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Welcome Mission Statement
LEADS Community Action Agency is a private non-profit corporation which seeks to identify and remove the causes of poverty and provide direct assistance to alleviate the effects of poverty to result in greater self-sufficiency among low-income citizens of our area.
History of LEADS
An outgrowth of President Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” LEADS was formed in 1965 after discussions by the Licking County United Appeal Board (now United Way ) and other community leaders. The founders set out to obtain a grant for community action programs in an initiative called the Licking Economic Action Development Study (LEADS). A board of trustees was elected to represent the business sector, private groups, elected officials and residents of the neighborhoods to be served. In June 1966, LEADS was incorporated as a private, not-for-profit organization.
An initial study of poverty in Licking County revealed many acute problems. To address them, the LEADS board targeted four areas—parts of the east and south sides of Newark, Buckeye lake and Lima Township. In the first five years, LEADS set up neighborhood outreach centers in the targeted areas and established programs, supervised playground activities and a day-care center for children.
Since its inception LEADS has developed its programs and services around the needs of low-income people in the community. It is no different today. LEADS is constantly monitoring the needs of the people it serves. As society changes, the agencies programs change. In recent years, LEADS has focused on working with other organizations and agencies in the community to make sure that all the needs of an individual or family are met. Much like a physician, once one ailment is healed, another one often crops up to complicate matters. The issue of poverty is very complicated; its doors are often heavy and closed tightly. To open the doors of poverty takes dedicated, caring people working together to provide hope and strength.
Utilizing various services and programs through the Head Start Division, the Housing Division, the Community Services Division and the Neighborhood Service Centers, LEADS is reaching nearly 5,000 people each year. LEADS programs are effective in responding to the needs of income eligible people and assisting them to realize their full potential and open their own doors to the opportunities that lie ahead.
On February 18, 1999, the LEADS Board of Trustees officially changed the Licking Economic Action Development Study to LEADS. This action was taken because almost all of the community and funding sources knew the agency as LEADS.
LEADS coordinates our programs with other agencies in our community in order to provide the highest quality of service to the largest number of customers. This collaboration effort also provides customers with a blank of care that enables them to receive a variety of services from several different agencies. This blank of care enables our customers to permanently blank out of the cycle of poverty that they may have experienced for many years.
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