Getting to Know Community Action

Episode Transcript
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Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (00:15):
Hello and Welcome to Lights, Camera,
Community Action, a podcastbrought to you by The New York
State Community ActionAssociation, or NYSCAA for
short. My name is Heidi Barcomb,Program and Communications
Director for NYSCAA. NYSCAA isthe State Association for New
York's Community ActionAgencies, commonly known as
CAA's. NYSCAA's mission is tostrengthen the capacity of the

(00:36):
Community Action Network toaddress the causes and
conditions of poverty. NYSCAAwas created in 1987 to provide
CAAs in New York withprofessional development
opportunities, training, andtechnical assistance. NYSCAA is
the hub that brings togetherCommunity Action agencies in New
York to network share successesand challenges and strategizes

(00:58):
to meet the needs of vulnerableNew Yorkers. A Community Action
agency or CAA is a localorganization with the mission of
reducing poverty through locallydesigned and delivered programs
and services targeted to thespecific needs of their
community. The 47 CAAs in NewYork form a statewide service
delivery system that connectsindividuals and families to the

(01:21):
services they need to achieveeconomic status. When it comes
to moving folks from poverty toself-sufficiency, Community
Action agencies know what works.For our inaugural episode, we
are joined today by three of NewYork's Community Action
agencies’ executive directorswho also serve as members of
NYSCAA’s board of directors.Let's now introduce our guests,

(01:43):
starting with Greg Richards.

Greg Richards, CAPCO (01:44):
Yes, thank you for having me, Heidi. My
name is Greg Richards. I am fromCortland County, the Cortland
County Community Action program,a bit of a mouthful, so we refer
to ourselves as CAPCO. That iswhat we are known as in our
community. We obviously have theCommunity Action agency serving
all of Cortland county with someservices that we also offer in
Tompkins County. And I've beenwith the agency Community Action

(02:07):
really my entire career since Ileft college, so over the last
eight years, and I have been theExecutive Director, just started
my second year of that.

Great thanks. And Renee, can you
introduce yourself?

Renee Hungerford, CAOG (02:19):
Yes. Hi, Heidi. My name is Renee
Hungerford. I am from CommunityAction of Orleans and Genesee. I
started with the agency inOctober of 2020. So I've been
here for about almost two and ahalf years, I actually came in
as the CEO and before that wasnot very familiar with Community
Action, other than I've broughta few donations over the years,

(02:40):
but I was quite surprised at thediverse number of programs that
we have and all that we do forthe community. So I came in
through it's kind of my thirdincarnation as a career. I
started in banking for about 30years and then was a medical
informaticist. And so came intothis too, with really looking to

(03:00):
address social determinants ofhealth. And I know we do a lot
of good in that area.

And thank you and Diane, can you introduce
yourself?

Diane Hewitt-Johnso, COI (03:06):
Absolutely. Thank you for having me, Heidi.
I am Diane Hewitt-Johnson, and Iam the CEO at Chautauqua County,
well in Chautauqua County, it isChautauqua Opportunities, Inc.
And so we serve ChautauquaCounty, which is the furthest
County West in New York State.We border Pennsylvania and we're
close to Ohio. We also providesome services in Kent County and

(03:29):
Southeastern Erie County. Andso, I've worked in Community
Action and at ChautauquaOpportunities for the last 20
years. I started out as afrontline staff person, and then
I worked my way up, and I'vebeen the CEO for the last five
years.

Excellent. Thank you all so much for
joining us. And I just, I guessI want to I'm curious, because
I'm pretty new to the world ofCommunity Action, also. And
before I came here, I reallydidn't know anything about it.
And I'm wondering if you guyshad that same experience where
you can tell me what you didknow about community action

(04:07):
before you joined us.

So I knew absolutely nothing about
Community Action and didn't evenknow the phrase, or what it
meant. I grew up in CortlandCounty. I've been here my whole
life. I grew up in a little towncalled Homer, New York right in
Cortland county here, and havedriven past the building that
I'm sitting in right now most ofmy life, and I'm going, to be
honest with you, I probablyshouldn't admit this on a
podcast. But I thought that thiswas a manufacturing place. I had

(04:31):
no idea, most of my childhood,and young adult life, what CAPCO
was. So when I got a phone call,right after I graduated college
from a connection, who workedhere about a job opportunity, I
thought, no, no, no, I'm an HR.I don't want to work for a
manufacturing place. So theysaid that's not a manufacturing
place. That's a not-for-profit,which of course was super

(04:52):
interesting to me because I haddone all of my internships, and
all of my young adult life hadbeen working in programs at
other nonprofits and towns suchas Catholic Charities and a few
others. So that was really,really interesting to me. But
no, I did not know whatcommunity action was, which is
really interesting to thinkabout now; you know, eight years
is not that long of a timespan,and it feels like it's ingrained

(05:15):
in every piece of my life now,but to think before that, having
no clue what it was at all isjust really interesting to think
about.

Yeah, and I'm gonna follow up with
what Greg said. This is Diane.Before I worked in Community
Action, I had no idea whatCommunity Action was. And the
most shocking part is I grew upin poverty, and I should have
known what it was, but my motherwas a proud woman, and she would
not seek assistance. And so shewould struggle through and not

(05:47):
seek any assistance. So,Community Action, yeah, 20 years
in Community Action, reallygetting the word out into the
community, so those that needthe services feel comfortable
approaching us really is one ofthe goals of mine.

