Indiana Community Action Association

💪🏽 Community Action serves rural Indiana in so many ways.

📚 Today, we are learning and sharing at IU Center for Rural Engagement’s conference

Pictured:
➡️ lashanna Wooten, Jessica Yeary, and Eddy Riou (South Central Community Action Program)
➡️ Tammy DeWitt and Justin Collins (TRI-CAP)
➡️ Stormy Fiscel and Chuck LaDow (Area Five Agency on Aging & Community Services Inc.)

Katie Barrett from CoAction.Care presented at the IU Center for Rural Engagement’s May 2026 conference on the Produce for Better Health program, which provides fresh farm goods to rural county seniors.

She’s celebrating here with Chuck LaDow, Executive Director of Area Five Agency on Aging & Community Services Inc. and the IN Community Action Association Board Chair.

While at the statehouse today we ran into Erin from the Indiana Community Action Association. We talked diapers and how to get even more diapers out to the one in two families in Indiana through our partner CoAction WIC in Northwestern Indiana. Together we can do more!

Indiana Community Action Agencies are transforming lives in their communities through their remarkable work, and we recognized their tireless endeavors on December 10th.

Looking forward to hosting Indiana CAAs at our year-end celebration and recognizing them for all the dedicated work they continue to do in their communities.

“I really believe wholeheartedly (that) CSBG is such a good investment in the whole infrastructure of the United States in the war on poverty, because we get a lot of people off of poverty,” LaDow said. “We have a lot of people who (become) independent. That’s our goal. We don’t want them to stay (impoverished). We want to get them to the level playing field and then be OK.”

Read more about the foundations of Community Action - and what might happen if CSBG funding is eliminated - from The Indiana Citizen.

‘DOMINO EFFECT’: Anti-poverty agencies fear losing CSBG funds vital to vulnerable Hoosiers - THE INDIANA CITIZEN By Marilyn Odendahl The Indiana Citizen November 13, 2025 At just 2.29% of CoAction’s $35 million annual budget, the money from the Community Services Block Grant program is truly a drop in the bucket. However, the roughly $800,000 that comes from the CSBG to the Crown Point-based nonprofit funds ...

"Area Five Agency on Aging & Community Services Inc.’s work to create a structure in which volunteers can engage with time and talent is a critical need for communities across NIPSCO’s service territory,” Karen McLean, NIPSCO’s public affairs manager wrote in a press release.

And timely, given the realities in Washington D.C.

“If [federal] monies are stopped, you’re taking nutritious, important food sources for kids and removing it,” LaDow said, later adding “We’re hoping that Washington recognizes that this is more than just political leverage.”

A list of volunteer opportunities along with their role descriptions can be found online at areafive.com/about/volunteer/.

https://www.pharostribune.com/news/article_cc2857c2-2d08-4d04-9345-6754ebe6044c.html

Grant helps local nonprofit draw volunteers amid budget restrictions As government funding tightens, a local nonprofit is trying to expand its efforts.

In anticipation of issues with SNAP funding, please share these statewide resources.