‘I love our ability to be nimble and respond to community needs,’ says Betsy Andrews Parker, CEO of the Community Action Partnership of Strafford Country. ‘We have a great team and board that works to be socially entrepreneurial to cut through red tape and bureaucracy.’ (Courtesy photo)
According to U.S. Census figures from 2022, Strafford County ranks as the fourth wealthiest county in New Hampshire with per capita ($44,396) and median ($83,119) household incomes in the 90th percentile compared to the rest of the state and higher than the country at large.
The census figures also estimated that 9% of the county’s population lived in poverty, which is 20% higher than the statewide average of around 7.2% but lower than the national average of 12.6%. An estimated 30% of households in Strafford County have an income below $50,000.
Betsey Andrews Parker, the CEO of social service agency Community Action Partnership of Strafford County (CAPSC), knows the numbers can be deceiving and has seen the war on poverty up close and personal since she joined the organization in 2010.
She oversees the administration of 64 federal, state and local programs — with an average annual budget of around $22 million — help meet basic needs for housing, nutrition, child care, education and emergency assistance.
Andrews Parker told NH Business Review that “pervasive poverty still exists,” and it shows in the ever-increasing demand for CAPSC services.
Andrews Parker grew up in Concord and lives in Dover. She has worked in the social services sector her entire career after graduating first from the University of New Hampshire and then completing a master’s in public health degree from Boston University.
Q. As your organization approaches its 60th founding anniversary, what do you think the founders might say about CAPSC’s reach and importance today?
A. I think our founders would be surprised by our reach and the extent of social service help needed, but they couldn’t have understood how poverty would change. We are developing housing because actual shelters aren’t enough. They would be surprised how big we’ve become because we’ve had to morph due to need. I think they would be saddened to know pervasive poverty still exists, and to a great extent it’s hidden because a lot of it is still silent. So many don’t have an income or an adequate income or a safe place to live. We are part of the war on poverty as they were 60 years ago. We had hoped to bridge that gap between the poor and the middle class, but the gap has become further apart.
Q. How many organizations does CAPSC work with, and how many people and families do you help annually?
A. In Strafford County (last year) we served 19,000 people and about 8,000 households. The better question might be who doesn’t work with CAPSC. We are a full-service agency with 64 unique programs, and we have yet to truly find a municipality that doesn’t want to work with us, or whose residents don’t need the many federally funded services we provide.
Q. What is your annual budget?
A. Our annual budget is around $22 million. During COVID, it flexed to $44 million. Raising matching funds for grants is always a challenge, but our founders knew what they were doing from the beginning and built in an extensive auditing and monitoring system to help us handle federal funds.
Q. How many employees and volunteers does CAPSC have?
A. We have 147 full-time workers and an additional 200 volunteers, which include 20 teenagers and four college interns during the summertime. It’s always exciting to see the interns and young volunteers experience what it’s like to have direct client contact and to have an opportunity to see how these programs can impact public health, like I did as a college intern.
Q. What do you love most about the job, and what are your top frustrations?
A. I love our ability to be nimble and respond to community needs. We have been able to repurpose our mission and incorporate outside groups. We have a great team and board that works to be socially entrepreneurial to cut through red tape and bureaucracy.
The greatest frustration is securing long-term funding for necessary programs. This forces us to make choices between allocating resources for child nutrition, child care or housing programs. Based on census data, the amount of available federal funding is shrinking, making it harder to qualify for the amount of funding necessary to meet our real needs.
To learn more, visit straffordcap.org.
