Expo this Thursday includes many agencies offering assistance to get through winter
Photo by Tom Rivers: Jacki Mowers-Sciarabba, the client advocate at the Genesee-Orleans Ministry of Concern, is pictured at the GOMOC office on the third floor of 121 North Main St., Albion. Mowers-Sciarabba helped organize Thursday’s expo featuring many agencies and businesses with services to help people get through winter.
ALBION – A first-time expo in Albion on Thursday will bring many agencies and businesses together to share services and programs that can assist people struggling to pay bills, especially with the costs of heating their homes during the winter.
National Grid runs customer assistance expos typically in cities. The company wanted to do one in Albion so customers would be better aware of services in the community.
Jacki Mowers-Sciarabba, the client advocate at the Genesee-Orleans Ministry of Concern, brought the idea of the expo to the Orleans County Human Services Council. Many agencies agreed to be at the event on Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. They will be at the Care Net Center of Greater Orleans, 111 West Ave. (across from McDonalds).
“The community doesn’t know the services available to them,” Mowers-Sciarabba said. “Winter is coming and it’s going to be hard.”
She said many people know of assistance through the Department of Social Services and HEAP. But there are other programs that can help, especially for senior citizens.
“There is a need for senior citizens to know what’s available to them,” Mowers-Sciarabba said. “But they are in a different mindset. They don’t look for help, so they suffer through it or they go without. I don’t want people to go without because they’re too proud. There are programs in place that can help them.”
Agencies will be at the expo discussing services in childcare, nutrition, healthcare, assisted living, mental health, and other services.
The following agencies or organizations are scheduled to be at the expo: Alzheimer’s Association, Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester, Cancer Services Program of Genesee & Orleans, Catholic Charities, Care Net Center of Greater Orleans, Child Care Resource & Referral, Community Action of Orleans & Genesee, Cornell Cooperative Extension (nutrition educator), Early Childhood Direction Center, Early Head Start-Childcare Partnership Program, Empower of New York, Family & Children’s Services of Niagara, Fidelis Care, GCASA Prevention, Genesee-Orleans Ministry of Concern’s Just Friends program, Living Opportunities of DePaul, Mental Health Association of Genesee/Orleans, National Grid, Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center’s Health Home Program, NYSEG, Orleans County New York Connects, Orleans County Office for the Aging, Planned Parenthood of Central and Western NY, Parent Network of Western NY, and WNY 211.
