50 years of making differences
Darlene Bigler, executive director of Community Action Southwest, is shown in her office in Washington. The agency is celebrating its 50th year.
Shown is an intergenerational garden at Morrisville Senior Services Center, Waynesburg. The gardens are shared with children from the Head Start program.
Among officials shown at the opening of a new Head Start Center in Charleroi are CAS Executive Director Darlene Bigler, Congressman Frank Mascara, CAS board member Mike Chaido, Debbie Keefer of Mon Valley Chamber of Commerce, Jeff Kotula of Washington County Chamber of Commerce, Sheila Gombita of Head Start Policy Council and state Rep. Pete Daley.
Fathers of Early Head Start participants volunteer for highway cleanup, circa 2005.
Darlene Bigler, executive director of Community Action Southwest, likes to share success stories.
Among them is Kristi White of Waynesburg, a global risk analyst for Mylan at Southpointe and a mother of four daughters.
White’s husband is disabled, two of their daughters are in college, and their 9-year-old daughter is autistic and suffers from Tourette Syndrome, ADHD and a seizure disorder.
The family rented a house, but White, a Waynesburg College alumna, wanted to own a home.
In 2013, she heard about Community Action’s Assets for Independence program, a savings program that helps working-class households build assets through a monthly savings plan that is matched by participating local banks.
She opened a savings account through First Federal Savings and Loan of Greene County in Waynesburg, which provided a $2 match for every $1 White saved, with a maximum contribution of $4,000 from the bank. She also attended pre-home purchase counseling and financial management classes through AFI.
A year later, White purchased a home on 5th Street in Waynesburg, the same street where she grew up.
“It was important to have a goal to set aside money to purchase the house,” White said. “AFI helped me to have the discipline, and First Federal’s contribution was incentive for me to continue to save.”
For five decades, Community Action Southwest has been on the front lines fighting to end poverty in Washington and Greene counties.
The government-backed nonprofit agency offers more than 40 programs and services that reach an estimated 20,000 people each year and provide the skills, knowledge and opportunities for low-income people and families to move out of poverty and achieve economic stability and independence.
Community Action’s contributions to the area have been significant: CAS established Washington County’s Area Agency on Aging in the 1970s, created the Greater Washington County Food Bank, assisted the YWCA with the development of the first domestic violence program in the county and started the first transportation program in Greene County.
Among programs currently provided are early education services including Head Start, Women, Infants and Children nutrition program, job training, legal services and first-time homebuyer education.
“The mission remains exactly the same as it was when it started, but we’ve changed our strategies in how we go about it,” said Bigler, who has served as executive director for 23 years. “By about 2000, we looked at the programs and services we offered for years, but realized we weren’t being intentional about moving people out of poverty. So, we started to build our services around individual families to make sure everything available to help people climb the ladder to self-sufficiency was made available to them. We decided not to provide Band-Aid services. Instead, we decided to provide programs and services to help people get better job skills and higher wages, help people increase their education, and help people acquire assets, like home ownership and vehicles – people need vehicles if they are going to move out of poverty. And we decided it wasn’t just this agency that was going to do it, but we need to engage the local community to help move people out of poverty.”
On Friday, CAS will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a luncheon at the Hilton Garden Inn at Southpointe.
CAS was a result of the federal Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which stemmed from President Lyndon B. Johnson’s State of the Union speech where he declared an “unconditional war on poverty.”
The act provided federal funding to municipalities that chose to implement the law.
In its half century of operation, CAS has had only a handful of executive directors.
Bigler was preceded by Charles Gillespie, Joan Owens and John Wilson.
The board of directors is equally represented by three groups: low-income residents, elected officials and leaders in the private sector.
Board president Michael Chaido, chief operating officer of Washington Financial Bank, has volunteered with CAS since 2000.
Chaido said he has seen an increased need for CAS and its services in recent years, as the gap between the wages people need to earn and the wages they actually earn widens.
“I think we’re vitally important. There’s an ever-increasing need for our programs in the years I’ve been associated with CAS,” said Chaido, who is especially proud of the nonprofit’s early education programs, Head Start, Early Head Start and Pre-K Counts, which serve about 1,500 young learners. “The sooner we can get to the kids to break that cycle of poverty, the better. We should try to help if we can.”
Bigler believes one of the reasons for CAS’s success is its philosophy to bring together the people who the services affect, local government leaders and local businesspeople to build a blueprint for improving lives.
The group’s annual budget has exploded from $45,000 in 1965 to $17 million in 2015.
About two-thirds of the funding comes from the federal government, while the remainder comes from the state and other sources, including donations, Bigler said.
Today, CAS has about 300 employees and more than 2,000 volunteers.
For families like the Whites, CAS is life-changing.
“Life happens. No matter how well you plan, something can grab you,” said White. “Things happen that you aren’t expecting, AFI has been great, and CAS was a huge help.”
The public is welcome to attend the gala luncheon at Hilton Garden Inn, Southpointe, on Sept. 18. Cost for tickets is $35 and can be reserved by calling 724-225-9550. Tickets will be available until Tuesday.