SALINEVILLE — The Utica Shale Academy’s Community Services program is helping local residents by offering support for housing, jobs and even healthcare.

The program is lodged on the third floor of the Williams Collaboration Building after relocating from the Utica Shale Academy Community Center on Church Street last year. It assists the school’s estimated 145 pupils in grades 7-12 and more than a dozen non-students with a variety of needs from housing to healthcare. Community Services operates weekdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and includes five community health workers, or CHW’s, to assist clients. CHW Supervisor Jocelyn Reed said the program provides help with employment, housing, healthcare and any social services such as WIC referrals, while meetings can be held at the site or the client’s home for convenience.

“We have 18 clients and the CHW’s are all new this year. They completed their training at the beginning of the year,” Reed said. “[Clients] can fill out consent or referral forms and need their insurance card, while Medicaid also qualifies. Then they are able to be placed into the system and we will know what their needs are.”

The program offers adult learning assistance to ensure a client successfully completed an education goal such as a course, class, quarter, semester or training program; behavioral health aid to make sure the client has kept three scheduled appointments for related health issues; developmental referrals by documenting results of a completed developmental evaluation; developmental screenings to ensure children are successfully screened; education to help clients understand educational information; family planning by ensuring clients have kept appointments and documenting the family planning method; health insurance, or ensuring documents are completed if the client has received insurance; immunization referrals, in which clients have their immunization records reviewed and verified to be up to date; immunization screenings to ensure they are up to date on all age-appropriate immunizations; lead testing to confirm appointments were kept and results are document; medical home help to confirm a client in need of ongoing primary care has kept their first appointment with the medical home; medical referrals to verify with a healthcare provider that the client has kept appointments; medication assessments to verify with primary care providers that their medication chart was received; medication management to verify with the provider that the client is taking medications as needed; postpartum aid to confirm the clients have kept postpartum appointments; pregnancy help to confirm clients have delivered healthy babies; smoking and tobacco cessation to confirm clients have stopped using tobacco products; and social service referrals to verify clients have kept scheduled appointments with social service providers.

In addition, Reed said diapers, food and hygiene and menstrual products are also available if needed. The hygiene products include shampoo, conditioner, body wash, toothpaste and deodorant and bags are available for men, women, children and babies, while families may also receive one pack of diapers and baby wipes per child each month.

“We can also help with housing and employment,” she continued. “We can help them fill out job applications and make sure they are going to interviews, then follow up for three months to make sure they are still employed. We also help them figure out where they want to live and make an application, then we follow up for three months to make sure they are still housed.”

Reed said the program was financed through grant funding after officials noted the necessity for such a resource.

“We realized there was a holistic need for student services,” added USA Superintendent Bill Watson. “People are more inclined to get help from people they trust, so we’re trying to build that trust while working with them so they can be successful.”

For information, contact the Community Services program at 330-942-4812.