Social Service Organizations center stage at County Comm meeting

Last Updated on February 3, 2020, 5:34 PM | Published: February 3, 2020

Agencies receiving funds from the Oklahoma County Community Support Grant gave presentations at the Board of County Commissioners Monday.

District 2 Commissioner Brian Maughan joined on the horseshoe by the Chief Deputies of the other two Commissioners – District 1’s Joe Blough and District 3’s Myles Davidson – for a short meeting.

Three recipients of Oklahoma County’s Community Support Grant attended the meeting to report on their programs for the edification of the members of the Board.

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Pivot

Jennifer Goodrich of Pivot came to report on their program.

Pivot, formerly Youth Services, serves young people, mostly 12 to 21 years of age. Their clients are typically experiencing homelessness.

Pivot works with young people on housing and further wrap-around services to build stability in their lives.

A tiny home community was developed by the organization. It currently has three homes, and is permitted for three more, with more coming by 2022.

The estimated cost of one of the tiny homes is $45,000. The year’s grant award from the County is in the amount of $30,000.

Positive Tomorrows

Margaret Creighton of Positive Tomorrows, another Support Grant recipient, explained that Positive Tomorrows is Oklahoma City’s only private school specifically designed to serve families with children experiencing homelessness.

The goal of their service is to help participating families reach housing stability at which point the children of the family can re-enter public school.

Last year Positive Tomorrows served 118 students, and so far this year the school has served 91.

Considering that OKC and Putnam City count a combined 6,000 students experiencing some level of homelessness, clearly, the school has its work cut out.

While they have work to do, they also have outcomes to demonstrate the success of their services.

The families that have been served for 3 or more months, 65% showed an improvement in their housing stability and 91% remained stable. Among families in permanent housing (whether subsidized or unsubsidized) 70% had job status that remained stable or improved and 70% were in an improved income bracket.

The school, who had the grand opening of their new facility last weekend, also hosts “break camps.” These day camps serve participating youth when school is out of session so that they can continue with education activities and also serve two meals in a day to the children to combat food insecurity.

EOCTech

Eastern Oklahoma County Technology Center was the first organization to report.

The Technology Center serves young adults with disabilities and seniors experiencing cognitive decline.

Over 50 participants are transported to and from the Technology Center for services and training every day.

Disorderly meeting

As Commissioner Kevin Calvey had automobile trouble on his way to the meeting, the decision was made on the fly to adapt the agenda in case the Commissioner would be able to appear before any significant votes took place.

The meeting started with an invocation, then moved to the middle of the agenda for presentations of reports, then the recurring business was handled before the Board recessed to Executive Session. After the Executive Session, Calvey had still not arrived, so Maughan and the two Chief Deputies continued the rest of business and adjourned. Calvey then arrived in time to very quickly handle the Public Buildings Authority meeting.

Involved Public Prayer

The meeting opened, as is tradition, with a prayer. Less in keeping with tradition, District 2 Deputy Charles Dodson called on each department (Purchasing, Engineering, District Attorney’s office, Districts 2, 3, and 1, County Clerk’s and Court Clerk’s offices, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management) one by one to respond “He is good” throughout the opening prayer.

It was quite a departure.

The next meeting of the Board will be on February 12 at 9:00 a.m.