Thanks to a two-year grant from the Ford Foundation and the deft, expert leadership of project director Mary Virtue, the Partnership is compiling the lessons learned from our seven-site “Racial Equity and Economic Security” project (REES). Mary will lead a webinar discussion featuring two of our leading Community Action leaders, John Edwards of Northeast Florida Community Action Agency (and chair of the Partnership board of directors) and Lois Carson of Community Action Partnership of Riverside County (CA). Sign up now for this no-cost webinar scheduled for Thursday, July 15th.

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Webinar: Community Action Agencies Working
With Racial Equity Outcomes

Date: Thursday, July 15, 2010
Time: 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM EDT

REGISTER TODAY for the first REES webinar with Lois Carson and Mary Virtue:
" Community Action Agencies Working With Racial Equity Outcomes"

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Racism persists because it is built into our institutions and it determines who gets a good education, who gets a job opportunity, and who has access to capital, healthcare and childcare. It continues to hurt and disadvantage Americans. Community Action can play a role in ending it. The seven projects in the Racial Equity and Economic Security (REES) initiative are using a racial equity lens to address the issues of race in new ways in their communities. In these webinars, they will be sharing their experiences and presenting how Community Action Agencies can work to dismantle racism. Major funding for the Partnership’s Racial Equity and Economic Security project is from The Ford Foundation.

• Lois J. Carson, CCAP, is Executive Director of Community Action Partnership of Riverside County. The REES project at this Community Action Agency focuses advocacy through community dialogues and on providing accessible, quality child care to the hard working residents of the County.

• John Edwards is Chair of the Community Action Partnership board and Executive Director of Northeast Florida Community Action Agency. The REES project at this agency uses the ROMA tools and ARRA funding to address African American male joblessness in a comprehensive way.

• Mary Virtue is the National Project Director for REES. She has recently written Advancing Racial Equity: Lessons for Philanthropy. This report is being disseminated by the Ford Foundation and through the Council on Foundation’s social justice project.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP, 2003 Server or 2000

Macintosh®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.4.11 (Tiger®) or newer)

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WEBINAR SCHEDULE:

"Tools to Help You Get Started Using the Racial Equity Lens"
A SEPARATE REGISTRATION will be created for the second REES webinar with John Edwards and Mary Virtue to be held on August 5, at 3pm EDT.

Lil Dupree
Director of Training and Technical Assistance
Community Action Partnership
1140 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 1210
Washington, DC 20036

202-449-9775 - Direct
202-265-5048 - fax

The Frances Perkins Center (named after the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet, she was U. S. Secretary of Labor for Franklin D. Roosevelt) is seeking stories for its “Social Security Stories Project.” To learn more about the work of the Perkins center, visit www.francesperkinscenter.org

Social Security continues to provide a vital safety net of benefits and income for millions of America’s older persons and other vulnerable populations. Here’s an excellent opportunity to tell a story you have about how Social Security has helped an individual or family in your community.

Has your life been affected by Social Security benefits? We want to hear your story!

Social Security is a promise made to all generations. You are invited to join the SOCIAL SECURITY STORIES PROJECT, which celebrates the 75th anniversary of Social Security by gathering and sharing stories. We’re inviting you to share how Social Security has made a meaningful difference in your life or the life of a family member or friend – as it has for one in six Americans.

• Stories may be about you, a family member, a friend or a neighbor.
• Stories may be about how Social Security helped a family after a tragedy.
• Stories may be about how Social Security is helping with retirement even in these tough financial times.

The SOCIAL SECURITY STORIES PROJECT is an opportunity to join thousands of Americans in showing that you are part of how Social Security has transformed our country, our economy and our people.

Telling your story is simple. We’re looking for stories of 400 words or less or about three minutes of video. All of the stories told as part of the “Social Security Stories Project” will be posted on our website and other social networking. The “Social Security Stories Project” was developed by the Frances Perkins Center.

We want to hear your story!
www.SocialSecurityStories.org

Thanks to Sarah VonEsch and our hardworking colleagues at Jobs for America Now!, the Partnership signed on to this letter to the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives, calling for the passage of HR 4812. Among the nearly 200 national organizations who signed with us: Center for Law & Social Policy, Coalition on Human Needs, Economic Policy Institute, First Focus Campaign for Children, Half in Ten, Food Research and Action Center, Enterprise Community Partners, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, National Council of La Raza, National Association for State Community Services Programs (NASCSP), National Low Income Housing Coalition, National Urban League, National Women’s Law Center, and Wider Opportunities for Women. Hundreds of state and local organizations also signed on.

