Blue Valley Community Action Serves A Vital Role In Nebraska

By Gordon HopkinsJefferson County Commissioners continue to tout the work done by Blue Valley Community Action (BVCA). An impact report was presented at a meeting in York on Tuesday, April 16, 2024. Commissioner Mark Schoenrock was in attendance and he gave a briefing at the commissioners meeting the following week on Tuesday, April 23. “There are some things I really wanted to highlight. I’m very proud of being able to represent Jefferson County on the Blue Valley Community Action Board. And you’ll see here in the last fiscal year, that ended on September 30, we assisted 7,273 individuals by offering life changing services. And we work hard to provide solutions to help these people build lives of stability, dignity, and prosperity,” Schoenrock said.Schoenrock emphasized that BVCA focuses on goal-oriented services, “So, it’s important, I think, for our citizens to understand that when people are assisted by Blue Valley Community Action, we establish goal setting for them in their lives. And it could be any number of things. It could be financial stability. It could be job security. It could be learning how to become a better parent. It could be learning how to get off of dependencies, any number of things that we set as goals for them.” “The thing that I really highlighted here was 46 unemployed individuals obtained a job, to improve employment skills or increase income, which is 72 percent of those who are enrolled. And not only do we initially help these people get initial employment, but we also keep with them, to assist them to make sure that they maintain that employment,” said Schoenrock. “Now, one of the things that I am constantly interested in, in my role as a board member, is that we are helping these people to become self sufficient.”Schoenrock also pointed out that BVCA is a part of the community and not just by the services it provides, “Blue Valley Community Action employs 218 people, and 53 of those are here in Jefferson County. So, Blue Valley Community Action is a significant employer here in our community. And, of course, that helps our economy, our tax base, etc.” Schoenrock also discussed how funding was obtained for BVCA, “In this last year, $15,151,000 in funding was secured. The vast majority of that, of course, is grants. But each of the counties in our multi-county support area also support Blue Valley Community Action. We also receive a significant amount of private contributions.” Finally, Schoenrock emphasized the importance of the services BVCA provides, “What does it mean in real dollars, that for a family of four to be in poverty? Fifty percent of poverty is $15,600, gross and 100 percent of poverty is $31,200, gross. That’s not very much when you think about it. If you’re trying to make it on $31,000 with a family of four, it’s really difficult. And the current Nebraska minimum wage is $12 per hour or $24,960, full time gross, significantly below the poverty rate for a family of four.”

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