The most vulnerable populations in our county will soon benefit from $3.9 million in stimulus funds.

Pierce County Community Action, a division of the Department of Community Services, recently received a $723,247 Community Service Block Grant to:

— Add vision and dental resources and services for parents of children enrolled in Community Actions’ early childhood programs.

— Expand individualized parenting education

— Increase transportation for the countywide Adult Day Health Program

— Complement transportation in Key Peninsula

— Increase employment training and support for Public Assistance recipients, and

— Expand English as a Second Language classes as part of their bi-lingual services.

Community Action also received $3.1 million in low income Weatherization Recovery Funding to weatherize an additional 600 homes.

Community Action currently employs 60 people and has sites at nine locations throughout Pierce County.

Community Action agencies are a national network of organizations, created at the federal level in 1964 under President Johnson’s War on Poverty. There are 31 Community Action agencies in Washington State. Most are private non- profit 501(c)3 entities. Pierce County is one of five Public Community Action agencies in Washington operated through a local government.