Community leaders who have been working for months on an action plan are getting closer to the final product.

The Central Missouri Community Action has been conducting monthly meetings in Mexico since May to come up with a plan. The meetings started with a data walk to find out what concerns community members thought needed to be addressed followed by meetings each month leading up to the final meeting this past Tuesday, Oct. 31.

In the first meeting, the group came up with a goal statement of, “Everyone in Audrain County is to be healthy and safe” The next step was to identify issues within the community and then identify action strategies that could be put in place.

At this week’s meeting, the group narrowed down some of the strategies to include a campaign to let citizens know about food resources available, a calendar with important dates and times for food distribution, creating a coalition of youth leaders, creating an awareness campaign for programs like the ACA and Medicaid and looking for opportunities to help youth socialize and play.

Some other ideas that were considered were cooking classes and recruiting more volunteers. Some of the things considered while choosing were feasibility, whether it can be specifically applied, and whether or not the idea fit within the community’s values.

Up to this point, the discussion has centered around ideas without any specifics but that will change when the group meets again. One thing the group did discuss in looking ahead is the challenges community groups have faced in the past in getting services to people. A recent drive to get kids’ eyes screened and free glasses drew a small crowd.

Rebecca Moppin, a counselor at Mexico High School, said a big problem at the high school getting services to students is a lack of awareness that can be hard to break. Moppin said many families are facing struggles that make it hard to think about upcoming events.

“They’re in survival mode so much to the point they cannot think past 10 minutes from where they are right now,” Moppin said. “When we say we’re going to have free ice cream in two weeks, that's an entire lifetime for so many of our citizens in our community. If you can’t think two or three weeks ahead then that means your kids are not engaged.”

CMCA will take the holidays off and begin the work again this coming spring when an outline plan will be developed. CMCA will launch a website to document the process.