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Based on a recently negotiated agreement, the Everett-based Center for Community Action will be taking over the Blair County Community Action Program, which has been struggling to resolve a variety of issues over the past few years.
The takeover will be complete in about a year, after Blair CAP grants expire or come due for renewal, according to Blair CAP board President Lisa Hann.
The acquisition will help the organizations serve Blair County residents more effectively by eliminating the need for some empty posts to be filled, by helping to ensure that program participants are offered all the benefits they need and by the ability for a single entity to provide "wraparound" services aimed at eventual client self-sufficiency, according to Hann and Wendy Melius, executive director of CCA.
The takeover agreement follows an arrangement made in November under which CCA agreed to assume management responsibilities temporarily -- an arrangement that Hann said at the time could become permanent.
According to its website, CCA serves clients in Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Franklin, Fulton, Huntingdon, Indiana, Juniata, Mifflin and Somerset counties.
The organizations will operate under their current names until the transition is complete, according to a joint news release.
The transition won't be complete until the Blair CAP grant contracts are fulfilled, because "you can't change horses midstream," Hann said.
The Blair CAP board decided to place itself under CCA because of issues that included "procedural things not working," staff turnover that had resulted in a complement of young, untrained individuals and the recent resignations of the finance director and Executive Director Christine Zernick, who took another job, Hann said.
Since CCA had the experienced staff already in place, it made sense to merge rather than search for replacements for both Zernick and the finance director, Hann said.
"(It) seemed to be the most rational option," Hann said.
CCA has had a presence in Blair County for about 10 years, according to Melius. The organization started with a Penelec utility program, added childcare services, followed by an employment and training program and then in 2022 at the invitation of the Blair County commissioners, took over the second phase of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, Melius said.
Blair CAP's services have included rapid re-housing, homelessness prevention, help with substance use disorder and life-skills education on budgeting, renting and housing purchases, according to the website.
It will be helpful to have one organization overseeing it all, "remov(ing) those siloes," Melius said.
Clients won't notice any difference, and the transition will be smooth, she predicted.
Former Blair CAP board member Dave Ellis isn't optimistic about the takeover, however.
"I am concerned that the city's interests -- whether they'll properly be addressed with an agency run out of Bedford County," said Ellis, who resigned in mid-November after the takeover vote.
Former Blair CAP board member Jesse Ickes, who resigned at the same time as Ellis, isn't as pessimistic about the new arrangement.
"I'm confident we will have services provided to folks who need it in Blair County," Ickes said. "This alignment was probably the only option we had."
Hann declined to detail Blair CAP's struggles, which became evident in 2021, she said.
Ickes was not so reluctant.
"I've never seen an organization be so poorly run from a management and board (standpoint)," said Ickes, who was on the board for two years, like Ellis.
Former management kept the office doors locked during business hours, so people seeking help needed to call and make appointments, Ickes said.
Phone calls and emails were often not returned, Ickes said.
Staffers who were out of the office failed to leave explanatory automated responses, so people trying to get in contact with them were left in the lurch, Ickes said.
After realizing that things weren't going well, one veteran board member confessed that he would previously come to the monthly meetings, eat a hot dog and vote yes on everything, Ickes said.
"The long-time board member, realizing how much of a mess the place had become, repented of their lack of oversight," Ickes stated in a follow-up text.
For years, the organization was not adequately serving the poor of the area, Ickes stated.
He blamed "poor or lazy management" -- not the employees who worked under that management.
Zernick, who had served as executive director at Blair CAP for about a year, was excellent, however, Ickes said.
"Zernick was doing a tremendous job turning the place around," Ellis stated in a text. "She chose to leave. At that point, the place lacked the necessary leadership to effectively function."
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.