GOSHEN COUNTY – Come October, Goshen HELP will expand its services to five additional counties: Carbon, Crook, Niobrara, Washakie and Weston.
Goshen HELP is a community action agency funded by a Community Service Block Grant administered by the state of Wyoming. In its third year, the organization sets out to “build community support and cooperation to identify the sources of poverty, and then to seek out solutions to address those causes,” according to executive director Kyle Borger.
Borger, a pastor, said Goshen HELP popped up to fulfill a community need. He said people approached him for assistance in his capacity as a pastor when there wasn’t much to give. From there, he became involved in the Salvation Army, which led to involvement in Goshen HELP.
“The mission of Goshen HELP is to improve the quality of life for people in need, by empowering them to become more self-sufficient,” Borger said. “A lot of times in groups like our own, the primary focus has been that if somebody needs help, as long as they meet the criteria you provide them financial aid. And what we’re working towards, is that we want to address the causes in their lives so that they won’t need help in the future.”
With this expansion, Goshen HELP is planning to build committee structures in Goshen County and its five additional counties to involve the communities they serve.
The organization has approximately 15 regular volunteers, along with three staff members. To account for its expansion, they’ll hire two more staff.
When Goshen HELP expands to surrounding counties, they will immediately provide emergency services and case management via telephone or video conference, Borger said.
In addition to case management programs that help families or individuals create budgets and receive aid, Goshen HELP houses an expansive food pantry stocked by local donations, which is available to anyone who needs a little extra assistance, Borger said.
Surprisingly, April, May and June were “pretty quiet,” which Borger attributed to $1,200 stimulus checks distributed through the CARES Act, along with other groups offering help to people as unemployment rates increased.
“It’s in July where things started to drift a little bit where you started to see some landlords pushing for eviction,” Borger said. “You started to see some of the utility shut offs come back.”
Between October 2019 and the first week of August 2020, Borger said Goshen HELP provided $41,000 in financial assistance. July 2020 accounted for more than a quarter of that, as the organization provided nearly $11,000 in assistance last month.
“Because of COVID-19, our qualification amounts (for financial assistance) have risen from 125% of the federal poverty guideline to 200%,” Bother said. “That puts a lot of families in Goshen County into that.”
Goshen HELP will benefit from CARES Act funding, receiving $370,556 for 6 counties through Sept 30th, 2022, according to Borger.
Goshen HELP food pantry
Goshen HELP’s food pantry consists of several rooms where beneficiaries can usually “shop” the shelves, but due to COVID-19, food is now distributed in a drive thru method, where people make appointments and volunteers stock their cars.
“It just kind of gives that baseline to where you make sure that you have the ability to live,” Borger said. “And gives you a chance to identify, or to work towards different solutions if you need to. But for some of those families, especially our senior citizens, it may be just that little bit extra that they need.”
Because its recipients can no longer participate in the “shoppers’ choice” method, Borger said he now spends close to $2,000 monthly on food for the pantry, where he used to spend just $500. The USDA’s food program called TEFAP, which is income based, also provides food to qualifying families through Goshen HELP in addition to what the organization already offers.
Borger has also been calling for community members with extra produce from their gardens to donate it to the food pantry.
“It takes time to build up, so over the years as people became familiar with it, they could do an extra plant just for us, that kind of thing,” Borger said.
Borger estimated that on average, Goshen HELP assists roughly 200 families per month, with services ranging from rent or utility assistance to access to its food pantry.
“If they have extra tomatoes, zucchinis, squashes, we’ll put them through the boxes and we’ll distribute them out so that people can get that fresh produce as well,” Borger said.
Borger encourages community members to visit Goshen HELP’s website where they are advertising availability for those who wish to get involved to serve on committees “to give their voice and input.”
“The only way for us to really be a community led organization is if we have the community involved in our leadership,” Borger said.
