Worcester Business Journal

66 Giving Guide 2023 Worcester Business Journal www.wbjournal.com FUTURE GOALS 1. Continue to build out collaborative space within our new office building to enhance opportunities for shared services and improved centralized client intake. 2. Recruit and retain a diverse complement of skilled, compassionate, and dedicated employees. 3. Infuse diversity, equity and inclusion practices across services, processes, policies, and organizational culture. 4. Impact lives through quality care and services. 5. Launch Universal Basic Income and Cliff Effect pilot programs within our Resiliency Center as a more direct avenue to financial empowerment. 6. Continue to strengthen pathways to post-secondary education and year-round employment opportunities through our Job and Education Center. 7. Reimagine physical design of our early education and care programs with potential community partner collaborations to enhance wrap- around services and extended-day opportunities for working families. 8. Apply a client-centered approach to our work that influences decision- making processes across programs, people and physical space, policies, procedures, use of technology, and points of access. FUNDRAISING OPPORTUNITIES • WCAC hosts an Annual Appeal in November and a Spring Appeal in May in conjunction with Community Action Month, seeking financial donations to support and sustain the agency's programs and services throughout the year. Donations accepted year-round at www.WCAC. net or by mail to WCAC, 18 Chestnut Street, Suite 500, Worcester, MA 01608. • WCAC hosts an annual Resiliency Awards celebration recognizing everyday people striving to make every day better for the lives of those in our community and the wonderful legacy of heroes who have helped support WCAC's work in moving individuals and families out of poverty and towards economic mobility. Resources raised through event sponsorships as well as ticket sales support the agency's Resiliency Fund. GIVING OPPORTUNITIES • New partners sought to provide professional workshops, mentoring as well as summer and year-round employment opportunities for young adults through our Job & Education Center's (JEC) Job One youth workforce initiative. • Private donations to WCAC's Emergency Fuel Fund provide critical support for income eligible households right in your backyard, facing no- heat emergencies during frigid winter months. • Donations of breakfast, lunch and snack options, gi cards and bus passes accepted for young adults enrolled in the JEC, many of whom experience food insecurity and face significant barriers to education and employment. • Head Start/Early Head Start and Healthy Families programs accept donations of school supplies and books for infants through age 5. Healthy Families also accepts new or gently worn infant and toddler clothing for its Baby Boutique. VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES • Volunteers are needed as tax preparers from January through April for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program in which income-eligible residents have their income taxes prepared and filed at no cost. WCAC operates VITA in both Worcester and Southbridge. Training for the IRS certification takes place in December. Worcester Community Action Council, Inc. Donald G. Xenos, Chair Karen Rucks-Walker, ThD, Vice Chair Steven Desmarais, Treasurer Brian Westerlind, Asst. Treasurer Donna Lombardi, MEd, RD, Clerk Eve Gilmore, Asst. Clerk BOARD MEMBERS Dale Allen, PhD Leslie Baker James Brooks Guglielmina Chebbani Arianna Curet Marco Estrella Maricelis Gonzalez Kristen Lemire Peter Martin, Esq. Gladys Rodriguez-Parker Janice Ryan Weekes Jack Salisbury Miurka Torres "For almost 60 years WCAC has had a positive and productive impact on the quality of life for individuals, children, and families. As the region's anti-poverty agency, WCAC forms strategic partnerships intended to promote economic mobility opportunities such as helping youth overcome the effects of poverty and to prepare them for academic success. e fuel assistance and weatherization programs enable our neighbors, especially our seniors and veterans, to remain in their homes. eir mission of helping people achieve economic self- sufficiency aligns with my personal and professional values, of which I am proud to be a part." - Karen L. Rucks-Walker, ThD, Vice Chair 18 Chestnut Street, Suite 500 Worcester, MA 01608 Phone: (508) 754-1176 www.WCAC.net Full-time Employees: 135 Annual Revenues: $35,000,000 Year founded: 1965 MISSION STATEMENT Our vision is to break the cycle of poverty one neighbor at a time. Through safety-net services and asset building solutions, WCAC creates economic mobility opportunities for tens of thousands of people annually through programs such as energy assistance, early education and care, financial empowerment, positive youth development, and career pathways. SERVICE AREA WCAC serves the City of Worcester and forty-five surrounding communities in Central and Southern Massachusetts. TOP FUNDING SOURCES 78% Federal Funding 9% State/Local Government 13% Other/Earned Revenue Marybeth Campbell Executive Director Karen L. Rucks- Walker, ThD Vice Chair BOARD OFFICERS

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