Lorton Community Action Center

Strategic Plan

FY 2025

Overview

This plan outlines LCAC’s strategic priorities for July 2024-June 2025.  It comes after extensive conversations and surveys last fall with a broad perspective of LCAC stakeholders, including dozens of volunteers, donors, community partners, all staff and board members, and, perhaps most importantly, 32 in-person interviews with LCAC clients.  LCAC’s staff and board developed the strategic priorities as a first step and we will be evaluating as we learn what is most effective and as the client community’s needs evolve.

This plan includes three strategic priorities:

1) Create a more robust, healthier pantry that allows clients to receive more resources and information for their families, including from partner agencies.

2) Serve more clients while also developing a stronger, more in-depth case management program to help clients achieve self-sufficiency.

3) Increase programming to address client needs for workforce development and education for children and seniors, including empowerment and self-sufficiency training and workshops, budgeting, mentoring, and other areas as needs emerge.

1. Create a more robust, healthier pantry where clients can also receive more resources and information for their families, including from partner agencies.

Pantry Enhancements:
• Develop a health-related section that includes health resources and information for clients through our All Can Be Healthy (ACBH) initiative, which includes prenatal vitamins, COVID tests, hygiene products, and more.

• Create pantry sections devoted to medically tailored foods and more culturally appropriate foods. This includes a Halal food section and a section targeting individuals with diabetes.

• Continue labeling all major food items with red-yellow-green to indicate their nutritional value and to provide healthy recipes to accompany food offered at each distribution.

• Strengthen partner engagement at food distributions whereby outside agencies will be present at our pantry. We will develop a calendar for clients to learn what community partners will be at the pantry each week, as it becomes a place where clients can receive information and resources to achieve better health.

• Continue our expanded grocery partnerships – and maintain positive working relationships with current partners – to ensure ample food for the growing number of clients and ensure the food budget allows us to provide fresh, healthy food.

2. Serve more clients while developing a stronger, more in-depth case management program to help clients achieve self-sufficiency.

• Increase outreach to prospective clients including at Ft. Belvoir, schools, faith communities, and neighborhoods of high need.

• Grow our Vehicle Repair Assistance Program (VRAP) program and build it into our Sustainability programming, to provide emergency rental, utility, and vehicle repair financial assistance to clients. This will help bolster our resources for basic needs that will allow clients to move toward self-sufficiency.

• Continue our All Can Be Healthy (ACBH) initiative that will address clients’ most pressing health needs and assist clients in navigating health challenges.

• Develop more robust relationships with health-focused partners.

• Enhance opportunities for addressing mental health, including group workshops and hosting counselors on-site or remotely.

• Engage in more in-depth and regular client interviews to better understand the challenges of families and create case management plans to help them become more stable and achieve self-sufficiency.

• Assess the needs of homebound clients and help get them resources they require.

• Refer clients to internal or external programming and resource opportunities, as appropriate. Use this information to identify gaps where new programming should be developed.

3. Increase programming to address client needs for workforce development, educational skills, children and senior programming, mentoring, and other areas as they emerge.

• Increase workforce development opportunities for clients to help them become more employable.

• Assist clients in finding employment opportunities through hosting job fairs and developing mentoring and apprenticeship programs. Explore opportunities to enhance the trade skills of clients including partnerships with unions, businesses, and school liaisons.

• Develop more programming for kids during the summer.

• Enrich programming for the growing number of senior clients.

• Increase digital and technology proficiency of clients.

• Expand educational workshops for clients on an ongoing basis, including ESL, computer classes, and more.