QCAP's 50Th Anniversary Annual Report
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Poverty is a national problem, requiring improved national organization and support. But this attack, to be effective, must also be organized at the state and the local level and must be supported and directed by state and local efforts. ~Lyndon B. Johnson 03 Letter from Board President and Chief Executive Officer In this 50th year of Quincy Community Action Programs, we pause to reflect on the enormity of the history of our agency. It’s a history that weaves into our present and shapes our future. We reflect on the vision of our original Founders and the vision of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Their vision to include all members of the community to address the root causes of poverty, and to provide opportunities to all residents, Beth Ann Strollo regardless of economic status, remains true today. Josephine Shea Chief Executive Officer Board President This vision is articulated in our most recent Strategic Planning Process, completed in 2014, which called for the community to come together to identify the challenges and needs facing low income individuals and families, and develop solutions through the Strategic Plan. We were fortunate to have the active involvement of our Board of Directors, staff, members of the community, clients and community leaders. Although representing different voices, they joined to create common goals to the benefit of our community and those most in need. Faithful to the original Founders and their unique approach in 1965, we are honored to uphold this approach for QCAP 50 years later. Through our Strategic Plan, the community identified common needs, including access to affordable, quality housing, basic needs such as affording food and utilities, workforce development and financial education, including how to manage money, and the need for affordable and quality early education and care. While the community has changed much in 50 years, the need for residents to acquire employment skills, helping them to secure employment with a living wage, is a need vocalized as much in 1965 as it is today. QCAP’s launch of the Greater Quincy Financial REACH Center – with the generous support of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley and the State Street Foundation – fits into how we hope to address this need in the future. We honor the contributions of countless people who devoted so much of their time and energies to help improve the lives of others. We thank our Founders, past and current Board of Directors, businesses and local community leaders, past and current staff, and the clients who work so hard to improve their lives. Thanks to the dedication of so many throughout our history, remarkable things happen every day. And for this, we are extraordinarily proud. Sincerely, Josephine Shea, Board President Beth Ann Strollo, Chief Executive Officer 1 Through public and private partnerships we endeavor to assist families and individuals in our Mission: communities to improve the quality of their lives by minimizing the effects of poverty, promoting self-sufficiency, and advocating for social change. 2015-2016 Board of Directors NEIGHBORHOOD REPRESENTATIVES Representing Maureen Ayers Atlantic Kevin Matta Germantown May Lam Germantown Tahlia Gunter Head Start Policy Council Barbara Morris Quincy Point Paul M. Connolly Southwest Quincy Appointment Pending Weymouth PRIVATE REPRESENTATIVES Representing Reverend Emeritus Sheldon W. Bennett United First Parish Church Judith E. Farmer Bank of Canton Douglas W. Moseley Mayor Susan M. Kay – Weymouth James B. Murdoch The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company Frank Poon Quincy Asian Resources Peter Racicot Fallon Ambulance Geoffrey P. Wermuth Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane PUBLIC REPRESENTATIVES Representing Josephine Shea Mayor Thomas P. Koch – City of Quincy Michael J. Berry Councilor Margaret Laforest Debbie Abrahams Councillor Brad Croall Janet Crowley Councilor Kevin F. Coughlin Linda Perry Councilor Brian Palmucci Timothy McAloon Councilor Kirsten L. Hughes Stephanie Glennon Councilor Brian F. McNamee Chief Executive Officer: Beth Ann Strollo Chief Financial Officer: Anna B. Slavin 2 Vision Statement 2015-2017 Quincy Community Action Programs (QCAP) will continue to be recognized as a leading community organization dedicated to reducing poverty. Our clients will experience QCAP as a welcoming place where their strengths are 2015-2016 Board of Directors and Officers valued and they are treated with respect. We recognize individual responsibility as a 1965 FOUNDING BOARD OF DIRECTORS starting point on our clients’ path to achieve William J. Trifone, President Ruth Dobbie Robert L. Macomber economic and social progress. We provide Robert E. Pruitt, Vice President Virginia Farnham Charles McGarry quality services to address the multiple and Dr. Charles W. Djerf, Treasurer June Fletcher Peter F. O’Connell changing needs of our clients. We build and Gerald S. Gherardi, Clerk Morton S. Garson Arthur J. Perette sustain community partnerships to strengthen Rev. Bedros Baharian Calvin Goldberg Charles Peterson both our clients and the areas we serve and Joan Bayer Paul Gossard Catherine Peruzzi we strive to broaden these connections and Allan Beavers Dr. Leonard Hassel Keith Rawlins, Jr. resources whenever possible. We value Louis Cassani Charles R. Herbert Helen Shea Catherine Corcoran Alice Kowilcik Anthony J. Venna our employees as our greatest asset and Ruth Curtis Margaret Lustig will recognize their accomplishments, while Carmine D’Olimpio Rev. Leo X. Lynch encouraging and supporting their professional growth and development. 