HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL OF DISTRICT IX INC

Established in 1975, HRDC exists to help people with needs such as food, housing assistance, emergency shelter, preschool education, heating costs, services for teen and seniors. HRDC is a community leader in helping people overcome social and economic challenges and become self-sufficient and productive members of their community. Our goal is to facilitate, coach, and guide people along their personal path to success, providing tools, resources, and information to guide them. In addition to the wide range of supportive services we provide, we also refer customers to our network of community partners.

• Implement HRDC's three-year strategic plan to address issues community-wide issues:
1.Child Care. Low to moderate income families need affordable, year-round child care options, including after school programming.
2. Access to transportation
3. Mental Heath Services
4. Cost and availability of affordable housing, especially for low income households.
5. Outreach: people from outlying rural communities have distance barriers to accessing HRDC services.

• Building Partnerships with others who offer services to our customers.
• Building relationships with new funders who share our vision and our values and who have a capacity to fund creative, innovative solutions.

HRDC has unique capabilities to be active in seven focus areas: 1) affordable housing and overcoming homelessness 2) providing valuable services to seniors – including housing, food, transportation, and in-home medical and social care; 3) Head Start programs for pre-schoolers and youth programs for at-risk teens, 4) food and nutrition services for those in need of help, 5) community development to search for answers to priority needs and to provide funds to build new affordable condos; 6) utilities assistance and home renovations for low-income families; 7) community and special needs transportation. Our financial position is strong, although government funding is declining for several of our program areas. Our board and out leadership team are committed to investing time and financial resources in priority areas. In the near term, we have funds set aside to launch Phase III of an affordable condominium complex in Bozeman We support low income customers who aspire to home ownership by providing home-buyer education courses and through advocacy relationships with local lenders and are very successful at providing our customers with down-payment assistance. We have reserves available to make purchases of undervalued property which can be used to increase the stock of low-income housing. Our community partnerships have never been stronger. Over the last decade, we have become recognized as the lead organization for fostering community change and we have recruited talented and compassionate staff to enable us to achieve visionary goals. Beginning in 2013, we have propelled the benefits of Community Action to the forefront of community understanding, and are building new partnerships and relationships with friends and sponsors daily.

Within the past few years, we have opened (and expanded) a Warming Center that operates seasonally (winter only) and serves our tri-county region, we have opened a home providing transitional housing for men and women, we have opened a Pay What You Can Restaurant to provide hot meals -- open to anyone in need -- 365 days a year. We have opened a new food bank serve the community of Big Sky, Montana. These offerings provide a new level of safety and security to the people in our community who are struggling, which is our intended impact. However, much work is ahead, particularly in affordable housing and increasing support for people with low incomes. We have learned that public opinion is core to fulfilling our mission and that public opinion can be affected by media reporting. Accordingly, we have expanded our work with local media this year while we continue to work with local government to obtain meaningful support for our stated priorities. Another challenge is to provide meaningful services throughout the three counties we serve. Many of our services are provided in the denser areas and we strive to provide similar support for rural customers. We have built relationships with community partners to achieve this, and set up staff and local expertise in outlying communities – but current budget constraints challenge our abilities to provide such services.