Hub could bring social services closer to Lansing residents

Social services and public assistance programs could soon become more accessible to residents of the town of Lansing.

The Community Justice Center — a collaborative effort between the city of Ithaca and Tompkins County tasked with implementing joint Reimagining Public Safety plans — has recently piloted community resource hubs in area towns. The weekly resource hub pop-ups, which have settled in the towns of Enfield and Groton, are meant to get services closer to people in rural areas.

Community Justice Center Program Director Monalita Smiley gave a presentation on these community resource hubs at the Lansing Town Board meeting Nov. 15. 

“We are looking at bringing some of the resources available in Ithaca out to the rural areas,” Smiley said. “That way, people in rural communities have access to the same services people in inner-city communities have.”

At a recent resource hub pop-up, Smiley noted, she helped a couple from Groton secure housing assistance. Smiley herself can assist on site, help residents enroll in social safety net programs or do so over the phone, she said. 

Other services residents can receive assistance signing up for at a resource hub include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), SNAP for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP). 

Smiley also noted that she can help refer individuals to mental health services over telehealth.

The Groton and Enfield programs occur once a week in public, highly transited areas such as a food pantry and the local community center. Typically, Smiley said, the center will notify residents via an outreach campaign. The Community Justice Center covers the costs of advertising materials for residents, which in other municipalities came in the form of a mailer.

“This program has no cost to our individual communities,” Smiley said. “This is about building relationships with our rural community members.”

Town Board Member Bronwyn Losey, a Democrat, said that she supports f instituting a weekly date for the hub to serve Lansing residents. She also proposed a potential location for the weekly hub in Lansing along state Route 13.

“This sounds fantastic,” she said. “One of the places I think should be considered should be somewhere near all the apartments in the village. Generally, if you are out more rurally, you have a vehicle or some way of transportation. Many people at the apartments in the village rely on the bus line.” 

Town Board Member Ruth Groff, a Democrat, said that she has already spoken to village of Lansing leadership about potentially alternating between bringing the hub to the village and the town every week. (Groff is the town supervisor-elect.)

Smiley and members of the board agreed to continue to hold conversations on the matter before settling on a location in the town.

As part of the Reimagining Public Safety plan, community resource hubs are integral to procuring healthy and safe communities, Smiley said.

“This program is about meeting people where they are, making sure they have access to information in their own communities and can connect with the Community Justice Center on what’s important to them when it comes to public safety,” Smiley said. “My vision is that these will be safe spaces for people to access the internet, get help with a form to access services or just to navigate the complexities of resources in our community,” she added. “I’m glad we’re getting to do this work because this shows that government and not-for-profit services can be available to everyone.”

Smiley said that the hubs are also about delivering “wraparound services” to help residents in need before they experience a crisis or feel desperate for help.

“These hubs can be a way to deliver those services to people earlier, when they identify that they’d like support or access to information,” she said. “I see this as a prevention mechanism and a way to uplift people in areas that don’t have everything that you can find in the geographic center of the county.”

Lansing at Large appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @ezvelazquez.

In brief:

The Lansing Events Committee is set to host the third annual holiday tree lighting at the Lansing town ball fields Dec. 2. The festivities will kick off with the arrival of Santa Claus at 6:30 p.m. Children are encouraged to bring their holiday letter to Santa Claus or put it in a display box. 

The committee is also organizing a toy drive. There will be a bin for drop-off at the tree lighting event.