BETHLEHEM, Pa. — They arrive at the Sixth Street Shelter in Allentown with few belongings and a suitcase full of worry.
Single folks long in the face and short on luck, single parents hoping good news is around the corner, families whose existence hangs by a fraying thread ready to snap.
Across the desk, Lizette Soto listens and nods. The shelter’s counseling and intake specialist listens intently or two as the clients’ desperation rages like an angry river. Hope, the needy have been beaten down to believe, has abandoned them.
Soto reassures them that help is here with temporary private apartment housing, food and educational/vocational training as they work towards self-sufficiency for themselves and their children.
The clients nod as Soto’s words breathe life back into their own.
Soto nods — because she knows.
Soto shared her own story of sadness and celebration prior to the Bethlehem-based Community Action Lehigh Valley 60th anniversary annual meeting at Wind Creek Event Center on Wednesday.
At Community Action, the programs are deeply interconnected and integral to building a stronger, more cohesive community.
The organization's areas of impact include advocacy, business start-up and development, food access and nutrition, housing, neighborhood revitalization and youth programs.
Soto needed every one of them.
“I know the desperation. I know what it’s like to need someone’s help. That’s why we’re here.”Lizette Soto
Wanting her three young children not to grow up around the slums, drugs and gangs of Ponce, Puerto Rico, she arrived in Newark, N.J. in June 1998 expecting to be met by friends who would help her assimilate in their new home.
“But they never showed up,” Soto said. “I didn’t know what to do. We spent three days sleeping in a park. I cried.”
Soto was moments away from returning to Puerto Rico when she encountered a friend who directed her to another friend in Allentown who could help her find assistance.
A week later, she walked into the Sixth Street Shelter, a program of the Community Action Lehigh Valley.
There, Soto found non-judgmental folks who helped her with housing, furniture, and evaluation services for her 8-year-old, intellectually challenged son, and helped her find a class to learn English — everything she needed to help her become the self-sustaining woman she is today.
"I don't know where I'd be today without Community Action," Soto said.
And now, she sits across a desk from those who were just like her and returns that help.
“I know how they feel,” Soto said. “I know the desperation. I know what it’s like to need someone’s help. That’s why we’re here.”
For the past six decades.
“Over that time, Community Action agencies have provided services to level the playing field for many in poverty,” said Dawn Godshall, executive director Community Action Lehigh Valley, during the luncheon.
“Community Action believes poverty can be eradicated through policies and measures.
“Lizette’s story is an example of what we can do to help those in need.”
“For us, unity is more like a dance. We work together for common pursuit."Lou Cinquino
The event consisted of speakers representing various CALV partners, such as Allentown Collaboration, Slate Belt Collaboration and Bethlehem Collaboration.
Lou Cinquino, outgoing CALV board president, noted the varied definitions of unity as they pertain to helping those less fortunate in the region.
“Unity is not hard to come by,” he said. “Just look around this room. Unity doesn’t mean identical or uniform or how one side forces their view on another; that’s oppression.
“For us, unity is more like a dance. We work together for common pursuit. Unity is a warehouse full of food to feed six counties. Unity is helping a family stay together as they prepare for their next chapter.
“Unity is collaboration between private and public donors and supporters that helps all of us benefit directly or indirectly, to take care of ourselves.”
Dan Bosket, director of Community Action Development Allentown, introduced Allentown Police Sgt. John Leonard, who shared the PAL program that helps bridge the gap between law enforcement and communities by hosting outdoor activities and field trips for children.
Sandee Kennedy, business services relationship manager of Fidelity Bank and a Slate Belt Rising advisory board member, shared how funding nature trails and the painting of murals has transformed Slate Belt communities.
Anna Smith, director of Community Action Development Bethlehem, shared how partnering with existing land owners in Bethlehem to build affordable housing can help stem the crisis.
“The first subsidized unit will be breaking ground in the next few months,” Smith said. “And others are planned because the most devastating impacts of housing fall on our low-income neighbors.”
Andy Po, owner of Homebase610 Skateshop on Fourth Street in Bethlehem, shared how outreach he received from the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation helped build a skateboarding plaza.
For the past 10 years, including the past three as executive director, Godshall has seen the fruits of the good work of the Community Action Lehigh Valley.
Fighting for people who don’t have a voice in the decisions affecting their lives. Helping them build wealth. Helping them escape poverty. Leading 13 programs that help people buy their first homes. Celebrating like the Rising Tide Loan Program that helps folks start a business or expand an existing one. Partnering with Second Harvest Food Bank to distribute more than 15 million pounds of food last year.
“We’re an anti-poverty organization that does all it can to help people who really need help,” Godshall said.
Godshall is asked, when she lays her head on a pillow at night after knowing folks in need were helped that day, what that feeling is like for her.
“I initially started out my career as a producer at ABC Television in Philadelphia,” she said. “At night after work, I would lay my head down and think about the fires and murders and so many tragic things we covered.
“Now, once in a while, there were good stories that we would tell, but most of the news was bad news.
“So, making this transition to do what I do now makes me feel wonderful about how we're helping people and the difference that we're making in people's lives. We are making a difference.”
They are.
A single mother of three now helping others can attest to that.
