Thanks for Your Comments

I was gratified with the number of people that commented on my question posed in last week’s blog. I am glad to know that folks find the blog useful. I worry that at times I can be too open and I that I will express things I might later regret. At other times, I worry that I am more likely not open enough, not candid enough on what I really think. There is a balance between the two I am always trying to reach. Please keep comments coming in. I always welcome your ideas and feedback. 

Uneasy Road Ahead

I am uneasy these days. I am on a road but am not certain where it is going to come out at the end. It makes me feel absolutely petrified. We are likely to lose some good friends in Congressional races. Early next year, we will face sequestration and issues with debts and deficits. There will be increased emphasis on a shrinking role for government. The Administration’s budget will continue to face pressure and be an issue for us. It may be worse than 2012 and 2013. I am not sure where we will land. I think about how to get us to 2014 – to celebrate our 40^th anniversary. I am haunted by wondering if we have done everything humanly possible to get us there.

There is a storm coming that is going to make it difficult for domestic programs, particularly poverty programs. As I talk with more and more Members – Republicans or Democrats, Senate or House, Conservative or Liberal –they all suggest that a huge reordering of government is coming. The fault lines are over taxes and entitlement reforms, with pressure on domestic discretionary spending. I am increasingly haunted by the worry of whether I have done everything I can to get through the next 18 months, until 2014. There is a test coming, a battle being waged. I am worried if I have done everything humanly possible to prepare for it.

There are interest groups around town, people around the country, asking, do you think Community Action will survive? Will you make it through next year? What are you going to do when the program goes away? It is an uncomfortable feeling and it is at moments like this I wish Sargent Shriver was still around. There are other people in Community Action that have come and gone as well. There were some great people that are no longer with us I wish I could talk to.

Every Sunday night, I have trouble sleeping as my mind is filled with these thoughts. My mind is revved up with things I have to do the following day, going over my mental checklist of everything that has to get done. It is not a good feeling and I hope it goes away. I hope it becomes a sort of nice dream about how nicely things are going to turn out.

A Simple Answer

As state funding tightens, as federal funding tightens, many individuals look for a silver bullet. They are thinking about how Community Action can stretch our funding, further our funding, increase our visibility. I am asked a lot, actually a surprising number of times, about how to go back to federal-local relationships. I have made no secret that one of the biggest disappointments with CSBG was how far the Community Action program has fallen into state government. In 1981, Community Action was part of the Governor’s office in most states. Today, it has fallen way down the pecking order in most states. As a result, frustration has arisen on the CAP side and I often hear the sentiment, “what has the state done for me?” Many individuals – isolated individuals – have echoed this sentiment. 

It’s not just within our community that this question comes up. I am asked by Republicans, Democrats, Senate and House Members, particularly on the House side. I am asked about alternatives to our current delivery system. I had breakfast this week with a key House Republican. He knows Community Action. He likes CSBG. He has asked me a number of times to design a system that bypasses state agencies. He looks at his state agency and is fed up with state bureaucracy. The problem is, I do not know how to cut out the state without adding more federal bureaucracy. These questions come up a lot, in both our network and in Congress. I am not sure the answer is so simple.