Poor Economy = People In Need

At a recent Minnesota Valley Action Council (MVAC) meeting, the board of directors was updated on requests for services in the nine county offices of MVAC. The data is comparing a four month period from last year and this year. In other words the four months of October, November, December 2007 and January 2008 are compared with October, November, December 2008 and January of 2009.
The kind of help requested is listed first. The first numbers are requests from 2007-08 and the second set of numbers are requests from 2008-09.
Car repair: 1700----------------3552
Emergency grants: 3616--------------4260
Energy Assistance: 19416-----------------18282
Financial Management: 1110---------------------1421
Food: 1046--------------------------1525
Housing Evictions: 1990-----------------2249
Jobs: 8584---------------------------10919
Medical/Dental: 681----------------------933
The board has been told many times from staff who work with needy populations that the number one most valuable asset a person can have in order to navigate the troubled waters that life throws at us is a good education. At the very least, people need to be encouraged to stay in school or obtain a GED. If we could just find ways to encourage continued education - everyone would benefit. end