FAQs

What is the “community” that IOCP serves?

When IOCP refers to “our community” or “the community we serve,” we mean the eight communities that make up our service area: Hamel, Long Lake, Medicine Lake, Medina, Minnetonka Beach, Orono, Plymouth, and Wayzata.

Within this service area, IOCP responded to 1,476 families (4,248 individuals) from April 2007 to March 2008. About 85% of the families IOCP serves earn less than 50% of the Area Median Income ($40,450 for a family of four), and 35% of our client families earn 30% or less of the AMI ($24,270 for a family of four).

The demographics of our service area have changed over the years:

  1989 2008
Lbs. of food distributed 57,050 753,556
Food shelf assists 1,407 12,267
Transportation assists
(repairs, gas cards, bus passes)		 416 2,220
Housing assists 133 2,452
Utilities assists 85 422

Our community has become increasingly diverse, with a higher incidence of poverty. There are 42 home languages spoken in the Wayzata School District, including Cutchi, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Somali, Hindi, and Hmong. From 2001 to 2008, the number of students qualifying for free and reduced meals more than doubled, from 5.07% to 12.2%.

IOCP is responsive to changes in our community. For example, we began offering rides to ESL/ABE classes when the Wayzata Public Schools determined that getting to class was the single biggest barrier to participation. We and our CfKI partners launched the Caring for Kids Initiative in response to an increase in children in our community who need access to affordable quality care and education to prepare them for kindergarten. All of IOCP’s efforts are intended to strengthen the community we all call home.

Does IOCP say yes to every request for help?

No. To be eligible for IOCP services, people must live in our service area (Plymouth, Wayzata, Hamel, Long Lake, Medicine Lake, Medina, Minnetonka Beach, Orono).

Only our Rides program is open to individuals who have not met with a case manager.

People in need of financial assistance meet with case managers to determine when and how we are able to help. As a first step, we access all forms of public assistance they may be eligible for. We work with them in completing a household budget analysis. All options to resolve their financial crisis, including personal resources, are pursued before IOCP funds are applied.

We say yes to requests for rent assistance when people have a realistic plan to resolve a housing need and our assistance will help them achieve it. When their need exceeds our assistance limits or when our assistance won’t resolve their housing crisis for the short- or long-term, we may deny financial assistance but help them pursue other options. Checks for rent assistance are made directly to landlords.

When a health, chemical, or mental health issue is at stake, resources to address the issue are offered. Assistance may be contingent upon willingness to address the issue. Financial assistance is denied indefinitely if or when people requesting assistance mislead or provide false information to staff, misuse funds, or commit fraud.

Sadly, we also say no when we have run out of funds.

People who come to IOCP are in crisis. They may be facing eviction, job loss, family break up, domestic abuse, a health crisis, utility shut-off, a need for car repair, or other unmet basic needs. When we are not able to respond directly or fully to a request for assistance, our case managers help people identify options, link them with outside resources and, when applicable, advocate for additional services on their behalf.

Whether we say yes or no, our goal is always to help people move past the crises that bring them in to real options that offer hope for positive and lasting change.

How long does IOCP help someone?

IOCP case managers assess the needs of each person who seeks assistance. The need, and our capacity to respond, determines how long we help someone.

The top four areas IOCP provides emergency financial assistance in are housing, transportation, utilities, and medical expenses. Each area has limits based on need and available resources.

For example, in September 2008, IOCP provided assistance to 691 households. Of them, 61% accessed the Food Shelf or the Back-to-School program only. The remaining received financial assistance. For some, that assistance was a gas card, bus pass, Dial-a-Ride card, or food certificate. (Gas cards and other certificates are available to clients every other month and are gone during the first week of each month.) Of the total, 19% (131) received emergency housing assistance.

Most people receive housing assistance to get past a short-term crisis (car broke down, loss of hours at work, unexpected medical expense). From September 2007 to August 2008, 635 households received housing assistance. Of them, 58% received it for one to two months. Another 29% received assistance for three to six months.

