Mar 17, 2018 3 min read

MEADOW LANDS – A full 70 percent of the people who sought assistance from the Washington-based Blueprints social services agency in 2017 worked at jobs and earned money, but 43 percent of them did not earn even half of the federal poverty level, which stands at a little over $20,000 per year for a family of three.

“That doesn’t seem right,” said Darlene Bigler, chief executive officer for Blueprints. “People are working hard, but they can’t get ahead.”

That was one of the findings outlined at Blueprints’ annual legislative breakfast Friday at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in North Strabane Township. In the same year that Blueprints was rechristened after being called Community Action Southwest for a little more than 50 years, it “improved the lives” of a little more than 18,000 people in Washington and Greene counties, as well as some in neighboring communities in West Virginia, Bigler told a gathering of lawmakers and other officials.

But not all of the findings unveiled at the legislative breakfast, hosted by state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, were as uplifting. The opioid crisis is taking a toll on families, and there has been an increase in reports of child abuse incidents in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties, though that could be the result of stricter reporting requirements put in place in Pennsylvania following the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Behavioral challenges have also been interfering with classroom learning, the agency reported.

“I come here, and I learn something new about our district,” Snyder said. “And sometimes what I learn is very disheartening.”

Among other things, Blueprints found:

• While 70 percent of its clients were working, either earning their money from employment or combined with other sources, the remaining 30 percent relied on pensions, Social Security, general assistance and other sources.
• Thirty percent of Blueprints clients own their own homes, while 52 percent are renters.
• A little more than half – 53 percent – of Blueprints clients have either a high school diploma or a GED. Ten percent have some post-secondary education, and 16 percent have attended college. The remaining 21 percent did not have a high school diploma.
• Thirty-three percent of households served by Blueprints are two-parent households, while 31 percent are single-parent, and 25 percent are single-person.

Along with its rebranding, Blueprints launched a handful of initiatives in 2017, including the placement of 26 Little Free Libraries in the area. The agency put them near early childhood education sites, lower-income neighborhoods and public housing. Ten more are due to be added this year. The Getting Ahead While Getting Out pilot project helped female inmates at Washington County jail re-enter society after serving their sentences with educational, housing, drug rehabilitation and job development services. Bigler explained they would like to broaden the program to the male population at the jail, and to Greene County, “but funds are limited.”

“We would love to be able to expand it, and have it make a greater impact,” she added.