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MYCAP whittles through 44 applicants for chief of community-services agency
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MYCAP Interim Director John Wilson
YOUNGSTOWN
A new chief executive for the Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership could be in place by mid-February.
A national search produced 44 applications, the number of which will be narrowed to about 10 via electronic interviews. About five finalists will be interviewed in person early in February, said John Wilson, MYCAP interim director.
Wilson is president of Progress Resources Inc., which the MYCAP board hired in November for three months for $230,000.
The dual task of the team from Progress Resources, a nonprofit training and technical-assistance organization that provides consulting services to community-action agencies nationwide, was to overhaul MYCAP’s policies and procedures and to direct a search for a new executive director.
MYCAP administers 11 programs in Mahoning County to help poor and disadvantaged people. Its budget in 2008 was about $15.6 million, virtually all of which came from state and federal grants.
Wilson said the search for a new director was national, regional and local.
“We are not biased against local candidates. But, we are looking for someone with a fresh perspective, someone who will look for every opportunity to help low-income people, not themselves,” Wilson said.
The Progress Resources team will make a recommendation on a new director to the MYCAP board of trustees, who will make the final hiring decision.
The previous MYCAP director, Richard Roller III, was placed on unpaid administrative leave in April 2010 and then fired in May in the wake of ODOD’s investigation into whether the organization misappropriated funds and resources while he was its leader.
According to MYCAP’s 2008 IRS filing, Roller that year was paid wages of $102,077 and other compensation of $26,834, for a total of $128,911.
In the meantime, the recruiting process has begun for a new position, director of the Center for Family Economic Success.
That is a pivotal position on the agency’s service side to carry forward the focus of the new plan being developed for MYCAP, which is to look at what keeps people from moving out of poverty, Wilson said.
Part of the new emphasis will be connecting with the community and other agencies to work together toward that goal, he said.
Ninety-nine percent of people want out of poverty, WIlson said. MYCAP’s role is to help low-income people connect with resources and support and help them maintain their motivation as they avail themselves of those resources, Wilson added.
“We want MYCAP leaders to meet with other community and nonprofit leaders to coordinate and avoid duplication of services, and to set the future agenda to address poverty in the area, which is clearly MYCAP’s mission.
“The plan is just a starting place. It is dynamic and will be expanded and defined as needed,” he added.