Families who need help with housing beyond six months must fulfill additional requirements. They must meet regularly with a case manager, create a work plan that addresses all barriers, and document progress made toward self-sufficiency goals. Households served in this way often struggle with multiple or complex barriers that may include employment, mental or physical health challenges, disability, domestic violence, or divorce.

A growing number of individuals in this category are recently unemployed and job searching for longer periods of time. In the last year, 12% of individuals who received housing assistance fell into this category.

IOCP programs that provide longer-term assistance:

  1. CONECT makes on-site family and children support services available to residents of 8 multi-unit apartment neighborhoods for as long as they are residents.
  2. Housing Case Management services are provided to formerly long-term homeless families to stabilize their housing situation and help them move toward independent living.
  3. Project Success provides rent support and intensive services to help families move toward self-sufficiency within two years.
  4. Employment Services provides brief and extended help with support for people pursuing employment goals as they create and build career ladders.

How does IOCP measure the success of its services?

We consider our services successful when they help families stabilize and move toward self-sufficiency. This is often a process marked by incremental successes specific to each individual’s circumstances.

Most of the people who come to IOCP are in crisis and need immediate assistance. Because it’s difficult to ask for help, people often put off coming to IOCP. Opening up to that support is a huge step forward and represents a first success.

Our initial priority is to address the presenting need and provide assistance to help stabilize the situation for the short term. This can mean anything from putting food on the table, paying a utility bill, keeping a car going, filling a prescription, making a rent payment, or addressing a health or mental health crisis.

Beyond the short-term assistance, and when indicated, case managers work with families and individuals to create a long-term plan. Such a plan might include upgrading a job and income to cover expenses. It might also include becoming enrolled in a training program that will help them pursue meaningful, lasting employment. Each of these goals takes time and, when reached, represents a success as they move closer to financial independence.

All IOCP programs have specific criteria and tracking systems for measuring success.

  • The success of CONECT’s Homework Club, for example, is improved academic achievement of participating youth. Current measurements indicate that 80% of the youth who regularly participate in Homework Club improve study habits, attitude toward school, and academic performance.
  • The Caring for Kids Initiative measures success by indicators of kindergarten readiness. Wayzata Public Schools staff screens incoming kindergarteners to assess school readiness. The quality providers CfKI works with are nationally accredited and use similar assessment tools. Recent 5-year-old graduates of Kids’ Care Connection assessed by a licensed WPS teacher were deemed ready for kindergarten. Kindergarten readiness is a strong indicator that children are on a path for success in school and life.

Have hard economic times impacted IOCP’s ability to respond to people’s needs?

Unfortunately, yes.

First, we are seeing trends among the people we serve as a result of the economy.

  • Families who haven’t used IOCP services for up to eight years are back.
  • Families who in the past have only used the food shelf are now requesting emergency financial assistance for rent, utilities, and car repairs.
  • The loss of a job or reduction of hours has caused an increase in people accessing our services.
  • Some former donors are now finding they need some form of help.
  • The number of new clients remains steady; we think some people who are newly struggling may not know about IOCP.

Second, IOCP’s budget for this year shrank by $200,000, forcing us to revise our emergency financial assistance eligibility guidelines (see below). These changes narrow the number of clients who qualify and, over time, reduce the number who ask.

1. Establishing priorities
We have established priorities of need when deciding between multiple requests for assistance, focusing eligibility around mental illness, domestic violence, temporary physical disability, applying for SSI homelessness and imminent eviction.

  • Emergency rent assistance is limited for those who receive rent subsidy (once every six months); we discontinued mortgage assistance.
  • Utilities assistance only for a person who has a disconnect notice.
  • Car payment assistance only if person faces imminent repossession.
  • Our fund to help with car purchases is gone.

2. Decreasing housing assistance
This year we are providing 130 to 140 housing assists per month, compared to 180 to 200 last year. The size of the assistance has increased from $569 to $640 per assist.

3. Increasing requests for certificates and vouchers
Requests for food certificates rose 69% and gas vouchers 51% since August 2008.