Don Mathis, formerly head of the Boys and Girls Club of Harford County, is president and chief executive officer of D.C.-based Community Action Partnership, the national nonprofit representing 1,000 agencies throughout the country. May is National Community Action Month, and The Examiner spoke with Mathis about his agency and its mission.
What does your agency do?
The Community Action Partnership promotes economic security for everyone in America, especially for those who are poor or low-income. We represent food banks, soup kitchens, energy funds, shelters, services for the elderly and Head Start programs. We also do advocacy on their behalf to raise awareness and keep their issues in the public?s eye.
What is Community Action month all about?
We really try to highlight the various agencies? success stories. A lot of people will throw up their hands and say, “The poor will always be with us.” But for a lot of people, poverty is just a transient state on the way to a better life. There are avenues out of poverty.
People think that by helping the poor, you?re keeping them dependent. But by caring, we can make a real difference in people?s lives and get them on the road to economic security and self-sufficiency.
Please highlight some success stories in the Baltimore area.
The Maryland Rural Development Corporation, or MRDC, serves Carroll, Harford, Cecil, Kent and Queen Anne?s Counties.
During this mortgage-foreclosure crisis, they are offering HUD-approved housing counselors to people at risk of losing their houses. A lot of banks aren?t good about communicating, so the counselors help people talk to their banks, talk to their lenders and renegotiate their housing situation to keep them from becoming homeless or landing on someone?s couch.
