according to a St. David\u2019s Foundation news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cWe’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about who in our community is struggling to make ends meet,\u201d said Kim McPherson, St. David\u2019s Foundation senior program officer. \u201cMany of these folks are eligible for [benefit services], but they either don’t know they’re eligible, or they know they’re eligible and the system has just been too hard for them to navigate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The foundation determined that providing funding support to organizations with expertise in public benefit systems and existing connections to marginalized communities will help increase the number of in-need citizens enrolled in service programs, McPherson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally trying to maximize and leverage the existing public benefits infrastructure felt to us like a wise first step,\u201d McPherson said. \u201cIf we can close this gap by getting more people who are eligible enrolled, then their financial struggles will be made a lot easier. It’s not going to solve everything, but it will make it a lot easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organizations receiving grant funding will support community members beyond service enrollment and ensure they understand the full offerings of their programs, McPherson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Additionally, the organizations will provide immediate support as citizens go through the enrollment process.<\/p>\n
The details<\/p>\n
St. David\u2019s Foundation awarded grants to organizations across its five-county coverage area: Travis County, Hays County, Bastrop County, Caldwell County and Williamson County.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In Hays County, five organizations received funding. The grant recipients provide a variety of services, ranging from economic stability to benefits navigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith these organizations, we’re not just funding them,\u201d McPherson said. \u201cWe’ll be bringing them together in cohorts for them to learn from one another and have access to technical assistance. We’re hoping there’ll be a little bit of magic and beauty created when there are some peer learning opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
The need<\/p>\n
More than 40% of residents in Central Texas facing food insecurity do not qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, according to the news release. Economic stability has a major impact on access to essential needs, such as food, healthcare and housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout a third of our community really struggles each month to pay their bills, and looking at who they are, we realized many of them are likely eligible for some form of public benefit that would make that struggle a lot easier,\u201d McPherson said.<\/p>\n
By providing support tailored to their communities and marginalized groups, the organizations will work to break down enrollment barriers and help citizens reach economic stability, according to the release.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you’re not sure you’re eligible, ask, get help and go to one of these organizations,\u201d McPherson said. \u201cThey are there because they want to help you. They are going to make you feel supported. They are not going to make you feel rushed. If it turns out that you’re eligible, that can be a game changer for not just you but your entire family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Public benefit programs across the country and in Central Texas have experienced reductions in funding, access and participant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458520,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,4696,13492,2143,156918,49,8705,2427,2244,38186,109259,14152,81150,2142,394,2538],"class_list":["post-458519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-bastrop-county","tag-caldwell-county","tag-central-texas","tag-economic-stability","tag-food","tag-grants","tag-hays-county","tag-healthcare","tag-income","tag-public-benefits","tag-services","tag-st-davids-foundation","tag-support","tag-travis-county","tag-williamson-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}