Yep, same here for me. I actually am
originally from Buffalo. So Imoved here, probably in the
mid-90s. And strangely, in myfirst house here, I literally
drove past the Community Actionbuilding every single day. And
all I knew was there was somekind of program that had to do
with children. So the bank Iworked at, we did a lot of
community service. So we wouldbring donations and I just

(06:24):
pictured it was like a daycareor something like that. Had no
idea until this job opening camein, and I started doing a
little research. And I thought,wow, it's almost overwhelming
how many different things we doand how many programs we manage.
But that was kind of going alongin the community without me
having any awareness whatsoever.

So I guess one of the questions that
I have then, or I'm curiousabout is, when you didn't know
anything about Community Action,what is the thing that now
stands out to you the most? Orwhat is the thing you would most
say to somebody who doesn'twho's in the same situation you
were in before you came here?

I think for me, the fact that we do a
needs assessment, and we stayvery current on what you know
what the needs are in thecommunity and kind of change
what our programs are andadjust. I think that's really
important for people to knowwe're not, I think it's easy to
think that we're just someplacewhere people come for handouts
of food or clothing or thingslike that. But it is so much

(07:24):
more complicated. We actually goin, and we get the numbers, and
we find out what the best use ofresources is. And we're really
about helping people to helpthemselves and become
self-sufficient. And I thinkthat's important to make sure
that people understand thatmission and understand the work
that we do is, you know, it'seasy to dismiss it, but there's

(07:44):
a lot more to it.

Great, and a follow-up on what Renee
just said, Community Actionreally focuses on changing
people's lives and improving thewhole community that we live in.
And so that is our sole mission.And with that community's
assessment, all of us completethat every three years. And the
needs change. Every year, we'relooking at different needs

(08:09):
throughout our communities. Andso we develop services that fall
within our mission but alsoaddress the needs that we see.

So, Diane, you mentioned earlier, I
want to go back that you were afamily that would have benefited
from Community Action services.So when we're talking about the
community needs assessment andhow your family would have
benefited from it. What do youthink, could be done more or

(08:39):
differently to engage familieswho are maybe in that same
situation and get them to takeadvantage of the services?

Well, I think one thing is to do some
outreach in the community. A lotof individuals unless they've
been in our services before,they are not familiar with the
services. We do partner with alot of different agencies so
that we can send referrals backand forth. And so that helps to
get the word out into thecommunity. We have our website,

(09:09):
we do social media posts, andwe're constantly trying to get
the word out. So, individualsare comfortable with us, they're
familiar with our names, andthey know what we do. For
instance, we run a fatherhoodprogram, we're on the radio all
the time. We also haveadvertising where it flashes our
phone number when you're drivingdown the road, the fatherhood

(09:32):
program with the phone number,and so really letting the
community know what we do,getting them comfortable with
us, and getting them engaged. Wealso have a community council
meeting where all of them arefree to come every quarter and
talk about any topic they wantplus get information from us
about our services or just talkabout anything that's going on

(09:54):
in the community so that engagespeople and makes them more
comfortable with us as an agency

Yeah, and I think to add to what Diane is
saying, it's really interestingto think about this question,
Heidi, in terms of, you know,what, what our familiarity was
prior. And now kind of how wewould, how we would better
communicate our services andmake sure that people that need
it the most are we are reachingthose folks. And it's, it's, I
always think about the socialservice industry, social service
programs that we all run inCommunity Action agencies. It's

(10:23):
a tangled web, right? And ifyou're suffering in poverty, and
it's truly a sufferingsituation, you're generally
living in the tyranny of themoment. And when you think about
the web of what a family couldqualify for, versus what they
wouldn't versus what programsare appropriate. And there are
all these nuances to all ofthis, even for the professionals

(10:44):
that work in the industry. It'sa tangled web that we have to
sort out and figure out. And sofor Community Action, what we
try to be here in CortlandCounty, and I'm thinking every
Community Action agency reallyrepresents this, we are that
hub, you know, we don't doeverything we do a lot of great
services, we have some intricatethings that we do for our
community that if we weren'there, that would be a

(11:06):
significant issue. But we cannotdo it all. So it's important to
us that we have relationshipsand collaborations with other
local, regional stateorganizations so that we can
wrap our arms around a family,and get them all the services
they need, and not just get themthe services they need, but help
them understand the servicesthat they're receiving
understand the services thatthey qualify for. Because living

(11:30):
in poverty and trying tonavigate the system, which in
many respects is a brokensystem, it's kind of the nature
of the system that we're in;it’s almost impossible for
somebody to navigate thatwithout some help and without
some guidance. And that's whatwe try to be here at CAPCO not
just for our own programs, butfor other programs that we don't
offer to make sure that ourcommunity is getting the

(11:51):
services they need. And I reallylike what Renee said a couple of
questions ago about we're notjust providing programs and
providing handouts, sure thatsome of what we do, and it's
vital that we do that, but it'smore about addressing the
systemic issues. So we're morethan just, you know, come to
CAPCO if you are in an emergencysituation, and you need diapers,
well, yes, come to CAPCO. But wedo more than that. We do

(12:14):
community education, we dopoverty simulations, we are
certified and ACEs andtrauma-informed care, and all of
those great things that is thewhole other side to Community
Action that's really addressingsystemic issues. Because the
idea right is that one day, wedon't need to exist. And I think
we've got a long way to gobefore we get there. But a big

(12:36):
part of that is really educatingthe community, individually and
then also, collectively,nationally, regionally
statewide, on what these issuesare surrounding poverty and in
all of our communities.

