50 years ago President Lyndon Johnson declared a war against poverty in the United States, since then Community Services, Inc. has devoted its energy to fighting this war. Through programs such as Head Start, Low Income Heating Assistance, and Weatherization we have been providing people of need in Atchison, Gentry, Holt, Nodaway and Worth Counties hope that they may move forward and lift themselves out of the shackles of poverty towards a better life for themselves and their families.
Children are our future, the simple fact that 1 in 5 children in this country lives at or below the poverty level should shame us all. We all need to take on the responsibility whenever we have the opportunity to help when and where we can. In addition to donating to organizations such as Community Services, Inc. offer to volunteer, you may have a skill that could help a family get started working their way out of poverty. Perhaps you have budgeting skills, or work for an organization that has a mentoring program, you might be a member of an organization that could work with us in offering a training program, or simply offer to read to children at your local school or one of our Head Start facilities. It has been shown that reading to children at an early age improves a child's vocabulary giving that child more self esteem and confidence which translates into better academic performance as they get older and strong academic performance is one of the first stepping stones for children to rise above poverty as they become adults.