County Social Services is asking for help from mental health and disability service providers in Webster County to distribute over $4 million in federal coronavirus relief funds under the CARES Act.

The ask is simple: Submit a grant application showing how an organization could put the funds to good use for relevant services.

The solicitation for grants was distributed recently to the CSS region, which covers 18 other adjoining counties, in addition to Webster County.

CSS received $4,016,726 via Gov. Kim Reynolds as part of what was distributed to Iowa from the coronavirus aid package passed by Congress in March. CSS invited appropriate service providers with a home office located in a member county or school districts whose district office is in a member county to apply for up to $10,000 each.

“(Mental Health and Disability Service) providers and districts will be able to identify their needs and creative ideas for grants in the application process,” said Karen Dowel, interim CEO of CSS, in a letter dated Sept. 1. “The dollars must be for COVID-19 related services and must have a mental health or disability services component.”

The funds cannot be used for budgeted items covered by or billable to other funders and must be used for expenditures incurred between March 1 and Dec. 30.

Ideas include the purchase of equipment, additional staff expenses, personal protective equipment, telehealth software, mental health training or programs designed to reduce the stigma of mental health, Dowel said.

The CEO encourages the non-profits to ask themselves how COVID-19 has impacted operations and what they might need to provide services moving forward in the new environment created by the pandemic.

“Finally, we’re getting some mental health care dollars back in our county,” said Webster County Supervisor Mark Campbell, who has been reaching out to various organizations to spread awareness. “But we realized nobody (in Webster County) was really applying when we heard about it.”

One confirmed recipient of the grant is the Fort Dodge Community School District, which will be using it to continue social-emotional learning throughout the challenges posed by the pandemic.

With $10,000, Dr. Jesse Ulrich, superintendent, said the district will purchase 375 webcams — enough for every teacher and support staff member to continue “face to face” connections, even if students are in quarantine or the district needs to move to a hybrid model with at-home learning.

In elementary schools, that would mean morning meetings. In middle and high schools, that would mean continuing restorative circles.

“This (pandemic) isn’t easy on anybody,” Ulrich said. “There’s certainly anxiety on a day-to-day basis. At any given time, we know we could have a positive case where students are quarantined. At any time, that might be them.”

Students aren’t the only ones stressed by it, either. Campbell said the pandemic has taken a toll on mental health in the county, just from the perspective supervisors witness at the courthouse.

“Our struggle we’re seeing at the courthouse is just physically being separated (by) a shield,” Campbell said. “Just that separation, that anxiety is enormous for some people. Every opportunity we have to sit down with somebody, we do. We get them to the correct (mental health) provider and if possible, face to face.”

Feedback he has received so far indicates that those in need have not been reaching out as much as they did before the pandemic started, he said.

Webster County, along with Wright and Cerro Gordo Counties, have applied to join another mental health region, Central Iowa Community Services, to Webster County’s east. The move follows new Iowa law signed by Reynolds after supervisors expressed longstanding frustrations with various aspects of CSS in meeting local needs.

Campbell said the county will know by the end of October whether they will be able to join CICS. If accepted, a transfer would not take place until July 1, meaning grants with CSS would be unaffected.