Patch Gets To Know David Brightbill

MARIETTA, OH — On Putnam Street, between Second and Third, there’s a small unassuming white building with the words Washington Morgan Counties Community Action. You might have seen it, what you might not have seen is the enormous impact it has on the community. They help families in need, they house some, take care of their kids, keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer, give them rides and feed them if they’re hungry.

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Our local community action has contracts with the state and federal government, but it is a private nonprofit organization. Executive Director of the Washington Morgan Community Action (WMCAP) David Brightbill is especially proud of the work they do with women and children. “We do a whole variety of things probably the earliest things we do is our Women infants and children programs.” This is a program for new and pregnant mothers as well as children up to age 5.

They have a head start program, and an early head start program. The early head start is a program is for infants between the age of 6 weeks to 3-years-old. The goal is to enhance the development of very young children and to promote healthy family functioning. This program is available in your home and in one of their centers. The Early Head Start classroom is free, full-day, year-round childcare in Marietta. The head start program is a free preschool for eligible families. They accept kids age 3-5 and the goal is to prepare kids for kindergarten. Brightbill says they have locations in Belpre, Marietta, Malta, and New Matamoras.

They have a senior nutrition program, right now it’s either home delivery or grab and go. “The sites prepare it, people drive through the parking lot and pick it up.” Right now they’re doing between 300-350 home deliveries a day. “That’s just in Washington County.”

WMCAP has programs to weatherize homes, helping families reduce heating and cooling costs. Brightbill said they have a number of partners who help them. “To do energy-saving retrofits, light bulbs, old refrigerators that need to be replaced.” They work with homeowners and help with repairs ranging from minor to major.

He says they provide about $100,000 a month in section 8 rental assistance, but with COVID funding they’re able to help out a lot more than they usually would. “With the COVID money right now we can help people with trash bills, water bills, internet bills,” Brightbill says this is the first time they’ve ever really been able to help out with trash or internet bills. They even keep the busses rolling around Marietta, yep, that’s them. The question is almost what don’t they do?

If someone needs help they have to set up a meeting at WMCAP. “Our eligibility requirements are all over the board. The best thing for people to do is to call in, make an appointment.” They get folks in pretty quick. “COVID certainly increased the demand, and our workforce, but things are pretty much back to normal.” He said the best thing to do is give them a call. “It depends on their income, it depends on their circumstances which of these programs they fit into better.”

WMCAP doesn’t rely on volunteers to help get these services out either. “Volunteers can be really really important. But what we’ve found is because in our case, the services we provide need to be provided when they need to be provided.” While volunteers are goodhearted people who want to help, WMCAP needs that higher level of consistency you get when you pay someone for a job. For those wanting to help out, Brightbill says they are in need of donations for their senior nutrition program. “That’s the program we need financial assistance in the most.”

But for folks having a tough time keeping their head above water, give Brightbill a call at (740) 373-3745. “I can’t guarantee we’re going to be able to help everyone, because we can’t, but they need to give us a call.” He says because they help so many people in so many different ways the best way to find out if they’re eligible is just to set up an appointment.

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