December 30, 2009
The Community Action Partnership is in the 2009 Combined Federal Campaign.
Our CFC number for designating donations is 80371.
2010 MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP TRAINING CONFERENCE
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!
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is convening two focus groups (12-15 participants each) to discuss experiences with head Start and Early Head Start expansion under the federal Recovery Act (ARRA) funds. One focus group will be held the afternoon of Wednesday, Jan 13th; the other will be Thursday morning Jan 14th. Each session is expected to last 1 1⁄2 hours. GAO will make the final selection of participants, based upon random assignment, geographic balance and other variables.If you want to be considered, you must send your name, city, state, Head Start/Early Head Start, e-mail and phone contact info to dmathis@communityactionpartnership.com. No phone calls please. Here’s a great opportunity to share your experience with the leading researchers at GAO. Your info must get to Don Mathis by close of business, Tuesday, Jan. 5th.
LACAP TRAINING CENTER — LIMITED SPACE AVAILABLE!
Don't miss this!
On Tuesday, January 12th (the day before our conference officially begins), Jane Killen, Executive Director of the Louisiana Association of Community Action Partnerships (LACAP), is working with us on a high-visibility, special public education/media event that will showcase LACAP’s Weatherization training and certification programs in Baton Rouge.
We have contracted with The Hatcher Group in DC to work with us to draw a wide range of media coverage to audiences across America. Jane has arranged for two buses from New Orleans to her Baton Rouge training center for a 2 hour special event. We will be offering slots for up to 60 of our conference attendees to participate in this event, for example, be available to answer questions and describe Community Action’s successes and achievements with Weatherization, with a special focus on ARRA funds. Those of you who administer Weatherization programs have the opportunity to be a proactive part of this event. If this whets your media/marketing appetites, please let me know ASAP, at dmathis@communityactionpartnership.com or 202-449-9774.
This is a "must-read" document. Our thanks to Seth Hassett, Office of Community Services, ACF/HHS, for providing this importance OMB guidance that explains and clarifies how Community Action Agencies and other ARRA grantees need to count and report jobs created and retained under Recovery Act funding. Please click here to see the improvements on counting jobs, what constitutes Full Time Equivalency jobs, and shows examples and charts that will help your agency comply with ARRA reporting requirements.
A
QUICK, 4 QUESTION SURVEY FROM NASCSP
THAT CAN HELP OUR MOVEMENT
Through our joint efforts on various federal Office of Community Service "working groups," the Community Action Partnership works closely and cooperatively with the National Association For State Community Services Programs (NASCSP). We encourage our Partnership members to participate in the NASCSP needs assessment survey below.
The National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP), in partnership with Economic Opportunity Studies and The Peer to Peer ROMA Training Program, is conducting research on needs assessments. By answering the following questions, you will be helping us create a needs assessment tool kit.• Do you have or are you working on an agency needs assessment tool?
• Are there specific examples of needs assessment tools at your agency? If yes, please send documentation of those exemplary practices.
• What T&TA do you think you could use for your needs assessments?
• What would you like to learn more about regarding needs assessments?Please send your responses to Tabitha Beck at tbeck@nascsp.org by Thursday, January 7.
Thanks to Joan Entmacher and our other great colleagues at the National Women’s Law Center for making these new resources available to our Community Action network.
We have something that you can give to working families this year — and it doesn’t need to be wrapped.
Tax credits can provide thousands of dollars to working families — but only if families know about the credits and claim them on their tax returns.
That’s why we need your help. Please help spread the word about tax credits for working families by downloading our new outreach materials and sharing them with your community — schools, non-profit agencies, child care centers, places of worship, etc.
Download our new materials on tax credits for working families.
We just finalized our easy to use outreach materials including state fliers in English and Spanish. Some materials are also available in Chinese and Vietnamese. You can access these materials on our website, www.nwlc.org/loweryourtaxes.
On our website, you can also:• Find resources for your state, including fliers on the federal and state tax credits in English, Spanish, and other languages;
• Check out our Media Tip Sheet, which can help you organize a press conference, start a PSA campaign, or draft an op-ed or letter to the editor about the importance of tax credits for working families;
• Find a sample newsletter article that you can include in your end-of-the-year mailings; and
• Get a short list of outreach activities, and get even more information from our Toolkit for Advocates.Together, we can help families put money back in their pockets by spreading the word about tax credits.
Thanks to our good colleagues at Women's Action for New Directions for organizing national organizations to support President Obama's and Defense Secretary Gates' commitment to redirect savings from unneeded weapons systems to address critical domestic needs.
