Founders Statement

I have often been asked why have I set off on such an ambitious endeavour and I have responded that I have benefitted immensely by growing up in a family that has seen just about every cross section in America and the world, rich and poor and bearing witness to a great humanitarian like my grandfather and it is not enough to sit on the sidelines and talking about poverty! I have to implement what I learned from his efforts, what my family has retained and the knowledge that my mother recorded as his personal assistant for 40 years. When you have the knowledge, blueprint and the ability to release the grip of poverty, you have to act!

I spent my career building and successfully running numerous companies and building people into productive ambassadors to our society, embracing servant leadership principles, I have also witnessed the effects of poverty in America. I have dedicated myself to refocus my energies to reverse the course of what had been a downward trend in America through the early 1980’s and what is now near epidemic levels and through this organization and through The Cleo Blackburn Foundation, we will do just that!

Poverty is not a political issue, not a racial issue, it is a moral issue that impacts you personally and financially whether you recognize it’s effects or not, the picture on our Home page shows George Romney (r), sitting next to my grandfather as he delivers a speech, politicians and businessmen from every political affiliation, business organization and other individuals have historically put time and energy to this social catastrophe. Ronald Reagan (r), Former Senator Birch Bayh (d), Eugene Pulliam and countless others compassionately, cooperatively and committedly, joined in the effort to address the needs of this great country we live in, to eradicate poverty in America!

We can end poverty and we can start now… It’s Cleomentary!