Mount Rogers Community Services makes case for its funding requests
Mount Rogers Community Services is asking the localities in its service region to pay $13.70 per capita toward mental health, developmental disability, and substance use disorder services.
That figure is based on the Virginia State Code that sets the minimum local match at 10% of the agency’s total revenue and that match is then put into a per capita formula, which means that Bland County with its population of 6,186 is being asked for $84,720, while Smyth County with 29,137 residents is being asked to allocate $399,044.
The request put to all six of the localities served by MRCS – Bland, Carroll, Grayson, Smyth, and Wythe counties and the City of Galax – comes in at nearly $1.7 million.
According to Christy Blevins, MRCS director of financial services, that request comes after the agency reduces the 10% match by factoring in a variety of in-kind services and philanthropic gifts.
Addressing the Smyth County Board of Supervisors, Sandy Bryant, the agency’s executive director, explained that people are coming into the Marion crisis center now are frequently asking for food and shelter over counseling.
Staff at the center, she said, are trying to help meet those basic needs. They’re giving them clean scrubs so they can take a shower and do laundry.
“We take care of them,” she said.
Part of that care, Bryant said, is having them talk with peers who have faced the same or similar circumstances.
The center is also able to provide some primary health care to those who seek its help. Bryant noted that MRCS is one of the few community service agencies in the state licensed to provide such medical care.
Matt Sabo, MRCS Director of Marketing & Communications, said the agency serves about 3,000 people annually with the largest group made up of people who are 18 to 45 years old. Last year, MRCS also served 728 individuals younger than that group.
Those numbers don’t include the individuals who work in the agency’s Employment Support Services locations (previously known as Industrial Development Centers).
Samantha Crockett, senior director of wellness and community engagement, told the supervisors that she and her team work to mitigate the risk factors that can lead to addiction or a crisis.
In Smyth County alone through March, she said that 4,000 people have received these services, which may include training on topics such as mental health first aid, suicide prevention, or overdose response.
These staffers, Crockett said, also engage with people at community events.
They work to help a variety of people ranging from veterans to older adults with dementia.
Programs in schools also are in place, she said.
Mark Morin, senior director of case management, told the Smyth meeting, “We’re here to serve.”
This week, County Administrator Shawn Utt said that in the proposed 2026-27 fiscal year budget for Smyth County has allocated $110,000 for MRCS. He said he believed that was in line with Wythe County’s tentative allocation.
In what has proved to be a challenging budget year, Smyth County’s allocation is down from $150,000 in the current fiscal year.
