limited finances it appears that the Center finally gained sufficient financial strength and stability to project a solid future. This was given a real boost in May, 1991, with substantial gifts by both The Hager Foundation and The United Way. This Center is unique in that it is a low-cost to no-cost center directed toward helping the lowest income working mothers to gain self-sufficiency.
The agency received another HUD child care grant in 1990 to develop a similar center at the Eastside Terrace Housing Complex in Hopkinsville. Construction got underway in June, 1991, with completion expected by August. The agency expects to open the Eastside Terrace Center around September or October, 1991. The center will provide day care for thirty-five children and a range of support services for their families. Hopkinsville Housing Authority Director William "Bill" Jones has given his support to this project as has Ms. Rayburn with the Owensboro project.
Donna Newman of Henderson County, an individual with considerable experience in day care development in Evansville, has been added to the staff to provide direction and support with the day care effort.
Newman also coordinates the HANDY-O (Hugs Are Necessary for Developing Young and Old) 1988-90 national Head Start intergenerational demonstration program, the brainchild of Head Start Director Linda Likins. The program received a 1988 two-year demonstration grant from ACYF/OHDS/DHHS in Washington, D.C. The federal funding ended in 1990 but the program continues, though on a more limited scale. Local fundraising is the source of present funding. A number of County Fiscal Courts, with Union County being the largest, and local groups and business provide financial assistance to the HANDY-O program. A noteworthy example of the local support this program has created is the August 25, 1990 twelve-hour HANDY-O Telethon conducted under the sponsorship of the Kiwanis Club of Hopkinsville. $12,089 was raided, great publicity was provided for Head Start and HANDY-O, and tremendous goodwill was created.
Other notable Head Start emphases have included these recent ones: A Child Development Associate (CDA) credentialling and coursework program was established with Owensboro Community College in the Spring of 1990. Minimum educational requirments for Head Start staff, along with agency support for staff to further their education and improve their credentials, were also implemented.
"Early Start" was begun in the Muhlenberg and Ohio County School Systems in 1989, and continued the following years. The AACS Head Start provided contract support to the school-based summer programs.
The Head Start program has also, under the leadership of Aubrey Nehring, converted more than half of the Kentucky Head Start programs to automated client tracking systems. The AACS Head Start was first named Kentucky "lead agency" in 1987. The agency was at first designated to implement a software program called F/A/C/T/S, the Financial And Child Tracking System. However, Nehring and Head Start Director Likins decided to change to a program they deemed better for the AACS and other Kentucky grantees, the Child Plus III software program. Those Kentucky programs which were in the first year's conversion were assisted in the changeover to Child Plus III. By mid-1990, fifteen Kentucky Head Start programs had been automated. As of this writing in June, 1991, twenty-three of Kentucky's thirty-seven Head Start programs have now bee converted to computers. Also in 1991, the Region IV Head Start office announced added funding and that the AACS' role as a computerization lead agency would be expanded with Aubrey Nehring given the responsibility for compiling the entire region's Specially-funded Cluster (handicap) quarterly reports. Now handicap reports from throughout the eight-state Southeast Region will be compiled in the AACS Head Start office and forwarded to the Health/Handicap Specialist in the Regional Office in Atlanta.
The agency has also been involved since 1989 with the Kentucky Department of Education's food services department in promoting "family day care" in the AACS Head Start serice area. as of mid-1991, the AACS has signed up fourteen "family day care" homes.
Directors of the Agency's Head Start program, before current director, Aubrey Nehring, were Linda K. Likins, 1985 to 1991 -- now director of the Head Start Collaboration Project with the Kentucky Department of Education; R. Landy Lawrence IV -- now director at DeKalb EOA Head Start in Decatur, Georgia, 1980-84; Arlene Sterett, 1977-80; and Walter R. Mayes, Jr., 1969-1977. Ron Logsdon served as acting director, 1984-85.
Under Likins tenure there were a number of notable additions to the Head Start program: the KERA At-risk Program, "family day care," "Early Start," HANDY-O, the Rolling Heights Family Davelopment Center, and the advent of minimum education requirements for Head Start staff. Also, the AACS, Inc. became the "lead agency" charged with assisting and training all other Kentucky Head Start grantees with automating (computerizing) their programs, this initiative being achieved under the direction of Aubrey Nehring, the AACS' own computer expert.
Parent agencies' Head Start directors were Walter R. Mayes, Jr., Owensboro Area EOC, 1971-75; and Larry A. Gibson, H-U-W, 1970-75. Under Mayes' tenure, the Director of Child Development, as the Head Start Director's position is properly titled in this Agency, also exercised management responsibility for the West End Day Care Center.
