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37-826: The first Community Action Agency in the Northeast Kingdom was the Orleans County Council of Social Agencies (OCCSA), created in a June 20, 1968 Executive Order by the Governor of Vermont. It was headquartered at the Old Customs building on Main Street in Newport. After the United States Community Services Administration decided to not continue funding OCCSA, Northeast Kingdom Community Action (NEKCA)

74-480: A 0.1% decrease from 1983. Between 1993 and 2004, the U.S. poverty rate first declined (from 15.1% in 1993, to 11.3% in 2000), but then increased to 12.7% by 2004. The 2008 poverty rate was 13.2%. The 2022 metric is 12.6%. However, despite these challenges, around 1,000 CAPs (and their CAAs) still operate today, across the United States. Head Start Program Too Many Requests If you report this error to

111-449: A 7.9 percent decrease in 10 years, and the lowest it would be between 1959 and 2004. One of the ways in which the CAAs were clearly effective in combatting poverty––and unexpectedly so––was by increasing the public's awareness of already existing welfare programs, such as Aid to Families with Dependent Children . Indeed, between 1960 and 1973, and especially in the years following the passage of

148-449: A Balanced & Restorative Justice program (BARJ) for youth on probation. The NEKCA Parent Child Center Thrift Store offers job training and work experience, and affordable clothing, household goods, and furniture. For more than ten years, there has been a yearly Hungerfest fundraiser to support NEKCA's Food Shelf program that has evolved over time and includes a variety of events. In the past, two radio stations, WMOO and WIKE , held

185-441: A Community Action Program was defined as a program "...which provides services, assistance, and other activities of sufficient scope and size to give promise of progress toward elimination of poverty or a cause or causes of poverty through developing employment opportunities, improving human performance, motivation, and productivity, or bettering the conditions under which people live, learn, and work." A controversial feature of

222-435: A Furnace Repair and Replacement program to income-eligible households. NEKCA offers housing counseling, financial assistance, and transitional housing and shelter. NEKCA provides a variety of housing supports for homeless adults, teens, and families, including shelters and covering the cost of temporary motel stays, as well as transitional housing for people after release from prison. In 2019, The Associated Press profiled

259-431: A board made up—initially—of residents of the target neighborhood or population being served. This gave poor, working class and minority citizens a voice in how they would be served by federal funds aimed at improving their lives. However, this caused some anger and frustration among the nation's power establishment, especially in local governments used to running their communities, and among the power elites (particularly in

296-438: A small business. In 2020, NEKCA administered CARES Act grants to small businesses in the region. In January 2020, The Associated Press reported that NEKCA was part of a coalition of local groups that launched NEK Prosper! and a funding program to support small businesses. In Vermont, Court Diversion programs are run by non-profit agencies and are funded by Vermont's Attorney General . In Orleans County, NEKCA works with

333-529: A statewide network of centers that offer a range of services for children and families, including several Head Start programs. In St. Johnsbury, the Head Start program has collaborated with Catamount Arts for art and music. In 2019, The Caledonian-Record published an interview with Joy Ely, the director of the St. Johnsbury Parent Child Center, about the "unique" array of services available and "the biggest misconception

370-420: A three-day, 24-hour, on-air Hungerfest fundraiser. Northeast Kingdom Community Action has also worked to increase public awareness about homelessness . In the past, NEKCA provided advocacy and support services, including 24-hour support to survivors of domestic and sexual violence and abuse, through its Step O.N.E. program. In 2007, questions were anonymously raised about confidentiality and appropriations, but

407-485: Is featured on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Child Welfare Information Gateway, and in 2018, NEKCA was featured as part of a 'success story' published by the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NEKCA offers technical assistance, learning opportunities, tax assistance (VITA), and funding opportunities to eligible participants who intend to start or expand

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444-583: Is located in the historic United States Customs House Building at 70 Main Street in Newport, Vermont . It has administrative offices in St. Johnsbury and Newport with satellite facilities in Island Pond and Canaan . Northeast Kingdom Community Action (NEKCA) is led by executive director Jenna O’Farrell. In 2018, O'Farrell replaced Joe Patrissi, who served as executive director since 2010. NEKCA's community partners are

481-544: Is that community members must meet certain income criteria to be involved." NEKCA's Community Action Youth Services (CAYS) offers "wrap around" services to youth age 12 - 22, including a crisis hotline, support for basic needs, education, jobs, and mentoring. Services also include homelessness and foster care transition services, a crisis intervention program for runaways age 12 - 18, a Teen Center in Newport, VT, and education support for pregnant and parenting teens and young adults of all genders. A video produced by NEKCA in 2013

