IMPACT Community Action is excited to announce the 2018 Ripple of Hope Awards Gala: "A Decade of IMPACT." This year, IMPACT is celebrating 10 years of success serving our community, and we want you to be a part of it!

Robert “Bo” Chilton, IMPACT Community Action’s Chief Executive Officer is interviewed by the Columbus & Dayton African American News Journal.

Never mind the curled hair and long eyelashes, the makeup and painted fingernails. Amy Reynolds, her mentors say, has a heckuva future in the construction trades.

“I’m a hard worker,” the 32-year-old said. “And I’m really grateful I got the chance to prove it.”

From early evening until well after midnight, Diane Hudson scrubs and vacuums away the dirt, dust and mess of a school day. She never doubts the importance of her work. All parents want clean classrooms, hallways and bathrooms for their children.

The job doesn’t seem any easier than the manufacturing position she had years ago, especially now that her knees throb and ache from arthritis. By another measure, there’s no comparison.

Fawn was a drug addict and 12-time convicted felon when she turned to IMPACT Community Action in Columbus. "I was homeless and felt helpless in Cleveland, Ohio. I literally lived on the street with my addiction.

My face was plastered as a most wanted fugitive in Cleveland, explained Fawn. "Drug and alcohol abuse became my life and my arrest actually saved my life.·