Champions of the Poor

For over 40 years Mid-Iowa Community Action, Inc. (MICA) has waged the war on poverty. Our mission: Helping People. Changing Lives. Building Communities.

In all our endeavors, we are guided by five core values: family, helping others, partnership, achieving results and innovation. MICA, in collaboration with our community partners, leads efforts to strengthen families and communities. Together, we create communities where fewer people find themselves in poverty and those who do, have a path out.

MICA's services to low-income families are initiated primarily through our Family Development Centers in our five core counties of Hardin, Marshall, Poweshiek, Story, and Tama. Family Development Centers are located in Ames, Grinnell, Iowa Falls, Marshallown, and Tama. In addition, MICA helps low-income families in another 28 Iowa counties, either through direct services or by contracting with other agencies. For phone numbers and addresses of our Family Development Centers, click the "Where to Find Us" tab at the top of this page

Quality Services for Families

MICA’s services for families fall into four broad categories: Child Development, Health, Family Development, and Housing.

Child Development
MICA believes every child deserves the chance to succeed. Our child development programs target those elements crucial to a child’s success:

• parental involvement
• health and nutrition
• cognitive development
• social skills
• quality child care
• extracurricular activities

MICA weaves all these elements together in its child development approach. Our early childhood programs—Head Start and Early Head Start—utilize age-appropriate learning techniques; conduct health screenings and nutrition education activities; involve parents in the classroom and in program planning; and work with families on building problem-solving and goal-setting skills. Our early childhood staff also work to increase the availability of quality, affordable child care.

MICA broadens elementary and middle school children’s opportunities through after-school activities. Offering children and youth a creative, safe and fun alternative, our activities support students’ academic studies and give them new experiences. Community projects are also emphasized in the program.

Health
The quality of a family’s nutrition and health care has a far-reaching impact on its members' development and success. Unfortunately, income, not need, determines the quality of food families eat and the level of health care they receive.

For over 30 years, MICA has worked to helped low-income Iowans put healthy food on their tables and get the quality health care they need. Through direct services to families and collaboration with state officials and health care professionals, we have woven an intricate health safety net for Iowa’s low-income families. Our health programs provide:

• food assistance
  
• prenatal health care
  
• post-partum care
  
• immunizations
  
• health screenings
  
• basic dental care
  
• information on health insurance options
  
• assistance in locating a medical home
  
• HIV and AIDS support service
  
• education on nutrition, breastfeeding, and other health topics

Family Development
In 1986 MICA pioneered a new method of working with families: Family Development, a long-term, one-on-one model which pairs families with Family Development Specialists. Through regular home visits—sessions held with families in the privacy of their own homes—Specialists and families address the barriers affecting a family’s success. Together, they complete assessment tools and develop goals around areas critical to a family’s overall well-being, such as employment, substance abuse, education, physical health, and mental health.

Family Development is a powerful model. It empowers families to take control of their lives, to be responsible for their successes and their failures. Family Development equips families with the skills they need for a successful future: strong problem-solving and goal-setting skills; an understanding of the dynamics at play in their lives; and a vision for the future. It also teaches them that they have an intrinsic value as human beings, and that they, too, deserve the opportunity to bring to life the potential buried within them.

Housing
In the mid-1970s, MICA began an innovative program called weatherization. Built on the foundation that families’ utility costs will decrease if their homes are more energy efficient, weatherization utilized home improvements to increase the energy efficiency of a home. The program was successful, and low-income families saw their energy bills decrease.

In 1989 MICA’s Weatherization Technicians adopted a new diagnostic test which used blower doors to affect the pressure within a home. The procedure more accurately pinpointed the rate and source of energy loss in a home, giving technicians better information about which weatherization strategies to employ. By 1992, the innovative techonology MICA helped pioneer was incorporated into weatherization programs throughout Iowa.

Today, MICA offers a variety of housing services:

• heating assistance
  
• homelessness prevention
  
• housing for elderly and disabled Iowans
  
• new small-frame construction
  
• home energy ratings

A Private, Nonprofit Community Action Agency

Mid-Iowa Community Action, Inc. (MICA) is an Iowa corporation. It is classified by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501/c/(3) not-for-profit organization. MICA is also a “community action agency” as defined in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, as amended.

MICA is governed by a twelve-member board of directors consisting of one-third low-income persons, one-third local elected officials, and one-third private sector organization representatives. MICA is funded by local, state and federal sources.

Executive Director, Arlene McAtee

Arlene McAtee is Executive Director of MICA. With more than 25 years of service to MICA and the families we serve, she is the visionary and creator of MICA’s pioneering Family Development model. In 2003, she was elected the Iowa Community Action Association’s liaison to the Iowa Head Start Association. Ms. McAtee believes community action agencies are in a unique position to reach out to the low-income members of their community and provide the three essentials her interviews with low-income families identified: respect, healing and opportunity. She advocates for strong organizations capable of helping people, changing lives, and building communities.