Warren County Community Services, Inc. (WCCS) is a tale of success, born from President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. This federal legislation helped locally endorsed non-profits called Community Action Agencies (CAAs) incorporate across the country to combat the causes and conditions of poverty in their regions. In 1966, a small group of passionate, concerned citizens focused on anti-poverty work chartered our organization as Warren County Community Action, Inc. to support low-income families throughout the county.
What began as a modest effort quickly blossomed into an organization offering diverse services and programs for Warren County residents of all ages. As our anti-poverty work rapidly gained momentum the latter half of the 1960s and throughout the 1970s, the agency concentrated on creating essential programs and providing vital services, introducing initiatives such as Head Start, youth programs, community outreach, weatherization efforts, various transportation services, and programs for the elderly.
In 1975, the Economic Opportunity Act was reauthorized, but under President Ford, Congress changed the administration of the funds to Community Services Administration. The move affected Community Action grants in both minor and major ways. This was also a time of great change for WCCS, with one change in particular impacting us for many years to come. It was then in 1975 when WCCS agreed to become a delegate agency of the Dayton CAA for Community Services funding. Although it may not have felt so at the time, becoming a delegate of the Dayton CAA was a pivotal move as we began receiving a portion of their Community Services funding. The arrangement lasted for nearly 50 years- even through additional federal funding iterations for CAAs.
However, acting as a delegate agency to Warren County for the Dayton CAA did not stop WCCS from continuing to expand. Throughout the 1980s, we merged with other nonprofits, changing our name to Warren County Human Services Board and then to Warren County Community Services, Inc., eventually returning to our roots and dissolving all legal mergers with other entities by the mid-1990s.
In 1980, WCCS found its home at 570 N State Route 741where we operated for 41 years! In that time, WCCS grew to become one of the area’s largest providers of social services with Senior Nutrition (Meals On Wheels™), utilized Head Start funding to purchase and operate multiple Early Learning Centers across the county, constructed and began operations in a brand-new Early Learning Center in South Lebanon, became a provider for the Elderly Services Program, Senior Transportation, as well as other vital programs and initiatives to help low-income individuals and families in Warren County realize their full potential for a quality life.
In 2021, WCCS purchased and rehabilitated 645 Oak Street in Lebanon, where our administrative offices and several of our programs now reside. In 2022, WCCS ushered in a new CEO, Dawna Fogarty, who came to us after working in Community Action in both Kentucky and Missouri. It was at this point that Dawna identified the benefits of ending our delegate agency status and once again gaining WCCS’s designation as a CAA. One major benefit of getting that designation as Warren County’s CAA would mean we would receive CAA funding- the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) -directly once again. In December of 2022, Dawna began the somewhat formidable task of obtaining endorsements from at least two-thirds of Warren County’s municipalities, which is a requirement in the CSBG Act to become a Community Action Agency.
By October of 2023, WCCS had obtained endorsements from over two-thirds of our municipalities as they each unanimously voted to approve the endorsement of our efforts to be named Warren County’s Community Action Agency. In 2024, WCCS came full circle as our designation became official with a public hearing in January and the Director of Ohio’s Department of Development signing the designation letter in June.
Today, as Ohio’s 48th CAA and with direct funding from CSBG, we are forging new paths and partnerships, adding to our existing high-quality services and programming for low to moderate income households, continuing our mission, and offering a wide range of services and programs across various locations in Warren County. To discover the depth of WCCS’s impact, visit www.wccsi.org, and explore the “Programs & Services” section on our homepage. It’s clear that Warren County Community Services, Inc. has played a significant role in Warren County and will continue to do so for decades to come!
Warren County Community Services, Inc
This website is supported by Grant Number 05CH012649 from the Office of Head Start within the Administration for Children and Families, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Neither the Administration for Children and Families nor any of its components operate, control, are responsible for, or necessarily endorse this website (including, without limitation, its content, technical infrastructure, and policies, and any services or tools provided). The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed are those of Warren County Community Services, Inc. and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Administration for Children and Families and the Office of Head Start.