Agency: Missouri Department of Social Services
Director: Gary J. Stangler
Public Information Number: (573) 751-4815
Administration of Human Services
Public assistance and support service programs in Missouri are state administered through the Department of Social Services' Division of Family Services. The division operates through 114 county offices and an office in the city of Saint Louis. Most programs are federal-state funded; a limited number of programs, including blind pensions, are entirely state funded.
The mandatory and optional state supplements to the Supplemental Security Income Program (SSI/S) are administered by the Division of Family Services.
Assistance and Services
Assistance programs are cash and work supports through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, Food Stamps (FS), SSI/S, day care, supplemental nursing care, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), and Medicaid (MAP) for the categorically needy (not including all SSI recipients). There is also a state-funded program of aid to the blind, a blind pension program, and general relief.
The Division of Family Services also administers child welfare services (CA/N, CW), including protective services (CPS); foster care/adoption assistance (FC/AA); family preservation and support services (FP/FS); and the Interstate Compacts on the Placement of Children and on Adoption and Medical Assistance (ICPC, ICAMA). The division provides education, training, and employment to TANF and FS recipients through the FUTURES and Work First Programs; to at-risk youths (QUEST); and under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). Rehabilitation Services for the Blind within the Division of Family Services provides blind services (BS), including vocational rehabilitation (VRB), a program for prevention of blindness, rehabilitation teaching to adults and preschool children, blind services for the elderly, and the business enterprise program.
Other divisions within the Department of Social Services provide Child Support Enforcement (CSE); the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP); youth corrections, including probation and parole (YA, Y-PRO, Y-PAR); and the Interstate Compact on Juveniles (ICJ).
The Department of Social Services and the Department of Health have joint responsibility for the provision of services to the aged under the Older Americans Act (OA).
Related state agencies are responsible for the Maternal and Child Health Block Grant (MCHBG); the Preventive Health Services Block Grant (PHSBG); the Community Health Centers (CHC) Program; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); vocational rehabilitation (VR); unemployment compensation (UC); employment services (ES); mental retardation programs (MR); the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Block Grant (ADAMHBG); adult corrections, including probation and parole (CP, PRO, PAR); the merit system (MS); the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG); the Interstate Compact on Mental Health (ICMH); and state veterans services (VET).
Go the the Missouri Department of Social Services’ web site.
Find out more about whom to contact in this state in the 1998/99 Public Human Services Directory.