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Dear Friend,
Have you ever suffered an unanticipated job loss or sudden health crisis? Have you ever struggled to pay the minimum due on your credit card bill, or held two jobs just to pay the bills? Far too many households live just on the brink, a mere heartbeat away from poverty.
One out of ten households in Massachusetts is food insecure - unsure of where or when their next meal will come from. One in three children in Worcester, the largest community in WCAC's service area, lives in poverty. That number escalates to one in two children when families living at two times the federal poverty threshold, defined as "near poor," are factored in. Yet, two-thirds of families in poverty include at least one working adult. These are our neighbors, our co-workers, perhaps members of your own family - struggling just to make ends meet.
Although everyone experiences bumps along the way, too often there are real barriers that present obstacles to success. While there are public policies which have helped to create conditions for success,, other policies have created obstacles to opportunity for many people, or allowed those obstacles to persist. Together we can - and must - work to strengthen programs that help people move to economic self-sufficiency, while we concurrently make changes to policies that trap families in the cycle of poverty.
We all have a role to play in fighting poverty.
You can help first time mothers learn to care for their newborn babies and how to handle the stress that parenthood brings. You can help young children gain early literacy and development skills to set the stage for their life-long learning and success. You can help provide at-risk teens and young adults employment training, career counseling and certificate options to get them onto a path of independence and gainful employment. You can help support quality childcare enabling parents to find secure employment. And you can help seniors, veterans, those who are disabled and others with limited income remain warm in their homes despite escalating utility costs.
As Aesop once wrote, No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. We hope we can count on your continued support for WCAC's critical programs and services to help move families to economic self-sufficiency.
Sincerely,
Jill C. Dagilis
Noreen Johnson Smith
Executive Director Chair, Board of Directors
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