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Each year, the National Community Action Partnership (NCAP) and its affiliates across this great country recognize May as “National Community Action Month.” For CAN and the other Community Action Agencies (CAAs), we use this opportunity to share with the community information on the improvements in the lives of the people we serve; and, re-dedicate ourselves to fighting the “War on Poverty” through the promise of community action.
This community action promise reads …

As the result of the tremendous efforts of approximately 1,100 CAAs operating across the Nation, hundreds of thousands of lives are made better and communities strengthened in response to our commitment to the promise. Although May 2005 has now come and gone, we are using this issue of the Community Canvas to share the story of CAAs and how they impact the lives of people living in poverty and the communities where we serve and live.

It is quite certain that some of you are familiar with community action agencies – who we are and what we do – while for others, this may be your first introduction to the community action concept as it pertains to our full and complete dedication to serving the poor.

Community Action Agencies operate as private nonprofit or public organizations established under President Johnson’s “War on Poverty” through the Economic Opportunity Act of 1965. Now nearly 40 years later, CAAs operate in every state, including Puerto Rico and the Trust Territories with a service area covering 96% of the Nation’s counties. Generally, all CAAs share the one common purpose of helping people help themselves progress to self-sufficiency.

Representing the interests of the local CAAs is a national organization known as the Community Action Partnership. The mission of CAP is “to be a national forum for policy on poverty and to strengthen, promote, represent, and serve its network of member agencies (CAAs) to assure that the issues of the poor are effectively heard and addressed.” Our community action network also includes regional and state associations, a national lobbying organization (National Community Action Foundation), CommunityAction Partnership Legal Services (CAPLAW), and a national association of Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) administrators.

The Community Action Partnership offers assistance and support to local agencies through a variety of ways. These include “The Promise” – a quarterly magazine featuring articles about community action nationwide and about the work and activities or the organization; surveys on topics and issues pertinent to CAAs and their work; convening of the National Dialogue on Poverty held every four years to engage persons at every level in discussions on issues and topics relating to poverty; and sponsorship of the National Community Action Month. In addition, the Partnership is a source of educational support for local CAAs, i.e. training courses, annual convention workshops, resource materials, and perhaps more importantly, sponsorship of the “Certified Community Action Professional” peer-recognition program.

It is through the Community Action Partnership that we learn of the collective works of the local community action agencies, specifically what they do and who they serve…

The CAP website (www.communityactionpartnership.com) reports:

CAAs are a primary source of direct support for the more than 34.5 million people who live in poverty in the United States. The majority of CAA program participants are extremely poor, with incomes below 75% of the Federal Poverty threshold, or $9,735 for a family of three (the average family size for the client population. (Source: Census Bureau and a 1998 survey of CAAs).

The community action network serves approximately 11 million individuals per year and reaches 3.3 million families per year (Source: the National Association for State Community Services Programs).
CAAs serve all regions and populations: 54% serve rural areas; 36% serve areas considered both urban and rural and 10% serve urban areas.

The average population a CAA serves is approximately 300,000 people. The average number of low-income people within each service area is 37,600.

The average size of a CAA board is 25; a typical agency staff is 115 full-time equivalent workers; and the average agency has 813 volunteering annually.

94% of Community Action Agencies are engaged in Community Coordination – this involves citizen participation, neighborhood and community organization, information and referrals.

91% provide Emergency Services – including food pantries, energy assistance, homeless shelters, domestic violence programs.

89% offer Education – Head Start, youth mentoring, literacy, Adult Basic Education.

Good, you’re finished with the meat of this issue – here’s the dessert. The Bush administration has proposed zeroing out the Community Services Block Grant program. That means no Federal CSBG money for the 1,100 Community Action Agencies that serve millions of people every year in practically every county in this wealthy nation.

Think about that for a moment. 96% of the counties in the United States have a significant number of people living in poverty! Poverty, as defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, means a family of four is living on less than $19,000 income per year. And President Bush wants to not just cut the funding of the organizations that form the backbone of the safety net that serves these people every day, he wants the funding to go down to ZERO.

The obvious next question is: why? Speculation is rampant – “someone has to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy”; “the war in Iraq is costing more than expected”; “Mr. Bush wants to fund religious groups rather than traditional non-profits”; “they don’t produce results”; or the one I hear the most, “he just doesn’t care, because poor people don’t vote.”

