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A history of commitment to the poor of
Cape Ann
Serving Cape Ann
since 1965
Action, Inc.
is a private, non-profit, charitable and
educational corporation under state law.
Our uniqueness, like that of all
community action agencies, lies in the
fact that we are governed by a Board of
Directors that directly reflects the
composition of the communities we serve,
particularly their low-income residents.
All programs and activities which this
agency undertakes are a direct response
to the needs of Cape Ann's low-income
community as expressed by its members.
For example, in 1977, when people were
experiencing problems keeping food on
the table, especially during a period of
high unemployment, Action started the
Cape Ann Food Bank, which was later
incorporated into the current Food
Pantry and Open Door programs, with our
technical assistance and support. And
when there was no place for homeless men
and women to go in the cold months of
winter, Action persuaded the community
to donate funds and convinced a business
landlord to lower the rent on a Main
Street store front in Gloucester so that
a temporary over-night shelter could be
created. This ad hoc project paved the
way for the creation of Action's
Emergency Homeless Shelter, which last
year provided warm beds, two meals,
benefits advocacy, counseling, housing
search and job development services for
230 homeless individuals.
Many of the most innovative resources
and programs on Cape Ann were initiated
by Action. By developing the Central
Grammar Apartments for the elderly in
the 1970s, Action became a pioneer in
the adaptive re-use of public buildings.
In 1969, Action, with the support of the
city, revived the Gloucester Council on
Aging. Action then created the
Gloucester Senior Center,
Meals-on-Wheels and Senior Care, Inc.,
all of which were responses to pressing
needs of the elderly and now contribute
to the high quality of life for aging
people on Cape Ann. Action also created
the Child Development Programs, again
pioneering in family and after school
day care. As we have done with many of
our programs, consistent with our
philosophy, we spun them off when they
became self-sustaining, although we
continue to remain the grantee for Head
Start.
As the first agency on the North Shore
to offer homemaking, home health care
and chore services for the elderly and
disabled, Action, Inc. introduced the
Home Health Aid Program to the Visiting
Nurses Association (VNA) of Gloucester.
Our homemaking program has allowed
thousands of frail or terminally ill
elderly to remain in their own homes. It
has also provided work for hundreds of
local low-income people and others who
needed to supplement their incomes,
particularly women, many of whom were
able to get off Welfare because of the
training and employment opportunities
Action has offered them. Last year 60
trained and supervised workers provided
homemaker, personal care, shopping and
respite services to over 530 clients in
the Cape Ann area.
From 1970 to 1978, Action, Inc.
continued public transportation, using
its own funds to offset the deficit
incurred by the Gloucester Auto Bus
Company before it went out of business.
In a matter of days Action had procured
government surplus vehicles and began
running a new bus company. The familiar
blue Action buses operated in rain or
shine, enabling people to get to work
and the elderly to meet appointments.
The preservation of regular bus service
also allowed people to shop in downtown
Gloucester and it transported people to
their jobs. Later, when State financial
help was available, Action, Inc.
transferred the bus company to the newly
organized Cape Ann Transportation
Authority (CATA). During this period,
Action, Inc. started the first public
transportation for the handicapped and
frail elderly to doctors and hospital
appointments. Action, Inc. also
developed the very first meal sites for
the elderly and the Meals on Wheels
Program through which volunteers deliver
hot meals daily to homebound elders.
By the same token, Action has created
and operated employment and training
programs for over two decades, targeted
for youth and adults. These programs,
including Neighborhood Youth Corps,
Rent-A-Kid, Mainstream, CETA, Supported
Work, Options, Fishing Families in
Transition, Welfare-to-Work and our
current Project Achievement, which
provides employment opportunities for
homeless men and women in our emergency
shelter and in transitional housing,
have allowed local people to find
meaningful work and in so doing, to feel
better about themselves. Funded by
Sailors' Snug Harbor of Boston, the Shaw
Fund for Mariner's Children and the
Mass. Rehabilitation Commission, Fishing
Families in Transition has, since 1996,
provided job readiness and computer
skills training, along with job
development and placement services, for
over 245 local members of the fishing
community annually, as well as homeless,
unemployed, disabled and single parents
on temporary assistance. Currently we
are offering computer skills training,
clinical medical assistant training, ESL,
adult diploma and college scholarships.
Residents are aware of the importance of
Action's energy and weatherization
programs. Last year alone we provided
fuel assistance for over 1,800
households on Cape Ann. We weatherize
4,300 homes
annually, while providing heating system
repairs and conservation audits for
another 740 households annually. An
additional 10,000 households statewide
receive energy conservation and
weatherization services thanks utility
funded contracts guaranteed by Action
energy advocacy. These
are indispensable services; many
elderly, for example, would simply not
be able to live independently without
them. Working directly with Mass.