One of the things that we do in Genesee
and Orleans, just to kind of getpeople to know what we do, is a
lot of involvement withpartners. We, you know, I'm
personally in a rotary andalliance club, a couple of my
directors and actually somestaff are members of our
leadership Orleans program,which is this big countywide
Leadership Program, which isvery active, we have different

(13:12):
calls with partners with UnitedWay. So we really just tried to
get involved with so manydifferent partners so that we
could kind of tell everybody ourmission, tell everybody, they're
there so that our message getscarried on by other
organizations that we partnerwith.

And just to follow up on that, I
just wanted to say, when we doour community needs assessment,
and this is true for allCommunity Action agencies, you
look at what your community hasavailable, you look at what the
needs are, and then you makerecommendations on what the
community needs. And it doesn'tmean that the Community Action
agency is going to address allthose needs. We rely on all of

(13:47):
those partnerships. And so wedon't duplicate services, but we
augment our services with otherpartnerships in the community to
help address those needs.

So you all mentioned community needs
assessments. Can you talk to usa little bit more about those,
the purpose of them and how theyfit into our communities, and
how they help?

Sure, this is Diane; I’ll address
that. And then. So, thecommunity needs assessments and
were required to do them everythree years. But even though
we're required to do them, it'sbest practice to make sure that
you do that so that you'reoffering services to the
community that they actuallyneed. And so the community needs
assessment to look at the causesand conditions of poverty in our

(14:33):
area that we serve because everyarea is different. And so, we
also look at the latest data onthe population in our area. We
are known for losingindividuals. Unfortunately, we
have a declining population inour area. We also look at
various conditions such ashousing, homelessness, health,

(14:56):
healthcare, employment, and soon. When we look at all of the
information, we look at ourstrengths, we look at the
resources available, we look atwhat services are currently
being provided, and what we cando as an agency versus what is
already being done or what canbe made better. And so if you

(15:16):
don't do a community needsassessment, you really don't
have your finger on the pulse ofwhat's going on in your
community. And as time goes on,if you see something big happen,
such as the COVID-19 pandemic,you can do an amendment and say,
Okay, that was our communitylast year, but we have this big
issue that we need to address solet's look at the area and make

(15:38):
adjustments to our communityneeds assessment and address
whatever services are going tobe needed to address, you know,
what's going on in thecommunity.

Yeah, I think you make a good point
about how things change, andthat we have to be able to
respond quickly. When I cameinto the agency, I think there
was a lot of comfort thatdeveloped with the programs, and
they kind of stayed static overtime. And it's easy to get
comfortable with what you'redoing. But if the needs of the
community change, you have to beready, to respond to that and

(16:08):
change things. And change issometimes hard. And you know,
you disrupt people. And youreally have to look at what's
needed. You know, and sometimesyou have to look at, you know,
even though it's needed, arethere resources for it. In our
case, transportation is a reallydifficult thing in Orleans
County. But we have difficultyfinding funding. So then you

(16:31):
have to work with partners andother things to see if there's a
solution outside of the agencythat can fill that need.

Yeah, and I think to add to Renee, and
Diane, I think that is reallyinteresting to think about
because one of the things thatwe had talked about that makes
Community Action unique is thatwe tailor our programs and
services to our community'sunique needs. You know, while
we're all Community Actionagencies across the country and
the New York State Network, myagency is different than Diane's

(16:58):
is different than Renee’s, andvice versa. We don't offer all
the same programming. And evenwhen we do offer similar
programs, like such as Headstartor weatherization, they look a
little different in differentagencies in different
communities. Now, we all havestandards we have to adhere to,
and we all have to, you know,meet the same performance
standards and reporting and allof that. But what is really neat

(17:21):
about Community Action, whatsets us apart really from other
funded, federally funded,not-for-profits and programs, is
we're able to tailor ourprograms to our needs. I'm in
Cortland county right in thecenter of the state. Tompkins
County is right below us; Wecould not be more different of
counties. And then when you'relooking at Onondaga county,
where Syracuse's right above uscompletely different, what their

(17:44):
needs look like and what thechallenges that they see based
on their size and everythinglike that. So it makes it
supercritical to do thatcommunity needs assessment,
because that's what drivesreally your strategic plan,
which really is what drives yourprogramming that you offer to
your community. Actually, NYSCAAhelped CAPCO this past year,
redo our strategic plan; everyagency has to do that, minimally

(18:06):
every five years, but barelybefore you can do that you have
to have a rope pretty robustcommunity needs assessment to
really drive where you're gonnago with that strategic plan. If
we had not had the communityneeds assessment that we had
done, we just redid ours at theend of 2021, the experience for
our strategic plan, which againdrives really all of our
agencies decisions would nothave been as impactful would not

(18:29):
have been as meaningful becausewe're not identifying what the
needs are in our community. Andthat means we're not really
doing our jobs that as aCommunity Action Agency, so that
community needs assessment fromwhere I sit, drives everything,
that's where everything reallystarts and stops with the
programming that we offer ineach of our counties in each of
the service areas that we cover.

