Blue Valley Multi Service Center Case Study

For the purpose of this assignment, I chose Blue Valley Multi Service Center which is located here in Overland Park, KS. Overland Park is about 40 minutes southwest of Downtown Kansas City. It is part of Johnson County which is a fairly large county. The county itself is drastically different from the KC Metro area because it is known to be a very affluent area, especially the south half of Johnson county. Overland Park itself is one of the highest priced living areas. I chose this location one, because I live here in Overland Park, and two, because I was interested to see what resources are available to this county considering the average income and home prices. From the outside it would appear as though this area is pristine and as though there are no individuals struggling with any kind of social issues. I know that every area has individuals that struggle, regardless of how pristine and perfect it may look. Blue Valley Multi Service Center was one of the only local resources that I could find in Overland Park, besides resources affiliated with churches. I hope to stay in this area after graduation and so I knew that it was essential, especially as a recent transplant to become familiar with what is available in this area and the unseen needs of the population here. Consequently, if my husband and I do end up moving back home, I am from Orange County which is another affluent county. I think there is a need that is often unaddressed in wealthy counties. People or systems tend to assume that everyone living in these places must have a lot of money and very little social issues. I can tell you from personal experience, that this is not the case. People in these rich counties who are struggling tend to fall through the cracks because attention is focused on higher need areas. For that reason, I was interested in exploring what my current area had to offer and to learn about just how desperate the need is here for services. Interview For this assignment I set up an appointment with Beth Johnson who is the current Center manager. She was very welcoming and happy to accommodate my brief interview. She also gave me a short tour of the facility. When I arrived at the facility the first thing that I noticed was how relatively small it was. Beth welcomed me in and had several handouts and brochures ready for me. Beth informed me that Blue Valley Multi Service Center is part of the Johnson County Government. This facility is one of six others like it that are spread throughout the large county. Beth referred to these offices collectively as the counties “outreach team”. I asked Beth how many others work in this office with her and she informed that she was the only person that worked in the office. She said that they don’t like to broadcast that information because they want to make it seem as though there are more people working to support the county however she believes that county officials only have her in the office so that they can cut overhead costs. Overland Park and Johnson County as a whole are known to have higher drastically different demographics than Kansas City and other surrounding areas. For this reason I wanted to explore her cultural empathy. I asked Beth if she has worked with a diverse client population and she told me that compared to the normal population in the area, the people she see are more diverse and represent several different cultures. While I was not able to observe Beth …show more content…
The most popular service is their large food bank. They benefit from a huge amount of local donations from school food drives and from local businesses like Costco. Clients also have the opportunity to get financial assistance for paying utility bills like water, electric and gas bills. Rent assistance is also a service. They also have connections to help individuals who can’t afford necessary medicine. They also have a large library of resources for services that they can’t offer. Beth works to help individuals get in contact with people who work at agencies that specialize in domestic violence shelters homeless shelters, employment services and