Electric and Boston Gas, Action's energy
program has also played a major role in
electric utility restructuring and
energy conservation initiatives to
assist low-income rate-payers.
At a time when volunteerism is highly
valued, Action is proud to have created
one of the first Retired Senior
Volunteer Programs in the nation. Today
it numbers 415 older adults, who, last
year alone, provided 70,000 hours of
community service in schools, libraries,
nursing homes and public agencies in 13
North Shore communities. Now under the
wing of SeniorCare, Inc. RSVP has two
new programs. Neighbors in Action
provides support and companionship to
elders, disabled and homebound
individuals, while America Reads works
locally to implement the national
challenge to have all children reading
well by the 3rd grade.
At the heart of our agency and community
action, is our advocacy program, which
helps individuals and families to become
more self-sufficient through direct
services, counseling, case management
and referrals. Last year Action helped
235 local households, who were
experiencing housing and income
maintenance problems. This included
assistance with rent and utility
arrearages, intervention in housing
authority issues, credit counseling for
families and assistance to battered
women and families on TAFDC.
When members of the community learned of
the availability of USDA surplus food
commodities in the early 1980s, they
came to Action and we contracted with
the Department of Education to provide
those foods, serving 2,000 households
four times a year with needed staples
like butter, cheese, flour, fruit and
vegetables. (In 1970, before the advent
of food stamps, Action began to
distribute the first food commodities on
Cape Ann. We also were the principal
agency in food stamp distribution once
the federal government had instituted
that program, beginning in 1972.)
Between 1995 and 1998, we were the lead
agency for a state-wide nutrition
education program that coordinated food
and nutrition resources, including food
stamp outreach, local farmer's markets,
and seminars which taught people where
and how to buy the kinds of food they
most needed and could afford.
When homeless families or others were
unable to purchase furniture, Action
began collecting used furniture from
donors and made it available to those
households from our furniture barn on
Emerson Avenue. Like the food and
emergency shelter programs, this was an
immediate response to local needs.
Action has always had this kind of
flexibility and is continually poised to
meet such needs, unlike other agencies
whose services are tied to specific
grants or mandates.
Our annual Christmas program, Project
Uplift, which last year provided toys
and clothing to 320 needy children,
allowing parents to pay for food and
utilities during the cold season, is run
entirely by our Board and volunteers, is
an example of our ability to meet need
immediately without red-tape or
bureaucratic barriers.
In the 1980s, Action lead the way in
providing assistance to first-time home
buyers through our Gloucester
Home-buyers Group, which allowed
low-income and working families to
access funding toward the purchase of a
first home. Currently we are offering a
program funded by the Mass. Housing and
Finance Agency that provides loans to
finance home rehabilitation or lead
paint abatement.
Action has also pioneered in economic
development. We conducted the first
studies on the survival of the fishing
industry in the 1960s, and in the 1970s,
we developed the first worker-owned
business on the waterfront. We also
formed the Fishermen's Wives Association
that has played such a vital role in the
preservation of the industry. For over
two decades Action has been hiring women
on Welfare and assisting them to become
free of public benefits.
Today our staff runs the gamut from
people still receiving some Welfare
benefits to those with advanced degrees
in planning, counseling and social work.
Our Board of Directors consists, for
example, of Welfare mothers, working
mothers, small business owners, a
prominent Gloucester minister, a
government loan officer, a lawyer, a
women's shelter worker, a formerly
homeless man, and others from various
parts of Cape Ann's caring population.
In the diversity of our staff and Board
composition we reflect the community as
much if not more than any agency in
Gloucester.
Agencies like Action wouldn't exist
unless people needed us. We didn't
invent poverty, and if we were to close
our doors tomorrow, poverty and
homelessness would not disappear but
would escalate. Yet people continue to
look to Action when they need help. Some
days advocacy staff alone receive as
many as 40 calls for help. Today, anyone
on Cape Ann who has no money or no home,
who can't pay rent or utility bills, who
may be facing eviction or who can't
afford health care or may be in need of
referrals for counseling and mental
health services; people who are
desperate, many of them, or destitute,
can walk in the door of Action at 180
Main
Street and always find someone available
to help them. Our entire staff,
including receptionists, who are trained
to make referrals and to offer direct
assistance, is at their disposal.
Action's staff, Board and volunteers are
committed to what we do. We feel we have
a mission in community action to help
poor people become self-sufficient, to
make Cape Ann a better place to live for
everybody.
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