LIBERTY – The Sullivan County Department of Social Services (DSS), headquartered in the Robert B. Travis Social Services Building at 16 Community Lane in Liberty, has recently received grant funding from the New York State Assembly of $125,000. 

This funding is planned to be used to renovate the Department of Social Services’s main lobby, interviewing, training and visitation rooms. 

The award is part of the State and Municipal Facilities (SAM) Program, which the NYS Assembly used to make funds available to municipalities, not-for-profits, businesses, Local Development Corporations, Industrial Development Agencies, Schools and Universities to support capital projects and economic development. 

This SAM project has the support of Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther and would be for the benefit of families involved with Child Protective, Preventive and Foster Care Services. 

The Sullivan County Legislature passed a resolution to accept the award funding on Thursday, November 21 during the meeting of the full board. According to the narrative of the resolution, the building which opened in 1967 was given minimal consideration for the needs of a modern child welfare program and is ill-equipped to host families and the general public in a caring and compassionate environment. 

“The SAM grant funding will help us to provide a much family-friendlier visitation spaces in the DSS building,” Health and Human Services Commissioner John Liddle said earlier this month during the Health and Human Services Committee meeting. “[It would also create] a more dignified environment for our clients, for our kids as they come in.”