Northeast Kingdom Community Action is a 501 non-profitcommunity agency, founded in 1964 to address the needs of disadvantaged residents in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom and primarily funded by government grants.
Northeast Kingdom Community Action administers a Head Start program. and a number of programs aimed at Vermonters with low incomes. Northeast Kingdom Community Action maintains several services for youths: transition services from foster care and for the homeless; program for runaways; court diversion for non-violent crimes; VermontYouth Development Corps/Americorps; Juvenile restorative program ensuring youths responsible make restitution as required; street checkers on probabationers; street outreach; and Teen Center. They serve about 6,000 families annually. The agency advises micro-businesses in the process of starting up. An outreach department assists residents with low incomes to receive needed help through referrals, advocacy, and case management. Northeast Kingdom Community Action provides 24-hour support to victims and survivors of domestic and sexual violence and abuse. Northeast Kingdom Community Action provides workforce training and development to people with significant barriers to employment. Northeast Kingdom Community Action formerly facilitated visits between non-custodial parents and their children. A Community Coordinating Council helps coordinate efforts to aid the poor with Northeast Kingdom Community Action, the Northeast Kingdom Mental Health, Northeast Kingdom Mental Health, Parent Child Centers, Youth Services, The Youth Wellness Center, Northern Counties Health Care, Umbrella, Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital, Adult Basic Education, Area Agency on Aging and other social agencies. In 2018, the Northern Counties Health Care offered dental care to 1700 needy patients. It was funded by the federal government. Northeast Kingdom Community Action increases public awareness of the concerns of the homeless. Two radio stations, WMOO and WIKE, hold a three-day, 24-hour, on-air fundraiser to benefit Northeast Kingdom Community Action. Since that time, however, the ownership of these radio stations has changed. In 2008, Northeast Kingdom Community Action tried to convert a building to a transitional shelter for parolees in Newport. In the winter of 2003–2014, Northeast Kingdom Community Action provided fuel assistance to 461 applicants, and denied 206 because they did not meet income criteria.
History
The organization was originally named Orleans County Council of Social Agencies, founded as a Community Action Program in 1965 as part of the War on Poverty. It was headquartered at the Old Customs building on Main Street in Newport. OCCSA founded a spectrum of agencies which still exist: Rural Community Transportation, Northern Communities Investment Corporation, and Gillman Housing, among others. The original executive director of OCCSA had political difficulties with the then-governor of Vermont, Richard Snelling, who had been born out-of-state, in Pennsylvania. When talking to a newspaper reporter, OCCSA's executive director called the governor a "porky ". OCCSA was subsequently dismantled and the director moved to a western state. Northeast Kingdom Community Action was established in 1980 as a successor to OCCSA. When NEKCA attempted to rezone a St. Johnsbury building for transitional housing for parolees, neighbors objected, as did the local newspaper. Attempting to reverse the rezoning, 13 litigants took Northeast Kingdom Community Action to Environmental Court in 2007. The litigants' petition was denied in 2009. When they discovered that Newport police were recording conversations between Northeast Kingdom Community Action's victim advocates and victims, four advocates resigned, two dismissed, for going public with the information.
