ORA WELCH BIOGRAPHY

"Service is the rent you pay to be living" - Marion Wright Edelman.

Ora Welch was taught that concept by her mentors, her mother and grandmother. She values the strength of the individual to do what is right, even when it isn't easy. It is her purpose in life to help children and families acquire the tools to build their dreams. Dedication to that purpose led her to Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Education at Antioch College. The Head Start Program, the ultimate program for early childhood development, would be the foundation upon which she would help others build secure lives.Occasionally, history beckons the right leader to the right task.

As Deputy Director of Hamilton-Madison House in New York City, Ora designed and implemented multicultural programming for the Lower East Side, Chinatown and Little Italy. As a Federal government consultant, she coordinated monitoring of Head Start programs in New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. At Morristown Community House she expanded programming and supervised the operations directors of the day care center, recreation center, tutoring programs, outreach center, substance abuse prevention, school age child care program, pediatric health clinic, and music education program.When Ms.Welch became Executive Director of Englewood's West Side Infant Day Care Center, it was struggling to provide infant day care to teen mothers. She devised new funding strategies, providing the necessary support to allow young mothers to continue their education.

Currently, she is President and CEO of HOPES, the Hoboken Organization against Poverty and Economic Stress, and administrates the corporation that provides a complex battery of community services to the most ethnically diverse small town in America.

Ora Welch has spent her entire professional career designing, funding, and building institutions of hope and promise for communities. She has multiplied her expertise exponentially by training others to help children and their families realize their dreams of security, education, and moral strength. Her life's work is a tangible key to the deeper meaning of social service and responsible stewardship.