CLEVELAND — United Way, one of Ohio's largest anti-poverty organizations, now has a new leader following the retirement of Augie Napoli. 

Napoli became the president and CEO of United Way of Greater Cleveland in 2016 after serving a number of high profile positions in the region. He was determined to make changes and take the organization into a new era.

“The model that had been in place and so successful for so long really was outdated, and yet, the need in our community was still as great as ever," he said.

Under Napoli’s leadership, United Way was able to launch the data driven Community Hub for Basic Needs to help with the community investment process and The Impact Institute, which was designed to create long-term solutions to issues like housing stability and early learning, moving from one to several different revenue streams and raising awareness about systemic racism and the impact it has on poverty.

That’s an issue Napoli is passionate about fighting, and he said there’s still a lot of work to be done.

“The greatest number of people living in poverty are people of color," he said. "And there’s a reason why. It’s not because they’re lazy. It’s not because they’re looking for a handout. It’s because they haven’t had the opportunities that you and I have had.”

Nancy Mendez was the vicec president of community investment and chief officer of investment during Napoli’s tenure, and said when he arrived, expectations rose.

“Just don’t tell me why something is the way it is—prove it," she said. "So really challenging myself and my team, to really take a good look at the data, that our story was data driven, fact driven and then tell our story, the narrative, based on data, based on facts.”

Mendez is now the CEO of the child care agency Starting Point. As someone who continues to find success and contribute to her community, she credits Napoli for taking a chance on her and allowing her to contribute.

“Just give me the opportunity to be able to perform, to be able to prove that I have the talent, that I have the skills and he was very much open on terms of brining all kinds of folks to the table and really letting you show what you have and what you don’t have and not making assumptions ahead of time," she said.

As Napoli now looks forward to retirement, an Anti-Poverty Innovation fund has been founded in his name. The fund rewards money to philanthropic projects geared at solving poverty related problems Napoli wants to see addressed.

“There’s a high risk that they won’t work, but there is a certainly a high reward if they do," Napoli said.

Napoli hopes to continue contributing even in retirement, and is thankful for all those who fought alongside him to make Greater Cleveland a better place.