[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 16157]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




   TRIBUTE TO THE KENTUCKY COMMUNITIES ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY COUNCIL 
                  (KCEOC) COMMUNITY ACTION PARTNERSHIP

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to the 
Kentucky Communities Economic Opportunity Council, KCEOC, Community 
Action Partnership--an organization that for the past 50 years has been 
dedicated to the cause of destroying the roots of poverty in 
Southeastern Kentucky.
  KCEOC was one of the first community action agency organizations in 
the country to be established to target the causes of poverty on the 
State and local level. Founded in 1964, it can now celebrate five 
decades serving its community.
  Based out of Knox County, KY, KCEOC helps over 7,000 Kentuckians 
achieve financial stability every year through a number of antipoverty 
programs. This includes Head Start and Early Head Start, programs that 
aim to build children's educational foundation from an early age. KCEOC 
is also involved in job training and career planning, providing 
affordable housing, and food and clothing drives.
  The KCEOC Community Action Partnership recognizes that a ``hand up'' 
is more effective than a ``hand out.'' They are dedicated to providing 
Kentuckians mired in poverty with the means and assistance necessary to 
break the chain of poverty that has afflicted too many Southeastern 
Kentuckians for generations.
  Although there are many more programs instituted by KCEOC that cover 
a diverse range of problems--including an IRS Volunteer Income Tax 
Assistance Program, a Summer Food Service Program, and a KCEOC Aquatic 
Club--at their core they are all designed to impact the people of the 
community in a positive way. This is an objective that the organization 
continues to achieve, year after year.
  When one Kentuckian who benefitted from KCEOC's services was asked 
what mattered to him the most, he replied:

       Getting my education. I had never planned on getting my GED 
     or going to college. [The staff at KCEOC] really pushed me 
     and encouraged me.

  I especially want to thank the leadership of KCEOC, including its 
president/CEO, Mr. Paul D. Dole, who was honored in 2013 as one of the 
region's top entrepreneurs in Southern and Eastern Kentucky at the 2013 
Excellence in Entrepreneurship event, hosted by the Center for Rural 
Development in Somerset.
  For their 50 years of serving the community of Southeastern Kentucky, 
I ask that my Senate colleagues join me in honoring KCEOC. May their 
next 50 years be as beneficial to the Commonwealth of Kentucky as their 
first.

                          ____________________