DEL NORTE—Rio Grande Department of Social Services (RGDSS) Director Jody Kern spoke with commissioners on Wednesday, March 29 about funding for a program that was implemented last year. The department was one of several counties within the Valley that decided to begin the Employment First program, which holds people who participate in county programs like SNAP and TANF more accountable. The program was passed by the state senate and currently operates in 45 counties within Colorado.
According to the definition of the program it states, “Employment First is a federally mandated program designed to ensure that all able-bodied food assistance participants are engaged in activities that will improve their ability to achieve long term employment.” Kern explained to commissioners that Rio Grande County was one of many counties that could “opt out” of the program, but that the program had cut down the number of food assistance participants in the county by nearly half.
Commissioner Chairwoman Karla Shriver spoke up about the program stating that she feels it is very important to help break the generational support issue, and they will do what they need to to ensure the program’s survival. Kern continued, explaining that funding for the program is very minimal and it is a possibility that the program will not be able to continue without the federal monies set aside to help fund the venture.
“It would cost the county $15,000 to run the program with federal assistance. Without it, the cost would almost double,” said Kern. She also provided numbers to commissioners, showing how the number of food assistant participants have dropped significantly since implementing the program in 2016. “If we lose the funding and the program, all of the people that got off assistance in the last year will be put right back on and we will be back to where we started,” said Kern. Commissioners thanked Kern for her efforts and asked that she keep them posted on the issue.
Next, Kern turned the topic of discussion over to another issue that has been going on for some time and asked for the approval of the board to seek an alternative solution. RGDSS receives an average of two to four child welfare calls throughout any given day during the hours of 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. After 4 p.m., the calls are transferred over to the sheriff’s department, where the calls are being answered incorrectly. According to Kern, due to the constant turnover happening at the sheriff’s department, child welfare calls are being handled incorrectly; she is worried that an important call might fall through the cracks.
“I am asking you to let me transfer all of our calls, both the ones that come in during the day and the ones at night, over to the state call center to alleviate this issue. I have no idea what is going on over there; all I know is that a call could get missed or handled wrong and it would be bad,” said Kern. She explained to the board that having the calls transferred to the state call center would also cut expenses to the county down significantly and would also free up her employees from having to be on call all day and night.
“This would be so much better than what is happening now. We get about 40 calls per year and the whole point of the hotline is to make sure the person calling gets a live body immediately, “stated Kern.”
Commissioners voted to allow Kern to make the arrangements to have the calls sent to the state hotline from this point forward. “This way the situation will be handled and no one will slip through the cracks. That alone is worth any cost,” finished Commissioner Gene Glover. The topic was closed and commissioners went into executive session to discuss personnel issues with Kern.