Community Voice

An interview with Deb Schimpf, executive director of Schenectady Community Action Program

What is SCAP? Tell us about your mission.

SCAP is one of 1,100 Community Action programs nationwide that grew out of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty initiative. Each Community Action program is able to focus its goals on the relevant needs of its low-income community and relies on the input of those it serves. One-third of SCAP's board members are from low-income neighborhoods and 51 percent of its Head Start policy council members must be parents of children currently in the program.

Our goal is to eliminate the symptoms and causes of poverty. It's a lofty goal, but we have had a lot of success with it. Perhaps more than is typical, we are willing to reinvent ourselves. What we were doing in 1960s, is not necessarily what we are doing today. We are always trying to balance new methods with proven strategies. We look at a particular gap or a problem in the community that is affecting the low-income community and ask: Is there something we can do about that?

What are the major programs or initiatives that you are focusing on today.

Almost since its inception, SCAP's core programs have been Head Start and Community Services Advocacy – helping people secure public assistance, food stamps, Medicaid, unemployment insurance and other government programs developed to help people when they most need it. One of the most important advocacy roles we play is at the individual level – helping customers navigate their way through the system. People are often overwhelmed by the time they get to us. Realizing that there is someone on their side, someone who can help them determine their eligibility for services and show them how to go about it, can be a great relief.

Today, the agency focuses on homelessness, employment, early childhood education and crisis intervention. Crisis intervention is the draw for many of the people we see – they are about to be evicted or lose their power, or they may have lost a job and do not know how to apply for public assistance. Or a customer may have found a job, but has no money to buy work boots and to get to and from work until their first paycheck. Once we've engaged a customer and conducted an assessment, we hook them into other programs we have as well. For example, do they need our career-readiness program, emergency housing services or is their child eligible for Head Start?

SCAP is also the lead agency of the Community Crisis Network (CCN), a collaborative program of the Schenectady Inner City Ministry (SICM), City Mission of Schenectady, Bethesda House, the Jewish community and Catholic Charities. CCN started as a way to mitigate what appeared to be an increasing need and fragmented services. Now there is a referral process and the participating organizations know there is a single point of entry and a comprehensive assessment that links people with the services they need. Catholic Charities and SICM do a great job of raising money from the congregations for an emergency fund. The CCN emergency fund can be used to cover things like work boots and bus tokens until a person gets his first paycheck. CCN is also a place that clergy can send people to when they are approached. Now, they know that on Sunday, people can call the emergency number at Department of Social Services or get a brown bag meal at City Mission if they are hungry. CCN tries to make all those connections and effectively mobilize and distribute our community's resources.

When the War on Poverty was launched in 1964, there was a feeling that it was a battle that could be won. Forty years later, is that a reasonable assumption? Has poverty become so entrenched in some communities as to be intractable?

If poverty wasn't somewhat intractable, it would have already been resolved. It is an incredibly difficult issue to alleviate and ameliorate. I do not think poverty is entrenched in communities, but perhaps in certain communities the stigma of poverty is. There has been much evaluation about how very distressed communities end up feeling about themselves over time and how important it is to have some successes. And we have seen successes. Harlem is a great example, and there are many more in southern communities and across the country. People in poverty try to escape seriously distressed neighborhoods, which is why in many communities you see not only an increase in poverty but that it has spread out.

We have heard that there have been dramatic increases the need for basic services such as food pantries and housing in Schenectady County. In your view, what's behind this?

I think what has happened is a combination of things: changes in the economy, changes in federal and state legislation for programs serving the poor resulting in a reduction in services in the community, and inflation – increased costs of housing, energy, gas and food. The working poor cannot make ends meet.

It can be expensive to eat healthy -- just basic fresh fruits and vegetables as opposed to packaged food, leading to problems with obesity and poor health. On $50 you can probably feed your family for a week on packaged macaroni and cheese. On the same amount, you really cannot feed your family for the same number of days with fresh ingredients.

