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Letter from the Front
(May, 2007)
from Carol Bretz, Executive Director
On 27 March 2007, I marked my 31st year working at the Community Action Agency of Columbiana County. Many things have changed since I started my employment in 1976. The CAA is a much larger agency with a $10 million dollar budget and over 220 employees. We employ doctors, dentists and nurse practitioners. More of our jobs require college degrees. We offer many more programs and services than we did in 1976.
Our work continues to reflect the needs of county residents. Use of our health and dental services continues to increase as we see less county residents who have health insurance through their employers. With the advent of welfare reform in 1997, a large majority of our Head Start families now are employed and yet remain eligible for the Head Start program.
A significant change over the past 31 years is the impact of technology in the workplace. Today the CAA delivers services through the use of computer software programs, communicates with clients, employees and funding sources by email and uses cell phones in our daily work. These technologies were unknown in 1976.
Yet some things remain the same. Poverty is as entrenched in Columbiana County as it was in the late 1970's. We continue to see manufacturing sector jobs disappear and lower paying retail sector jobs replace them. Socioeconomic trends are disturbing as more families fall into poverty and struggle to make ends meet. The demographic view is disturbingly similar to the late 1970's.
One statistic, however, stands alone; and that is the number of home foreclosures in Columbiana County over the past 5 years. (click here for a map of 2006 foreclosures) The foreclosure rate is driven by three major factors: increased unemployment, predatory lending and high credit card debt levels among households. The CAA helps families deal with the fall out of foreclosure and high personal debt. There is no easy solution and sometimes bankruptcy is the only sensible answer for a household.
The CAA's services and programs are mostly a reaction to the interests of Congress and the Ohio General Assembly. Grant funded programs are not designed to be responsive to changes in the environment, nor are they always well structured to meet the needs of the people they are intended to serve. Our success in helping families is due to staff's ability to be creative in how we deliver services and look for ways to be flexible within the many regulatory constraints placed upon us.
Back when community action agencies were established, the general theory was that the poor could be empowered to eliminate poverty in their neighborhoods. Globalization put that "theory" to rest. Many factors are beyond our control as an agency.
The fact that we continue to deliver high quality and relevant services is a tribute to the fine staff we employ. I am privileged to have the opportunity to work with such fine and dedicated people. It makes the workplace a good place to be and the county a far better place to live for the people we serve.