CNA 2022-25 vFINAL 09202022 MASTER COPY - Flipbook - Page 149
A few respondents voiced hopes about the community and its role in supporting families with lower
income:
▪ I hope community members remain kind and supportive of each other and able to receive
assistance if needed, no matter the socioeconomic status.
▪ My hope is that more people join in and are willing to help people and not judge them for being on
different programs like SNAP, DSS, WIC, SSI.
▪ My hope is that as an agency Pro Action will continue to build partnering relationships within our
communities to offer support to those in need.
In each specific age group, many respondents repeated the themes of the rising minimum wage and cost
of living, and the simultaneous loss of eligibility for services because eligibility thresholds have not been
adjusted to rising wages. The comments included in the following sections will be ones more specific to
each age group.
Children 0 – 5 years: struggling socially and emotionally
▪ Children are going to struggle socially because they missed out on social and emotional
interaction at a key age. They have missed out on the foundation.
▪ More social-emotional delays as families are stressed with rising inflation. Children are getting
too much screen time and less time interacting with family.
▪ Children will be coming into our classrooms with more aggressive behaviors and higher needs
for mental health counseling/Spec Ed services.
▪ My concern is that each year that they don’t receive needed services, they fall further behind!
They lose ground and often can’t get caught up in a timely fashion!
▪ Families will be struggling even more with the price of gas and food. The struggling can cause
stress, and stress can lead to violence, neglect, drug abuse, suicide, etc.
▪ I am worried about children falling through the cracks because their parents won't financially
qualify for services even though they desperately need these services to acquire basic needs
and services.
▪ With the limited [number of] service providers in our communities, children will enter
kindergarten with higher needs including socially and emotionally. Without these services
children from Head Start classrooms may fall further behind UPK [Universal Pre-Kindergarten]
children, which could change the partnerships with [the school] district.
▪ My hope is that as we begin to transition out of COVID, our families are able to start trusting the
community and taking their children around other children, allowing for more socialization.
▪ My hopes for young children in the next year are that we don't have to shut down and start
wearing masks again.
▪ I hope Pro Action can open more Early Head Start facilities because it will not only help the
child’s development, but it would also help the parents to have time to go to work, to pay less for
daycare, to use less food during the day, and many more benefits for low-income families.
Children K-6: Catching up on learning
▪ Speaking from [the perspective of] a single mother with a lower income, I can say my fears are
just being able to stay on top of all my bills and regular cost of living with the prices continuously
growing daily. My hope is that our world will be okay again and that we all just stick together to
get through the difficult times.
Pro Action of Steuben and Yates, Inc. Community Needs Assessment 2022 – 2025
Page 149 of 162
