Burnet County Community Resource Center helps people navigate crises

Casey Gumbert calls the Community Resource Center “a blessing in disguise” because she didn’t even know it existed when she accompanied her mother, Brandy Henry, to The Helping Center of Marble Falls one day for a bag of groceries. 

“The people there asked me if I needed help,” Gumbert said. “I told them no. I’m not an outgoing person. I’m really shy.”

But she did need help. Desperately. 

The mother of three children, ages 8, 6, and 3, Gumbert was widowed when the youngest was a year old. Her middle child, 6-year-old Ayden, was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a brain and spine cancer, at the age of 5. After8 hours of brain surgery and months of chemotherapy, theonce vibrant and healthy youngster is now unable to speak clearly or walk. He has physical and emotional meltdowns and throws up often, which means Gumbert has to be on call to pick him up from school at any time. 

Ayden’s personality, which is still very much present, drew attention to the family when they visited The Helping Center for groceries.

“We all fell in love with Ayden,” said CRC site coordinator Cindi Fry. “We started talking to Casey and her mother and realized that they lived way away from medical services and had a car that didn’t run half the time. Their living situation was dire.”

Henry stepped in and recounted the family’s story when her daughter shied away. The CRC went to work. 

“The first thing they helped me with was gas,” Gumbert said. “I was using my mother’s car to take Ayden to Austin for his physical therapy, but I couldn’t afford gas.” 

CRC staff also went to work on housing. They found her a subsidized, handicapped-accessible apartment in Marble Falls along with an emergency housing voucher to help pay for it. They also connected her with a local church, which bought her a much more reliable, handicapped-accessible car.

“We had a lot of problems living in Kingsland,” Gumbert said. “It was so far from all of Ayden’s medical care.” 

She also enrolled in a Workforce Network Inc. class, “Getting Ahead in a Just Getting by World,” a program designed to equip people in crisis with the tools and connections necessary to become independent and better navigate the world. Until then, the CRC “navigators,” as they call themselves, were there to help. 

“We are community navigators who can sort through all the programs to find the best ones we can to help each client the most,” Fry said. “People who get in a situation where they are drowning, they need the community navigator. Sometimes, it’s a $60 light bill they can’t pay. Sometimes, it’s ‘I can’t feed my kids’ or ‘I don’t have a place to live.’ It’s different for everybody.” 

The fact that the CRC was a blessing “in disguise” for Gumbert is troublesome to the team.

“People don’t know we’re here,” said Director of Community Engagement Maryum Mitchell. “They don’t know all we have to offer. We want to get the word out there that we are here to help.” 

Programs at the CRC include assistance with transportation, elder care, hygiene, hunger, baby needs, mental health, homelessness, and unemployment. Lifetime learning classes teach family budgeting, nutrition, cooking, diabetes management, and more. When someone signs in at the front desk, they have access to a team of people — the navigators — who work together to find the necessary services. 

“Our site navigators sit down one on one with clients to figure out how they can get from point A to point B and stabilize,” Mitchell said. “Our goal is to navigate what they need. If we can’t provide that, we try to find someone who can.” 

That includes helping people suffering from domestic violence, mental health problems, and drug and alcohol addiction. 

For example, site coordinator Natalee Goff specializes in domestic violence and addiction issues. 

“We help guide people through the resources in the community and (Burnet County),” she said. “Whatever their needs, we try to help as best we can with what we have in the community.” 

Housed in the same complex with the CRC and The Helping Center at 1016 Broadway in Marble Falls is the Pregnancy and Life Center, which also has a location at 106 Cottonwood Drive in Kingsland. The center assists those facing pregnancy-related issues, whether in the early stages or after the baby is born. 

“The Pregnancy and Life Center has free items for babies,” Mitchell said. “They have diapers, car seats, carriers, whatever you need.” 

CRC benefits go beyond the problems that can be fixed with a full tank of gas, a bag of groceries, or lessons on how to apply for a job. For Marble Falls retiree Claudia Duffield, the love and care she received when she needed help with groceries and rent restored her self-esteem. 

“I come in here with tears,” she said. “By the time I leave, they have brought me so much comfort. I was rock bottom, and they helped me tremendously. I’m not just surviving anymore. I am so blessed.” 

Duffield gives back to the community that helped her. She volunteers at St. Frederick Baptist Church in Marble Falls serving lunches and in the church’s food trailer during fundraisers. 

“I give back as much as I can,” she said. “I always volunteer for the back-to-school event, whatever is coming up in the community.” 

She hopes an upcoming surgery will restore her health enough that she can get a job and continue her journey to independence. 

Both Gumbert and Duffield said they would probably be living in a shelter with no hope for a better future if it were not for the Community Resource Center. 

“My long-term goal is to learn how to be independent without having to rely on the CRC or government assistance,” Gumbert said. “Right now, my goal is to get my son healthy.” 

The help and care she received from the CRC programs and its navigators have made that goal a real possibility. 

CRC fast facts

Burnet County Community Resource Center

1016 Broadway in Marble Falls, 830-693-0700

Types of services available

• affordable housing
• children
• education
• employment
• family crisis
• food pantry
• health care
• mental health
• older adult
• transportation

How to get help

Call 830-693-0700 or walk in. The Marble Falls office is open from 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday. A site coordinator is available from 8:30 a.m.- 4 p.m. every Wednesday at a satellite office at First United Methodist Church of Bertram, 115 E. North St.  

How to donate

The Community Resource Center is funded through grants and donations from businesses and individuals. Staff are paid under the ministry arm of the Texas Housing Foundation. Contribute online to Burnet County’s Older Adult Rural Services or Benevolence Fund.

suzanne@thepicayune.com