By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
In 2020, the 20th Judicial District that includes Barton, Rice, Russell, Stafford, and Ellsworth counties, received a $781,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish telehealth programs to be used by the Barton and Ellsworth County jails, as well as the various health departments in the district. Based on the success of that grant, Barton County Counselor Patrick Hoffman, Juvenile Services Director Marissa Woodmansee, and Barton's Director of IT Dereck Hollingshead applied for another grant. Tuesday morning, Woodmansee reported to the Barton County Commission that grant funds had been received.
"I'm excited for the opportunity because this is distance learning across multiple counties and the populations that, not just my department serves, but also the community corrections population, and other partners we can come and collaborate with," Woodmansee said.
The 2023 USDA B grant totaled $185,745 with a match of $28,730 from Barton County. The latest round will allow juvenile services and community corrections staff to connect with clients in the five counties in the district without the need for staff or clients to travel.
"We do know and recognize that transportation is a barrier to the clients and families that we serve," Woodmansee said. "If we can remove that, then regardless of which agency - us at juvenile services or community corrections, we can plug them in with that entity within our district. We can remove those barriers for those families."
The grant will allow Barton County to update various pieces of hardware and software, as well as better serve clients in the 20th Judicial District. The Center for Counseling and Consultation will partner with the district to utilize services. Hoffman applauded Woodmansee and Hollingshead for their efforts to secure the grant.
"Bringing in $185,000 of federal money is a great thing for Barton County," Hoffman said. "I think we should recognize we have a lot of employees like this. This is not in their job description for Marissa and Dereck to find these things; to do the extra Zoom meetings with USDA representatives to find out how to do this, to create a program, and all the work they're going to do to implement it. They didn't have to do this, but they both recognized this is going to benefit their programs and the county. They're going above and beyond what they're required to do to make this happen."