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DAEOC working to make change
SIKESTON — Since 1965, DAEOC has been serving six counties of the Bootheel with the mission of empowering people to make positive change in their personal lives, family and community.
Reagan Collins, strategic communications specialist with DAEOC, which stands for Delta Area Economic Opportunity Corporation, gave a presentation on DAEOC’s offerings during the Sikeston Regional Chamber meeting Thursday.
DAEOC is one of 19 community action agencies in the state of Missouri and one of 1,000 agencies across the US and Puerto Rico.
Collins said community action means engaging the community while spreading understanding and empowerment through local services that people can use to improve their lives.
“Basically it is people helping people,” Collins said.
The basis of DAEOC began in 1962 when President John F. Kennedy read a book on injustice in impoverished areas of the country by Michael Harrington entitled, “The Other America.” After reading the book, Kennedy was sparked to explore three key areas: strategies to improve difficult situations those in poverty were facing; training people for new jobs being created and engaging in more community based strategies.
Before Kennedy could implement any programs, he was assassinated, but his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson declared a national war of poverty during his 1964 State of the Union Address. He then recruited a team that drafted the Equal Opportunity Act.
In 1965, a group created by the Department of Agriculture, visited Missouri and set up a community-action agency meant to serve six Bootheel counties in Missouri: Scott, New Madrid, Mississippi, Stoddard, Dunklin and Pemiscot. In April of 1965 DAEOC was formed.
Today DAEOC offers a variety of programs, including their community service branch.
Under the community service branch, DAEOC has programs such as low income heating assistance (LIHEAP).
“This is energy assistance, emergency crisis program and these can help finance those who are facing shut off notices, low propane tanks,” Collins said. “It can also help offset ongoing heating costs.”
They also have a childcare food program that provides nutritious meals and snacks to low income children attending registered day cares that are licensed and a SkillUP program that is free to participants that are on food stamps and helps recipients receive skills so they can find gainful employment.
DAEOC is able to provide these services thanks to a Community Services Block Grant. With the grant, DAEOC is able to have four outreach centers: Sikeston, Portageville, Malden and Hayti.
“These offices help the clients with the necessary paperwork to enroll in these programs and they connect them to community resources if we aren’t able to help them,” Collins said.
There is also a mobile outreach office that is in a different city every week, helping those who can’t travel to one of the outreach centers.
Collins said their newest addition to the community service impact is their adult education center, named Growing the Delta: Adult Education Center.
Located in Portageville, the building previously was DAEOC Central Office until the building was redone in 2021.
At the center they offer classes in cooking, computers, gardening, basic finance and workplace behavior, and bee keeping.
“Classes began last summer and they’ve been pretty much full since,” Collins said.
The Habitat Branch of DAEOC offers homeless services, home repair, weatherization and a victim response team.
“Weatherization is the nation’s largest residential energy assistance program helping locate clients with energy efficiency measures such as improvements to their homes, HVAC and electrical systems, electrical appliances,” Collins said, adding the participants receive an audit that includes diagnostic testing so they have a program specific to their needs.
DAEOC is best known for it’s children’s services branch which includes the head-start program.
“These programs, they support the cognitive, social and emotional development of children ages birth to year five,” Collins said. “They offer services to both the children and the families.”
The children in the centers are provided with active learning curriculum, health screenings, nutritious food and school readiness where the families receive family engagement and resources to help them with whatever they are struggling through.
In 2020, DAEOC had an overall economic impact to the area of $152 million.
“We are constantly searching for new ways to bring federal funding to our six county area to help people make positive change in their lives and their communities,” Collins said.