So, Greg makes a really good point about
counties being very different.So with an agency where we have
two counties, Orleans andGenesee, there are a lot of
similarities, but becauseGenesee County has, has the city
of Batavia in the middle of it,there are some big differences.
So the programs that areappropriate in Orleans may not
be the same as Genesee, so thatneeds assessment helps me, to

(19:12):
know where to direct resources,which programs to put where,

and what tools and resources do you use
when you're pulling in thiscommunity needs assessment
together?

I use the NYSCAA tools.

Oh, I love that answer.

So, my background again, I say, you
know, medical informatics isthat's a lot of data. So, I love
my data. And so when I saw thatNYSCAA tool, I can tell you from
what I used to have to do in thehealthcare space where I had to
go to the Census dated all thesedifferent resources to have a
tool that pulls everythingtogether. That is, it is just an
amazing tool. I go to itfrequently way beyond way more

(19:51):
than the three-year thing and goin there just kind of see where
things are because it makes itso easy.

For people who are listening the
NYSCAA tool that Renee isreferring to is the data hub. If
you're a NYSCAA member, then youhave access to the data hub. And
I was just looking at it theother day, and boy, it's a
rabbit hole, you can just get,it's so fun to just kind of dig
in there and look at all thedifferences and start to assess
things.

Yeah, and for us, you know, making sure
we're hearing the voices of awide array of folks. And it kind
of represents our boardstructure and all of that. But,
we here at CAPCO, we do a lotwith surveys, when it's when
we're kind of building up to doanother community needs
assessment. Of course, we'll getother data from other sources
about county-wide data, andstatewide data, but actually

(20:39):
hearing from the voices of thepeople that we serve. So we
actually do three or fourdifferent surveys that are
tailored to different groups offolks in our community. One of
them is first and foremost forour participants. So folks that
are receiving services throughone or more of our programs,
hearing their voice, first andforemost, because there they are
the population that is receivingservices that we are here to

(21:02):
serve. But also, we engage withour staff. We have a special
survey, we send out to all staffto get their perspective on some
of the community's issues,challenges, and strengths. And
then we have a special one thatwe do for our board and Head
Start policy council. And thenwe have a more generalized
survey that we put out for thebroader community, that might
not be overly familiar withCommunity Action or might not

(21:25):
know exactly what all the issuesare. But still, their impression
and their perception of whatthey are seeing in the community
in which they live is reallyimportant to us, as we're
developing that community needsassessment. One of the things I
think every Community Actionagency probably struggles with
is meeting people where theyare, you know, it's one thing to
send out an email blast with asurvey to, you know, local

(21:47):
professionals that you sit onother boards with, it's another
thing to try to reach theparticipants that are in your
programs. Because of thebarriers and the challenges that
they experience every day, thereare a few things with that the
way in which you deliver and tryto get that information from
participants is not going to bea one size fits all. And that
makes that sometimes a trickything to make sure you're

(22:07):
hearing everyone's voice. Andthen there's also the stigma
piece with it, you know,oftentimes, people will come
into our agency for services andthey don't want to be a part of
a survey like that. Becauseit's, it's divulging that
they're here getting services.And so trying to break down
those barriers to hear from thefolks that are receiving
services. So we can enhance thatand make sure we're meeting

(22:29):
people where they are is socritical. And if we don't do
that step, our community needsassessment will not be as
accurate as it needs to be,which will mean our strategic
plans that which means ourreally our operations are
missing the mark. So that wholeprocess of building up to a
community needs assessment, Ithink is just as critical as the
final outcome of the communityneeds assessment.

And just a follow-up to what Greg
and Renee had said, inChautauqua Opportunities, we
also use our community councilmeetings, to have the community
join us. We have set questionsthat we asked them, and then we
have brainstorming sessions. Andso the input that we received

(23:12):
from the customers and thecommunity at those meetings
helps us to develop ourprograms. Also.

we had our first graduating class. And
I attended this, and just peopleapproached me with just ideas,
things they want to see one wasas simple as one lady approached
me, and she said, there's achurch in Batavia that gives

(23:40):
away seedlings, so people cangrow their own food. And I
thought, Wow, what a simplelittle thing we could do that we
can get some seeds and plantthem and, and do too. And we're
going to do that actually wroteto two different seed companies
for donations and, right away,they said yes. So they're on the
way and easy enough to plan ongetting started. And if it helps
somebody that doesn't havetransportation and wants to grow
some tomatoes or peppers, whatan easy, simple program to put

(24:04):
together.

Wow. What a great example of meeting
community needs in a veryspecific way for your community.
I love it. Can you guys talk alittle bit about how you have
seen the needs in your communitychange over the years and what
has stayed consistent, ifanything has?

