Jade Powell, Community Development Program manager for the Southeastern Utah Association of Local Governments (SEUALG), along with the rest of the SEUALG, were pleased to recently welcome Tristan Garvin into their ranks as the new Intergenerational Poverty (IGP) Coordinator for the area.
Powell has taken another task under his belt in the form of showing Garvin the ropes and helping him to detail the best ways to assist the community with intergenerational poverty. Some time ago, a number of similarities were noticed between Carbon County and the C.A.R.E Coalition, prompting the coalition to be approached and requested to combine an IGP action plan for the county and coalition.
A subgroup was then created in the coalition for IGP. Around the same time, then-county commissioner Jake Mellor, who is a part of the state IGP, found out about a grant that would assist in hiring a coordinator such as Garvin.
Mellor contacted the SEUALG to inform the organization of the opportunity. The legislature set aside one million dollars for the current year to be funded for IGP-specific projects. Powell, along with the agency, wrote the grant and applied for approximately $170,000 to hire a full-time employee and work with programs such as Future InDesign, Circles and Strengthening Families.
The grant was awarded in the total amount of $75,000, meaning that plans for the monies had to be cut back significantly. Garvin’s position, while still full-time, is billed half of the time to IGP and half to the Circles Program. Some participants also had to be cut down. Seven individuals, whether they be children or adults, may be pushed through to the Future InDesign trainings.
Garvin stated that a large goal as the IGP Coordinator is to bring the different programs that focus on intergenerational poverty together to work in conjunction. While he stressed that the groups that participate (RUCD Head Start, Circles, Future InDesign and the like) are willing to collaborate, a person in between was needed to make the meetings of the groups flow more smoothly.
Recently, Garvin visited the Carbon County Commissioners during their final 2018 meeting to report on the grant. Garvin took the time to explain that the county has been working on a grant for an IGP program and in the grant it was written for an individual to be hired as a coordinator, who turned out to be Garvin. He also stated that he wished to go over the submitted baseline report to inform the commissioners of what direction they are now headed.
The IGP Implementation Committee is working with Head Start as well as striving to strengthen families through the JJS, WFS, Circles and more. Garvin stated he also recently met with Seth Marsing, Carbon County Clerk/Auditor, for funding and is excited to begin and work to see real changes and improvement in the area.
“It’s good to have you in our area,” then-commissioner Jae Potter stated.