The Community Action Partnership is in the 2009 Combined Federal Campaign.
Our CFC number for designating donations is 80371.

 

PARTNERSHIP'S 2010 MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP TRAINING CONFERENCE, JANUARY 13-15, NEW ORLEANS No Registration Deadline! Program Book now available!
•	Open Mic with the Partnership Board and Networking Round Table are additions to Friday schedule
NEWS YOU CAN USE
•	Community Action's Edwards Featured on National Public Radio
•	Lois Carson, Community Action Partnership of Riverside County (CA) gets powerful editorial on structural racism
ISSUES AND OPINIONS
•	Partnership supports fiscal assistance to state & local government, Medicaid extension
•	Partnership supports protecting & improving Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
PARTNERSHIP NEWS
•	Representatives from the Office of Community Services visited the Partnership office
•	Now is the best time to enroll as a CCAP Candidate!
•	The deadline for articles for the winter Promise issue is January 8!

JANUARY 13-15, 2010, IN NEW ORLEANS — REGISTER NOW!

Register now for the 2010 Community Action Partnership Management and Leadership Training Conference.

Begin the New Year with in-depth learning and sharing of ideas with your colleagues. Our 2010 Management and Leadership Conference will take place at the New Orleans Marriott and will include sessions on Head Start, Green Jobs, Job Creation, Board Training, and the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act. Please visit our website regularly for more information as it becomes available.

Click here to download a pdf of the Conference flyer; click here to download
the Conference Registration Form.

NOTE: The Program Book (subject to possible revisions and additions) is now available to download. Please click here to see all the sessions and presenters for the 2010 Management and Leadership Training Conference in New Orleans!

Networking Round Table — Community Action Issues, 8:00 – 9:30 am

Join us in this informal and informative setting and discuss the following topics with your colleagues. Share best practices, challenges, new ideas, or just pose questions on the issue. A topic facilitator will be at each table to start the discussion, keep time, and encourage conversation. Participants will rotate after 20 minutes at one table.Table topics include (subject to change):

Leadership and the Role of Executive Directors
Personnel
Emerging Leaders
Economic Development
Weatherization and Housing
Green Jobs and Sustainability
Public Relations
Head Start
Board Development

Open Mic with the partnership Board of Directors, 11:00 – 12:00 noon

ALSO, Tim Reese announced that he will be joined by Lois Carson, CCAP, Executive Director of Community Action Partnership of Riverside County, CA, and Biz Steinberg, CEO of Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County, CA, for his 11:00 am session: Lessons Learned on the Road to Telling Our Story: An interactive presentation and discussion.

Community Action’s Edwards Featured on NPR

On Dec. 10, WJCT-FM 89.9's (the NPR affiliate in Jacksonville, FL) “First Coast Connect” focused on the high unemployment rate among African-Americans living in the First Coast and initiatives underway to put people to work. John Edwards—Partnership board chair and Northeast Florida CAA Executive Director—shared information about the agency's self-sufficiency program and its efforts to support and develop new employment opportunities. The show also featured Cedric Twillie, a participant of NFCAA’s Individual Development Account program, who used his ID to open a direct marketing business.

To listen to the interview, click here.

OUR FORD FOUNDATION-FUNDED PROJECT SITE ADVOCATES FOR JUSTICE

Lois Carson, executive director of the Community Action Partnership of Riverside County, California is a leader in the Partnership’s seven-site “Racial Equity and Economic Security” project (REES). Funded in part by the Ford Foundation, REES is developing analyses and crafting strategies in those communities to address the causes and create solutions for dissolving structural racism practices and policies. Below is an editorial that Ms. Carson used effectively with her local press to educate her community.

November 27, 2009

‘Structural racism’ must not be allowed anymore

Steve Bolerjack
Special to The Desert Sun

Despite a general expansion of rights and opportunities for minorities and increased public awareness capped by the election of an African-American president, pockets of racism — in subtle, insidious forms — remain in too many organizations and businesses across the country and locally.
Early this year, Lois Carson, director of the Community Action Partnership of Riverside County, a nonprofit agency working to end poverty through education, advocacy, wealth building and community organizing, brought the concept of “structural racism” to the attention of the Palm Springs Human Rights Commission.

Structural racism is defined as inequity embedded in society's organizations that affects sub-groups in America, where public policies, institutional practices, cultural representations and other norms reinforce and perpetuate racial inequality. Or as Carson put it, “prejudices may be built into the bedrock” of organizations, enabling acceptance of a status quo that subtly favors white people over minorities. She noted that such policies and practices may not be obvious or overt. Rather, they may be so ingrained and longstanding that those involved may not be fully aware of them.

“There may be no identifiable perpetrator because the discrimination is systemic,” Carson added. “When racism is built into the institution, it appears to be a collective act, but the impact is disparate.”
As part of the National Community Action Partnership's two-year project on Racial Equity and Economic Security, the Community Action Partnership of Riverside County has conducted a series of local, open “Big View” meetings to discuss, identify, report and raise public awareness about structural racism.

