Wyoming assistance programs

Wyoming runs most of the programs on this site from state offices rather than through local nonprofits. The Department of Family Services (DFS) handles POWER cash assistance, the Child Care Subsidy Program and LIEAP heating help through its own field offices in all 23 counties and statewide online systems. Down payment help comes almost entirely from one agency, the Wyoming Community Development Authority (WCDA) in Casper, and business and training money is split between the Wyoming Business Council, the Department of Workforce Services and the Community College Commission.

Each DFS program has its own front door. POWER cash assistance starts with the DFS 100 Application for Assistance, the same form used for SNAP, followed by an appointment at your county DFS field office, and POWER parents then work with a Department of Workforce Services case manager. Child care subsidies are applied for online through ECARES. LIEAP heating help has no local office at all: you apply at MYLIEAPWYO.ORG or by calling (800) 246-4221 between October 1, 2026 and April 30, 2027. The Wyoming cash assistance guide walks through the POWER steps.

True grants are scarce. WCDA's Home$tretch is a 0% loan of up to $15,000 with no monthly payment, not a grant, and it is available only through a WCDA participating lender; the one large homebuyer grant is local, Teton County's Housing Preservation Program. By statute the Wyoming Business Council cannot lend or grant state money straight to a private business, so its loans run through banks and all $58.4 million of its SSBCI money went into the WYVC venture fund. The homebuyer guide and small business guide sort out what each program actually pays.

Wyoming also has no stand-alone state need grant for college and no state-funded public pre-K. Need-based college money rides on the Hathaway Scholarship, adults 24 and older use the Wyoming's Tomorrow Scholarship, and community college trainees use Wyoming Works grants (student grants guide). For 4-year-olds, the Department of Education's $7,000 Steamboat Legacy Scholarship and TANF-funded preschool seats take the place of a state pre-K program (child care guide).