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By JOEL ELLIOTT
Staff Writer 12/24/2007

After having served as executive director of the Kennebec Valley Community Action Plan, or KVCAP, as it is widely known, for more than four decades, Richard will step down into an advisory role. The transition will take place within the next two months, he said.

Shortly after Johnson signed the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 to eliminate poverty in the nation, Richard started the Kennebec Valley chapter with himself as the sole employee and a $19,000 annual budget.

"I literally washed the walls and floors, and then went out rummaging for a desk," he said of the organization's first office, located off Main Street. "When you think about it, if you are interested in creating opportunities, this was a natural way to do it."

The organization he leaves has changed almost as much as the surrounding communities it serves.

KVCAP now employs 250 people and operates on a $20 million budget. Programs include assistance with family planning, home ownership, repair services, heating assistance, transportation and a teen center.

"(Richard's guidance) has been outstanding," KVCAP Board of Directors Chairwoman Natalie Morse said. "As a board, we really feel that he's provided great leadership to the organization, and we're pleased with the services and programs that are offered by the agency."

During Richard's tenure, he has seen Waterville descend from being a thriving mill city to an economically-depressed town with abandoned factory buildings easier to find than jobs. Richard described Waterville, at the time of KVCAP's inception, as being a bustling community with an expanding economy and an active political scene.

"You wouldn't believe what city hall was like back in the 60's," Richard said. "City hall would be full of 200, 300 people. Waterville had a bicameral form of government ... so dynamic then."

One by one, however, the mills began to close, with devastating effects.

"All of a sudden, you had people who had been working six or seven days a week with pretty good salaries with summer homes and boats," Richard said. "Then those jobs went away."

Richard said the loss of the mills forced a wedge between the higher and lower ends of the wage scale.

"In 1978, Waterville High School had 1,450 kids," he said. "Last year, they had 600. What has happened is the middle class has left town."

Having accepted the role as a helper of the poor at a time when their numbers were relatively small, Richard brainstormed ways to continue serving the community as the ranks of the hungry and impoverished swelled. Jobs disappeared and wages fell, even as the cost of living continued to climb. Some of his ideas worked well; some of them did not.

"Oh, God," he said, laughing. "We started co-op garages. Now, you laugh, but you never know. And we thought that if we had a place where people could come in and tinker on their cars, they'd be more likely to make it to work. And it didn't work at all."

As it turned out, the people who had broken-down cars and did not have the resources to pay a mechanic often did not have the expertise to fix their own vehicles.

With all of the programs, funding and years of labor, is the "war on poverty" being won?

"Obviously, if it were working well, we wouldn't be in the condition that we're in. There are some parts of it that are working," he said, pointing to programs such as Healthy Families, which, through a partnership with MaineGeneral, provides support to thousands of new parents each year. Another successful program, Head Start, provides care and education to children ages 3-5, and Early Head Start provides a similar service to children 6 weeks to 3 years old. Children entering school from these programs show a 97 percent readiness, he said.

But he paints a grim picture of the future as KVCAP searches for a candidate for the executive director's spot.

Fuel costs are rising, along with the number of people who cannot afford to heat their homes, Richard said.

"It's scary. It's really scary," he said. "I don't remember a time where I felt it was as bleak as it is."

The only way to combat the problem in the future is to allow poverty to transcend politics, from city hall to Washington, D.C., he said. To this end, KVCAP must continue to focus on building partnerships between itself and existing organizations and businesses within the various communities, he said. The organization has done this with various programs, such as preschool being tied in with public schools and housing programs tied to municipal governments.

Cooperating in this manner is important "because you are communicating within the community, and you are having an impact on the institutions that are having an impact on peoples' lives," Richard said.

Joel Elliott -- 861-9252

jelliott@centralmaine.com

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