How the Prevention, Retention and Contingency program can help low-income families
ZANESVILLE, Ohio – With the country facing an ongoing affordability crisis, low-income families may need help from a program run by their county’s Job and Family Services office.
The Prevention, Retention, and Contingency (PRC) program assists low-income families with children who face difficulties that could impact their ability to maintain employment or remain self-sufficient. Jim Buehler and Laura Morrison, from Muskingum County Job and Services, visited WHIZ to discuss the impact of the PRC program for participants as well as local businesses.
“Currently, we’re serving about 80 families a month and we’ve already distributed over a quarter of a million dollars back into the Muskingum County community, specifically for those services. Either for car repairs or gas cards or licenses or insurance. We currently have about 20 local vendors that are contracted through us and they will go to them and so we’re recycling back through local businesses also,” Buehler said.
The PRC program can cover automotive repair costs so you can make it to work, pay for car insurance to drive legally, and can help fill up your gas tank. According to Morrison, applications are often processed quickly, but you will want to bring some documentation to prove your income level and the cost of your needs.
“Once they’re in the office, we can give them a checklist of what they may need that we want them to get within the next 30 days,” Morrison said. “And typically, we can process a PRC request on the same day but if they have to go out to get verification of like car insurance, what’s that going to cost? So, they have to get a quote from an insurance company and bring that back to us. Or, if they’re recently employed and that employer’s requesting uniforms, shoes, something like that they would need to go and get the quote from the store, where they want to purchase that and then they would bring that verification back with them. “
You can apply for the PRC program by visiting Muskingum County Job and Family Services at 445 Woodlawn Avenue in Zanesville.