The Human Rights Commission felt that the Big View meetings offered a perfect fit with our mission statement: to promote and protect the diversity of our community and to improve human relations through education and community awareness. Therefore, under the leadership of Commissioner Pamela Kershaw, we recently co-hosted a Big View event with the Community Action Partnership of Riverside County at the Mizell Senior Center in Palm Springs.

The meeting reviewed historic events that had affected the ability of minority groups to gain (or lose) equal access to land and housing. These included:

“Forty Acres and a Mule,” a promise made to freed slaves during Reconstruction.

The Homestead Act of 1862, which offered land to western settlers.

Levittown, N.Y., the first modern suburb in America, but segregated and closed to blacks and other minorities.

And the Rumford Fair Housing Act of 1963, which supposedly ended racial discrimination in housing in California.

Both the commission and the Community Action Partnership of Riverside County believe it is vital to remember this account of inequities and bigotries to ensure they do not recur and to prevent new types of discrimination. This history lesson was a key component of the Big View meeting and deserves to be more widely learned throughout our community and the country at large.
Riverside County's poverty rate of 13 percent is largely made up of minorities. Against this background, the Big View meeting focused on racism issues in health care and housing. It included professors from College of the Desert, students and interested community members. The core item was a survey on racial equality that asked participants to share experiences and opinions about structural racism.

The results are being analyzed by the Ford Foundation, which funded this project, and will be released soon as a snapshot of both local and national racial issues. Our preliminary review of the surveys suggests that understated racism may remain embedded in some organizations and businesses, even here.

We believe our community must become more aware of such practices and resolve long overdue violations of equality, whether in the workplace, institutions or individual infractions.
Steve Bolerjack is a member of the Palm Springs Human Rights Commission. E-mail him at stevebolerjack@gmail.com

 

Through our work with the Coalition on Human Needs, the Partnership signed on to this letter to Congressional leadership advocating for fiscal assistance to help offset cutbacks in services to low-income people and communities as a result of state and local budget shortfalls and rising Medicaid obligations.

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Thanks to our great colleagues at Families USA who are providing incredible leadership on responsible health care reform, the Partnership signed this letter in support of protecting the Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

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December 4, 2009

The Honorable Robert Casey
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Casey:

As organizations committed to ensuring that all of our nation’s children get the health coverage they need and deserve, we are writing to thank you for your commitment to making children an important priority by filing Amendment #2790 to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590). Your amendment builds on the provisions of the underlying bill, continuing to protect and improve the country’s successful Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and ensuring that no child ends up worse off as a result of health reform. We applaud your leadership.

America’s children have a lot at stake in health reform. More than eight million children remain uninsured, and more are losing employer-sponsored coverage daily. Families are just one playground accident away from medical bankruptcy. Each day a child is uninsured is a lost opportunity to strengthen our next generation, America’s future. Your amendment goes a long way toward protecting and improving coverage for millions of children in low-income working families across the nation by

• Providing full funding for CHIP through 2019;
• Maintaining current CHIP eligibility through 2013, and setting a floor for income eligibility for children in all states at 250 percent of poverty ($55,125 for a family of four) beginning in 2014;
• Streamlining enrollment procedures making it easier for children to get coverage and keep it;
• Ensuring that coverage for children remains affordable;
• Guaranteeing all children in CHIP the comprehensive care they need from head to toe; and
• Requiring an HHS report in 2016 that will compare coverage for children in CHIP with coverage for children in the new Health Insurance Exchange and if coverage (including benefits, cost-sharing, premiums, and other features) is comparable or better, children can be transitioned from CHIP into the Exchange in 2019.

Our nation has made great strides over the last decade in securing health coverage for low-income children of working families. We must now seize this historic opportunity to build on the success of prior efforts and the bipartisan CHIP program, and ensure that children will be better off, not worse off, as a result of health reform. Your amendment will do just that.

We offer our strong support for your CHIP Amendment (#2790). We stand ready to work with you and your Senate colleagues to achieve our common goal of reforming our nation’s health care system and ensuring that all children, indeed everyone in America, have access to the health coverage they need and deserve.

Sincerely,

National Organizations:
America’s Promise Alliance
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
American Association of School Administrators
American Humane Association
American Public Health Association
Americans for Democratic Action
Association of University Centers on Disabilities
Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good
Center for Law and Social Policy
Child Welfare League of America
Children’s Defense Fund
Children’s Dental Health Project
The Children’s Health Fund
The Children’s Partnership
Community Action Partnership
Every Child Matters Education Fund
FamiliesUSA
Fight Crime: Invest in Kids
First Focus Campaign for Children
Forum for Youth Investment
Foster Care Alumni of America
Molina Healthcare, Inc.
MomsRising.org
The National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health
National Assembly on School-Based Health Care
National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc.
National Association of Counsel for Children
National Association of Mothers' Centers
National Association of Social Workers
National Black Child Development Institute
The National Center on Family Homelessness
National Child Abuse Coalition
National Congress of American Indians
National Foster Care Coalition
National Independent Living Association
National Network for Youth
National Respite Coalition
Oral Health America
Orphan Foundation of America
Prevent Child Abuse America
Results
United Way Worldwide
Voices for America’s Children
Vote Kids

(Over 150 State and Local groups also signed this letter)

Janelle George and Danielle Williams of the Office of Community Services, visited on Thursday with Don Mathis at the Partnership office. They met with the staff and got insights into the day to day workings of the office. This meeting continued to promote the ongoing relationship between the Partnership and OCS.

