HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Rotary Club speaker on June 6, was Jason Parent of Caribou, guest of Rotarian Jane Torres.
He is now the new executive director and CEO of ACAP. ACAP serves over 9,500 hundred families with a working budget of $14 million. ACAP has 140 employees in Aroostook County.
The ACAP office in Houlton includes Head Start Programs, Special Purpose partnership programs, oral health programs and coordinates the WIC program in the area. The ACAP campus is at 91 Military Street. The energy and housing programs assist in homeownership education and support counseling if an owner is behind in the financing of their property. Also energy audits are provided for upgrades to homes.
Lead paint inspections are available as well as rehabilitation evaluations. Other efforts are to keep the elderly at home with technical assistance and financial planning. Grants are available up to five thousand dollars to make homes safe and accessible for the elderly.
Another effort is in workforce development by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act or WIOA. There are programs for youth ages 16 to 24 and also adult programs and dislocated worker programs. The Jobs Driven National Emergency Grant assists people who have been looking for a job for twenty-seven weeks or more.
Family services at ACAP include Head Start, Child Care, Child Care Food Program and WIC which is supplemental food for women, infants and children. Other services are breastfeeding support, oral health and kids integrated dental services. Community services that are available are low-income energy assistance or LIHEAP, energy crisis intervention programs. Some of these programs assist with fuel deliver or electric re-connections.
ACAP provides services and resources to help individuals and families achieve greater economic independence with equal opportunity in these services. ACAP is a member of Maine Community Action and the Community Action Partnership.
Parent earned his bachelor’s degree in communications from UMPI in 1996 and earned his master’s degree in business from Husson College in 2008.
