DAPHNE, Ala. — The recession hit home for Kristen Carson in July when the payroll company she works for cut back hours from 40 to 35 per week.

With a 3-year-old in day care and utility costs soaring during the winter months, the Daphne administrative assistant said she and her husband, James, pinched every penny they could. With word coming last week, however, that James’ job in a sheet-metal fabrication shop might be in jeopardy, she’s worried the three months of living expenses the couple has squirreled away won’t suffice if layoffs are announced.

“I don’t think we’re alone in any of this, but except for my church, I don’t know where to go—who to talk to—if things get really bad,” Carson said.

Cassandra Boykin, executive director of Community Action Agency in Daphne, said circumstances such as Carson’s are all too familiar in recent months, but assistance services are accessible to more families than ever before.

The social service agency serving Baldwin, Escambia, Monroe, Clarke and Conecuh counties will begin offering a series of workshops over the next few months designed to educate the public about the services available to struggling families during these especially difficult economic times.

Workshops include: income and budget counseling; employment assistance; small business counseling; home ownership counseling; youth life skills (summer training); childcare scholarships/assistance; after-school/summer camp assistance; senior care scholarships/assistance; medical equipment and supply assistance; ALL KIDS medical insurance premiums assistance; and Medicare Part D premium/co-pay assistance.

Boykin said the 45-year-old self-help, social-service organization was created to help people and change lives by offering “a hand up, not a handout.” And the federal stimulus funds released recently through the American Reinvestment Recovery Act are helping the five-county agency meet the rising demand for services.

And the number of new faces applying for the subsidized programs offered has increased 25 percent over the past two-and-a-half years, and at least 45 percent in the past 12 months, she said.

A large part of the increase is due to many of the programs being tweaked to accept income levels 200 percent below the federal poverty guideline, she said. For a family of four, that means an annual income at or below $44,100. Prior to the recovery act, most programs were capped at 100 percent below the guideline.

Free workshops are a first step toward educating the public about programs available to “assist them financially and to empower them to make positive changes in their lives,” Boykin said.

The agency has partnered with Consumer Credit Counseling Services, the Alabama Extension Corp.

and a host of other social service entities across the region to provide the informative sessions.

The Independent Development Asset Program, for example, assists people trying to qualify for homeownership, further their educations or even find seed money to start a small business. There are also programs designed to subsidize child care—including after-school and summer programs—for parents struggling to improve their situations without worrying about their children’s safety.

And while foreclosures cannot always be avoided, Boykin said the agency is also working to purchase some of the distressed properties in an effort to re-house displaced families.

Boykin, no stranger to 12-hour days, said the real reward comes with letters received from clients who have made it to the other side of their hardship.

“You see so many people struggling and wonder some days how much of an impact you’re having, and then you read the letter from someone telling you that it wasn’t just the services they received that helped them but that the method we use for delivering these services helped them to believe in themselves, and now they know there is going to be a brighter day. That’s why we’re here,” she said.

 Want to go?*

*Unless otherwise indicated, the above programs will be offered at the Community Action Agency office in Daphne, 26440 Pollard Road. All workshops are free to the public. For more information, call (251) 626-2646.

 Do you qualify?

All Community Action Agency informational workshops are free and open to the public, but many assistance programs require a family’s income to fall 200 percent below the federal poverty guidelines. Using that formula, annual income caps to qualify are as follows: