PARTNERSHIP NEWS
•	Your input sought on your community economic development & green jobs project, technical assistance needs, and success stories Watch for Partnership’s “Survey Monkey” early next week
•	Stacy Flowers, MBA, named Director of Community Economic Development (CED) She’ll lead our OCS-funded National CED Exemplary Practices Initiative
NEWS YOU CAN USE
•	Help Feed Kids this Summer: Sign up for free webinars on the federal Summer Food Service Project
•	Save 60% on unemployment costs with Unemployment Services Trust (UST)
•	The Friday, February 5th webcast & (for DC) in-person session, “The President’s Budget Explained” with Bob Greenstein & Deborah Weinstein is postponed. Watch this space for the new schedule.
•	An accurate Census 2010 is essential is important for low-income communities Check out these useful free webinars from Nonprofits Count
ISSUES AND OPINIONS
•	Another great media contribution from our colleagues in Connecticut

A survey is coming early next week in a dedicated eNews—
Help our Community Action Movement grow & prosper!

The Partnership is working closely with the federal Office of Community Services on a variety of community economic development, job creation, and green jobs initiatives. These range from a three-year OCS grant to the Partnership to identify, package, provide T&TA on exemplary practices on community economic development to our role as a lead agency in an OCS working group (with NASCSP, CAPLAW, and NCAF) on job creation and green jobs.

You will receive a brief, to-the-point survey from the Partnership that will ask for your input on a series of community economic development and job creation topics, including what your agency does now, what training & technical assistance needs & opportunities are of greatest need and interest to you, and other relevant matters. Your input will be very important in helping guide the Partnership with its planning of future training and resource development and information exchange opportunities that you can use.

Stacy Flowers

She has led training on organizational structure, business management & strategy, and performed project management, and/or public relations in all 50 states, Canada, Mexico, theMiddle East, Australia and China. She has led corporate volunteer efforts with Habitat for Humanity and various United Ways. Most recently, she joined the board of directors at the Salvation Army in Alexandria, Virginia.

“I am very pleased to welcome Stacy Flowers to the Partnership and her remarkable skills will lead our Community Economic Development (CED) efforts in cooperation with the Office of Community Services (OCS) and our national, state, and community-based partners,” said Don Mathis. “Stacy’s exemplary track record in the corporate sector-- coupled with her development, training, and systems-building experience—make her a valuable resource, leader, and team member in our Community Action Movement as many Community Action Agencies start, strengthen or expand their economic development programs and activities.

Stacy’s e-mail, phone number and contact information will be set up this week. Watch for future CED items in e news.

From our great colleagues at the Food and Nutrition, US Department of Agriculture,
and the Office of Community Services, Department of Health and Human Services

Please join us!
USDA/FNS: Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) Webinar
For Community Services Block Grant State Agencies and Eligible Entities
Friday, February 19, 2010
2:00pm – 3:00pm EST

Registration Link: http://vovici.com/wsb.dll/s/17fb9g426e9

Description: Each summer, 18 million students are at risk of going hungry when the school year ends and school lunches are no longer available. For many children, school meals are the only complete and nutritious meals they eat, and in the summer they go without. This summer, the need will likely increase. The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) can help to fill the summer meal gap for low-income children. Faith-based, community and private non-profit organizations can make a difference in the lives of hungry children by serving meals with SFSP, a Federally funded program administered by States that reimburses organizations for meals served to children during the summer. Schools, churches, recreation centers, playgrounds, parks and camps can serve meals in neighborhoods with high percentages of low-income families. These venues are safe and familiar locations where children naturally congregate during the summer. There are two ways to get involved with SFSP. Your organization may become a SFSP site where meals are served, or a SFSP sponsor that both serves meals and keeps track of the accounting and paperwork. Sponsors are reimbursed for all meals served that meet USDA’s nutrition standards.

Join us to learn more and hear the benefits to being a part of the Summer Food Service Program!

Already working with SFSP?: We want to hear from you! If you are already participating as a sponsor or a site, and would be willing to share your story on a live webinar or a webcast recording, please contact Emily Buckham Buday, USDA FNS Outreach Strategist, at Emily.buckham@fns.usda.gov.

Participation: This session will be available via Microsoft Office LiveMeeting (Webinar) and is free for all participants. You will need access to a phone line and a computer with internet access for this webinar. To participate, please complete the online registration. Further information will be forthcoming to registered participants. You must register to receive additional information.

Other Webinar Sessions: If you are interested but unable to attend this session, please note there are three sessions being conducted for the general public that anyone is welcome to attend. Please go to the online registration site to register for one of these sessions. These sessions will also be recorded and available at a future date for on-demand viewing from the USDA FNS website.

Additional SFSP Information: Additional information on the Summer Food Service Program can be found on the USDA Food and Nutrition Service Website: http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/summer/

Questions?
If you have any questions, please contact:
Emily Buckham Buday
Emily.buckham@fns.usda.gov
703-605-0772

Facing rising expenses, rate cuts, and a slowing economy, Community Action Partnership offers a special benefit to member agencies - challenged more than ever to find ways to control, reduce, or eliminate expenses.

Did you know that as a nonprofit you can opt out of the state’s tax-rated unemployment system and only pay dollar for dollar for the unemployment claims paid out to former employees? When you directly reimburse the state dollar for dollar for your former employee’s unemployment claims you are not subsidizing other employers that have higher unemployment claims. Unlike state unemployment taxes, your contributions to UST remain as an asset on your organization’s books

Take advantage of unemployment costs savings available through the Unemployment Services Trust (UST) this year. By becoming a member of the UST you may save up to 60% of what you are presently paying into the state tax-rated system. Rather than continuing to pay inflated tax rates into the State, you have the right, under Federal Legislation, to become a Reimbursable employer.

In 2008, 501(c)(3) member agencies saved more than $35.5 million in unemployment claims by participating in UST. And we believe your organization can save too. For more information on UST please visit www.chooseust.org, or call toll-free 1-888-249-4788.

 

 

Thanks to Access Community Action Agency and the Thames Valley Council for Community Action

Commentary
Action agencies, the poor need public support
By Peter Dibiasi and Deborah Monahan

In eastern Connecticut, two of Connecticut’s 12 community action agencies see the dire need for home-heating and other forms of assistance play out every single day.

The demand for resources has become more staggering than ever this year, with triple-digit increases in people seeking help since the start of the recession in 2007.

The need remains constant and no two sto ries are the same.

The plea for assistance comes in every city and town in eastern Connecticut.

The people seeking help cannot afford to heat their homes or replace a useless furnace, or their pantries are empty because the mother, father, or both parents are out of work.

They are children, the elderly and entire families who are seeking help from the Access Community Action Agency ( Access) and Thames Valley Council for Community Action (TVCCA).

And they are no longer just the poor, or even the working poor.

These past two years have seen Connecticut’s community action agencies inundated with a brand new category of people in need — those who have never before come through our doors.

They are formerly middle-class individuals and families who never imagined they would require our help. They are at the doorsteps of community action agencies throughout the state, increasing the demand on staff to pro vide whatever help we can.

But the agencies — the frontline, one-stop agencies in Connecticut that are equipped to provide support and resources for those in need in Connecticut, including heating assis tance and food — cannot perform up to the level expected of them if the state chooses to make further cuts to their budgets.
Community action agencies throughout the state are seeing record-breaking numbers.

While this winter’s Connecticut Energy Assistance Program benefits began on Nov. 1, the agencies began to take applications on Aug. 3.

TVCCA and Access have witnessed a stag gering increase in need for aid. Since January 2007, the number of people in eastern Connecticut who applied for energy assistance has increased by 72 percent.
Statewide the increase is 125 percent.

The need has increased by 171 percent in the Norwich area and by 50 percent in the Willimantic area.
Numbers like these have never been seen before.

Many economists say the recession has end ed, but the number of people living in poverty keeps growing.
Foodshare — the Hartford region’s largest food bank — reports a 30 percent increase in the need for food assistance since a year ago.

Today, Foodshare distributes 15 tons of food to hungry people in Hartford and Tolland counties each day.
That is an astronomical number.

What’s more, Connecticut’s unemployment has increased by 41 percent over the past year, and the cost of living has increased 21.6 per cent since 2001, while the median household income has decreased by 2.1 percent.

Access, TVCCA and the other action agen cies not only address heat, hunger, health and homelessness, they also put people back to work.

This is done by leveraging available resources to make the best use of taxpayer dollars. To accomplish this, community action agencies have partnerships with the local, state and fed eral government, the private sector, and other nonprofits with whom we continue to work creatively on poverty solutions.

This is exactly why, on behalf of so many people in need, we request the governor and General Assembly to keep these numbers and these people in mind when considering addi tional cuts to the budget in the coming weeks.

Remember, we cannot continue to put people back to work and help them endure these hard times without a partnership with the state.

We are thankful that Connecticut legisla tive leaders Senate President Pro Tem Don Williams, D-Brooklyn, House Majority Leader Denise Merrill, D- Mansfield, and others understand the state’s responsibility to provide support for our most vulnerable residents, and that they have fought to find fiscally respon sible ways to do that.

The faces of poverty throughout eastern Con necticut and the entire state are a daily remind er of what the statistics really mean. Deeper cuts to assistance programs will only perpetu ate the state’s budget crisis for generations to come and bring deeper despair to those cur rently in need. We will all be better off now and in the long run by working together to help better people’s lives.

DeBiasi is president/CEO of The Access Community Action Agency. Monahan is Executive Director of TVCCA.