With more of the middle class slipping into poverty, what are the greatest barriers to helping individuals and families in poverty overcome barriers to self-sufficiency?

I don't want to sound cliché, but the greatest barrier is funding -- adequate funding and flexible funding. Funding has not at all kept pace with inflation. At SCAP, we keep overhead low, but we are still asking our employees to do so much more with the same or sometimes less money.

Another barrier is what we call categorical funding – funding targeted to a specific population (single Moms 18 – 24 for instance). These programs target age groups rather than programs and can at times be a barrier. Time limits on programs can also create a barrier to our efforts to support families until they are self-sufficient. And finally, systems that are designed to assist people sometimes create more barriers. There is a lack of government and private sector partnerships in developing state and federally funded programs, which sometimes leads to the need for reactionary advocacy. I would like to have an opportunity to be proactive during development of state and federal programs. I think many initiatives would be more effective if development was conducted in this manner.

In some cases it really is how our society views the poor, especially folks with mental illness. Do we believe as a society that helping people is a noble cause, even when the person seeking help is not the most appealing person? What does the community think is an adequate response? How can we as a community come together to talk about this and effective ways to eliminate poverty? What do we think is the right thing to do?

What do you see as the big challenges now for the community in terms of addressing poverty? How are SCAP and other nonprofit organizations changing to meet these challenges?

For the community of service providers, including government agencies, the big challenge is to partner with other agencies to create a continuum of services. This is a challenge because you have to address gaps in service at the same time you address turf. Like any organization, not-for-profits are businesses too. We employ people, we are committed to our missions and we think what we are doing is fantastic. When you talk about a larger system improvement you have to come to the table wanting to deal with the challenges – and that can be very hard when it involves how you are doing things or established paradigms. It isn't uncommon to hear someone say "It's important for you to collaborate." Because the mission depends on resources, competition is inherent. So it is hard at times to do the right thing for the community at large if it negatively impacts your organization. It really doesn't have to be that way and it is possible to create meaningful change. I've been on both sides of that issue, and I have felt competitive with the same organizations I truly want to partner with. It is a challenge for me; it is a challenge for all of us.

What are your hopes and aspirations for SCAP in the next few years? Where do you see the greatest progress being made?

We have been very successful writing and obtaining grants, and we are very grateful to The Schenectady Foundation for its generous support. But we know we have to get better at fundraising from private citizens. We want to start connecting the public to the people we serve. We want to tell their very human stories.

Some people are very set in their beliefs about low-income people. They think they are lazy and don't work as hard as they do, which is why they are successful and this other person is not. I think if you have grown up in a financially successful family or had a really strong support system, you may underestimate how much of an impact that had on your own success. Being told as a child that there are a lot of opportunities for you and that you can attend any college you want to and you will always have support from your family gives a person a very strong foundation. Not being told this or not having the financial advantages and seeing your family struggle makes it difficult to think about your own future in a successful light. I think if we can learn to tell the stories of the community we serve, people will understand what a huge difference this makes.

We have had many years of looking at poverty issues and welfare reform in one way. Now it is time to start the dialogue again. I see a willingness of leaders and advocates at the national, state and local levels to come back to the table. Governor Spitzer created an Economic Security Cabinet, which was a good start. Now we hope to convince him to include people other than his commissioners. Locally, I believe that SCAP can be a leader in propelling the dialogue forward in Schenectady County. I do see this as progress.

If you could deliver one message to help the general population better understand poverty and what they can do to help address its symptoms, what would it be?

Everyone benefits from a community that successfully addresses the causes of poverty. With adequate supports, most people can move out of poverty. Their stories are diverse and complicated.

It is possible to address economic development and poverty at the same time, they are not mutually exclusive. I know that my community will benefit from both an improvement in the local economy and providing assistance to those who need it. When we are concerned about the most disadvantaged citizens we bring the entire community to better place, economically and socially.

Do you feel hopeful about the future?

Of course!

For more information on the Schenectady Community Action Program (SCAP), visit www.scapny.org