Reallocate Nonessential Military Spending to Other Needs in FY2011 Budget Request
November 23, 2009
The Honorable Peter Orszag, Director
Office of Management and Budget
Washington, DC
Dear Director Orszag:
In his speech to a joint session of Congress during his first week in office, President Obama promised to “reform our defense budget so that we’re not paying for Cold War-era weapons systems we don’t use.”
He has begun to fulfill that promise with the most ambitious set of proposed cuts to such systems since the mid-90s and cooperation with Congress in taking the first steps toward acquisition reform.
We applaud your Office’s role in supporting these initiatives, and making clear the Administration’s resolve to stand by them. We appreciate your Statements of Administration Policy, dated June 24 and July 15, regarding terminations or reductions in programs that have troubled histories, or that failed to demonstrate adequate performance when compared to other programs and activities needed to carry out U.S. national security objectives.
The President and the Defense Secretary have signaled their intent to redirect the savings from cuts to unneeded weapons programs to other military priorities. We urge you, as guardian of the budget in its totality, to consider the full range of priorities that have been sacrificed in recent years to nonessential military expenditures.
Last year’s 39.8 million poor people comprise the highest number of Americans living in poverty since 1960. That number is almost certainly worse today as unemployment climbs, incomes are falling and the number of those without health care grows. We must address our nation’s human needs and turn back these harsh trends by extending opportunity and security to all families. The federal budget must prioritize investments in health care, education, affordable housing and nutritional needs, jobs, rebuilding the economy, and safety net programs that prevent further harm to vulnerable people.
• Currently over 46 million Americans are uninsured and 60 million Americans have no regular access to health care. A dearth of affordable health insurance and a lack of long-term funding for community health centers contribute to the spread of preventable diseases and high emergency medical bills, and place a financial strain on individuals and the economy as a whole.
• The Housing Trust Fund, signed into law in 2008, remains unfunded. It would provide rental units affordable to extremely- or very-low income households. More housing vouchers are also needed. Increasing numbers of families are living in cars, tents and on the streets as they have lost homes and jobs because no housing is available and affordable to them.
• Nearly 20% of children in the U.S. suffer from consistent hunger. The percentage of households considered the most food-insecure rose from 10.8% in 2005 to 11.9% in 2007—prior to the current recession. Food banks rely on both government subsidies and donations from food vendors. Food producers are reducing waste by cutting production; vendors are purchasing less for the same reason. Therefore, neither has the overstock on which food banks have depended.
• Homeless veterans receive less than one-tenth of one percent of the Veterans’ Administration budget, some $100 million in FY10. Lack of counseling services and transitional facilities for homeless veterans places thousands of men and women who have sacrificed for our country in danger. They deserve better.
• Our crumbling civilian infrastructure--bridges collapsing, dilapidated roads, and inefficient highway systems affect both our health and safety and our economic productivity: our inadequate transportation infrastructure creates economic inefficiencies that cost us billions every year. The American Society of Civil Engineers calculates that the U.S. needs to invest $2.2 trillion annually to address the most immediate shortfalls.
• Hurricane Katrina exposed gaping holes in our capacity for emergency response to a crisis. While some improvements have been made, this is still an area of homeland security infrastructure that needs special attention and more resources; an additional $3 billion could help address these shortfalls, according to the FY09 Unified Security Budget.
• The United States must transition to a clean, low-carbon economy in order to avert a climate catastrophe. To promote the technologies that will drive our nation's transition, we should prioritize renewable energy and energy efficiency programs both inside and outside of government, creating millions of new green jobs in the process. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was a down payment on these programs; we must continue to invest at unprecedented levels for a safe future for our children and our planet.
• States are responsible for keeping us safe and secure on a day to day basis. They need to ensure we have first responders, firefighters, safe bridges, secure ports. We have seen the catastrophic results of ignoring these very real concerns, and we cannot afford to continue shortchanging the states.
• As the number of countries and complexity of the international system have increased, staffing at the U.S. Agency for International Development has gradually decreased by 75%. More funding for non-military international engagement would allow the U.S. to use its entire foreign policy toolkit, which is necessary to successfully address current challenges facing the Obama Administration.
We think you will agree that our country faces many challenges at home and abroad that cannot be solved with an ever-growing defense budget. If the President hopes to bring the kind of change he has promised, it will mean breaking with old habits of defense spending that have wasted our tax dollars on obsolete weapons. It is our hope and belief that this Administration has the courage to reform our budget process so that it truly balances government spending on our national security needs and our other national priorities.
Sincerely,
Foreign Policy in Focus
Women’s Action for New Directions
Afro-Americans C.A.R.E.
Alliance for Peacebuilding
American Friends Service Committee
Americans for Democratic Action, Inc.
Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities
Center for International Policy
Church Women United
Circle of Friends for American Veterans
Coalition on Human Needs
Common Cause
Community Action Partnership
Council for a Livable World
Disciples Justice Action Network (Disciples of Christ)
Every Child Matters Education Fund
Friends Committee on National Legislation
Friends of the Earth
Iraq Veterans Against the War
Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Washington Office
National Council of Jewish Women
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate
National Organization for Women
National WIC Association
NETWORK: A National Catholic Social Justice Lobby
Pax Christi USA
Peace Action
Pentecostals & Charismatics for Peace & Justice
Physicians for Social Responsibility
Presbyterian Church (USA), Washington Office
Progressive States Network
Project Community, Inc.
Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Leadership Team
Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill, the United Sates Province
Sojourners
3D Security
True Majority
Turning Anger Into Change
United for a Fair Economy
USAction
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
United Church of Christ, Justice and Witness Ministries
United Methodist Church, General Board of Church and Society
Win Without War
Women Legislators’ Lobby
Xaverian Brothers
With excellent support from our colleagues at The Hatcher Group, John Edwards' op-ed piece on weatherization effectiveness appeared in Reuters.
By John W. Edwards, Jr.
President Barack Obama certainly is walking the walk when it comes to weatherizing America’s homes.
Five billion dollars was included in the economic stimulus legislation for the Weatherization Assistance Program, the federal program started in 1976 to help low-income families.
And more recently the president has proposed a “cash for caulkers” incentive program for homeowners modeled on the successful “cash for clunkers” autos program earlier this year.
He has called weatherization a “smart thing to do.” I couldn’t agree more.
Community action agencies have been operating the Weatherization Assistance Program locally since its inception, and we are geared up for a busy 2010 when the president expects half a million homes to be retrofitted with proper insulation, new windows, modernized heating and the like to make them more energy efficient.
Since it was started, the Weatherization Assistance Program has provided services to 6.2 million low-income families who cannot afford the cost of the repairs.
What I like most about the program is that it is diagnostically driven, using a blower door that demonstrates how much air is infiltrating the home. With this information, we can determine how best to make the fixes necessary to reduce a family’s energy use – and utility bills.
The government estimates low-income families save an average of $350 or more each year after their homes are weatherized.
The program also tests for carbon monoxide levels in homes with gas appliances, so that when the house is tightened it does not create a health issue for residents.
But the benefits of the program extend beyond those that go directly to the homeowner.
It creates employment – 52 direct jobs and 23 indirect ones for every million dollars invested, according to federal estimates. That gives people the opportunity to work for a decent wage and, in some cases, the ability to move to higher-paying jobs within the building trades.
With the national employment rate at 10 percent, that is no small thing. The program also reduces national energy demand by the equivalent of 18 million barrels of oil per year, and it helps the environment by reducing harmful emissions.
Overall, the Department of Energy estimates that for every dollar invested, weatherization returns $1.65 in energy-related benefits and $1.07 in other benefits like reducing pollution and unemployment.
Statistics like these are important, but what’s more important to me is what President Obama’s $5 billion belief in the Weatherization Assistance Program will mean on the ground. With weatherized homes, families no longer are too cold in the winter, and they can spend their energy savings on food, medicine and other necessities of life.
Contractors can avoid layoffs and actually add to their workforce. Once-jobless workers will be trained and employed retrofitting homes to make them more energy efficient. Thanks to the greatly increased funds for weatherization in the stimulus bill, there will be more stories like these.
Community action agencies have been involved in this work for a long time, and 2010 promises to be our busiest year ever. But our experience tells us with certainty that more weatherized homes are good for the country both economically and environmentally. It’s time to get to work.(Photo shows U.S. President Barack Obama visits a Northern Virginia Home Depot to discuss home improvements and energy savings in Alexandria, Virginia December 15, 2009. REUTERS/Larry Downing)
At the recent executive committee meeting of the Emerald Cities Collaborative (ECC) in Boston, Partnership president and CEO Don Mathis was elected to the ECC board of directors. ECC is a working partnership of businesses, unions, community organizations, research and technical assistance providers, development intermediaries, and social justice advocates united around the goal of greening our metropolitan areas in “high-road” ways that advance fair opportunity, shared wealth, and democracy within those cities and our nation. Gerry Hudson, senior vice president at SEIU chairs the board and Dr. Deborah Kobes, formerly at MIT, is a lead staff person.
At this month’s meeting of the Coalition on Human Needs (CHN) in Washington, D.C., Mathis was re-elected to the CHN board of directors. Ellen Teller of Food Research and Action (FRAC) chairs CHN and Debbie Weinstein is the executive director.
At the December ECC meeting, left to right: Don Mathis, Partnership president & CEO;
Gerry Hudson ECC chair and senior vice president SEIU; and Bob Ozinga, ECC board member and
chief of staff, Building and Construction Trades Dept., AFL-CIO.
