The Erie-Huron Counties Community Action Commission, Inc. (EHCAC) was established under the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 when President Johnson launched the "War on Poverty." In Erie County, the Sandusky chapter of the NAACP began the process of developing this program.

 

Members of the NAACP and the Human Relations Committee proposed to the Sandusky City Commissioners that the City sponsor the agency. The City Commission felt that the amount of poverty in the city was too small to warrant such a program. The proposal was then taken to the Erie County Commissioners. The County Commissioners accepted the sponsorship.

 

After the NAACP conducted the required community assessment, an application was sent to Washington,

D.C. The response from Washington was that Erie County was too small a service area and we would need to work with another county in order to receive funds. The only other county at the time not participating in the program was Huron County. After conducting a community assessment, Huron County Commissioners also agreed to sponsor the program. After submitting a joint application, the two-county agency was formed.

 

A series of meetings were held in Sandusky and Norwalk to form the corporation along with rules and regulations for the program. The late Mr. R. B. Oglesby performed all the legal work at no charge.  The EHCAC was actually incorporated in 1965 to coordinate the methods by which the economically disadvantaged residents of Erie and Huron Counties could be removed from poverty. The Erie County Commissioners provided space on the first floor of the Erie County Courthouse for the first office. They also provided start-up funds.

 

In 2010 EHCAC expanded its service area into Richland County and on January 1, 2012, the agency officially changed its name to Community Action Commission of Erie, Huron & Richland Counties, Inc.

 

The first Board Chairperson was the late Mrs. Carolyn Ford from Huron County. The first Executive Director was the late Reverend Calvin K. Stalnaker of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Mrs. Beverly Hairston and Mrs. Fanchon Finney were the first employees, operating from a budget of $30,000.

 

The first notable grassroots effort was cleaning up Searsville. At that time, building codes and permits were not needed in that area of Perkins Township. Housing shortages and housing discrimination led many minority families to Searsville. In that area, housing could be built quickly, but much of it had no access to sewers or running water and there was only one exit from that area. After some effort, EHCAC convinced the Erie County Commissioners to install the outlet known as King Drive.

 

EHCAC/CACEHR has had eight Executive Directors during its fifty-five years of existence, including: Calvin K. Stalnaker, Emerson Cole, Grover Banks, Wally Reese, William Lewis, Mary Rather, Theodore Huston, and our current President/CEO, Janice W. Warner.

 

A private, non-profit corporation, CACEHR is governed by a voluntary Board of Trustees. The Board consists of eighteen members from Erie, Huron & Richland Counties. Its membership is equally divided among the public, private, and clientele sectors of the community.