3 History of Community Action Fifty years ago, with the undercurrent of the Civil Rights Movement, one in five Americans was living in poverty. Although the previous decade brought general economic prosperity, the rising tide was not lifting all boats. Americans were suffering from unemployment, lack of education, and malnourishment. Job Corps, VISTA, work-study programs, adult education, and Title I were established. In response, on January 8, 1964, in his State of the Union address, Although the legislation provided federal support and backing to tackle President Lyndon B. Johnson poverty nationwide, for the first time, low-income residents, the very people declared an “unconditional war suffering in poverty, were not only invited to the table, the law required that on poverty.” Inspired by President they be given a voice in how to address poverty in their local communities. Roosevelt’s New Deal and President This concept of “maximum feasible participation” – a radical departure Kennedy’s promise to help the for the federal government at the time – gave control to the local level, impoverished, President Johnson forming an alliance between the federal government, local government, proposed bold new legislation to and community members. This was the birth of “community action.” address the economic conditions that caused poverty. He sought In 1964, Quincy Mayor Della Chiesa appointed 24 residents to form the to provide opportunities to every Quincy Community Action Organization (QCAO) to “extend economic American no matter race nor income, opportunities to the citizens of Quincy.” In March 1965, the Board of calling for not only social justice but Directors held the first meeting of the organization and in May, QCAO was economic justice. This was President officially incorporated. Its first President was William J. Trifone, and first Johnson’s vision of the Great Society. Executive Director was Russell O’Connell. After only eight short months, and with bipartisan support from the US For 50 years, Quincy Community Action has been the leading anti-poverty Congress, on August 20, 1964, President Johnson’s landmark legislation service provider in the Greater Quincy region. From our humble roots, was enacted. With the help of the dynamic Sargent Shriver, founder of we continue to work side-by-side with residents, leaders, and partners the Peace Corps, and newly appointed head of the Office of Economic to ensure that the needs of our community’s most impoverished are Opportunity, programs like Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, Head Start, being met. This includes basic needs such as food and nutrition, fuel 4 assistance, affordable housing, quality early education and care, adult With wages stagnated since the 1970s, our clients’ hard-earned income education and workforce development, and financial education. Today, buys even less than it did 40 years ago, making it even more difficult for Quincy Community Action Programs (QCAP) has expanded programs to low-income families to escape poverty. In 1968, a full-time year-round reach a service area consisting of more than 80 communities. Annually, worker at the minimum wage earned the equivalent of $21,170 a year approximately 20,000 unduplicated people benefit from QCAP services. when adjusted for inflation. In 2014, a full-time worker at minimum wage would earn approximately $16,000 annually, or $5,700 less than in 1968.5 Critics of community action and safety net programs argue that because In 2014, working families won a major victory when Governor Deval poverty still exists, then, they reason, the core programs established Patrick signed into law an increase in minimum wage to $11.00 by 2017. by President Johnson and the “community action” model was a failure. Even with this increase, however, the minimum wage will still not fully Although poverty still exists, had it not been for the Office of Economic return to its 1968 value.6 Opportunity, substantially more Americans would be living in poverty. Nationally, public benefit programs keep about 40 million people out of poverty. Based on the Census Bureau’s Supplemental Poverty Measure, close to 842,000 people (one out of every eight) in Massachusetts currently are kept out of poverty by public benefit programs, including 158,000 children. In effect, poverty in Massachusetts would be almost doubled (27 percent) when based on this measure and without these public programs.1 In addition, the creation of Medicare and Head Start, enactment of civil rights legislation, and investments in education have enabled millions of students to go to college.2 What’s changed is our economy.