Pathways to Homeownership Fair

We held our Home Fair this past Saturday at Springfield Technical Community College. There were bankers, realtors, housing inspectors, housing agencies and more with booths, information and giveaways. Many, many thanks to the vendors for being there to provide information to the Home Fair attendees and for generously donating raffle prizes. Many thanks to Ray Jordan of HUD, for stopping by. And of course, a special thanks to our volunteers for giving up most of their Saturday to help us put on this fair so that we could provide some very essential information to anyone looking to buy a house.

Poverty Rates Released

The most recent newsletter of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), their Director of Health Policy Research, Elise Gould, responded to the newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau:

"After nearly a decade of neglect that ended with the most severe recession since the Great Depression, it is no surprise that poverty hit its highest rate since 1994."

On September 16, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that 43.6 million people, or one in seven Americans were now living in poverty. And that the rate for children was even scarier: one in five children in this country are living in poverty.

Read the rest of EPI's newsletter at www.epi.org/pages/epinews

Scholarship Awards

We had a really lovely morning last Friday, presenting 21 scholarships to Springfield residents. That included the Ray Hershel Honorary Scholarship awarded to Bryan Palmer.

Many, many thanks to John Gormally, President and Owner of abc40 for sponsoring the scholarship. And of course, thanks to Ray Hershel for being our stellar Master of Ceremonies, and for agreeing to the scholarship presentation. (that's Bryan, flanked by John Gormally on the viewer's left and Ray Hershel on our right.)

Bryan is a junior at Westfield State University where he has a double major in Communications and Ethnic and Gender Studies. Bryan hopes to work in the broadcasting field after graduation.

Our absolutely fabulous keynote speaker, Myra Smith, VP of Human Resources and Multicultural Affairs at Springfield Technical Community College, talked about Change. She encouraged the scholarship winners to approach change with a positive attitude, to ask questions even if doing so made them feel uncomfortable, to diversify their network of associates and friends, and to share their knowledge by bringing it back to the community.

She ended with a quote from Les Brown, motivational speaker, coach and author, "When life knocks you down, you should always try to land on your back - because if you can look up, you can get up!"

And I really want to acknowledge Citizens Bank for being Gold Sponsors and Bay State Gas for their Bronze Level Sponsorship. We could not have held such a nice event without their help.

And stay tuned, we'll share even more photos later. And check us out on Facebook for additional photos.

Scholarship Awards Breakfast

Just one week till our Scholarship Awards. We will be honoring 21 winners on Friday, September 17 at Springfield Technical Community College.

We are just so thrilled that John Gormally at abc40 has chosen this venue to present the first Ray Hershel Honorary Scholarship. Ray deserves it! He has served as our long time Master of Ceremonies and he is so clever and so quick witted and we truly appreciate his work and his time.

The breakfast event is being sponsored by Citizens Bank, our gold sponsor and by Bay State Gas, our bronze sponsor. Now all monies raised through ticket sales will help fund the scholarships for next year. Thanks very much to both companies.

Annual Convention

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.

That is the Promise of Community Action and we heard and recited it several times last week at the National Community Action Partnership Annual Convention in Boston, Massachusetts. Hundreds of Community Action staff gathered from across the nation to learn, share, network and to celebrate.

Ray Suarez, Author and Senior Correspondent at PBS NewsHour, gave the opening address entitled, What's Wrong With This Picture? Media, Politics, and Diversity.

A favorite vendor was Beads in a Box. Every visit to the Exhibitor Hall showed the popularity of this vendor. This is a non-profit, hand designed jewelry business that raises discretionary funds for the Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska. So, finally, women get to buy lovely items and feel good about it. And they were indeed doing a brisk business.