NCCAA Annual Conference Comes Face to Face With Poverty
The North Carolina Community Action Association 2012 annual conference provided a platform for more than 300 attendees to identify Real Solutions for Real People in conjunction with a statewide Face to Face With Poverty initiative and awareness campaign. The annual conference was held May 7-11, 2012, at the Sea Trail Golf Resort & Convention Center in Sunset Beach, North Carolina.
More than 30 presenters and dozens of workshops and panels offered community action executive directors, program leaders, and NCCAA board members the tools and knowledge needed to help families transition out of poverty in North Carolina. New board members were sworn in and top-performing community action agencies were honored during the Thursday evening awards dinner. The conference schedule also offered numerous networking opportunities for attendees to connect and collaborate with their peers and other community action partners throughout the state.
Sharon Goodson, executive director of the North Carolina Community Action Association, said, “Poverty is everybody’s business. The time has come for all citizens to join together in an open dialogue regarding the impact of America’s economic crisis on our families and communities.” NCCAA has stepped up efforts to lead the charge in the war against poverty, heralding the new Face to Face With Poverty initiative, which assigns North Carolina Community Action Agencies and key stakeholders the task of providing real solutions for real people in low-income communities.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, North Carolina’s poverty rate spiked to 17.5 percent, surpassing the official national poverty level of 15.2 percent, ranking North Carolina as the 12th highest poverty state in the nation. In North Carolina alone, more than 1.6 million children, elderly, disabled and low-income individuals are impacted by poverty. That equates to 1 in 5 women, 1 in 4 children, 1 in 4 African Americans, and 1 in 3 Latinos who don’t have access to adequate housing, health care, education, employment or resources to enjoy a decent living. The Face to Face With Poverty initiative addresses the hard questions about poverty head-on to identify common-sense solutions, and consequently, those who have been impacted and silenced by poverty will be silent no longer.
This year’s conference provided all levels of community action and nonprofit staff–newcomers to seasoned professionals—with strategies, tools, skills, and best-practices to help families find solutions. Plenary sessions and workshops helped focus attention on the diverse faces of poverty in North Carolina, while promoting positive change in various communities.
Face to Face With Poverty is a yearlong campaign to educate and inform community leaders and policy makers about the disproportionately high impact of poverty throughout North Carolina. The North Carolina Community Action Association is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that gives voice to the needs, concerns, and stories of the state’s disadvantaged and low-income citizens. For more information about NCCAA and its anti-poverty campaign, visit www.nccaa.net.
The N.C. Community Action Association’s 2012 annual conference provided a platform for more than 300 attendees to identify real solutions for real people in conjunction with a statewide Face to Face With Poverty initiative and awareness campaign.
The annual conference was held May 7-11, 2012, at the Sea Trail Golf Resort & Convention Center in Sunset Beach, North Carolina.
More than 30 presenters and dozens of workshops and panels offered community action executive directors, program leaders, and NCCAA board members the tools and knowledge needed to help families transition out of poverty in North Carolina.
New board members were sworn in and top-performing community action agencies were honored during the Thursday evening awards dinner.
The conference schedule also offered numerous networking opportunities for attendees to connect and collaborate with their peers and other community action partners throughout the state.
Sharon Goodson, executive director of NCCAA, said, “Poverty is everybody’s business. The time has come for all citizens to join together in an open dialogue regarding the impact of America’s economic crisis on our families and communities.”
NCCAA has stepped up efforts to lead the charge in the war against poverty, heralding the new Face to Face With Poverty initiative, which assigns North Carolina community action agencies and key stakeholders the task of providing real solutions for real people in low-income communities.
According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, North Carolina’s poverty rate spiked to 17.5 percent, surpassing the official national poverty level of 15.2 percent, ranking North Carolina as the 12th highest poverty state in the nation.
In North Carolina alone, more than 1.6 million children, elderly, disabled and low-income individuals are impacted by poverty. That equates to 1 in 5 women, 1 in 4 children, 1 in 4 African Americans, and 1 in 3 Latinos who don’t have access to adequate housing, health care, education, employment or resources to enjoy a decent living.
The Face to Face With Poverty initiative addresses the hard questions about poverty head-on to identify common-sense solutions, and consequently, those who have been impacted and silenced by poverty will be silent no longer.
This year’s conference provided all levels of community action and nonprofit staff–newcomers to seasoned professionals—with strategies, tools, skills, and best-practices to help families find solutions. Plenary sessions and workshops helped focus attention on the diverse faces of poverty in North Carolina, while promoting positive change in various communities.
Face to Face With Poverty is a yearlong campaign to educate and inform community leaders and policy makers about the disproportionately high impact of poverty throughout North Carolina.
The N. C. Community Action Association is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that gives voice to the needs, concerns and stories of the state’s disadvantaged and low-income citizens.
For more information about NCCAA and its anti-poverty campaign, visit www.nccaa.net.