Community Engagement

Ripley County
Caring Communities Partnership

Community Engagement Report

February 2002

Major Collaborative Efforts in Ripley County
These collaborative efforts have resulted from the commitment of several organizations and community members to achieve a common goal of promoting and protecting the well being of citizens in Ripley County.

Partnership Leveraged Funds FY-2002

Caring Communities Flexible Funds	$136,640.00
Other State	$182,405.00
Other Federal	$250,000.00
In Kind Donations	$ 68,200.00
Local Investment	$ 10,000.00
Total	$647,245.00

The Partnership has leveraged $4.74 for every Caring Community dollar we are spending in FY-2002.

The Ripley County Caring Community Partnership has:

• Engaged business and civic leaders, the faith community, and the local community to develop a Family Resource Center. This Center will be the hub for services to help people in need return to self-sufficiency. This Center will also include a 2,000 square foot basement homeless shelter with four units to assist families in crisis situations. To accomplish this the Partnership leveraged funds as follows:
   
  <table style="border-collapse: collapse;" id="AutoNumber2" border="1" bordercolor="#00735d" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="60%"> <tbody><tr> <td width="72%">Community Development Block Grant </td> <td align="right" width="28%">$250,000.00</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="72%">Federal Home Loan Grant </td> <td align="right" width="28%">66,000.00</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="72%">USDA-Rural Development Grant </td> <td align="right" width="28%">8,000.00</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="72%">Local Fund Raising Efforts</td> <td align="right" width="28%">35,000.00</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="72%">Local Labor Valued at </td> <td align="right" width="28%">30,000.00</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="72%">Staff Time of RCCCP </td> <td align="right" width="28%">15,000.00</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="72%">Totals </td> <td align="right" width="28%">$404,000.00</td> </tr> </tbody></table>

  
   
  

• Coordinated committees and data compilation leading to the completion of the Missouri Community Assessment Process (MOCAP) resulting in the first community plan since 1972. This plan identified action steps that the county wants to accomplish over the next 3-5 years. Because of this planning process the county was able to reach good consensus on projects to be done.
   
• Led the effort to develop nine action steps for the “Champion Community” plan required as part of the designation of our county by USDA-Rural Development.
   
• Assisted a local developer respond to a Department of Economic Development (DED) Request For Proposal (RFP) to develop low-income housing in Ripley County. Jointly, we were able to prepare the proposal in less than 15 days. It normally takes at least 30 days. This joint effort resulted in the developer obtaining a DED grant of $250,000 of seed money to build a 16-unit low-income housing project adjacent to the Family Resource Center. This grant was for the maximum amount allowed under the RFP.
   
• Wrote the plan for an Alternative School at the Naylor School. This plan was approved and resulted in a Youth Opportunity Program (YOP) 30 % tax credit for a bank that donated a building to the school that is now used for the local Head Start program. The donated building was completely renovated to meet current standards and now houses 20 Head Start children. The former Head Start building now houses the Naylor Alternative School.
   
• Helped identify issues related to the passage of a bond to fund the addition to the local county library.
   
• Obtained early childhood grants that allowed the Ripley County Partnership to provide training and resources to local child-care providers to enable them to become licensed providers. Licensed capacity has increased from 50 to 265 slots between 1997 and 2001. This work is continuing in 2002 as our county needs a licensed capacity of 750 slots in order to meet the need for quality child care. Quality child-care results in a child more ready to enter school—one of our core results that we earnestly desire to meet.
   
• Obtained a one-time funding Early Childhood Services Grant for $52,830.00 that will provide 20 additional licensed infant daycare slots in Ripley County. The one-time funding for $23,850.00 that will also provide incentive gifts for parents to engage in the PAT (Parents As Teachers) program. The family has to be at-risk of having their children removed from the home or living below the 185% poverty level to qualify for these incentives. This will be collaboration among DFS, the Ripley County School Districts, the Health Department, etc. to recruit these individuals.
   
• Helped research funding sources for the Ripley County Commissioners to find funds to rehabilitate a donated building into a Justice Center. This Center would house the staff of the county sheriff and the juvenile officer. The juvenile officer is presently in leased space and the sheriff and staff are presently housed in the basement of the courthouse. This project will enable a more centralized location providing better public service to the community and communication between law enforcement entities.
   
• Helped to identify the issues related to the passage of a lodging tax in the April 2002 Doniphan Municipal Election.
   
• Facilitated meetings among Ripley County fire chiefs to improve county-wide fire protection capabilities which can lead to families safer in their homes, better fire department ratings, better protection capabilities that leads to reduced insurance premiums for property owners.
   
• Additional collaborative efforts have resulted in the start of an Alternative School in the Doniphan Schools, a local food bank, a county wide Salvation Army unit, a county wide Heart Health Coalition, and a county wide Red Cross unit.

Improvements in the County Ripley County has improved based on the Kids Count 2001 ranking from 107 to 63 out of 114 counties in Missouri. This ranking is based on 10 outcome measures; Ripley County has improved in nine of these rankings over the previous year.  

 

Improved Indicators	Base Year 1996	Current Year 2000
Adult unemployment rate	8.4%	5.64%
High School graduation rate	74.3%	82.6%
Licensed child care capacity slots	50	265
Children receiving AFDC/TANF	18.5%	8.6%
Children receiving food stamps	57.2%	44.5%
Public clinic immunization rate	81.4%	91.7%
Annual high school dropouts	8.6%	2.9%
Birth to teens 15-19/1,000 females	84.4	63.4
Infant mortality rates	11.7%	6.0%
Low birthweight infants	8.5	7.9

Areas Needing Improvement
Child abuse and neglect per 1,000 has increased from 11.4 in 1996 to 58.5 in 2000. Economic development is always vital. The per capita personal income in Ripley County was only $14,199.00 during 1998, compared to $25,150.00 for the state.