Head Start directors in the Pennyrile area were: Dianne Deason Chilton, PACS, 1974-78, and Pennyrile CAA, 1969-74; and Jack White, Hopkins-Muhlenberg CAA, 1972-74. White was preceded by Lester Mimms, 1970-72. Too, former PACS officials, John Tedder and Joe Lovell, served in Hopkins and Muhlenberg Counties, respectively, as 1968-70 directors of summer Head Start programs.
Although the AACS Finance Departmemt was not fully consolidated and integrated until November 1, 1981, it had since April, 1980, operated under a fairly "unified" arrangement. Shirley Millay has been the Agency's Financial Administrator since 1981. She was preceded by two others who remained but a few weeks each.
Prior to 1981, each AACS program had its own books and bookkeeper(s), although after April, 1980, the bookkeeping staff did operate out of a single office under the general supervision of a Fiscal Manager (Veronica Kyle-Stallings, 1980-81). The first step in this reorganization was the Agency's automation of its fiscal operations in August, 1979, following the April, 1979, purchase of an 18.8 megabyte single keyboard Burroughs B-80 computer and fund accounting software. The Agency replaced the Burroughs system in August, 1989, with a seven-terminal, 105 megabyte, network-able IBM 36/5363 system. In June, 1991, the system was upgraded with an addidtioal 105 megabyte drive, bringing the total didk capacity to 210 megabytes. New, improved software was also added. The "unified department" approach has resulted in a much strengthened fiscal support system, and the Agency has not had a single questioned cost or audit "finding" during the entire decade of the '80's. The Finance Department is staffed with Managers over each specialty -- for example, payroll, payables, purchasing/property and personnel.
Too, beginning October 1, 1981, the Agency implemented agency-wide the indirect cost approach to funding its administration. The transition was complete by March, 1982. The agency board committed to an 8% indirect cost rate, including approximately 5.5% administrative costs and the balance in allocable non-administrative expense. Although the DHHS Cost Allocation division converted the AACS from a "total program" basis to a "salary/wage" basis March 1, 1984, the actual effective rate remains approximately the same as the AACS Board set in 1981.
Two extraordinary fiscal events occurred under very unusual circumstances. The Agency received $176,000 from ACTION in 1976 to fund its new Senior Companion Program -- a project that has been pursued by the Agency for nearly two years prior. In 1988, the Region IV Department of Health and Human Services/Office of Human Development; Ms. Eileen Bradley, Director; decided to reward the Agency for its history of excellence administering Head Start and upgrade its extremely low per-child funding. Ms. Bradley asked AACS' community representative, Dolan Faloner with the Administration for Children, Youth and Families, how much the AACS needed to put it on a fair funding basis; he said $200,000. Ms. Bradley said, "Give it to them," and the AACS received a $200,000 permanent increase in its Head Start funding.
The interesting thing about both of these extraordinary events was that both agencies later told the AACS they did not at that time really have the monies to fund either of these grants. But the grant awards were made and the AACS and its constituents have greatly benefited from them. It just goes to show what can be done under otherwise "impossible" circumstances. Who would have believed such grants could have been made when there was "no money" available." The message here is that the Agency should never be discouraged from pursuing that which is right and necessary.
The Agency Board decided in early 1987 that it should explore the means to construct a new Central Office building. Accountants, attorneys and other advisors helped devise the plan and the management pursued a number of options. Finally, a piece of vacant property owned by the City of Owensboro at Fourth Street and Hale Avenue was found. The property had been purchased some years before by the City's Community Development Program for the future construction of additional low-income housing units, but that project was no longer under consideration. The City agreed to build the Agency a central office through its Municipal Improvement Corporation. City Manager Max Rhoads was supportive of the project from the time it was first proposed by Ron Logsdon and Bill Staples. Owensboro Mayor Jack C. Fisher enthusiastically supported the project, as did the Owensboro City Commission. After a disastrous fire which consumed two-thirds of the Ames Building complex at Third and St. Elizabeth Streets on July 17, 1987, the building initiative intensified. Miraculously, the AACS had recently vacated the portion which was destroyed, and except for a seriously damaged elevator -- which was no longer safe for use, the four-story section in which all AACS offices were located was spared through the heroic efforts of the Owensboro Fire Department.
Construction on the new building was delayed during seemingly interminable legal, zoning and construction delays. Bids were finally let through Ranney, Blake and Strehl, P.S.C., Architects for the project. B&C Contracting Company of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, with headquarters in Gallatin, Tennessee, was the successful bidder. Groundbreaking was held on December 15, 1987. The building commission then created delays in licensing the project which finally got underway on February 23, 1988, when the foundation footers were poured. The Kentucky Department of Labor then stepped in over a "prevailing wage" issue. This delayed the project until the parties agreed to pay DOL's so-called "prevailing wage." The building was finally completed in mid-June (June 20), 1988, and the AACS moved into the new structure and began operations there June 30, 1988. The new building was dedicated on October 26, 1988. The ceremony was led jointly by AACS Chairperson Charlene Powell and Owensboro Mayor David C. Adkisson.