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April 16, 2010

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Steny Hoyer
Majority Leader
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable James Clyburn
Majority Whip
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable John Larson
Democratic Caucus Chair
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Chris Van Hollen
Assistant to the Speaker
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable George Miller
Chairman, Education and Labor Committee
United States House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Hoyer, Majority Whip Clyburn, Democratic Caucus Chair Larson, Assistant to the Speaker Van Hollen and Chairman Miller:

The undersigned organizations write to express our strong support for the Local Jobs for America Act (HR 4812), which would create a million public and private jobs in local communities. We applaud Congressman Miller for the introduction of this critical legislation.

Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost over 8 million jobs, including many providing critical services in communities across the country. The current crisis of unemployment is devastating families all across America. March’s unemployment report revealed an overall jobless rate of 9.7 percent; among African-Americans the jobless rate was a staggering 16.5 percent, among Latinos, 12.6 percent, among women who head families, 11.3 percent, and among youth, 26.1 percent.

We need bold Congressional action in order to put Americans back to work and prevent more layoffs and cuts in crucial services. The Local Jobs for America Act will not only provide employment for hundreds of thousands of jobless workers, it will create and save jobs for workers who are providing services that our communities badly need.

The Local Jobs for America Act provides $100 billion over two years to create or save 750,000 jobs providing local services, and to save 250,000 education jobs. The funding will also keep 5,500 law enforcement officers on the beat, allow localities to hire additional firefighters, and provide on-the-job training slots to help local businesses create employment opportunities. These jobs in turn will put money in the pockets of families, spurring demand in the economy and creating additional private-sector jobs and tax revenues.

Projections of a slow recovery in the labor market underscore the urgent need to create jobs now. Job-creation must precede short-term deficit reduction as lost tax revenue from joblessness is significantly exacerbating our nation’s fiscal problems. As local and national organizations who are witnessing firsthand the current crisis of unemployment and the increased need for services in the face of deep budget cuts, we believe that a bold response cannot wait.

We support quick passage of the Local Jobs for America Act to immediately put Americans back to work, in addition to meeting pressing needs in our communities.

With appreciation to Lela Spielberg at National PTA, the Partnership joined with over 250 national, state, and community organizations in advocating for the enactment of the Family Engagement in Education Act (HR 5211).

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June 7, 2010

The Honorable George Miller, Chairman
House Committee on Education and Labor
2181 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable John Kline, Ranking Member
House Committee on Education and Labor
1210 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Miller and Ranking Member Kline:

We, the undersigned organizations, write to share our support for the Family Engagement in Education Act (H.R. 5211), bipartisan legislation introduced by Congresswoman McCarthy and Congressman Platts.

As you know, family engagement in education improves student achievement, attendance, and behavior and reduces the dropout rate. Family engagement is also cost-effective; research has demonstrated that schools would have to increase spending by over $1000 per pupil to achieve the same results.

The Family Engagement in Education Act ensures shared responsibility between families, communities, and educators for closing the achievement gap. This legislative proposal provides much-needed incentives and guidance for districts and schools on research-based family engagement practices that drive school improvement, such as investing in professional development for teachers and school leaders on effective models of family engagement or conducting parent leadership academies. This bill establishes statewide coordinating councils comprised of families, educators, the early learning and higher education community, and community, faith-based, and business organizations to coordinate and integrate statewide family engagement initiatives from cradle to career.

The Family Engagement in Education Act strengthens the Parental Information and Resource Centers (PIRCs), to provide high-quality capacity-building to schools, LEAs, and SEAs to scale-up research-based family engagement practices that drive student achievement. To meet the unique needs of local communities, this bill establishes a pilot demonstration program for local family engagement centers that would remove barriers to family engagement and provide direct services to families.

We thank you for leading the bipartisan effort to reauthorize ESEA and prepare all students to be successful in college and career. We support the Family Engagement in Education Act as a critical step toward ensuring a sound partnership between educators and parents to improve the education of our nation’s children.

Sincerely,

(This letter was signed by 60 national organizations, including those below, and nearly 200 state and local organizations.)

