Community Action celebrates 42 years of outreach, advocacy in central Illinois

[May 03, 2008]  Community Action Partnership of Central Illinois, formerly CIEDC, will mark 42 years of service to central Illinois communities with a month of celebrations and open houses. The agency recently changed its name to join a national branding campaign and identify itself with a network of over 1,000 Community Action agencies nationwide.

A new logo, upcoming open houses and a "Family of Distinction" banquet on Sunday, hosted by the Illinois Association of Community Action Agencies, will spotlight the services that Community Action provides to its six-county service area, including DeWitt, Fulton, Logan, Mason, Menard and Piatt counties.

"Our National Community Action Month open houses are being held to highlight our success stories, but also to call attention to the growing problems of poverty," said Angela Stoltzenburg, executive director. "We take pride in what we've accomplished, offering much-needed services to central Illinois' low-income families, but many of our neighbors do not realize poverty is a problem here. We want to show local residents that poverty is, unfortunately, a very real part of life for some families, but with programs like ours, these families can achieve financial stability."

The National Community Action Partnership designates May as National Community Action Month to recognize success stories. National Community Action Month also calls attention to poverty-related problems and the initiatives that Community Action agencies implement to address them. These initiatives are highlighted in "Rooting Out Poverty: A Campaign by America's Community Action Network," a new campaign that seeks to reach, educate and inform every American about the fact that the current extent of poverty is intolerable and correctable.

"With foreclosures, rising housing prices and other economic concerns, more and more people are worried about their financial futures, and the amount of families experiencing economic insecurity is increasing," said Don Mathis, president and CEO of the Community Action Partnership. "In launching the Rooting Out Poverty campaign, we have drawn on the experiences and proven techniques of Community Action agencies like Community Action Partnership of Central Illinois that are in the trenches fighting poverty on the local level. These agencies have seen what works, what doesn't and have used this knowledge to develop solutions and strategies to help low-income families achieve economic security. We want to see these strategies serve as models for implementation on the national level."

Community Action Partnership of Central Illinois is a private, nonprofit organization that works to eliminate poverty. For more information, visit www.capcil.org.

[Text from file received from Community Action Partnership of Central Illinois]