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WIBW Video & History
Published: Mar. 24, 2025
WAMEGO, Kan. (WIBW)
It’s easy to think about the need for social services in large cities, but those needs also exist in small towns and rural areas in northeast Kansas.
Community Care Ministries, now in its 24th year, is helping to meet those needs for people living in Pottawatomie and Wabaunsee counties. The agency, with a home office at 407 Ash St. in downtown Wamego and an outreach location at 246 E. 9th in Alma, provides a variety of assistance ranging from medical care to food items to clothing to social services.
The organization, which offers its services at no charge to clients, is funded primarily through grants and donations. Individuals meeting income guidelines are able to receive the services, which also include assistance with emergency services such as car repairs, utilities and rent.
Susan Inskeep is chief executive officer of Community Care Ministries and says the agency is filling a vital need in an array of areas for local residents.
“First and foremost,” Inskeep said, “we’re a medical clinic.” But its services don’t end there. “The community does care,” Inskeep said, “and it really has been a gift that we have people that will give back in.”
Inskeep said people who want to roll up their sleeves and help the agency are always welcome.
The Wamego clinic -- where all of the agency’s medical care is provided -- formerly housed a dental office. But Community Care Ministries at present doesn’t have a dentist to do charitable work for the organization.
As a result, the dental chairs in the clinic are sitting idle.
Inskeep said she would like to see that change.
“What we need help with the most with right now I think are volunteers,” she said, “volunteer providers, volunteers to help in the pantry, volunteer dentists -- those are the things that we need the most, and then just the donations that they’ve always done so that we can keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
Inskeep said social service agencies frequently are on the radar in larger towns and cities, where they help meet the needs of individuals living in those areas.
Yet many of those same needs exist in small towns and rural areas, and agencies that can assist people may be few and far between in those communities.
“It’s just not as visible in the rural communities as it is in the big cities,” she said, “and there are so many resources that are very concentrated in bigger cities where in the rural areas we’re more spread out.
“So, it’s a little bit tougher for people to get to those, but that’s why we’re here is to try to have as much access as possible, and that was the reason for the Alma outreach, is just to give more access to those more rural areas.”
The Alma outreach is located in a former church building that was given to Community Care Ministries several years ago.
Now, the Wabaunsee County Fair Association will be using the upper floor of the building while Community Care Ministries will continue to operate out of the lower level. The building in Alma is just south across the street from the Wabaunsee County Fairgrounds.
“We need more space,” said Mary Reed Spencer, president of the 18-member Wabaunsee County Fair Association board of directors. “They have some space available over there, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am that they looked to the Fair Association to make this happen.
For more information on Community Care Ministries, call the agency at 785-456-7872 or visit www.ccmks.org.