Campaign for Youth Justice
Child Welfare League of America (CWLA)
Community Action Partnership
First Focus Campaign for Children
League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
Learning Disabilities Association of America
National Alliance of Black School Educators
National Collaboration for Youth
Nation Council of La Raza (NCLR)
National Head Start Association (NHSA)
National Women's Law Center
Southern Poverty Law Center
United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA)

 

Andrea Levere

The Partnership is pleased to announce that Andrea Levere, President of the Corporation for Enterprise Development, will lead a workshop and discussion on CFED’s effective community economic development strategies and programs at our annual convention on Thursday, September 2nd in Boston. CFED is a private nonprofit organization with the mission of building assets and expanding opportunity for low-income people and disadvantaged communities through matched savings, entrepreneurship and affordable housing.

Through Ms. Levere’s vision and leadership, CFED designs and operates major national initiatives that aim to expand matched savings for children and youth, bring self-employed entrepreneurs into the financial mainstream and turn manufactured housing into an appreciating asset.

CFED operates a comprehensive public policy program to build and protect assets at the local, state and federal levels, and produces the nationally recognized “Assets and Opportunity Scorecard.” Last year, CFED launched innovation@cfed an initiative which focuses on accelerating the development of next generation strategies to expand economic opportunity.

CFED is headquartered in Washington, DC with offices in Durham, NC and San Francisco, CA. To learn more about CFED, visit http://www.cfed.org

“Andrea Levere is a highly-sought after speaker and nationally-recognized expert in economic development and we are delighted that she will be a key presenter at our convention,” said Partnership President & CEO Don Mathis. “From her leadership as board chair at the Ms. Foundation for Women through her current work as Chair of Resident Owned Communities USA and on the Bank of America’s National Consumer Advisory Council, Andrea is a major thinker and ‘can do’ leader. CFED and the Partnership are planning to collaborate on several projects in 2010 and beyond.”

 

Deadline for nominations is this Friday, June 18th!


Voting and Election Information for Partnership members

2010 is an election year for Community Action Partnership officers. The positions include: Chair; First; Second; and Third Vice Chairs; Secretary and; Treasurer.

Voting for the election of officers will take place at the Boston Marriott Copley Place, on Wednesday, September 1, 2010, from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm during the Community Action Partnership Annual Convention. To be considered for nomination to any of the above offices, the following procedures must be followed:

PROCESS:

1. Any interested member in good standing with Community Action Partnership wishing to be nominated for one of the six offices, should complete an official Vita Sheet and send to Chair, Nominations Committee, no later than Friday, June 18, 2010. You must use the 2010 Vita Form. You must indicate for which office you are running on the top line of the Vita Sheet.

2. Applications will be reviewed by the Nominations Committee to assure that each nominee meets the qualifications for office.

3. The Nominations Committee will establish all qualified candidates as the nominees for each of the six offices. The Nominations Committee consists of the 10 regional representatives on the Community Action Partnership Board of Directors.

4. The official slate of nominees for officers along with brief biographical information, voting and proxy guidelines and the proposed bylaws amendments will be mailed to the Board of Directors and to all member agencies not later than July 30, 2010.

Please mail or fax completed Vita Forms no later than COB Friday, June 18.

Send to: Teresa Cox, Chair
Nominations Committee
Community Action Partnership
1140 Connecticut Ave, NW, Suite 1210
Washington, DC, 20036
Fax: (202) 265-5048

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Pay tribute to Community Action with an ad in the 2010 Annual Convention program book!

Celebrate your role in America’s poverty fighting network and
Community Action: The Power of Partnerships by sending special greetings to
your colleagues, honoring your CAA's partners, and highlighting the unique history of your CAA.

Ad deadline is July 12. Click here for the ad registration form and prices.

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Convention Discount Early Bird Rates End on this Friday, June 18!

To view or download the 2010 Annual Convention Brochure or the Registration form, click here. Hotel rooms are selling quickly at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Click here to reserve online and assure your reservation is confirmed at the convention rate of $189.00 single or double.

Check out the inspiring news article below that describes the opening ceremony for the expanded community garden project in Howard County, Maryland. Bita Dayhoff and her incredibly hardworking staff and teams of volunteers did a superb job, and U.S. Senator Ben Cardin spoke glowingly about Community Action’s many roles in helping people in need during this economic downturn.

Admiring the new community garden plots in Howard County, Maryland are, from left, County
Executive Ken Ulman, Councilman Calvin Ball; Bita Dayhoff, President, Community Action Council
of Howard County, U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, and Don Mathis, Partnership President & CEO.
The Community Action Council will use the harvest for its food bank.

Fresh fruit, vegetables now on food bank's menu
Partnership gives needy families access to nutritious produce

By Jennifer Broadwater

Patrons of the Howard County Food Bank soon will have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, thanks to a unique new partnership between the county, Baltimore Gas and Electric, Columbia Gardeners and students from both public and private schools.