518-583: The Rutland Herald profiled Bernie Henault, who worked as the Essex County coordinator for NEKCA for 18 years. In September 2012, The Caledonian-Record published a series of articles on poverty and cash welfare benefits in the Northeast Kingdom, including a profile of NEKCA and interviews with NEKCA employees that was republished in an edited form by VTDigger . Community Action Agency In

555-515: The Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 , spending on the AFDC quadrupled as the number of individuals who enrolled in the program rose sharply. During the conservative -backlash era of the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s as the federal government (under Presidents Jimmy Carter , Ronald Reagan , George H. W. Bush , Bill Clinton , and George W. Bush ) cut away programs for the poor and minorities,

592-629: The Northeast Kingdom Human Services (NEKHS), "continues to have the deepest poverty in Vermont," and "poor health outcomes." NEKHS also writes, "The Vermont Department of Health (VDH) ranks the fourteen counties in Vermont each year and two of the three counties in the Kingdom continuously score in last place." According to NEKCA Executive Director Jenna O'Farrell, " Community Action Agencies were founded in 1964 by President Johnson [...] in

629-679: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Each CAA is governed by a board of directors consisting of at least one-third low-income community members, one-third public officials, and up to one-third private sector leaders. This board structure is defined by federal statute and is known as a tripartite board. There are currently over 1,000 CAAs, engaged in a broad range of activities; typical activities include promoting citizen participation, providing utility bill assistance and home weatherization for low-income individuals, administration of Head Start pre-school programs, job training, operating food pantries , and coordinating community initiatives. In 1964,

666-595: The United States and its territories , Community Action Agencies ( CAA ) are local private and public non-profit organizations that carry out the Community Action Program ( CAP ), which was founded by the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act to fight poverty by empowering the poor as part of the War on Poverty . CAAs are intended to promote self-sufficiency , and they depend heavily on volunteer work, especially from

703-476: The Vermont Department for Children and Families to income-eligible households, to help buy fruit and vegetables at local Farmer's Markets. In November 2020, NEKCA worked with St. Johnsbury Rotary members to collect nearly 700 pounds of food and supplies donations for the community. NEKCA provides Crisis Fuel and Electricity Assistance, Supplemental Fuel Assistance, Electric Cost Assistance, and administers

740-419: The Vermont Department of Corrections and the Vermont Department for Children and Families to administer a Community Based Corrections Program to support transition from incarceration, a Court Diversion program as an alternative to incarceration, a Youth Substance Abuse Safety Program, a Driving with License Suspended Program for eligible participants, a Pre-Trial Risk Assessment and Needs Screening program, and

777-501: The Act was the requirement for "maximum feasible participation" of the people directly affected (the poor, basically) in the decision-making about how federal funds would be spent on them, in their community. This flew in the face of long-established power structures , where elected city councils, county commissions, state and federal officials ruled over everything—mostly people from the power elite and upper-class communities . The notion that

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814-552: The CAPs and CAAs were defunded, underfunded, or warped into a strange variation of their original intent, with far less influence of the poor and minorities in how they would be served by these entities. Nixon officials presided over CAP and CAA groups during the Relf v. Weinberger case which saw a pair of young black girls from Montgomery, Alabama surgically sterilized without their consent. The Relf case's revealed administrative attitudes of

851-592: The Congressional funding bill for the OEO ( Office of Economic Opportunity —overseer of the CAA/CAP programs): The net result was a halt to the citizen participation reform movement and a fundamental shift of power away from the nation's poor and minorities. Nevertheless, some federal emphasis on anti-poverty programs remained, including the (modified) CAP/CAA system. By 1973, the U.S. poverty rate dropped to 11.1 percent,

888-695: The Economic Opportunity Act," and the "idea behind the initial and present funding is to allow community needs to be evaluated at the local level." NEKCA is therefore able to "locally allocate and spend federal dollars in order to offer specialized programming in the Northeast Kingdom." NEKCA services address "food insecurity, housing and homelessness, warmth, early education, parenting support, community re-integration, restorative justice, business development and employment training." NEKCA helps people apply for 3SquaresVT (formerly called "Food Stamps" ) and distributes Farm to Family coupons in partnership with

925-577: The NEKCA Executive Director at the time, Paul Denton, speculated it was a disgruntled former employee, and confirmed that while employees had been terminated or suspended, full services continued to be provided with strict confidentiality. Advocacy and support services in the Northeast Kingdom, including 24-hour support for survivors of domestic and sexual violence and abuse, stalking, teen dating violence, human trafficking as well as violence related to gender or sexual orientation, are now provided by

