When Brittany Jimmar showed up at Bauer Family Resources, she was struggling to afford food and her electric company was threatening to shut off her power.
The young mother, who recently moved to Lafayette for affordable housing, is raising a 2-year-old daughter with another baby on the way. Her mother died more than a decade ago, and with little family to lean on, Jimmer needed help.
Through the Community Partners program, Bauer provided financial assistance to keep Jimmer’s lights on and assigned her a case manager who taught her to plan meals and budget. She even helped Jimmer open a bank account to save for her family.
“She’s like a big sister, and we actually have a kind of close relationship” said Jimmar, who’s 24. “It has been amazing. ... They were always on time. They even reached out to me if they hadn’t heard from me in a couple of weeks or something, just to check on me.”
Community Partners is a voluntary, state-funded program designed to keep struggling families out of the child welfare system. Bauer began running the local program in 2007, according CEO Pam Biggs-Reed.
Bauer caseworkers serve residents in Tippecanoe, Benton and Carroll counties. The program is in the midst of expanding to Clinton, Fountain, Warren and White counties, doubling the number of clients to about 2,000 people per year. When it’s fully staffed, there will be 10 case managers working with Community Partners families.