“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.”

                                                                                            ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet

“Persistence and resilience only come from having been given the chance to work through difficult problems.”

~Gever Tulley,

American writer, speaker, educator, entrepreneur

The turning of the calendar from one year to the next is special.  It signifies a fresh start…a new chapter…an opportunity to reflect on the past year while looking forward to the coming one.  All over the world, communities approach the beginning of a new year a little differently. 

An old Irish tradition suggests that just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, you should open the back door of your house to let the old year out, and then open the front door just after midnight to let the new year in. 

Many cultures emphasize eating certain “lucky” foods (e.g. cabbage, pork (Europe, U.S.), greens, black-eyed peas (American South), marzipan (Germany), soba noodles (Japan), pancakes (France), soup joumou (Cuba) grapes (Spain), etc. to bring luck and prosperity in the new year. 

Traditions in the Philippines suggest that wearing polka dots and eating round fruits will bring good luck. 

In Denmark, it is customary to jump off a sofa or chair at midnight to signify jumping into the new year. 

In Brazil, you are supposed to go to the beach and jump seven waves while making seven wishes, wearing all white. 

In spite of the differences of these traditions and superstitions, I see a common thread of optimism and determination for the year ahead. Last month, I highlighted some of our many accomplishments during 2024.  Now that we have stepped firmly into 2025, let’s take a moment to look at what lies before us in the new year.

We are constantly on the lookout for new opportunities to better serve our communities. We believe that every community, every individual and family within that community, deserve the same opportunity and ability to thrive, which means they deserve a very strong and effective community action agency.  In 2025 we will be doing a deep dive into our operations – looking for ways to improve our efficiencies and better serve our clients. 

Excellence is the framework upon which we will be building our organizational strategy and evaluating our programs to see where we can do better.  The Standards of Excellence promoted by the National Community Action Partnership (NCAP) help community action agencies to engage in benchmarking and continuous improvement across the organization by focusing on how they approach organizational leadership, strategic planning and direction, customer, constituent, and partner focus, measurement, analysis, and performance management, human resource focus, organizational process management, and organizational results.  We are in the beginning stages of implementing the Standards of Excellence at CAC and are optimistic that this structure will help us do the very best for the communities we serve.

The upcoming funding environment for grant-funded organizations like ours is not fully clear.  While there is no cause for panic, it is possible that funding for some programs could be reduced.  Only time will tell.  As we look to the future, we will need to make sure that we are maximizing the opportunities that we have.  How are we going to do this?

·         We will be seeking better defined alignment of departmental and organizational goals to our agency’s strategic plan.  

·         We will identify and provide professional development for our workforce.  

·         We will work to provide exceptional customer service.

·         We will measure and improve our impact on the community and those we serve.  

Even as we are likely to have to tighten our budgetary belts, the needs in our community will not decrease.  For many of our shorter tenured staff, this will be the first time that we will be operating in a time of scarcity.  We have to do more with less because that is our charge as Community Action.  We will continue to provide vital services to our clients no matter what – because that is who we are and why we are here.  We are up to this challenge because we are a persistent and resilient bunch.

With gratitude,