Community Action Agency fights poverty for past 44 years

Green Hills Community Action Agency has been giving a hand up to people seeking to break the bonds of poverty for 44 years.

The original organization was incorporated on June 4, 1965. Green Hills Area Human Resources

Development Corp. was formed to serve the residents of Grundy, Mercer, Putnam and Sullivan counties in response to then President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty. The president declared war on poverty during his first State of the Union Address in 1964.

Although the United States was then in a period of unprecedented prosperity, nearly one-fifth of

Americans, between 33 million and 35 million people, were poor, having incomes below the poverty line (then $3,000 for a family of four).

"For as long as man has lived on this earth, poverty has been his curse. Today for the first time in all history of the human race, a great nation is able to make and is willing to make a commitment to eradicate poverty among its people," President Johnson said when he signed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 into law on Aug. 20, 1964.

The philosophy behind the law was not the redistribution of wealth, but rather the belief that government could provide low-income people with opportunities to earn a living wage and enjoy a comfortable standard of living. President Johnson cited the Constitution’s charge of Congress "to provide for the general welfare of the United States," as the constitutional basis for the legislation.

To fight the War on Poverty, the act gave the new Office of Economic Opportunity jurisdiction over all existing federal programs that addressed the needs of low-income people and created 11 new programs for the OEO to operate or supervise. Most of the new programs were mechanisms to provide basic education, higher education and job training to youths and adults through local agencies.

Green Hills Human Resources Development Corp. was formed to administer OEO programs. The office was in Milan. The original incorporators were Murl Barton of Green City, Dorothy Bradshaw of Milan, Currin Davis of Trenton, Konrad Heid of Princeton and Theodore Klinginsmith of Unionville. Harrison County joined the organization in January 1967.

Human Resources Development Corp., formed in August 1965 to serve Caldwell, Daviess, Linn and Livingston counties. Its office was in Chillicothe.

The two community action agencies merged in October 1968 and in May 1969, the area office moved to Trenton. The agency’s name was changed to Green Hills Community Action Agency in the mid-1970s.

While the names of the agency and its programs have changed over the past 44 years, the purpose of the agency has not. The mission was and is to work through partnerships to make self-sufficiency a reality for individuals and families, by empowering them to achieve the knowledge, skills and motivations needed to build strong families and strong communities.

Throughout the 44-year history of Green Hills Community Action Agency, education has been at the root of many of its programs. GHCAA services train and educate area residents in skills needed to get jobs and to obtain higher-paying jobs and more stable employment; in skills to improve their living conditions through energy conservation, car maintenance, healthy habits and more; and by building self-confidence and self-esteem.

In the words of Herbert Spencer, a 19th Century English philosopher, "The great aim of education is not knowledge but action."