Community Action marks golden milestone
Roberto M. Esquivel|Herald-Standard
Kim Hawk (left), director of family development, and Tammy Knouse, customer service director are pictured in the conference room of the administrative office of Fayette County Community Action Agency which is celebrating 50 years of community service.
Roberto M. Esquivel|Herald-Standard
James Stark, Fayette County Community Action Agency CEO, is pictured next to the food bank’s latest addition, a cold storage unit that was expanded and upgraded following major flooding in June that caused thousands of dollars in loss and damage.
Roberto M. Esquivel|Herald-Standard
Ashley Cieply, Women Infants and Children (WIC) nutritionist, speaks with a client, one of the many service agencies housed at the Fayette County Community Action complex on Beeson Avenue in Uniontown.
Fayette County Community Action Agency is reaching a golden milestone as it continues to meet the changing needs of low-income residents and those within the community.
For 50 years, the Uniontown nonprofit has continued to succeed in its mission to help people who are economically, culturally, physically, educationally or age disadvantaged to secure the necessary opportunities to remain or become self-sufficient.
“The agency has a long history of innovation and has introduced many services that operate today in the county,” said James Stark, Community Action CEO.
The majority of services are made possible at Community Action’s main campus at 108 N. Beeson Ave., where a deteriorated and abandoned warehouse district was revitalized into “one-stop shop” for health, human and social services.
This includes a state-of-the-art Family Service Center, a 30,000-square-foot office facility that functions as the hub of activity on the campus and is home to seven tenants.
The newest addition is the administration service center, which is the first green Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified building adjacent to the campus.
The 18,000-square-foot building also houses the Department of Labor and Industry Workers Compensation Office of Adjudication and other public and nonprofit agencies.
Since its inception in 1966-67, Community Action has been instrumental in developing over 70 programs and services paid for with federal, state and local funding coupled with private resources.
The agency was founded by a group of concerned residents, including the late Fred Lebder, to address the needs of anti-poverty in the county in response to the War on Poverty and passage of the Economic Opportunity Act in 1964.
“When we started, one of our largest programs was Head Start,” noted Stark. Soon to follow were legal aid, Neighborhood Youth Corporation, college work study, Upward Bound and other family programs.
Today, Stark identified the food bank, senior housing and WIC as the agency’s top service programs.
However, in June, the food bank was ravaged by flooding that resulted in a loss of nearly a half million dollars and between $75,000 and $100,000 to the community service building.
As Community Action continues to recover from the incident, economic hardships are another challenge going into 2017 with the demand for health and human services on the rise.
The cost of providing services has also increased as grant funding continues to be cut.
In a typical year, Community Action serves over 35,000 residents in the areas of education, energy, housing and development, emergency assistance, employment and training, youth activities, empowerment and leadership development, casework and service coordination, family supports, food and nutrition, personal care, transportation, recreation, health, medical and community development.
Such programs include Women Infants and Children, Meals on Wheels, tax preparation for the elderly, Nurse-Family Partnership, Family Access Management System and the Community Training Institute.
Community Action is also affiliated with the Republic Food Enterprise Center in Republic and Community Action Southwest in Greene County.
“We always looking for new opportunities,” said Stark.
This is made possible through local partnerships.
Also expanding into Greene County is the Nurse-Family Partnership program geared to help low-income, first time mothers with preventive health practices, diet, reducing substance use and improving child health.
Kim Hawk, Director of Family Development, said the program can serve 25 mothers-to-be whom are paired with trained, registered nurses who meet with them regularly in the home to discuss health and family development. In Fayette, 125 at-risk first-time mothers currently receive services.
“We have teens to age 37,” said Hawk. “We try to take a holistic approach.”
Hawk noted an example of the program’s success was having a woman who attended nurse aide training offered at the agency’s Community Training Institute to further her education and obtain a nursing degree from Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus.
Most recently, Community Action took over the Maplewood Adult Day Care Center on Daniel Drive in Uniontown after it was scheduled to close in April.
According to Tammy Knouse, Customer Service Director, the center is the only one in the county.
Looking ahead, Knouse said Community Action is adding the Masontown Library as a site for tax preparation assistance one day a week starting in January.
As Community Action continues its work to create a sustainable community and help those in need, Stark said it is preparing for the next 50 years of service.
He said the agency is in the process of making several changes that will be recognized along with its achievements as part of a commemoration event to be held sometime in May.