Bita Dayhoff, president of the Community Action Council, which runs the food bank, calls the arrangement "a dream come true."

"Look at how bountiful and beautiful it looks already," she said June 5, as she surveyed the five plots at the Long Reach Community Garden, where some 50 tomato plants, 20 zucchini plants, 30 green bean plants, 18 pepper plants and 15 Swiss chard plants are growing, along with strawberries, herbs, sweet potatoes and cantaloupes.

The food bank's five plots are part of a recent expansion at two of the county's three community gardens. The 47 new plots at the Long Reach garden and 57 new plots at the Elkhorn garden, both in east Columbia, don't just accommodate the food bank's desire to provide fresh, nutritious produce to clients. They also feed the growing demand among residents who wish to rent garden space.

Local officials gathered for a dedication ceremony at the Long Reach garden June 5. John Byrd, acting director of the Department of Recreation and Parks, credited his predecessor, the late Gary Arthur, with making the garden expansion a reality.

Arthur, who died May 27 of cancer, pushed for the expansion after receiving separate inquiries from Dayhoff and Columbia Gardeners president Clyde Pyers within weeks of one another in the spring of 2009. Dayhoff was seeking to establish a food bank garden, while Pyers was requesting an expansion to accommodate a 200-person waiting list for garden plots, which are managed by the garden club.

"If you knew Gary, when he said, 'See what you can do,' it didn't mean to put it on the back burner," Byrd said of Arthur.

County Executive Kenneth Ulman also praised Arthur's vision. "This was something that was as important to him as a ballpark," he said.

The expansion at the Long Reach garden was accomplished by adding plots on land owned by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. under power lines adjacent to the existing garden plots. Federal stimulus money was used to pay for an irrigation system, plants and other materials for the food bank plots.

Darryl Stokes, BGE's vice president of Engineering & Standards, called the partnership "a great example of how we can innovate" on land with limited uses. Timing is right

Dayhoff said the garden should begin to bear vegetables and fruit at the perfect time: later this month, when schools let out and some families with children who regularly receive free meals at school will need a wider variety of healthful food.

"Coming in as a mother of two, I have a sense of what's needed on that dinner table," Dayhoff said.
The food bank serves about 1,000 families, Dayhoff said. It experienced a 50-percent spike in clients from 2008 to 2009 and another 44-percent increase from 2009 to 2010.

Clients may visit once a month to receive enough food to last three to five days.

Dayhoff said she was grateful for the immediate support she received from both the county and from David Weeks, director of the Civic Leadership program at Glenelg Country School.

"He told me, 'Bita, you get the land, we'll get it done,'" she said of Weeks' willingness to recruit students to work the land.

Since mid-April, students from Glenelg Country School and Long Reach High School have worked on the food bank plots each Saturday, with some assistance from seasoned gardeners, Weeks said. Fahad Ahsan, 17, a rising senior at Glenelg Country School, said he became involved in the project through his membership in the school's Community Service and Adventure clubs.

"I was really happy to learn how to do it. My dad gardens, but I usually watch from inside," he said, with a laugh. "When I first came here it was just all grass. It started from scratch."

Long Reach ninth-grader Tanzena Azam, 14, on the other hand, came onto the project with a little experience, having planted tomatoes at her home. She said she was proud to be among the first students to work on the garden. "I'm satisfied with what we did," said Azam, who was recruited by her ESOL teacher, Carol Ikeda, to work on the project. Added Victor Crentsil, 16, a rising junior at Glenelg Country: "Once people come together and have a common goal, it's really amazing what you can do."

DNIK TO ASSISTN PATHWAYS TO EXCELLENCE REPORT,
POLICY ANALYSIS, CONVENTION LOGISTICS

 

WELCOME, CAROLINE!

The University of Rhode Island has the mottoes “Thinking small isn’t big here” and “Think Big. We Do.” The Partnership’s summer 2010 intern Caroline Spodnik is a big thinker (hunger policy is her passion) and a hard worker. She is studying political science at URI, captained her cross country team, and already has compiled an impressive list of volunteer activities and awards. She is working with Lil Dupree on analyzing our Pathways to Excellence program, assisting Don by preparing analytic memos, and working with Avril Weisman and Sranda Watkins on membership tasks and on our Annual Convention in Boston. Caroline already is planning to volunteer for us in Boston. Welcome Caroline!