The Best Kept Secret in Town

I hope over the past few months you have come to know Newcap a bit better. If you feel like you need a bit of a reminder of what we do – then I’d like to introduce you to Deb Barlament, Vice President of Operations here at Newcap, Inc. She is going to take you through who Newcap is, what we do, and how we are working to expand our outreach so that more people think of Newcap when they, or someone they know, is in need of services we provide.

“When someone asks me “What do you do?” I answer with another question, “Do you know what Community Action is? Have you heard of Newcap?”

It amazes and surprises me that 99% of the time they look at me and say “What’s that?” It seems we are the best kept secret in town.

I go on to explain Community Action has been around for over 50 years, with the War on Poverty starting in 1963 when President Kennedy asked his economic advisors to address the poverty situation in the United States. After President Kennedy was assassinated President Johnson took up the challenge to defeat poverty in the US. He signed the Economic Opportunity Act in August of 1964 which created a nationwide Community Action Network.

Newcap’s mission is to move people from poverty to opportunities and economic security and improve communities. With almost 30 programs that are designed to help those in need, Newcap should be uppermost in people’s minds when the need arises. But, we’re not. So how can we change that?

Newcap understands the necessity to reach out to the public and educate them on what we offer. We’ve started to create relationships with the media encouraging them to do stories on our programs and what we do.

We have also reached out to organizations offering to speak to their members at their meetings. Doing this accomplishes two things. It raises our visibility, and increases the opportunity for Newcap to be a recipient of support, both financial and in the way of volunteers from those organizations.

We recently hosted our first fundraiser, Auction For Action. Yes, we did raise some money, but more importantly, we raised awareness within the community. Many people at the event said to me, “WOW, I didn’t know you existed. I didn’t know there was this type of help available for people in need.”

An excellent example of why Newcap needs to continue to work hard to educate the community on what we do, and why we do it.

Newcap, advocating, believing, achieving.”

-Deb Barlament, Vice President of Operations at Newcap, Inc.