Jul 25, 2010 By Herald Standard Staff 3 min read

Darlene Bigler, Community Action Southwest’s chief executive officer, recently announced that 2010 marks Community Action Southwest’s (CAS) 45th year of providing services to Washington and Greene counties. “Founded in 1965 by a group of community leaders, the initial focus of the agency was to identify local conditions that led to poverty, sensitize the community to the incidence and conditions of poverty, mobilize private and public resources to impact on poverty and develop programs and services that would help eradicate poverty. The mission remains much the same today,” Bigler stated.

“We have touched tens of thousands of lives and helped countless people move up the ladder toward economic self-sufficiency,” Bigler stated. “But we haven’t yet lived up to our mission to eliminate poverty. In order to succeed, we must intentionally involve the community in helping individual people to get out of poverty, and engage community institutions in working collaboratively to solve community wide problems related to poverty.”

To celebrate its 45th anniversary, a celebration was held in June on the rooftop of the Washington Crossroads garage at 50 N. Franklin St., Washington. Community members, board members, staff, and supporters attended the celebration. The Silver Sky Duo provided entertainment. A framed, autographed Troy Polamalu jersey was raffled raising nearly $1,000 for Community Action Southwest.

“Close to 25,000 people in our community live in poverty. One out of every four children in our community lives in a low-income household. This is unacceptable. CAS wants more for our community,” Bigler stated.

Each year, CAS serves more than 13,000 people. CAS offers early childhood services (Head Start/Pre-K), nutrition services (WIC – Women, Infants & Children), family economic success and senior services. “The CAS mission is to serve as the catalyst to mobilize the resources of the entire community to enable families and individuals to attain the skills, knowledge, motivations and opportunities to become self-sufficient,” Bigler stated.

“The CAS vision for our community is: All people are valued, cared for and healthy, regardless of socioeconomic status; education prepares all children to fulfill their potential and meet their future needs; all people live in safe, affordable, decent housing; people are skilled and committed to leading the ongoing development in their community; all people have the skills and opportunity to work at family sustaining jobs; CAS is the leader of community based strategies that end poverty,” according to Bigler.

Bigler stated that there is just one way to end poverty+ to engage our community. Poverty will end when enough people care. CAS is engaging our community because, “it takes you+ to end poverty in our community.”

For more information on CAS, call 1-877-814-0788 or go to their website at www.caswg.org

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