A Message from our Executive Director
(From CEO's 2009 Annual Report)

Committed, Responsive and Accountable

The theme of this year’s annual report is The Community Action Partnership:  Committed, Responsive and Accountable.  These are qualities that we at CEO strive to meet every day. They are critical to the success of our customers and to our own success and sustainability.

Committed.

We are committed to our customers. We show this every day by doing the hard work it takes to provide them with the programs they need to help meet their basic needs. Through programs like Head Start, Weatherization, WIC and Food Pantry, we help to provide nutritional food, safe housing and child care. When such basic necessities are in question, it keeps a family in crisis, unable to fend or provide for themselves. With temporary assistance, those families are able to obtain the skills, education, and resources necessary to make strides toward creating lives of self-sufficiency.

We are also committed to our donors.  We promise to utilize every dollar in the most cost effective way to achieve outcomes. 

Responsive.

We are also dedicated -- and responsive to -- our community, as demonstrated by the programs we offer, and by the Community Assessment we complete annually to help determine how we can best meet the needs of an ever-changing community.  We are committed to helping the most vulnerable among us climb from the very bottom of our economic system to begin building a better life, in safer neighborhoods throughout Rensselaer County. 
 
Through this Community Assessment (see pages 6 & 7 for additional information), we are able to adapt our existing programs, or create new ones to better meet the needs of our community. For instance, we identified the need for better access to our services for the residents of the southern portion of Rensselaer County.  As of last November, we broke ground on a new Family Resource Center that will house Head Start, WIC and our Teenage Opportunity Program as well as provide better access to all of our services  for the residents of southern Rensselaer County.

We have also identified the need to include financial education to all of our customers.  Every one of us needs to be responsible and accountable for living within our own means. Given the current economic climate this is essential information for survival.  At CEO, we plan on providing financial education in a three step process:

• One. By educating our own staff, so they understand the basic principles of budgeting and can better manage their own personal debt and finances, and thus be better equipped to teach our customers how to better manage their money
• Two. By credentialing staff members to be financial educators so they can continue to educate staff and customers on an ongoing basis
• Three. By integrating financial education into the core principles of every program offered through CEO, all our customers will be better equipped to manage debt and a family budget

We are dedicated to helping people get out of debt, better manage their personal finances and achieve financial goals such as home ownership, secondary education and business ownership. Most of our customers never learned these skills growing up, and we are committed to helping them effect sustainable, long-term financial behavioral change.

Accountable.

In a time when funding is so precarious, it is more imperative than ever that we demonstrate the money we receive is fully documented and appropriately spent. Ninety-two percent of all the funds we receive goes directly toward our programs, with only eight percent earmarked for administrative costs — less than half the industry “norm” as cited on Charity Navigator. 1   We have a number of quality control systems and tools in place, including audits by every major funder.  Our last audit conducted by the Office of Health and Human Services, we passed with flying colors! There are more than 1,700 federal mandates used for regulating the Head Start and CEO was found to be 100 percent compliant with each and every one.
 
We must find the proper balance between providing the necessary programs and services, while stringently monitoring expenses and controlling costs. We must also all work together with other non-profits and government agencies in order to avoid duplication in service. And, we need to think about the short-and long-term consequences of our actions and ensure that the end result is a positive impact for all.
 
We all realize that our country is facing some of the most difficult economic challenges in memory. But surely this is not the time to exact a price from our most vulnerable citizens, and risk seeing them homeless, without the means to keep themselves and their families safe, fed and warm. The long-term implication of that would be devastating to our country.  We must continue to make the difficult decisions to keep the promise of Community Action while staying Committed, Responsive and Accountable to the entire Community.

The Promise of Community Action
Community Action changes people’s lives, embodies the spirit of hope, improves communities, and makes America a better place to live. We care about the entire community, and we are dedicated to helping people help themselves and each other. 

(Click here for a pdf of our 2010 Annual Report.)