What’s in a Name?
For the last year and a half our organization has undergone a transformation – not of who we are or what we do – but what we wanted our community to know we are. For over 50 years Washington County Economic Opportunity Council, Inc. has been the Community Action Agency program for Washington County.
Organized through President Johnson’s War on Poverty – we have provided traditional Federal and State programs to combat poverty for individuals and the communities in the county.
The path toward our new brand began in a graduate fellowship program at UCLA. Traci Ross, our Director of Head Start/ Early Head Start Programs, was asked to outline a project to identify barriers to the success of our Head Start program and develop a work plan to address those barriers. That capstone project came back to our Board and management staff and became part of our Strategic Plan.
Our Boards willingness to invest in a Partnership with Trampoline Design to develop a new name and logo to better represent our agency for our staff and the community began in the winter of 2017. A series of group conversations with staff, board, volunteers and community partners identified that people didn’t now what this larger organization did, what it stood for, or how the programs that they knew about – Head Start, Transportation, and Weatherization – were part of this agency.
We had an identity problem. After 50 years one could call it a mid-life crisis!
What we are celebrating today is this transformation – the visual representation of our mission, our purpose and our values as a Community Action Agency and a service provider dedicated to improving the lives of the individuals and communities that we serve.
What’s in a name?
LEAP is 130 compassionate and dedicated employees, over 100 volunteers in our programs and on our Board of Directors, our community partners and most importantly, our Customers.
We are Learning.
We are Education.
We are Assistance.
We are Partnership!
