The Chairman of the Board
A Welcome message from the Community Action Partnership Commission
Chairman Jenice Haskin
Dear Reader,
Allow me to introduce myself to you. I am Jenice Haskin and I am a private sector representative on the Riverside County Community Action Commission. I live in the City of Moreno Valley and I represent the United Way of the Inland Valleys.
After having served as secretary and chairman elect, I am pleased to take the baton from Dr. Shelagh Camak, who was an outstanding leader. As vice–chair, I chaired the Planning, Evaluation and Finance Committee, what we call the workhorse or heavy-lifting committee; it is good training for assumption of the chair. Our director says the PEF Committee dates back to the early days of Community Action. One gets the broadest view of operations from this committee. I learned a lot from the experience; and now I am ready to take the helm as leader of our membership of 15 primaries and 15 alternates that make up the Commission. I thank my colleagues for their confidence in me and look forward to the next two years as chairman.
This leads me to this my first article for the CAP website and the ActionGram, the theme of which is “The Path to Prosperity in a Time of Crisis”. I am also a business woman and prosperity means a lot to and for me. I get excited by the success of all the asset-building programs of CAP which enable families to beat the odds and find their paths to prosperity. And by integrating three programs, it makes the path as clear to the participants as that Fidelity green line in the ad on television.
I have played a part in all of them; for the EITC program, I coordinated, on behalf of United Way, the financial support from Bank of America to CAP for the free income tax preparation program. United Way also partnered with CAP to offer MoneyWorks, a financial literacy strategy to employees in the workplace. Employees learn about CAP’s asset-building programs via our joint venture.
The third program is Project B.L.I.S.S., a family development strategy where working poor families lead a “Circle” of supportive middle class volunteers who assist the families in moving out of poverty. I serve on the Guiding Coalition (sort of an oversight committee) which helps the volunteers help the families. I will put my business and finance background to use when I conduct a B.L.I.S.S. Big View Meeting : “The Power of Your Paycheck” after the first of the year.
CAP Riverside makes anti-poverty work exciting because there is so much conviction that people can exit poverty, and that conviction engenders powerful action toward that end and the result is that PEOPLE DO MOVE OUT OF POVERTY. The CAP staff all embrace the culture of excellence and faith in themselves, and their service to customers and success is the result.
I am coming onstage as the curtain rises on the ARRA Stimulus challenge, and I anticipate the solid achievement for which the Community Action Partnership of Riverside County is known. We will not fail, but will succeed, in keeping with our Award for Excellence.
