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Community Action Partnership
Award for Excellence in Community Action
2005 Award Recipient
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Community Action Partnership Riverside County
Riverside, California
- Lois J. Carson, CCAP, Executive Director
- , Board President
Since its designation in 1979, Community Action Partnership Riverside County (CAP Riverside), the official anti-poverty agency for the County of Riverside, led by Executive Director Lois J. Carson, CCAP, has found innovative ways to meet the needs of low-income residents throughout this diverse county in the Inland Empire region of Southern California. CAP Riverside's target population of residents living at or below the federal poverty level numbers more than 214,000 people countywide, including 84,000 children and youth.
Cap Riverside blends its 26 years of historical success with millennium vision to provide high-impact programs with a holistic approach to self-sufficiency. This includes bringing diverse groups of stakeholderstogether to end poverty with the initiation of Circles of Support and Guiding Coalitions. Circles of Support are groups of four to six neighbors who cluster around a family in poverty to provide support and encouragement to move out of poverty. Guiding Coalitions are larger groups of 12 to 20 community activists noted for getting things done in their community who will support the Circles of Support with community policy changes and resources. CAP Riverside has an extensive network of over 300 partner agencies countywide. It is also the lead agency that developed a statewide advisory network to provide training and technical assistance to 52 Community Action Agencies to bridge Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) programs with local asset-building programs.
CAP Riverside has taken an agressive and bold approach to ending poverty in Riverside County in 30 years by adopting a Community Declaration. This document calls for economic opportunity and hope for all in Riverside County, thereby creating "Bliss County" — Riverside County without poverty. With a campaign that combines marketing, community outreach, and public awareness, the Declaration is expected to generate more than 5,000 signatures of "believers" by the end of 2005.
CAP Riverside's mission is to, with the involvement of the community, its partnering organizations, and allies, end poverty by offeringb opportunities for the poor through education, wealth building, advocacy, and capacity building.
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