All of these speculations are irrelevant. Worse, the discussion about the whys, wherefores and whos benefiting distracts all of us from the true problem. And the true problem is this:

Agencies like CAN and the other Community Action Agencies are struggling to make ends meet at the very same time our clients need us the most. While the middle and upper classes in America have a reasonable opportunity to make a better life for themselves and their children, low-income people find ever more barriers being placed in their path.

CAN is in the third straight year of budget cuts by the Federal, State and local governments. Thank goodness for private donations making it possible for us to continue offering programs that assist low-income people to bridge their economic and social barriers.

Even though our clients are working two and three jobs, they still pray they won’t get sick because they have no health insurance and no savings in the bank. Seniors feel every penny of the rise in gas prices, prescriptions, food, and utilities because their incomes are fixed. We know they don’t rise just because costs go up. Our children go to underfunded schools and share textbooks they cannot take home to study.

The most ironic of all? Congress did a great job with Welfare Reform in 1996. Then they and the State Government cut the Purchase of Care Vouchers moms need to help pay for their childcare while they go back to work. They cut the funds for training programs and scholarships people use to better their education and skills.

Let’s do the math. Cutting funding for agencies that assist low-income families + cutting funding for programs that directly benefit the most vulnerable among us = a better life for who among us?

84% provide Food and Nutrition– Meals on Wheels, congregate feeding, food banks.

68% are engaged in Family Development – Day care, case management, counseling support.

Other CAAs provide Employment Training/Employment Services; Income Management; Transportation; Housing; Economic Development and Health Care.

CAAs can and do offer a wide-range of programs for low-income people residing in the jurisdictions in which they operate. These programs are nearly always determined by the CAA’s Board of Directors. These Boards are unique in that they represent a partnership of the public, (local public officials); private (leaders from business); and community (low-income persons themselves or their selected representatives) sectors in the local community.

Maryland Community Action Partnership (MCAP) consists of 17 local CAAs who annually serve an estimated 164,000 poor and low-income people in Maryland. The 2003 Community Action in Maryland annual report identifies the following characteristics among these individuals:

89% are poor or near-poor (household income is less than 1.5 times the poverty line)
48% of families reported income from current or former employment
14% have no source of income
46% of families are headed by a single parent
38% of participants are children younger than 18
13% are age 55 or older
46% did not complete high school, and only 14% had enrolled in postsecondary education
61% lack health insurance
21% are disabled
23% own their own homes; 6% are homeless

63% are members of a minority group

Each Maryland CAA offers programs and services needed to meet the diverse range of issues and challenges facing its local constituency. These services may include, but are not limited to, the coordination of emergency assistance programs, operating senior centers, sponsoring youth programs, supplying transportation in rural areas, and weatherizing the homes of low-income and other vulnerable persons to help them save on energy-related expenses. A number of agencies provide assistance with income management, credit counseling, entrepreneurial training and small business incubators; domestic violence issues, parenting classes, and family development programs; and yet others operate food pantries, emergency shelters, low-income housing developments and community revitalization projects.

In 2003, Marylanders provided more than 421,000 hours of volunteer time to community action programs representing the equivalent of 202 full-time, year-round employees. The time, talents and energy of these individuals represented a contribution of nearly $2.2 million, i.e. if valued at the Federal minimum hourly wage rate of $5.15.

The basic funding source for community action agencies is through the Federal Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) and supplemented with local, State and private sector dollars. It is reported that for every CSBG dollar received in Maryland, CAAs leverage more than $11 in other Federal, State and local government and private sector funding.

As many of you know, CAN is a private, nonprofit 501(c)(3) human services agency and is the legally-designated community action agency serving Baltimore County’s low-income and other vulnerable residents. We were incorporated in 1965 and since then we have been providing a range of programs and services to help people progress to family, social and economic stability.

These programs include: Housing, Emergency Services and Community Connections, Employment Assistance and Training through Project Self Sufficiency (PSS) and Living Independently ForEver (LIFE), Youth Services (After School and Childcare), Weatherization and Advocacy. CAN also operates the Fuel Fund for Baltimore County and two overnight emergency shelters for homeless persons located in Catonsville and in Rosedale.

CAN’s mission is to “work in partnership with the community to develop, operate and support programs that reduce vulnerability and promote personal growth, stability, and self sufficiency among low-income residents.” Our Board of Directors and staff are dedicated to creating a stronger community and a better way of life for all residents of the Baltimore Region.

Looking back to our most recently completed annual report for Fiscal Year 2004, more than 14,000 Baltimore County households received direct assistance from CAN. Our services were free-of-charge (childcare services offered at an affordable rate) and were available to one individual or to the entire family. Thousands of other individuals received indirect support through telephone consultation and in-person referrals. Overall, we estimate that we touched the lives of residents in excess of 40,000 times.

The following captures CAN’s 2004 “Year In Review”…

In October 2003, Community Assistance Network began its 38th year of serving low-income residents in Baltimore County.

CAN officially opened its 5th outreach office located in Lansdowne. Serving residents at Riverview Town Homes and the surrounding neighborhoods, staffer, Amy Lipstein, supervises the activities of an after school program and assists residents with accessing our emergency services (utility assistance, rental eviction prevention services, emergency food support) and making connections with other community resources.

CAN offered assistance to more than 14,000 households in Baltimore County with over 40,000 instances of services provided.

CAN was awarded the contract to operate two overnight shelters for homeless men, women and children in Baltimore County. Located at the Eastern Family Resource Center in Rosedale and on the grounds of Spring Grove Hospital in Catonsville, an average of 170 persons was provided comfort and security per night. From November 2003 till May 2004 nearly 44,000 meals were served.

CAN responded quickly to provide assistance to the many residents and local communities impacted by Hurricane Isabel. Our food pantry distributed more than 1,100 emergency food boxes during the first week after the storm to the Baltimore County Department of Social Services, the Baltimore County Department of Aging, several churches, and affected individuals to help with relief efforts.

CAN was awarded a grant from the Community Assistance Fund at the Baltimore Community Foundation to assist low-income Baltimore County residents with outstanding gas and/or electric bills.

Baltimore Gas & Electric continued to support CAN’s employment program, Project Self Sufficiency – a program dedicated to helping unemployed, under-employed and other at-risk workers in Baltimore County. For 20 years, BGE and CAN have been collaborating on this very important program to support the employment needs of Baltimore County residents.

For a second year, CAN was awarded a grant from the Ensign C. Markland Kelly Jr. People’s Emergency Fund at the Baltimore Community Foundation for providing assistance to individuals and families to help solve a short-term crisis.

The Dundalk Area Ministerial Association (DAMA) sponsored its first annual Spaghetti Dinner to benefit the Community Assistance Network. DAMA represents a coalition of churches organized to address the needs of the Dundalk community and provide significant financial and in-kind support to our agency and we, in turn, directly assist residents in need.

CAN was contracted to operate a mobility counseling program to assist 240 families living at Villa Gardens Apartments in Middle River. As a result of the planned demolition of Villa Gardens to build middle and upper income housing on the site, residents were required to move. In partnership with Baltimore County, the developer of the property, and several other organizations and agencies, residents of Villa Gardens were able to secure affordable and better quality housing units of their choice, and in a location suitable to the families’ needs.

Like other CAAs, the Community Assistance Network also benefits from the generous contributions of hundreds of volunteers throughout the year. Volunteer projects include serving on CAN’s Board of Directors, assisting at our two overnight emergency shelters, helping in the food pantry, providing clerical support, serving as mentors and childcare aides and more. We estimated that about 35,000 volunteer hours are donated to CAN annually representing about three fulltime paid staffers.

Support for CAN’s programs comes from the Community Services Block Grant, other Federal grants, the State of Maryland and the Baltimore County Government. Private charitable foundations, the Fuel Fund of Maryland, and many generous individual donations supplement our revenues. For FY2004, CAN’s revenues reached nearly $2,800,000 with more than $2,400,000 of these dollars going into client program services.

CAN’s staff of 30+ fulltime, parttime and contractual workers are dedicated to helping residents to overcome short-term emergency situations and/or longer-time challenges. We are only able to do this with an extensive network of community partners, exceeding 500 entities, who share in our commitment to creating a stronger and more prosperous Baltimore County.

We invite you, the reader, to join us in serving our mission and to commit to helping us fulfill the promise of community action – “Helping People. Changing Lives.” For more information on our programs and services, to get involved in volunteer projects, and/or to serve on CAN’s volunteer Board of Directors, please call our offices at (410) 285-4674.