WYO HELP needs the community’s help

KateLynn Slaamot
NLJ Reporter
 
WYO HELP’s Kyle Borger, executive director of the organization, gave a presentation at Pinnacle Bank’s meeting room on Tuesday, Dec. 7, to share with concerned members of Weston County what they can do to help WYO HELP have more of a presence in
the county. 
WYO HELP began as Goshen HELP before expanding. 
“Goshen HELP began as a dream to help youth who were facing challenges. In the beginning we received lots of encouragement, but it took time to find the right resources. We spent about three years working to secure those resources when we were approached by the State of Wyoming to administer a community services block grant,” according to wyohelp.com. 
WYO HELP developed from that and began serving Goshen County in 2018, before expanding to Carbon, Crook, Niobrara, Washakie and Weston counties in 2020. 
As previously reported, WYO HELP helps to distribute funds primarily from the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which is a “U.S. Treasury initiative passed through the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and expanded by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021,” according to the previous article, which cited the Wyoming Department of Family Services. 
The organization offers a plethora of services, including rental assistance, reasonable relocation expenses, security deposits, utilities, etc. WYO HELP also helps pay for mental health services, automobile repairs, food and other needs. 
Borger presented numbers for this past year, as well as projected numbers for the coming year. 
Between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021, WYO HELP assisted Weston County with $4,822 in community service block grants, with 17 services, including five rent payments and 12 utility payments. 
Through a CSBG CARES grant, it also spent a total of $8,994 for seven services, including four rent payments, three utility payments, in addition to access to online mental health services. 
In Wyoming Emergency Rental Assistance Program funds, from April 1, 2021, to Oct. 30, 2021, a total of $134,152 was spent in the county. Fifty-two applications were submitted, and 44 of those were paid. The average amount per application was $3,049. The funds also provided one full-time case manager. 
“Now, for next year, you can see that we have just under $9,000 for CSBG, $17,000 for CSBG CARES, for a total of $26,000 to spend in your community,” Borger said. “We want to be talking with all of you, in part, as to how we should best spend that. And if there are some ideas on how we can do that, we want to have those conversations.” 
Borger projected that Weston County could receive an additional $230,000 from ERAP. 
At the meeting, some questions and ideas were proposed for how to help residents of the county. 
“Would this program benefit women or men of domestic violence, sexual assault or stalking that need to be relocated?” asked Jennifer Stulken, a FOCUS victim witness coordinator. 
Borger responded that WYO HELP can assist with those cases, noting that sometimes the organization may use ERAP or CSBG funds. He also noted that there is more it can do with the help and continued partnership of FOCUS. 
WYO HELP may also be able to help pay for wheelchair ramps for the homes of elderly and disabled people, and perhaps bathroom remodels for more-accessible showers and bathtubs, depending on cost and local partnership. 
It is vital to get more boots on the ground in Weston County, Borger said, to not only partner with WYO HELP in more ways to serve the county but also to do much-needed fundraising. 
“We need to raise … 20 some thousand dollars out of your county this year just to support the grants that we do because most of them are reimbursable. Right now, I’m using general funds that we’ve raised in other counties to support your county,” Borger said. 
Borger mentioned different fundraising ideas to get the local community involved. 
“The more financial support we have from the community to help us, the better we can use those funds. And then, also, that gives us a better bottom line. So as we go out and we get more grants, they can see that we are what’s called … “leveraged well” and that we have a lot of support money that isn’t tied to all these other things. So just the more that we can raise in the communities that we serve, the more we will be able to do overall,” Borger said. 
“It also helps us know what you guys want … if you’re donating to, like youth alternatives. We’re like, okay they want that. Then that’s what we’re going to work on. Rather than us just swooping in here and just throwing everything at you guys and hoping something sticks,” said Tanya Hespe, local case manager for Weston County.