The support of the City of Owensboro with the AACS Central Office building project is exemplary of the support the AACS receives from the community. Most Fiscal Courts make regular contributions to AACS projects. The United Way of the Ohio Valley (Owensboro and Henderson) includes several AACS projects among its member "agencies." Local boards of education are extremely supportive of Head Start, which has collaborative and cost-sharing agreements with nearly every local board in its service area. Even a few foundations, such as the Killian Foundation, make regular contributions to AACS programs, such as Head Start and the Boulware Center.
But the main thing the AACS has going for it is its great people! A number of its Board and staff have distinguished themselves in key leadership roles in their respective communities. And many have risen to the top ranks of the various professional organizations associated with the AACS.
John E. McNulty served as president of the Kentucky Association for Community Action, 1981-82. He is the only CAA Board Chairman to have served in that capacity. His tenure at KACA was a most crucial one in that it coincided with the advent of the CSBG Block Grant system. McNulty served on a number of task force groups which saw that process through to a successful conclusion. Another AACS Board Chair, Donald E. Owsley, was recognized by KACA in 1977 as a distinguished CAA board member. Shirley Millay served as KACA treasurer, 1984-85. The executive director, Ronald Logsdon, has served as a KACA representative to the Southeastern Association of Community Action Agencies Board, 1981 to the present.
Walter R. Mayes, Jr. was a founding member and the first president of both the Kentucky Head Start Association (1971-1972) and the Southeast Executive Council (1974-76). The latter group was the forerunner of the Region IV Head Start Association. Mayes was also captain of the 1989 AACS golf team which won the Fifth Annual KACA Golf Scramble at Ben Hawes Golf Course, Owensboro. Mayes and his team, consisting of Bobby Belcher, John Trogolo, and Bill Wilson, also won the 1990 golf scramble at Russell Springs, Kentucky. They were, thus, the first team to repeat as "champs."
Linda Likins was 1988-91 president of the KHSA and a member of the Region IV Association board. Additional AACS staff as well are active on the KHSA Board. As noted, she left the AACS April 30, 1991, to join the Kentucky Department of Education as director of the Head Start Collaboration (with KERA/school systems) Project. She was also appointed by Governor Wallace Wilkinson in 1991 to serve a three-year term on the Kentucky Early Childhood Advisory Council; she was subsequently elected its vice-chairman.
Nancy L. Doctor served as 1983-86 president of the National Association of SCP Directors. She was the organization's vice-president 1981-83, and secretary/treasurer, 1977-81. She was also chairman of the Owensboro Civic, Cultural and Economic Development Commission, 1985-86; she was Secretary 1983-85. After leaving the agency and moving to Louisville, she was also responsible for writing the grants for Kentucky's next two funded Senior Companion Programs in Frankfort and Louisville. She was the first consultant/director for the Louisville program, associated with the Senior House, Inc. agency there.
Patricia S. Renner has served as president of the Kentucky Older American Volunteer Program Directors since 1988. She will serve in that office through September, 1992. Renner also serves on the Board of the National Association of RSVP Directors as Secretary. She served on the board 1986-89 as Region III (Delaware, District of Columbia, Kentucky, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia) representative. She was also appointed to the Elizabeth Munday Senior Citizens Center Board in 1989.
Buddy R. Fuqua is Vice-President of the Kentucky Public Transit Association, an office he has held since 1987. He has served on the Board 1984 through 1987 in the office of Secretary. He also served on the Governor's Transportation Task Force 1981-83. Ronald Logsdon was a Fellow with the National Community Action Agencies Executive Directors Association January-March, 1981, serving in Washington, D.C. There during the early days of the Reagan Administration, he wrote the "NCAAEDA"...Response to the Heritage Foundation Report, a 65-page paper which NCAAEDA credited with having a major impact in saving CAAs' "CSA" funding through the block grant. He also served 1982-84 on the board of the National Community Action Foundation, CAAs' national lobbying/advocacy arm, where he represented the eight-state Southeast region.
