Community Support Services

ACCESS is the transportation “clearinghouse" for the Gaston County human service agencies. ACCESS identifies and arranges the most efficient and economical transportation services for all requests. ACCESS directly provides the needed transportation unless the requests are far more than the department can handle; in those cases, ACCESS utilizes private vendors and other public transit providers to assist with overflow Non-emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) trips. ACCESS provides services for NEMT, Seniors, Veterans, Rural General Public, Elderly/Disabled, Vocational Rehabilitation, and Deviated Fixed Route. ACCESS operates Monday-Friday from 4a-6pm.

Hope United Survivor Network houses The Family Justice Center, The Lighthouse Children’s Advocacy Center, and The Cathy Mabry Cloninger Center – A Domestic Violence Shelter. Our mission is to serve citizens impacted by domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, elder abuse, and childhood trauma by providing and coordinating services around survivors and their families. Hope United works in collaboration with community partners to address clients’ needs, provide prevention education, and ongoing case management with a focus on increased offender accountability resulting in a safer community.

The Peer Support Program assists first responders, including law enforcement, detention officers, animal control, telecommunicators, emergency medical services providers, social workers, and others exposed to traumatic events in navigation of the mental health system, provides appropriate documentation and paperwork as needed on peer services, and assists in teaching basic mental health information and coping skills to clients and families.

Veterans Services Office (VSO) was developed to assist veterans and their families with the preparation and presentation of claims for all benefits to which they are entitled under federal, state, and local law. This includes North Carolina Division of Veterans Affairs State Scholarships, hospitalization, travel to VA medical appointments, GI home loans, compensation/pension claims, educational assistance, and review of discharge and record correction.

CSS Special Projects includes the Opioid Settlement Funding Plan, Homelessness Prevention Task Force, Community Child Protection Team, and the Child Fatality Prevention Team. 

• The Opioid Settlement Funding Plan will support prevention, treatment, recovery, and other life-saving programs and services in communities impacted by opioids. 
• The Homelessness Task Force was established by the Gaston County Board of Commissioners to better understand the extent and challenges of homelessness in Gaston County, to coordinate with ongoing efforts, and to develop or reinforce action steps to reduce homelessness. These efforts include short-term emergency housing, the Homeless Prevention Committee, and long-term public/private housing.
• The Community Child Protection Team (CCPT) promotes a community-wide approach to reviewing and/or addressing problems/concerns associated with child abuse and neglect and seeks ways to protect children from preventable deaths. Local teams, comprised of community representatives, identify, and respond to gaps in prevention/protection response, while maximizing the use of available resources. The CCPT's tasks include the review of active cases in which abuse, neglect, or dependency is found and the review of fatalities, including fatalities suspected to have resulted from child abuse, neglect or dependency and fatalities where the child or the child's family had received child welfare services within 12 months of the child's death.
• The Child Fatality Prevention Team seeks to identify and reduce preventable child fatalities through multiagency reviews of child fatalities, giving data-driven recommendations for legislative and public policy initiatives, interdisciplinary training, and promotion of community-based prevention education.