So this is Diane, I'll take that
question first since I've beenhere the longest. And so when I
started in Community Action, wewere more of a handout service.
And so as time has gone by, wehave now implemented where we do
assessments and we're more of ahand up not a handout. We're

(24:53):
teaching individuals how tobecome self-sufficient. Yes,
there are some services that aregiveaway services, but it's
helping them in coming to theagency, getting referrals for
other services that they mayqualify for, and helping them
through that process of becomingmore self-sufficient and
empowering them. And it'samazing to see some of the

(25:16):
successes of individuals whocome in for one service, but
then they realize, oh, I qualifyfor these other things. And
they're, you know, we're givingthem hope, and giving them a
path to take to build, you know,their lives.

I like what Diane was saying there. And
I really liked this question,Heidi, because it really gets
you thinking. And I totallyagree, I think community I mean,
I've been here, probably theleast amount of time of
everybody on the podcast rightnow, in terms of in this role,
but I think that the needs interms of what we're seeing in

(25:50):
our community, it's reallyinteresting to think about this,
especially coming out of thepandemic. I certainly feel as
though the needs have beenpretty stagnant in terms of the
kind of big needs that we havein our communities, such as
transportation and childcareand, you know, addiction issues,
mental health, the things thatyou really hear as the big
items, really, in everycommunity across the State in

(26:11):
the country, what I have seenthrough the pandemic is just how
those issues have changed, andhow they've really become
magnified, especially coming outof the pandemic, when you think
about mental health. And youthink about, you know, just the
challenges around childcare andtransportation, everything feels
it felt pretty catastrophicprior to the pandemic, I think

(26:33):
that it is at a completely newlevel now coming out of the
pandemic, almostincomprehensible. And it really
paralyzes some folks at times.Where do we start with this, you
know, we're seeing in theCortland community, a
homelessness crisis that we havenot seen, I don't think ever, at
this level, certainly not thisvisible. And I think that speaks
to the issues that were alwaysthere. But they are becoming

(26:57):
much more visible, they'rehitting families in much harder
ways. And perhaps hittingfamilies that before the
pandemic, those families weren'taffected by some of those
challenges. So that's, that'sreally interesting. And to
balance that with what Diane issaying, you know, our role as
Community Action is to addressthe causes and causes and
effects of poverty somewhat, ina nutshell, is really a lot of

(27:18):
all of our programming does. Andsome of that is a handout. And I
don't think that there should bea stigma associated with that
phrase, because sometimes peopleneed a handout, a hand up, as
Diane said because that's,that's they're living in the
tyranny of the moment and we canaddress the systemic issues all
day long. But if their basicneeds aren't being met, right
now, addressing the overarchingsystemic root causes of things

(27:42):
isn't going to mean anything ifthey don't have a roof over
their heads and diapers fortheir babies or transportation
to and from work. Um, so I thinkit's a, it's a really
interesting balance thatcommunity action has of
providing that hand up providingresources in emergency
situations, so families can meettheir basic needs, while also
addressing the systemic issues.And in the eight years, I've

(28:03):
been a part of community action,I've sort of seen that in that
microcosm, as well as reallythat evolution of being more of
that, you know, hand up andproviding resources and services
and maintaining that while alsoaddressing the trauma and the
other systemic issues that arethe root causes of why folks are
living in poverty in ourcommunity. And there's a lot to
that it's there's a lot of rootcauses that are associated with

(28:26):
that. Some of those aresystemic. Some of those are
family situations. But we'rereally tasked with both and it's
not just a handout or a hand-up;it’s that plus addressing the
root causes so folks can reach apoint of self-reliance. And I
think that that is sometimesthat's a year-long relationship.
Sometimes that's a 20-year-longrelationship with a family. It's

(28:47):
not a one shoe fits all. And Ithink it puts us in an industry
that is really one of the mosttricky, tricky and intricate
industries to work with himbecause you're dealing with
people, and you're dealing withfamilies, and there's not a one
shoe fits all solution whenyou're dealing with that
industry.

So, what I'm seeing, it almost seems
counterintuitive, because I cameinto Community Action in the
middle of the pandemic. And whenI came in, there was CARES
funding, people were free withdonations, there was a lot of
different support things goingon to help people, and so now as
we're technically ending thepublic health emergency, a lot

(29:25):
of those services and resourcesare going away. Medicaid, SNAP,
rental assistance, and so theneed is greater, but the world
has changed. And so now we arehaving children come into our
Headstart classes that they'reit's a different situation. They

(29:46):
grew up in a pandemic, theirsituation may have been very
different. They may not havebeen outside of the house.
People were in quarantine. Sowe're seeing children that may
not come in with the same skillset. So needing things like
Headstart even more so but Atthe same time, the minimum wage
is going up, eligibility doesn'tchange, and fewer and fewer
families are able to takeadvantage of our services when

(30:08):
the need seems to be greaterthan ever. So to me, the kind of
the end of the pandemic, or atleast, what we're calling the
technical end seems to be wherethe real troubles are starting.
And that concerns me becauseresources are starting to dry
up. Because, you know, COVID,kind of put it in everybody's
face. But that's kind of movingaway now.

