Members of the Carbon County Collaborative reported on the following items happening in their respective agencies. The collaborative is made up of various organizations and agencies that support various groups, from children to senior citizens, living in Carbon County.

• Carbon County Community Foundation: Sharon Alexander, president, reported that the foundation has a couple of grant opportunities available. More information on the grants are available at https://cccfoundpa.org/request-funding.

• Carbon County Homeless Task Force: The next meeting for the task force will take place at 9 a.m. on May 16 at the new Drury Community Resource Center, located at Family Promise of Carbon County’s building at 140 W. Mill St., Nesquehoning.

• Transportation: Larissa Kimmel reported that the transportation committee continues to meet to discuss what the particular needs of the county are regarding public transportation.

• Carbon County Head Start: The program is at full enrollment and staff is looking at recruitment opportunities.

• Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library: There are currently 1,416 students enrolled in the program, with 238 of those children enrolling during the second half of last year. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age 5, through funding shared by Parton and local community partners. The program begin in the Carbon County area in 2021.

For more information and to sign a child up for the program, visit https://cccfoundpa.org/imagination-library.

• Lehigh Carbon Community College: Amber Zuber of LCCC announced that the college received a grant for its EMT training class, which starts April 14.

The college also continues to offer free GED and ESL classes at the Morgan Center in Tamaqua through a partnership with the Lifelong Learning Center.

A health care expo for LCCC’s sponsoring districts’ high school students will take place from 8:30-10:30 a.m. on April 8 at the Morgan Center. The expo will allow students to learn about health care career paths.

• PA CareerLink: A job fair will be held on May 2. The fair will be held from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Carbon Plaza Mall in Lehighton. More information can be found at https://www.carboncountychamber.org/2025-carbon-job-fair.

CareerLink also hosts a Summer Youth Program for people ages 14 to 24 to work in Carbon County. There is a limited number of spots available. Youth can apply through the end of March by visiting the PA CareerLink office in Nesquehoning or by going to their guidance counselor at their high school.

• Victims Resource Center asks that on April 1 you wear something teal and take a picture to raise awareness for sexual assault awareness month. The group is also holding a rally at Misericordia University at 5 p.m. on April 8 for victims’ rights week.

• Common Ground Ministries: Pastor Everett Upton reported that the ministry, located on 121-B Berwick Street in Beaver Meadows, is seeing around a 15% increase in food distribution with a lot of new people coming to the ministry. Common Ground provides both pickup and delivery services for the food distribution. For more information on Common Ground, call 570-801-2699.

• PA LINK: Julie Rovinski-Mann reported that the Pennsylvania LINK program will be at the Luzerne County Community College from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. on May 16 for the Second Annual Veterans and Community Partners Wellness Summit. The event is through a partnership with various veterans groups and the Wilkes-Barre VA in Luzerne County.

• ERAP: The Emergency Rental Assistance Program, which is overseen by the United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley, closed for accepting applications to allow for processing of the applications that have been received. So far approximately 130 applications have been processed and payments sent out. There are also 22 pending payouts; 42 applicants who need to submit final information to the program; and 50 people in the queue once the program reopens if money is still available.

• St. Luke’s Dental Van: John Nespoli of St. Luke’s reported that the dental van had its busiest year to date with nearly 2,000 encounters with Carbon County children who would otherwise not have dental access.

He pointed out that a surprising trend the dental van staff was seeing was the need for basic dental education and supplying toothbrushes because there were some children who didn’t have access to a toothbrush.

Staff also pointed out that the dental van services 10 school districts in Carbon and Schuylkill counties.

• St. Luke’s Community Health: A Community Health Carnival is planned for May 19 at the Panther Valley Stadium from 4-6 p.m.