The Agency has been the cutting edge of innovation among Kentucky CAAs. The agency is now widely recognized and acclaimed for its excellence, positive image, impact, and effectiveness. The AACS has led with many firsts among Kentucky Community Action Agencies: the first Kentucky CAA to computerize its financial accounting operations with an in-house computer system; and the first Kentucky CAA to negotiate and implement an indirect cost rate and indirect method for funding the agency-wide administration; the first CAA to fully automate and network its computer systems; selected in 1987 as the Kentucky lead agency to assist the state's Head Start projects in automating their operations; selected in 1976 as a Head Start national model for the development of collaborative efforts and media productions; a partner with the Regional Head Start Office in the computerization of the Self-Assessment Validation Instrument (SAVI) for the use in evaluating Head Start grantees; one of Kentucky's original three handicap services clusters -- providing the technical assistance to all other Head Start programs in the western half of Kentucky.
The Agency was, no doubt, the first in Kentucky to complete the automation of all its programs after the computerization of the Section 8 and Weatherization programatic and reporting functions in 1989. Too, the Agency's central office was wired and fully computer-networked in 1988 and 1989. The Agency's Local Area Network (LAN) was interfaced -- that is, connected by a "gateway" computer -- to the Finance Department computer in August, 1990, giving the management staff an on-line query capability for immediate fiscal status inquiries.
The list goes on. The AACS acquired funding for Kentucky's first Senior Companion Program; it was the first Kentucky CAA to administer a CETA Private Sector Initiatives Program (PIC) contract; and the only Kentucky CAA to innovate with its FY82 Community Services Block Grant funding in anticipation of FY83 DHR emphasis on "in-home services."
Whether an "innovation" or not, one additional initiative of note is the monthly Bingo game the AACS began playing April 5, 1989. Since then the agency has earned over $100,000 from the game. The agency began a second every-other-month game on December 26, 1990; all proceeds from this game go only to help support the Rolling Heights Family Development Center.
As noted, the Agency has recently returned to the "day care" business. That is, a more traditional type of day care in addition to its comprehensive child development program, Head Start. Gearing up to provide expanded resources for developmental day care in the AACS service area has become a high priority.
The Owensboro agency was involved early on (1969, 1970) with day care and food co-oping. The food co-op was short lived, but the West End Day Care Center, begun in 1969 exists to this day. In 1973, the AACS "spun-off" the WEDCC to the City of Owensboro, so it could qualify for the Title IV-A Social Security Act funding (known subsequently as the Title XX and presently Social Services Block Grant funding). The Center has since become an independent United Way agency.
The record of innovation is also one of excellence...and striving for even higher standards. One validation of this is the fact that in both 1990 and 1991 the Owensboro Citizens Committee on Education has recognized the AACS, Inc. with its "Golden Apple" awards for the agency's support of its staff's educational development. In November 1989, the Citizens Committee awarded the AACS its "Bronze Apple" award; in 1990, the agency received the "Silver Apple" award. As an agency, we are committed to the growth and development of human resources, beginning with our staff.
The agency has been moving aggressively over recent years to upgrade benefits and compensation for its staff. In July, 1987, the Mutual of America Tax-Deferred Annuity program was instituted. In 1990, the Employee Assistance Program was begun under the auspices of the OSHA-funded program of the Owensboro-Daviess County Labor-Management Committee. April 1, 1991 marks a particularly noteworthy event in the history of the agency and its staff. On that date the AACS, Inc. entered the Kentucky Retirement Systems/County Employees Retirement System. Fewer that one hundred staff intially joined the program, but in time all staff will be in the system as staff attrition occurs and existing staff reconsider their participation.
The AACS reached its initial peak staffing in 1981 with some 280 staff persons. Within one year, the Reagan domestic budget cuts resulted in the loss to the AACS of more than $1 million in funding and some ninety staff persons. The losses of the early '80s have been regained. A new "peak" was attained in 1990-91, besting the year before. The agency staffing reached a level of 315 in 1990-91.
Funding sources changed radically during the 1980s, but by 1988, the Agency had -- with $4.9 million in funding -- eclipsed the previous 1981 high of $4.6 million. And in 1988-89 that total grew to $5.5 million. With the value of USDA commodities and rent subsidies were included, the 1988-89 total would have been $6.7 million in resources to serve the AACS constituency. In 1989-90, the agency saw an increase to $6.9 million in total available resources. But 1990-91 was the best year ever for the agency: $7.6 million in actual cash for programs and services, and with in-kind services added the total grows to a whopping $9.4 million. With the loss of Section 8, it is doubtful that this level can again be attained for a number of years, but the staff and board shall be working toward it.
The AACS, Inc. It's a proud history. A serving history! And we're still growing, getting better touching more lives and making our communities better. We are proud of those who have pined with us -- staff, volunteers and Board members -- over the years in building the proud tradition that is Audubon Area Community Services, Inc. We welcome those who continue to join with us to build a brighter tomorrow.
RONALD LOGSDON WAS THE PRINCIPAL AUTHOR OF THIS
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT. MANY OTHERS CONTRIBUTED.
December 1996
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