ACCA - Forty Years of Community Action for the Poor

Fred & Emily Ruffing, 1976

The year was 1968. Fred Ruffing of Alexandria was faced with a dilemma.  Ruffing, and his wife Emily, worked with a government subsidized day-care center in the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Alexandria.  But low income families who left welfare and obtained jobs were no longer eligible for the subsidized day care for their children.  Without the day care, they would be forced to stop working and go back on welfare. 

Faced with this "Catch-22" situation, Fred and Emily decided to do something about it.  They organized a meeting with representatives of eight local churches to set up a day care center to provide assistance to the working poor.  They marshaled support from the county and from local donors.  They succeeded in meeting the need, and the organization they founded - the Annandale Christian Community for Action - branched out into other activities, all under the banner of "doing what Jesus would do". 

Over time, the organization that started with eight churches grew to 27.  And the initial concentration on day care grew to address a host of other problems:  food, furniture, emergency cash assistance, transportation, Meals-on-Wheels, and housing.  Except for the day care services, all services are provided by volunteers.  The day care center is now the ACCA Child Development Center, located in the old Annandale Elementary School on Columbia Pike.  It cares for over 200 infants and children, as well as associated social and educational services.  The ACCA Food Pantry collects from churches, schools and other groups, and delivers food to over 300 households a year.  The ACCA Family Emergency Committee handles cash emergencies, such as rent, medical bills, utility bills and vehicle repairs for poor families who, living in poverty, have few resources to fall back on in an emergency.  Emergency payments such as these provide a safety net that keep families from falling deeper into poverty and having to go on public welfare. 

ACCA's furniture ministry uses volunteers to collect and distribute used furniture to needy recipients; about 700 families received furniture last year. Its transportation ministry volunteers provide rides to people, about 300 last year, who need transport for medical appointments and therapy. The Meals on Wheels program delivers two meals every week day to elderly residents who cannot prepare meals for themselves. As partners with Rebuilding Together, ACCA volunteers every year spend one Saturday in April repairing houses - about 100 houses have been repaired or rehabilitated so far, using volunteer labor and donated materials.

ACCA works closely with Fairfax County Department of Social Services and local churches to insure that those receiving help are truly needy.  ACCA's ability to respond quickly to food and money needs makes it more flexible than government assistance, and capable of preventing small emergencies from pushing families into poverty and dependency on public welfare.  While a Christian based organization, assistance is furnished to anyone in need, regardless of race or religion.  In the words of Verdia Haywood, Fairfax's Deputy County Executive for Human Services, "An important strength of the County's human service support system is our community and faith-based organizations and indeed,  ACCA has been an incredible partner on a wide range of issues from infant and toddler care, to early childhood education, family mentoring, prevention of homelessness, fighting poverty and public assistance dependency for all of its forty year history."

After 40 years, few of the original founders are left to guide the organization, but new faces have stepped forward and the organization continues on.  Its founder, Fred Ruffing, was tragically killed in an accident in 1976, but Emily stills works in the Child Development Center as a social worker.  In Fred's memory, ACCA provides an annual four year memorial scholarship for college students with disabilities.  The ACCA model has been duplicated in other areas in Fairfax County:  FISH in Fairfac, ECHO in Springfield, FCSC in Falls Church, and many others.  It is a unique example of the power of volunteers from various Christian churches working to together to put Christ's words into action.  As Emily Ruffing says " the most beautiful thing about ACCA is seeing people of various faith working together in harmony for a common objective".