Economic Self-Sufficiency

What I am actually finding which is very concerning is that a lot of families snap benefits are getting messed up when they go to renew and it is causing hunger for children and parents.

Hi Sarah, thank you for your response! What type of challenges does that create for your organization and how are you addressing those challenges?

We are addressing the challenges by ensuring that our families have access to foodbanks and when they don't we are delivering food to the families until snap benefits are renewed.

I agree to "still playing catch up". Even as a working professional, I feel like I am drowning financially.

Brandy, right? Unbelievable what our families are trying to navigate living in poverty and working low wage jobs. Right now we are also seeing child care is such a need and after school care is such a need so parents CAN work. Parents who have children with disabilities are struggling to find any child care even when they have CAPS assistance. We don't have the safety net these families who working but living in poverty need.

Agreed. In a presentation by a CAPS rep yesterday, I learned the process can take at least 30 days min from a time a CAPS application is received before it is approved/processed. What establishment can hold a seat for 30-60 days when another family can pay? And at the same time, a parent must be in school and or working, even though childcare is not secured. How is this system really helping the families who need it most?

Right now it seems to be taking about 60 days for our parents. Yes you have to have a job or be in school. So a family has to have the money to pay for the child care until CAPS goes through. It is causing families, especially single family homes to be homeless and struggle to get out. For families who have a child with special needs, they might get CAPS eventually but then finding a child care provider who will take their child is another hurdle they have to cross. We have a lot of single moms who have children on the autism spectrum and while they may have CAPS, they struggle to find a childcare that has availability that will take their child. Right now for families living in poverty who don't have support from family or friends with financial resources, it is almost an impossible task for them to care for their children. The pressure and stress they are living under is unbelievable. And this pressure and stress causes mental health issues.... Panic attacks, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation... Sometimes parents self medicate... then we see these families coming to the attention of child welfare. So we treat them with counseling and substance abuse treatment, but the root causes of their stress and anxiety are never addressed. The poverty and stress in which they live in is unbearable. Homelessness they experience creates social isolation. The only solution is giving safe parents what they need to take care of their own children and providing them with the opportunities and resources and tools they need to get out of poverty. This is a long process. In the meanwhile, parents need to have the resources to help their children thrive and that is what we work on providing.