962-751: The St. Johnsbury Area Warming Shelter, created by Northeast Kingdom Human Services (NEKHS) and Northeast Kingdom Community Action (NEKCA), and interviewed NEKCA staff. NEKCA was able to increase housing assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic due to changes in DCF rules. In January 2021, NEKCA Executive Director O'Farrell was quoted in commentary published in VTDigger that discusses the link between stable housing and beneficial health outcomes: "When you know where you’re going to be each night, you can start to make plans. And for service providers, we can provide consistent support, where

999-675: The U.S. poverty rate (income-based) included 19 percent of Americans. Rising political forces demanded change. Under a new White House Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), the concept of the federally-funded, local Community Action Program (CAP) —delivered by a local Community Action Agency (CAA), in a nationwide Community Action Network —would become the primary vehicle for a new, federal War on Poverty . Lyndon B. Johnson 's landmark Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 —drafted by former Peace Corps founding director Sargent Shriver —established Community Action Programs in Title II. In concept,

1036-577: The Vermont Foodbank, Northern Counties Health Care, RuralEdge, Northeast Kingdom Human Services (NEKHS), the Northeast Kingdom Council on Aging, and Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital . NEKCA also partners with the Center for Rural Studies (CRS) at University of Vermont for data collection. Northeast Kingdom Community Action (NEKCA) serves the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, which according

1073-415: The business community) used to dominating their local governments. Although Johnson and other architects of the legislation expected Community Action Programs and Agencies to be an effective weapon in his War on Poverty, many of them were riddled with problems. In more extreme instances, local political regimes were threatened by the empowerment of poor political activists with funding and resources from

1110-533: The era which suggest that forced sterilization was an acceptable tactic in Republican management of federal welfare. The troubled economy of the mid-to-late 1970s, brought on by the energy crisis and the Early 1980s recession was especially hard on America’s poor. Between 1973 and 1983, the national poverty rate rose from 11.1% to 15.2%. Another decade later, in 1993, the poverty rate was virtually unchanged at 15.1%, just

1147-467: The federal government. One of the most dramatic episodes resulting from these clashes between CAA leaders and local governments occurred when, following cuts in funding for a summer youth CAP, black activist Charles Sizemore and thirty others barged into San Francisco Mayor John Shelley 's office demanding resources and threatening that if the CAP was not funded once again, "this goddamn town's gonna blow. " By

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1184-527: The low-income community. The Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) is the agencies' core federal funding. Agencies also operate a variety of grants that come from federal, state and local sources. These grants vary widely among agencies, although most CAAs operate Head Start programs, which focus on early child development. Other programs frequently administered by Community Action Agencies include Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) utility grants and Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) funded through

1221-469: The mid/late-1960s, many political leaders—including President Johnson , U.S. Senator Richard Russell (D-GA) (leader of the anti-civil rights conservative coalition ), and Chicago's powerful Mayor Richard J. Daley —publicly or privately expressed displeasure with the power-sharing that the CAA brought to poor and minority neighborhoods. In 1967, conservative and establishment pressures brought two amendments to

1258-469: The nonprofit organization Umbrella. In 2009, after NEKCA was unanimously approved by the St. Johnsbury Development Review Board to create transitional housing for furloughees from prison, The Caledonian-Record published an opinion expressing concerns. In 2011, NEKCA Executive Director Joe Patrissi announced a new approach to transitional housing for furloughees, including by contacting officials in town governments before developing housing plans. In 2009,

1295-487: The person has a consistent place to stay. It’s much easier to make sure a child has the technology to remote learn or a person using a wheelchair has access to a shower or a person can get needed medication — it’s much easier to support that, when we know where that person is going to be. This kind of support is foundational for ending homelessness, but people who are homeless also really need a permanent place to live. People need homes." NEKCA's Parent Child Centers are part of

1332-406: The poor (largely minorities) should have a say in their affairs created some opposition at first, but was in keeping with America's civil rights and reform movements , and War on Poverty, in the 1960s and 1970s, and generally accepted, at least at first. In each community, the local Community Action Program (CAP) was provided by a local non-profit Community Action Agency (CAA) , overseen by

1369-620: Was established in 1980 in a July 3, 1980 Executive Order by Vermont Governor Richard A. Snelling , to "work cooperatively with the other Community Action Agencies in the State and with the State Economic Opportunity Office as well as other state agencies in the planning, development, implementation, and evaluation of programs to be carried out within the State of Vermont under the auspices of Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, as amended." Northeast Kingdom Community Action's headquarters

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