Thanks for all of that. That insight,
that's actually helpful. And,you know, we talk about how
Community Action is supportingfamilies and helping families.
And NYSCAA’s role is really tosupport your Community Action
agencies as you're doing yourjobs. So I'm wondering if you
can talk with me a little bitabout the relationship? And,

(30:53):
Diane, this might be a greatquestion for you, because you've
been here for a while, you know,the relationship that you have
with New York City CommunityAction Association, and then
over the years, what do you findmost helpful from the
Association? And what do youwish we did more of? I'm curious
about that.

Okay. Well, the first 15 years that I
worked here, I had very limitedconnection to NYSCAA. Over the
last five years, though, Ibecame an active member. And I
find that the partnership, themembership with NYSCAA, is very
valuable. It allows me to stayconnected to other agencies, and

(31:34):
their CEOs, and their staff, wecan brainstorm and bounce ideas
off one another. We're not justa single agency providing
services on our own, NYSCAAensures that we have a unified
approach to addressing problemsthat arise. And you know, there
are regions connection toinformation, professional

(31:54):
development, and technicalassistance. And so I find that
they're a very valuableresource. And it is unfortunate
that it's only been for the lastfive years, even though I've
been here 20 years. Currently,you know, we have bi-weekly
meetings where all of the CEOsdiscuss any issues that we see
arise, we come we brainstorm,we, you know, on bigger results

(32:18):
can be had with moreparticipation. And so, NYSCAA
also has affinity groups andwhat that means is that groups
of employees who work inrespective fields have a support
group. And so for instance,there's an HR affinity group or
a headstart affinity group. Andso once again, I have my CEO

(32:39):
group, but all of the staff havethe opportunity to be part of
these affinity groups and havethe support group and bounce
ideas also. NYSCAA provides avariety of training and I
utilize that for my board andfor my staff. And so as far as
what do, I think that you shouldprovide more of, I think, really

(33:03):
focusing on what you're doing,and then providing more
training, because that is areal, valuable asset to me and
my agency.

So, for me, the training, obviously, is
very important. But the CEOgroup was, was critical for me,
because when I came into theagency, and again, not really
knowing much about CommunityAction, there was no CEO, and no
CFO, my predecessor, was gonefor the better part of a year.
And I had to come in having noone to ask questions or figure

(33:33):
things out, no one to kind of,you know, tell me how the ropes
go. And so these weekly meetingsback then they were weekly, were
a lifesaver for me because I hadthis whole group, this whole
network that I could askquestions, and, and people are
taking the time to sit down andtalk with me and explain kind
of, you know, best practices.And, you know, we have so many
regulations and reporting and somany things to learn. And when

(33:56):
you didn't have somebody to kindof show you figuring it out
takes a long time. So, I'm verygrateful for NYSCAA. Both the
partnership and the training,because, you know, before I even
started the week before Istarted, I took all the ROMA
classes, and you know, what isCommunity Action, and I came in
at least with a good idea ofwhat my objectives were.

Yeah. And that's, that's really
interesting, too. And I waslucky enough to be hired into an
agency with my predecessor whowas heavily involved in the
NYSCAA network. So I feel like Igrew up at the agency and I grew
up knowing that NYSCAA is goingto be ingrained in everything
that we do as a Community Actionagency. So I was very, very
fortunate to come in and workunderneath somebody who was

(34:36):
heavily involved in the network.And that's really instilled that
in me and our agency, and Ican't imagine how we would
operate the way at the levelthat we do without that
relationship. And Renee andDiane are spot on. When I
started at the beginning of2022. We were still in the
middle of a pandemic. There werevariants going nuts. I'd been

(34:57):
with the agency but more on thebusiness administration side. So
the programming side was a newerside to me in terms of being a
leader on that side. And I willsay, and I think I have set it
to the NYSCAA CEO group, I don'tknow that I would have been able
to survive with some of thechallenges that I had walked
into, if I didn't have thatnetwork to lean on. And it's not

(35:19):
even just to get all theanswers. It's just to say, oh,
okay, so you all are strugglingwith this, too. I'm not the only
one that's struggling with this,that there's just, there's such
a comfort in that. And you cansend an email. In fact, I did
just a little bit ago asking forsome information. And, my email
is closed right now. But Iguarantee when I open it, I'm
going to have like 50 responsesof what system they're using for

(35:41):
whatever question I'd ask. Andthat’s just invaluable. You
know, you're not recreating thewheel, you see what has worked
for others, and you shareresources, that has honestly
helped us get through so manythings here at CAPCO in terms of
regulation changes, HR changes,financial things that we need to
be looking out for. It's just,it's invaluable. And, without

(36:02):
the network, I can speak formyself and I connected with a
few other CEOs that are newer,either last year or this year.
And I know the sentiment is feltthat if we didn't have this
network, there's a few of usthat kind of feel like we might
not be in the positions we're intoday without that support. So I
can't thank NYSCAA enough forthat for coordinating that. But

(36:22):
really, it's the other CEOsacross the state, and their
willingness to share and tohelp, you know, looking at this
call, Renee and I are newer, butI know I could call Diane and
Diane doesn't know me well, butshe would probably tell me
anything I needed to know orhelp me answer any question that
I had, or point me in the rightdirection if she didn't know.
And when I asked the question,you know, where does this

(36:43):
network exist in the world? Andthe answer is, it really
doesn't, you know, NYSCAA hassomething very special and
unique that probably a lot ofother associations should
probably take notes and followalong with. I know we are; we’re
connected with other Stateassociations across the country,
and not all of them have thesame level of engagement that we

(37:03):
have. And I think that is justso critical to all of our
operations.

