Community Assistance Program

The Community Assistance Program was developed in 2004 by the Family & Children First Council, the Department of Children and Family Services and the Neighborhood Collaboratives to replace the Family Stability Incentive Program (FSIP). Each Neighborhood Collaborative has a Resource Specialist who provides information and assistance to families who reside in their community. When the families live outside their community, the Resource Specialist can refer the family to the nearest Neighborhood Collaborative for services. These funds are also available to the public systems that participate on the Service Coordination Team.  

Funding for Community Assistance is considered a last-resort resource. Each Neighborhood Collaborative or Public System must show that all other available funding has been exhausted prior to the authorization of this funding.  

For more information, please contact your nearest Neighborhood Collaborative or Lynette S. Smith at (216) 698-2873.   

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible for Community Assistance funding:  

System/Neighborhood Collaborative or family must exhaust all other available resources.  

Parent/guardian must be the legal parent/guardian of minor children that resides in the home.  

Parent/guardian must be gainfully employed or attending school.  

Community Assistance funding requirements include:  
Family requests are capped at $750.00 per family. Funding levels are subject to change.  

A parental/guardian contribution  

• Requests up to $350, the parent must contribute $50.00   
• Requests from $351 to $750, the parent must contribute $75.00  

All requests are for one time use only.

Please note: Families who have been evicted will be denied if another system is refusing to replace items that they have already purchased.  

Items/needs that we do not fund:

• Car or insurance payments
• Payments for parking or driving violation tickets
• Living and dining room furniture (Exception, furniture is purchased by the family or another entity. We can pay expenses to move the furniture to the family home, or to clean second hand furniture.)
• Washer and dryers (Consideration is given in extreme circumstances. Examples include, but are not limited to: the health of the caregiver or several small children in the home.)
• School tuition
• Driving reinstatement fees
• License plates or tags
• Clothing
• Home and cell phone bills (Exception, basic line if the child has an illness that may require a 911 call…no past due long-distance bills.)
• Beds for adults
• Personal bills such as credit cards
• Child care
• Programming (Wraparound services. Exception given to Service Coordination Team.)
• Rent bills that have been delinquent for more than 2 months  

Minimum information needed to apply:

• Verification of child(ren) in the home ages birth to 17. Parent/Guardian must provide birth certificate and social security card. If the child(ren) is a relative, caregiver must provide proof for placement, formal or informal. Informal placement equals a letter from the landlord verifying the child is living in the home.  
• Original bill (utilities or bill from landlord). Parent/Guardian must provide most recent bill dated no more than 30 days past at the time of application.  
• Proof of residency. Parent/Guardian must provide a lease for rent requests. Utility bills must be in the name of person making the request. 
• Proof of employment or school enrollment/attendance. Parent/Guardian should provide pay stub or class schedule.  
• Drivers License or State Id for all members of family 18 years or older.  

Note: Individual Neighborhood Collaboratives or Public Systems may request additional information.

For more information, please contact the nearest Community agency listed below: