Celebrating a Community Action Giant: Janice W. Warner, on More Than 30 Years of Leadership, Service, Mentorship, and Heart

Widely known throughout the Community Action network as a mentor, leader, and champion for people, Janice W. Warner, President/CEO of Community Action Commission of Erie, Huron & Richland Counties, Inc. (CACEHR) in Sandusky, Ohio, is retiring with distinction after more than 30 years of dedicated service to Community Action.

Throughout her remarkable career, Janice has embodied the values of servant leadership, advocacy, collaboration, and compassion. Her impact extends far beyond the communities she has served professionally. She has helped shape leaders, strengthen partnerships, and remind the Community Action network of the importance of “meeting people where they are.”

Janice is a Certified Community Action Professional (CCAP) and a graduate of the Community Action Leadership Academy (CALA). She is also a graduate of Bowling Green State University and Faith International & Seminary University.

Her leadership has been recognized and valued at the local, state, regional, and national level serving as Board President of the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies (OACAA), Chair of the Ohio Urban Community Action Network (OUCAN), Board Chair of the National Community Action Foundation (NCAF), and a Board Member of the Mid-Atlantic Community Action Association (MACAA).

A Legacy Rooted in Community

As a foundational leader and courageous ambassador for Community Action, Janice successfully guided CACEHR with excellence, advancing social services, quality programming, and resources that have touched the lives of more than 50,000 low-income households and residents throughout Erie, Huron, and Richland counties.

Under her leadership, CACEHR has remained committed to a simple but powerful purpose: helping individuals and families overcome barriers, build stability, pursue self-sufficiency, and improve their quality of life.

One of the agency’s earliest notable grassroots efforts involved the Searsville community in Perkins Township. At the time, housing shortages and discrimination had pushed many minority families into the area, where homes were often constructed quickly without access to sewers or running water. The community also faced the significant safety concern of having only one exit. Through persistent advocacy and community engagement, the agency worked with local leaders and ultimately helped convince the Erie County Commissioners to install the outlet now known as King Drive.

That history is an important reminder of what Community Action leadership looks like at its best: seeing a problem, listening to the people most affected, building relationships, and refusing to accept that the status quo is good enough. Today, CACEHR continues to embody that spirit of hope through programs and services that support children, families, seniors, and neighbors throughout its three-county service area.

A Legacy of Service

CACEHR’s comprehensive services include:

Head Start - Providing high-quality, extended early learning experiences for age-eligible children to prepare them for success in kindergarten and beyond.

Home Energy Assistance (HEAP) - Helping low-income households manage home energy costs through local, state, and federally assisted programs, including:

• Percentage of Income Payment Plan (PIPP)

• Winter Crisis Program (WCP)

• Summer Crisis Program (SCP)

• FirstEnergy Fuel Fund (FEFF)

• Columbia Gas Fuel Fund (CGFF)

Signature Social Services - CACEHR also provides critical assistance designed to meet the diverse needs of rural, urban, and Appalachian communities, including:

• Emergency Rent Assistance

• Emergency Mortgage Assistance

• Emergency Utility Assistance

• Fatherhood Programs

• Home Repair, when funding is available

• Emergency Car Repair

• Emergency Clothing

• Birth Certificate Assistance

• Case Management and Referrals

Behind each of these programs is the same philosophy Janice has carried throughout her career: people deserve dignity, opportunity, and someone willing to help them find a way forward.

The Mentor Behind the Leader

Janice's influence is perhaps most evident in the leaders she has encouraged, supported, and mentored along the way.

Lorain County Community Action Agency President/CEO Dr. Shauna Matelski reflected on first knowing Janice by reputation before eventually becoming one of the many leaders fortunate enough to learn from her. “Before knowing Janice personally, I knew of her and her reputation as a leader in Community Action. Her passion and advocacy for serving people preceded our meeting.” That reputation became a relationship—and eventually, mentorship.

With an incredible team of Community Action professionals, experts, and committed board members, Janice led CACEHR toward a shared vision of strengthening services, elevating programming, and creating greater opportunities for the families and communities it serves.

Her mentorship has also extended throughout the OUCAN network.

Fellow OUCAN Board member and Miami Valley Community Action Partnership President/CEO Erin Jeffries, who joined the OUCAN Board during the COVID-19 pandemic, connected with Janice to better understand her extensive local, regional, and national relationships within the Community Action movement. As she has done throughout her career, Janice offered Erin—and countless other emerging and established leaders—her encouragement, perspective, connections, and unwavering support.

She has continued to champion leaders such as Pathway, Inc. President/CEO Cynthia Savage and others navigating leadership transitions, reinforcing the importance of succession, mentorship, and collective strength within Ohio’s Community Action network.

The Year of the Dolphin

And then there is the dolphin. This year’s OUCAN Board Retreat offered the perfect opportunity to celebrate Janice and officially declare it the “Year of the Dolphin.”

The dolphin has long been associated with intelligence, kindness, connection, and playfulness—qualities that somehow feel remarkably appropriate for Janice.

For Janice, the early 1960’s beloved television series Flipper introduced the world to a dolphin portrayed as intelligent, helpful, and deeply connected to the people around her. As the dolphin named Flipper was portrayed at first by a female dolphin named Susie and subsequent female dolphins.

Despite her many other majestic skills, Janice is not a swimmer, but she certainly knows how to navigate the waters of political uncertainty, funding insecurity and waves of changes in organizational structure and social climates. She has spent decades connecting people, organizations, communities, and leaders through a remarkable combination of intelligence, kindness, humor, charm, and genuine care for others.

Janice has often lived by a simple mantra: “Treat people how you want to be treated.”

And she has done exactly that. “I love Community Action. I have been enjoying myself for years collaborating with great teams of leaders and being able to travel outside the country, expanding my support and help for families and so much more,” said Janice.

Those words capture something important about Janice’s career: she did not simply work in Community Action—she loved Community Action. She built relationships. She opened doors. She traveled, advocated, collaborated, mentored, laughed, challenged, encouraged, and showed up. And she made sure that wherever she went, she left the Community Action movement a little stronger than she found it.

A Well-Earned Farewell

At OUCAN’s second annual Board Retreat, members took time to celebrate Janice’s extraordinary career and express their gratitude for the countless ways she has contributed to Ohio’s urban Community Action network.

On behalf of the Ohio Urban Community Action Network, CEO Yvonne Cherell, and the OUCAN Board of Directors, we extend our sincere and heartfelt appreciation to Janice W. Warner for her outstanding leadership, dedicated service, mentorship, advocacy, and lasting contributions to Ohio’s children, families, and neighbors.

Janice’s legacy will not be measured solely by the programs she helped build or the organizations she led. It will be measured by the people she encouraged, the leaders she mentored, the communities she championed, and the lives she touched along the way.

We offer our warmest congratulations on a remarkable career and our heartfelt wishes for continued health, happiness, travel, laughter, and fulfillment in this next chapter of life.

After more than three decades of service, Janice has certainly earned the opportunity to slow down, enjoy the view, and perhaps spend a little more time near the water. But knowing Janice, we suspect the phone will still ring, the advice will still be offered, and somebody, somewhere, will still be lucky enough to call her “Mentor.”

Thank you to our Majestic Dolphin, Janice W. Warner, for a lifetime of making Community Action—and all of us—better.

The Year of the Dolphin belongs to you. 🐬