Which sort of leads me to the
question, Diane, you hadmentioned that in the first 15
years, you didn't really have aconnection with NYSCAA. And I'm
wondering, were there barriersthat were preventing that? Were
you not aware of it? Like, canyou just kind of speak a little
bit about that more, maybe justso we know?

Sure. Absolutely. I was fully aware of
NYSCAA, but I was not aware ofwhat they offered. And it was
the executive director was aboutthe only contact with NYSCAA.
And so it was just the cultureof the agency. And so it was

(37:46):
more of the executive directorwho had that contact with
NYSCAA. And the rest of us justrelied on her to relay the
information.

Gotcha.

Which is never a good way to get
information, really, you need tohear it firsthand or see it
firsthand.

And I think to add to that, Diane's
point about the affinity groups,I started as the HR director
here at CAPCO and that affinitygroup. You know, I talked about
the CEO group helping me when Ifirst started the affinity group
for HR. That's the point, youknow, it's not just the CEO, we
think there's an IT affinitygroup, there's an HR, there's a
headstart. So now broader staffat all levels, whether their

(38:29):
leadership or not, are engagingwith NYSCAA on a regular basis.
And that is huge. And I think alot of that actually started
before the pandemic, but reallyenhanced through the pandemic,
because that was really the waythat everybody could stay in
touch with one another. And allthe different, you know,
regulations and things that wewere muddling through it, you
know, at the height of thepandemic, and not understanding

(38:50):
the fact that it wasn't just theCEO group, it was the HR group,
I think it was a finance group,that all of those groups were
talking and we were ensuringthat Community Action as a whole
is going to not just survive thepandemic, but thrive and be
really the leader of providingservices and keeping our doors
open. A lot of that was becauseof those affinity groups and
people at all levels of theagency being engaged with

(39:12):
NYSCAA, not just the CEO. So Ithink Diane's point is really
critical there of how thingshave progressed, probably over
the last five to 10 years, butcertainly since the start of the
pandemic as well.

So, we talked a little bit about
Community Action agencies'connection with their community
members, and with NYSCAA. AndGreg, you mentioned earlier
about board membership andparticipation. And I know that
Community Action Agency boardsare a unique entity. So will you

(39:44):
share with us a little bit aboutthe board makeup, and how that
makes you stronger in your community?

(43:33):
Do you find that tripartite structure
to make you a stronger board andstronger in your community?

Oh, definitely. I think that that's,
that's really the intention ofit, right? I mean, if we had
everybody on our board, whoalso, you know, worked at the
same factory and did the samething, we wouldn't get the
perspective that we need to makethe decisions that we need to
make to serve our community.We're in the business of serving
people and serving those thatare most vulnerable. Well, you

(44:01):
can't do that effectively,unless you have a diverse group
of folks on your board thattruly understand the needs and
have areas of expertise toaddress those needs. You know, I
think about the consumer sector,I think that's what makes
Community Action so cool, isthat it's a mandate, you know,
we would want to do this anywaybut we don't have a choice. And
we're going to have participantsin our program on our board on

(44:24):
our Head Start policy council,which is a whole other thing,
but that connects to our boardof directors. You need that
perspective because I can sithere and tell you all day long
what the challenges of somebodyliving in low-income in our
community are. But unless I'mliving that life and I'm able to
speak from it from a firsthandperspective, it's really you're
not really getting the truenature of what the challenges
are and what the solutions needto be. So it certainly makes you

(44:47):
stronger because you get theperspectives of the folks that
you are serving, and then youhave a specialization, to make
sure that you're carrying outyour mission in an effective
way.

Thanks for that explanation about
boards because I think forpeople not in Community Action,
the tripartite board is a littlebit confusing to really wrap
your head around. So, Iappreciate that. That
explanation. So we have talkedabout the community needs
assessment, and really beingable to dig in and meet the

(45:19):
needs of your community. Andwe've talked about board
participation and therelationship with NYSCAA. So as
we're wrapping up, I'd love toleave on a positive note on a
high. And I guess I would loveto ask each of you if you can
share with us a success story orreally fond memory from your

(45:40):
time working in CommunityAction.

So, there are a lot of stories. I
don't know if I could reallychoose one. But I think I'd like
to talk about what I guess Iwould call a success attribute.
One of the things that's mybiggest takeaway is not only
from my own agency, but I seethis when I speak with people
from other agencies. We haveemployees of all levels that

(46:04):
came from the same struggles asthe people that you know, the
customers that we serve. I havestaff that has suffered; they've
been through poverty, there'sbeen abuse, and we have people
who were Headstart parents once,and now they're managers and
directors. And I think ifanything can talk about success,
that saying what we do works.We're not only helping people

(46:27):
become self-sufficient and getjobs, but we're bringing them
into the agency. And the thingthat makes it so special and
unique is when someone comes tous on their darkest day, and
they feel there's no hope. Theycan actually say to our staff,
you don't know what I'm goingthrough. The fact that they can
say I do know it, and I'vegotten out of there can give

(46:48):
people hope. And to me, that'sthe greatest success, we could
have.

