Susan Barr
Kern Valley Sun

The Kern River Valley Collaborative held its monthly meeting at the Lake Isabella Senior Center on Thursday, September 24. The well attended meeting was facilitated by Melody Batelaan of Adult and Aging Services who was filling in for Nancy Puckett, Director of the Kern River Valley Family Resource Center who was unable to attend.

The agenda featured a presentation by Kern County Department of Human Services, Social Services Workers Luann Cole and Carol Jordan. They were on hand to make representatives of local valley non-profit organizations aware of how cuts to the state’s budget will soon make themselves felt at the community level. They discussed several programs that have experienced criteria changes for new clients. Next up was Denine Tucker, an educator with the Kern River Valley Head Start Preschool. She was at the meeting to let fellow community workers know that Head Start is still providing services to preschool children in our community. She also wanted to make them aware that it has changed its outreach. At this time, the program is only offering home based visits.

A presentation by Puckett and Deputy Joe Garcia was scheduled to follow. The two were going to share with attendees information about a multi-agency prevention and intervention program that has been provided at the South Fork and Kernville Union School Districts for the past three years. Due to Puckett’s unavailability, their presentation was delayed until the October meeting.

The next KRV Collaborative monthly meeting will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct., 22 at the Senior Center. The public is encouraged to attend.