Tag Archive for: #vancecountydepartmentofsocialservices

Transformed Eaton Johnson Campus Getting Ready For New Life To Serve Community

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The next few days are moving days for employees of the local department of social services, senior center and youth services as they transition from their old office spaces to their renovated spaces on the campus of the former Eaton Johnson Middle School.

Local officials gathered last week for a ribbon-cutting at the new facility, and County Manager Jordan McMillen said that it took a lot of work from a lot of entities to transform a former school building to a facility to serve the community.

McMillen thanked the county’s school board and county commissioners for helping to make the project a reality. “Putting a large, vacant school facility into reuse is always a challenge and…ultimately, we were able to take an existing facility in North Henderson and put it back into use. This was a win-win-win for the school board, the county as well as the city of Henderson,” he said.

“This new DSS facility is state-of-the-art and will allow our DSS to better meet the needs of our citizens. The facility includes areas for various units to work together, includes training spaces, conference rooms, adequate office space and storage space, interview rooms, youth and children observation rooms and play areas. We are very proud to introduce this facility to the public,” McMillen stated during remarks at Friday’s ribbon-cutting.

This is the first phase of renovation, and McMillen said additional space will be reused as well.

The facility is 102,700 square feet, and less than 41,000 square feet was involved in this part of the renovation project – 39,000 for DSS and 1,800 for youth services – that leaves more than half of the total space available for renovated. McMillen said the plan is to use most of that space.

There are plans to lease out the kitchen space as a commercial kitchen and space to house a Headstart facility.

Vance County Logo

Vance Co. DSS Provides Much Needed Services to Local Area

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Krystal Harris, director of the Vance County Department of Social Services (DSS), was recently on WIZS’ Town Talk to discuss programs offered by the department.

According to Harris, services offered by DSS can be classified under one of four areas – economic services, adult services, child welfare services and administration.

“People usually think of our economic services such as food and nutrition or our child welfare services when they think of DSS but we provide many other additional services,” said Harris.

Medicaid, Work First, food and nutrition benefits, Child Protective Services (CPS), Adult Protective Services (APS), in-home services for the elderly and disabled, foster care and adoptions are among the many services provided by DSS.

Unlike many counties that source their child support services out to other agencies, Vance County’s DSS has an in-house child support program.

In addition, DSS provides daycare subsidies to approximately 1,000 children in Vance County with more currently on a waitlist.

Daycare providers must be accredited as a three-star center to be eligible to receive the subsidies provided by a combination of funding from the State and from Smart Start. The State sends payment directly to the participating daycare providers while parents are charged a “parent fee” or a percentage of the money owed.

Program Integrity, DSS’ fraud prevention program, is used to investigate reports or suspicion of anyone committing fraud, especially as it relates to economic services such as Medicaid, food and nutrition or the Work First program.

According to Harris, the need for DSS is great in the local area, a trend that she sees continuing to grow. “Approximately a third of the population of Vance County receives food and nutrition benefits,” Harris said. “A lot of our citizens are unemployed and when unemployment rates increase we see an increase in requested services.”

The number of people served and the increased need for services has led DSS to begin working with the County to explore relocation options. “We are in the process now and are making some progress on finding possible relocation sites for our office,” said Harris.

Vance County DSS currently employs 125 workers, including employees at the Senior Center in downtown Henderson, a division that falls under DSS. There are seven social workers available for in-house investigations on an as-needed basis. If you need to report a situation, Harris emphasized that there is someone available to help 24/7.

Part of Harris’ job as DSS Director is to use WIZS’ Town Talk and similar platforms to help educate the public on services that DSS provides and to help dispel negative ideas of the program. “In my experience, we do have a negative connotation with our name, but we provide a lot of services to assist people and to get them out of crisis situations. If we didn’t have social services a lot of people would not have health benefits or a meal on the table each day. Children and adults would not be safe.”

For more information on the Vance County Department of Social Services, please visit the office at 350 Ruin Creek Rd, Henderson or call (252) 492-5001.

Applications for services may also be found by visiting NC ePASS at https://www.nc.gov/services/e-pass.

Home Heat Payment Assistance Possible Until 3-31-18

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You may be eligible for assistance with your home heating costs.  An additional grant of funding has made it possible to apply for home heat payment assistance through the Vance County Department of Social Services and a program called Low Income Energy Assistance.

Please follow this link for LIEP.

Please check out the Vance County DSS page by following this link for additional services offered.

If you need help with home heating, apply soon.  You can only apply through March 31 or until funds run out.  Applications can also be made in December, so this is a program to tuck away in your calendar if you might be able to benefit in during the next heating season this fall and winter.

Henderson Police Department

Shop with a Cop 2017

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Press Release – November 1, 2017

For the 2017 Holiday Season, the Henderson Police Department and the Vance County Sheriff’s Office have partnered with the Vance County Department of Social Services to assist children and families in the City of Henderson and Vance County during the holiday season through the “Shop with a Cop” program.

Funds raised through the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce “Shop with a Cop” raffle and by generous donors will be used to help underprivileged children and struggling families who otherwise would go without during the holidays. Individuals and families selected will have the opportunity to “Shop with a Cop” with one of Henderson’s and Vance County’s law enforcement officers.

Individuals or families wishing to participate in the “Shop with a Cop” program can pick up applications on November 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 13th at the front desk of three locations: the Henderson Police Department at 200 Breckenridge Street; the Vance County Sherriff’s Office at 156 Church Street; and the Department of Social Services at 350 Ruin Creek Road, Henderson.

Completed applications must be returned to any of the three pickup locations no later than 5:00 PM on Monday, November 13th, 2017.

Completing a referral does not guarantee assistance.

Authority: Chief M.W. Barrow