That is well said, Renee. I don't
think I could say it any better.I wanted to talk about a couple
of success stories. Every month,I have each division write a
success story because that'swhat the board wants to hear.
They want to see that we'remaking a difference in the
community. And so sometimestheir short time, short-term

(47:13):
successes, sometimes they took alittle longer. And so one of the
examples of an individual whocame to us, she had children in
the Headstart program, she grewup in the Headstart program, she
was working, she's renting aplace for them to live and she
took some budgeting classes withus and asset development and

(47:34):
homeownership classes. And ittook her three years. But as she
was working to clean up hercredit, she was able to start
saving money and eventuallypurchased her own home. And now
she's paying less for hermortgage and taxes than she was
when she was renting that home.And so now she's an active
member in our community councilas well in the community. And so

(47:56):
I've been watching her grow overthe years and it's just amazing
to see that transformation. Sothat was more of a holistic look
out over a long term. But anexample of a shorter-term
success story, is we have afatherhood program where we're
teaching fathers to be betterdads. And so we're just giving

(48:19):
them more tools so that they canbecome, you know, a great
father. And so one particularperson, his name is Michael, he
came through our program, hegraduated, just in time to
welcome his brand new babydaughter, just two weeks after
he finished the program. He hasreached out to staff to let us

(48:40):
know how much the program reallyhelped him and prepared him for
the first couple of months withhis daughter. And he's always
telling us he's becoming a prowith diaper changing, feeding
even giving baths and gettinghis daughter dressed. He's just
a proud father. And so thatconnection, he has now coming
back to every single fatherhoodclass that we have. And he's

(49:02):
acting as a mentor to the otherfathers so that they can see,
hey, he's been through this. Heknows what he's talking about.
And they can connect with him.And so it's been two years and
he still continues to come back.And he talks to me, he talks to
the program staff, and then alsoto the dads and so he really is
a success out there. And it'sjust heartwarming to see the

(49:26):
difference that we can make inindividual’s lives.

Those are great stories.

.Yeah, I love that story Diane, both
stories. This is a toughquestion. Right? I'm with I'm
kind of with Renee. I feel likehow the heck am I going to
choose? You know, one successstory. So, I think I have a
specific one that's a littledifferent right than just serve,
you know what we've seen, like asuccess story coming in and out

(49:54):
of our agency. We also talkedabout how Community Action does
more, you know, regionallystatewide, systemically as well.
And one of the I think a reallykind of microcosm example of
that is the current obviouslydevastation that's going on in
Ukraine. CAPCO has been involvedwith, a group here in Cortland
called Cortland uniting forUkraine that actually has

(50:15):
brought an entire family overfrom Ukraine to Cortland County
and got them out of a prettydevastating situation. And CAPCO
played a pretty big role in thatas the Community Action agency.
We were the 501 C three weredonations, we worked with our
auditors on everything,donations come through us, and
helping bring that individualhere because we have that
Community Action designation,that carried a little bit of

(50:38):
clout in the whole process ofgetting the individual here. And
because they had all the supportand resources of Community
Action behind the group, itreally expedited that process,
whereas, at the beginning ofFebruary, we have an entire
Ukrainian family who escapedsome pretty big devastation.
There are several young childrenthat are coming into our
Headstart program, everyone fromgrandparents to young children

(51:02):
were able to get here in thatfamily. So that's just there's a
lot to that story. But for thesake of time, that's just,
that's just one example of howCommunity Action, to Renee and
Diane's point, you know, we meetpeople where they are in our
community and those stories thatDiane and Renee mentioned, they
happen every day. In fact, whilewe're on this podcast, something
like that is happening and oneof our agencies right now, but

(51:23):
to also think differently aboutthe bigger support that CAPCO,
Community Action rather supportsour country and our region and
bigger issues in the world, suchas the Ukrainian crisis, we all
play a role in that on the locallevel as well. And I always like
to kind of end with thisquestion about really about

(51:44):
myself, you know, I'm veryfortunate, I did not grow up in
poverty. But when I joinedCAPCO, I can tell you that my
life has completely changed fromthe person that I was when I
walked in the door, back in2014, the acceptance of
Community Action, thetrauma-informed care piece to
that, meeting people where theyare, and caring about the

(52:06):
person, first and foremost, hastotally changed my perspective
on a lot of things. And I cansay that I would not be the
person that I am today, withoutCommunity Action without the
network without the nationalnetwork. And of course, without
my agency CAPCO. I would not bewho I am. And I certainly
probably wouldn't have not havebeen invigorated to be in the

(52:26):
position I'm in without reallythose principles of Community
Action being instilled withinme. So I'd love to give you like
30 stories that I can think ofoff the top of my head right now
but I like to kind of end withthose overarching stories,
right? That kind of just driveshome the point of what community
action does. It's not just onething. It's not just on the
local level. It's frankly, itcan be on the global level, with

(52:48):
the impact that we have. And Ithink that our story really,
really speaks to that impact

Thank you so much. And on that note, we
really can't outdo everythingGreg, Renee and Diane just said.
So we're going to thank them allfor joining us, Greg, Renee and
Diane, thank you so much forgiving us an hour of your time.
We truly appreciate it. Have agreat day.

Thanks for having us.

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