Don Mathis with Janelle George, MSW, MPP, Social Science Analyst, Division of State Assistance center, and Danielle Williams, Grants Manager, from the Office of Community Services

NOW IS THE BEST TIME TO ENROLL AS A CCAP CANDIDATE!

You can enroll today, prepare your submissions, and you may be on your way to becoming a CCAP at the Community Action Partnership’s Convention in Boston on September 2, 2010. But you have to act now, because the deadline for submitting your Candidate Data Form (see description below) is January 20, 2010.

IS CERTIFICATION RIGHT FOR ME?
Certification is designed for current and emerging managers or leaders in the Community Action Profession. If the following describes you, then CCAP may be right for you:

• You are a program manager, or an executive, or a supervisor, or a department head, or a deputy director. Or you are preparing yourself for this kind of position or responsibility in your agency.
• You are committed to the vision and values of Community Action.
• You are committed to maintaining high ethical standards of professional conduct.
• You are willing to learn more about the history, vision and values of Community Action as well as the principles of good management, the best practices of 21st century leadership and the current theories about poverty in America. (While there are no required classes, you will be expected to demonstrate your competence in each of these areas.)

WHY SHOULD I ENROLL?
Because becoming a CCAP:

• Gives you visible recognition for your accomplishments in the field. Tells others, you have achieved a nationally recognized professional standard.
• Enhances the credentials of Community Action staff.
• Provides an edge in competing for public and private grant funds.
• Improves your professional marketability when competing for higher positions in your own agency or another CAA.
• Establishes standards that encourage future community action leaders to carry on the quality work of the movement's founders. Future generations will benefit from your commitment to professionalism today.

WHAT ARE THE STEPS? Follow these three steps to become a Certified Community Action Professional (CCAP):

• Complete a Candidate Data Form (CDF): This is an accurate record of your experience as a management executive, education, involvement in national, regional, state and local Community Action activities, and in association management activities outside the CAA. If you set the goal to achieve certification in 2010, the CDF must be received at the Community Action Partnership Office or at the CCAP e-mail address, ccapcontact@aol.com, by no later than January 20, 2010. Click here to download the CDF.
• Develop an Executive Skills Portfolio (ESP): This is a sample of work, structured according to specified guidelines, that documents and demonstrates your application of the vision and values of community action and the contributions you made as a manager and leader. The completed ESP must be received at the Community Action Partnership Office or at the CCAP e-mail address, ccapcontact@aol.com , by February 17, 2010. To get a copy of the ESP Format Guide, click here.
• Pass a Written Exam (administered annually on the 3rd Wednesday in June): A combined minimum score of 700 points on the CDF and ESP qualifies you to sit for the examination. The four hour exam is based in the community action Body of Knowledge document, which cites core areas in which candidates should be highly knowledgeable. A study guide will be available for you once you submit your CDF.

HOW DO I ENROLL TODAY?
Download and complete the CCAP Enrollment Form. (This is a large file; it will take a few minutes to download.) Return the completed enrollment form, three letters of recommendation, and the signed Community Action Code of Ethics along with the required enrollment fee ($425 members & $635 non-members), and you are well on your way to earning the right to sign CCAP after your name.

NOTE: Your CCAP candidacy is valid for three years. If you fail to complete the process in 2010, you will still have two more years to earn your CCAP

The CCAP Class of 2009 at the Partnership Annual Convention in Philadelphia

The Promise Winter 2010 issue deadline – January 8

As you prepare to celebrate the holidays with family and friends, please take a moment to consider sending a submission for The Promise magazine.

For the Winter 2010 issue, we’re specifically interested in the following:

• CAA’s local outreach efforts for Census 2010 – what is your CAA doing to ensure that low-income people are counted and as a result, receive the critical services they need?

• CAA heating programs – what is your CAA doing to help residents grapple with rising heating costs this winter? Did your community receive additional LIHEAP funding; partner with utility companies to help consumers with their bills; or collect coats, hats, and gloves for families? Let us know!

Please also send us news on your CAA’s new staff appointments, awards, best practices, and success stories.

Email your information (news releases or full-length articles) and photos (in JPG or TIF format with 300 dpi) to Lisa Holland, lholland@communityactionpartnership.com by Friday, January 8.