Capital Resource steps out as anti-poverty successor

from The Charleston Gazette

By Alison Knezevich
Staff writer

The regional anti-poverty group Capital Resource Agency Inc. is ready to finally come out of the shadows of Multi-CAP, the bankrupt agency it replaced.

Last week, the state Office of Economic Opportunity designated CRA one of the state’s 16 community action agencies, said CRA director Oren Thornhill.

Now, CRA will qualify for federal funding distributed by the state to provide social services to low-income people. In January, the organization will get an $800,000 federal block grant to serve people in Kanawha, Fayette, Clay, Boone and Putnam counties, Thornhill said.

In coming months, the agency hopes to get its name out and serve more people, Thornhill said: “We need to get out into the hollows.”

Multi-CAP shut down in 2006, five years after declaring bankruptcy. Its former director, Paul Skaff, went to jail after pleading guilty to spending federal money on strippers and a trip to the Kentucky Derby, among other things.

In January, CRA opened as an interim agency to provide the services that Multi-CAP had provided. Even though CRA is a separate entity from Multi-CAP, its staff has struggled to distance itself from the old agency, Thornhill said.

“For the first three or four months, it was very difficult to come out of that cloud,” he said.

Since January, the staff has worked on restoring broken relationships with contractors, he said. The agency now has a new board of directors and a new 501© 3 designation.

The staff also relocated from Multi-CAP’s old office location on Bigley Avenue to Kanawha Boulevard, he said.

Ten of CRA’s 14 employees used to work at Multi-CAP, he said.

“Employees were not the problem,” Thornhill said. “Management was the problem.”

CRA administrators want to focus on helping people become self-sufficient, he said.

The group will continue emergency services, such as helping people pay utility bills, “but our emphasis is going to be to get those people out of the situation that requires that help,” Thornhill said.

For example, the agency has started a budget-counseling program to teach people how to stretch their dollars.

CRA also is waiting for approval to participate in the Medicaid waiver program, which helps people get medical care at home.

Another priority is keeping CRA’s books pristine. Thornhill is a retired auditor who worked in the state’s Office of Economic Opportunity.

“That fact is why it’s so important that we have absolutely faultless accounting and accountability,” he said.

At one time, Multi-CAP was the largest community action agency in the state, said Arley Johnson, director of programs for the state Office of Economic Opportunity. It once had a budget of $14 million.

CRA’s new independence should help it get “out of the shadows” of the bankrupt agency’s name, Johnson said.

“You hope that the new brand of Capital Resource Agency thrives and flourishes,” he said.

To contact staff writer Alison Knezevich, use e-mail or call 348-1240.