DAPHNE —The Community Action Agency of Baldwin, Escambia, Clarke, Monroe and Conecuh Counties offers services including childcare, housing assistance and employment assistance, but social service director Kris Rowe said residents may not be familiar with these offerings.

To reacquaint the community with the agency’s services, town hall meetings will be held in all five counties covered by the agency, beginning April 14 at 5:30 p.m. at the central office, 26440 N. Pollard Road, Daphne.

Rowe said the main goal of the meeting is to give an overview of services offered by the Community Action Agency and allow residents to ask the staff questions.

Rowe said in recent years the agency has seen an increase in requests for aid due to the recessed economy, and the staff has heard multiple times from people who never knew the agency even existed.

“We have seen an increase in needs. Since the recession period, a lot of people have lost their jobs and are unable to maintain jobs, so they are still suffering. We have been seeing a lot more calls from people who never knew anything about us before and it has been a challenge for them to understand what we do,” Rowe said.

As communities’ needs have grown, Rowe said funding the agency has received has diminished. Funding for the agency is being debated at the state and federal level, so Rowe said the future is unknown.

“A lot of people want to know what our current funding situation is. We do receive funds from federal and state and a lot of them are under consideration. Congress has yet to make a decision on a lot of those funds,” Rowe said. “Money that we get is to provide for our areas, and if we are no longer getting those funds, it may cause additional problems or people may need to know what direction they should take from that point forward.”

Rowe said the town hall meetings should be very informative.

 “People should come because it will directly effect their community. A lot of the programs that we have now assist people who are maybe less fortunate and are in a time where they need some assistance and aren’t able to provide for themselves. We offer a variety of services from housing to childcare, medical assistance to utility assistance. We try to help people in as many ways as possible to help them become self-sufficient. We try to address the needs of income, education, employment, childcare, food and nutrition, housing etc.,” Rowe said.

For more information about Community Action Agency of Baldwin, Escambia, Clarke, Monroe and Conecuh Counties visit www.caaofbecmcc.org or call 251-626-2646.

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