Bill Would Help Fund Anti-Poverty Efforts In Bucks County

Dr. Amy Moyer would not be as successful as she is today if it weren’t for the help of the Bucks County Opportunity Council (BCOC.)

Moyer, a Quakertown resident, worked for two years with the BCOC to learn how to get her finances in order, finish her schooling and get into teaching. Fifteen years later, she is now an English as a second language coordinator for a New Jersey college and is living a comfortable life.

Moyer said without the programs offered by the BCOC she would have been stuck working multiple part-time jobs that left her little time to try to get a degree, let alone a doctorate. Moyer said she found herself in less than ideal circumstances after an abusive marriage.

“They helped me with my tax returns, tax help, financial management, and really getting a hand up and not a hand out,” she said.

The BCOC, according to their website, helps “low-income residents of Bucks County remove obstacles and solve problems that block their path to economic self-sufficiency.”  Aside from some private funding, the nonprofit with offices in Bristol Borough, Doylestown Borough and Quakertown is mostly funded by a Community Service Block Grant (CSBG.)

Republican Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-8) announced last week his backing of the Community Economic Opportunity Act (HR 1655). The legislation would reauthorize the Community Service Block Grant program that helps funds organizations like the BCOC. Fitzpatrick’s spokesperson, Aaron Clark, said the CSBG has not been reauthorized by congress since 1998 and is stuck at 2003 funding levels with its future not cemented.

The bill would reauthorize the CSBG program until 2018 and lock funding in at $850 million.

The congressman said programs funded by the grant serve 1,000 nonprofit community action agencies that help people get out of poverty. He said the bill is a “step in the right direction when it comes to refocusing our antipoverty efforts in these communities that need it the most, and getting support to the local leaders who know how best too put those funds to work.”

Currently, the bill has about 40 bipartisan cosponsors with Fitzpatrick working to get even more on board. The congressman noted, “by Washington standards, that’s a lot of sponsors.”

BCOC Executive Director Erin Lukoss said, “CSBG funding is fundamental to our work and allows for creative, innovative solutions to alleviate poverty at the local level.”

Fitzpatrick and Lukoss both mentioned that people who take part in BCOC programs are working to get to self-sufficiency. Fitzpatrick has worked over the past several terms to push legislation that would help people gain skills and education that would keep them out of poverty.

BCOC representatives proudly told reporters last week that over 275 people who have taken part in their programs have left poverty over the past 20 years. Without funding from the CSBG grant, the BCOC would likely not be able to continue to help residents of the county.