In a county where roughly one in four families lives below the federal poverty line, Mountain CAP of West Virginia is building stability and opportunity through its Family Support Center, life-skills classes and other programs aimed at helping Upshur County families thrive.

Executive Director Kathy McMurray attended the Oct. 2 Upshur County Commission meeting to present highlights from the previous year and discuss the agency’s services.

“Our mission is that Mountain CAP is building foundations for individuals, families and communities through programs and partnerships that promote family stability and increase economic opportunities,” McMurray said. “Our vision is creating inclusive, vibrant communities where all individuals and families are thriving, so we see ourselves as not only working with families in the community but also working within the community to increase opportunities for those families to enjoy.”

Mountain CAP served 1,034 individuals in 2024.

“When it comes to services and outcomes, we have wellness classes, stress reduction skills classes like gardening, we offer our Family Support Center, which has been a great boon to the community, we offer parenting classes, we offer life skills training classes, nutrition classes, you name it,” McMurray said. “We do a substance abuse recovery group; there’s just a lot going on all the time.”

Mountain CAP has 55 full-time employees, the majority of whom are in Upshur County, and they paid more than $1,500,000 in wages.

“We’re bigger than a lot of people realize, and for every $1 of Community Services Block Grant dollars — those are the dollars that make us a community action agency — we secured at least $12.44 in additional funding that came in,” McMurray said. “Eighty-five percent of all of our purchases are made in West Virginia.”

Mountain CAP also launched a new diaper assistance program in 2024, helping families struggling to purchase diapers and other supplies.

“In 2024, we conceived of trying to help families who are sometimes at their most vulnerable and struggling economically when they first have a baby or have little toddlers and they’re all in diapers, and we said, ‘What if we could remove one of those stresses for families?’” McMurray said. “We want to help these families not only from an economic standpoint, but really a health standpoint, so that children are well cared for and their diaper needs are met.”

McMurray said about a quarter of families in Upshur County live below 100% of the federal poverty line.

“That’s a lot of kids; they are also more food insecure. I think we started out with 49 families, and 28 families continued for six months or longer. We gave out over 63,000 diapers, and we included wipes and diaper cream along with that,” McMurray said. “What we found over the course of this study was that families used that [additional] money to help pay their rent, buy food, etc. It just shows that actually getting economic support really can make a difference for how a family is able to thrive, because they had enough food, they knew they were secure in their housing.”