COMMUNITY SERVICES OF STARK COUNTY, INC.

Community Services of Stark County, Inc. is a not-for-profit social service/mental health agency founded in 1919 by ten concerned citizens who wished to find a way to help children orphaned as a result of WWI and/or the flu pandemic of 1918. On August 19, 1919 the first Executive Committee met and drew up a constitution that set the purpose of the newly created agency. The goal was to provide assistance to those in need. The intake policy was defined only to the extent that no one would be turned away. Community Services of Stark County is accredited nationally by the Council on Accreditation, the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, certified through the Ohio Department of Mental Health, and licensed through the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. We have four main and seventeen satellite sites located throughout Stark County. The agency, which started with three paid employees, now has over 150. The budget now exceeds $6 million. Last year alone Community Services:

· Provided utility and rent assistance to 496 individuals and families · Provided 9,000 nights of emergency shelter · Assisted 754 individuals with prescriptions · Afforded professional counseling to 1,980 individuals · Placed seven children into adoptive homes · Placed 60 children into an adoption by their grandparents · Presented preventative education seminars to more than 6,000 students · Provided 372 individual with job retraining · Awarded five micro-business loans · Engaged in collaborations with seven other area social service agencies · Provided school based services to 1,821 students in 16 area schools · Assisted six area not-for-profits with fundraising expertise · Served 22,559 meals at our Samaritan’s Table hot meal program

The agency derives its funding from a variety of sources including support from United Way of Greater Stark County, program fees, donations, grants (local, state, and federal), as well as corporate, private and community foundations.

Community Services of Stark County offers the area’s broadest array of programs and services all staffed by a team of professionals who are appropriately certified for their position and responsibilities within the agency. Community Services offers a broad program array to best meet the needs of the people of the Greater Stark County (Ohio) community.

ARTS IN STARK

ArtsinStark, the County Arts Council, is located to new offices in the former Napa Auto Parts building at 900 Cleveland Ave. N.W. in Canton, Ohio. The build­ing has a colorful facelift to better reflect the work of the non-profit agency committed to growing the arts to “create smarter kids, new jobs, and healthier communities.” ArtsinStark offices will take up about 1,500 square feet, half of the interior; the other half will be used as storage for Canton Ballet and Players Guild Theatre.   “For almost 40 years, the County Arts Council’s staff has been spread through­out different spaces around the Cultural Center,” said ArtsinStark President and CEO Robb Hankins. “For example, three of us worked out of an area that origi­nally was supposed to be the gift shop for the Canton Museum of Art. We’ve never been able to get everyone all together before. So this is exciting.”

The staff responsible for the administration of ArtsinStark has relocated to the new building, which features offices, a meeting room and reception area. The ArtsinStark staff responsible for the management of the Cultural Center for the Arts will remain onsite at the Market Avenue location. The new administrative offices of ArtsinStark symbolize how eco­nomic development and the arts can work together to make Stark County even stronger. The new phone number for the agency is (330) 453-1075. The address is 900 Cleveland Avenue NW in downtown Canton.