A Passion for Community Action

Accounting professionals are often stereotyped as number crunching automatons, working a rigid schedule and producing cold, factual analyses that represent the financial condition of a business or organization. Of course, those in the profession also know it as a vibrant people-centric role that helps many small business owning families thrive. But accounting can also be an altruistic endeavor.

By many measures, Connecticut is a wealthy state, with the 6^th highest household median income. But it continues to experience one of the greatest income disparities in the nation. The state’s most densely-populated area, near the New York metro area, gradually fades into more rural and agricultural regions as you move east and north. These areas have not shared in recent economic upturns, instead seeing once vibrant mill towns and industrial centers languish in high unemployment, even as new residents move in from other regions.

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As the finance director for the Access Community Action Agency (www.accessagency.org), and a lifelong Connecticuter, Parker Stevens has seen how many of his neighbors in and around the city of Willimantic are in need of assistance. Serving Windham and Tolland Counties, the nonprofit helps provide families and at-risk youth and senior citizens with access to nutritious food, housing, down payment assistance, home heating aid, childcare, job training and personal finance training, giving them resources to move them toward greater self-reliance. The agency also provides accounting services to other area nonprofits.