Area agency helps when ‘life happens’
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There’s a pernicious belief that people end up in dire straits by their own devices or as a result of their own deficiencies.
If only they had planned better, worked harder or played their cards differently, they wouldn’t now be seeking assistance or, the term used with more than a hint of derision, “handouts.”
But Waynesburg resident Kristi White, quoted in a story in Monday’s Observer-Reporter on the 50th anniversary of Community Action Southwest, effectively counters that unforgiving notion. “Life happens,” she told our reporter Karen Mansfield. “No matter how well you plan, something can grab you. Things happen that you aren’t expecting.”
When “life happens,” Community Action Southwest has been helping area residents get back on their feet. Community Action Southwest was one of a multitude of Community Action agencies that were launched a half-century ago as part of the expansive “war on poverty” waged by President Lyndon Johnson and allies in both parties on Capitol Hill. Though the efficacy of the programs meant to subdue and defeat poverty have been debated almost without end for the last 50 years – and probably will for another 50 – few would denigrate the cardinal role Community Action Southwest has played in the lives of residents in Washington and Greene counties.
Community Action Southwest provides programs that help clients acquire skills they could use on the job, as well as things that will help them stay out of poverty, like housing and transportation. In the words of longtime Executive Director Darlene Bigler, Community Action Southwest has built its services “around individual families to make sure everything available to help people climb the ladder to self-sufficiency was made available to them.”
Among its other laudable accomplishments, Community Action Southwest inaugurated the first transportation program in Greene County and created both the Greater Washington County Food Bank and its Area Agency on Aging.
So we all should tip our hat to Community Action Southwest on its 50th birthday. We can only hope one day we will live in a world where its services won’t be so vitally necessary.