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SAVE THE DATE
FOR FPP EVENTS
BANK ON FLORIDA PRE-PAID WEBINAR
September 7, 2012
10:00 AM
Space is limited.
Contact Bill Mills today to register.
More information.
WORKSHOP: Helping Employees, Clients, and Customers Move Ahead Through Financial Stability
Friday, September 7, 2012 12:30pm - 2:30pm Heart of Florida United Way
RSVP (by Sept. 4) to Mark Batchelor
or call 407-835-9762
More information
WEBINAR: Understanding Asset Building & Public Benefits for Persons with Disabilities
September 10 & 24, 2012
1:30 to 3:00 PM Eastern
Register Today!
More information
TRAIN-THE-TRAINER
Duval County Extention Services in Jacksonville
September 18 and 25, 2012
More information
FPP REGIONAL MEETINGS
Register here
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THE FLORIDA PROSPERITY PARTNERSHIP (FPP)
| The Florida Prosperity Partnership (FPP), was formally established in March 2009, evolving from a number of parallel and earlier efforts to create a statewide coalition dedicated to improving the financial stability and capability for low-to-moderate income Floridians.
FPP PURPOSE: To convene individuals and organizations with the desire to leverage their talent, resources, and passion to improve the prosperity of Florida's families.
FPP VISION: All Floridians have equal opportunities to attain financial stability.
FPP MISSION: Establish a statewide collaboration holistically focused on providing life-enhancing services to Floridians.
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FPP EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Janet Hamer, Chair
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Daniella Levine, Vice-Chair
Catalyst Miami
Sandra Bernard-Bastien,
Children's Services Council of Broward
Ted Granger, Treasurer
United Way of Florida
Evan Goldman
CSC of Broward County
George Owen
Regions Bank
Maureen Quinlan
United Way of Marion County
Mike Smith
TD Bank
FPP BOARD MEMBERS
Ron Albert
IRS
Anika Coney
Hillsborough County Dept. of FAS
Dr. Michael Gutter
University of Florida, IFAS
Valerie Hendriex-Jenkins
Wells Fargo
Iris Jones
BB&T Bank
Mike Kennedy
Suncoast Community Capital
Roger Mercado
Community Cooperative Ministries
Katie Metz
National Disability Institute
Rosa Morgan
Community Assets Inc.
Joan Nelson
Heart of Florida United Way
Kasha Owers
United Way of Palm Beach County
Felipe Pinzon
Hispanic Unity of Florida
Ron Sharpe
United Way of Northwest Florida
Ellen Stoffer
United Way Suncoast
Barbara Travis
Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas
Jeff Winkler
Real$ense Prosperity Campaign
FPP STAFF
Kaye Schmitz
President and CEO
Bill Mills
Director of Strategic Initiatives
Pat Nelms
Community Education/Program Manager Penny Zaphel
Coordinator of Special Projects Emilie Pennington Graphics Designer Lynn Gill Bookkeeper THANK YOU TO OUR FUNDERS 
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Greetings!
Fall is approaching and September will be a very busy month.
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KAYE SCHMITZ
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The FPP will be represented at the DCF Summit this week in Orlando and then many of us will attend the CFED Assets Learning Conference in Washington in a couple of weeks. The highlight of this conference is our participation in Capitol Hill visits to the Florida Senators at the end of our Washington week. Look for an update in next month's newsletter about the success of those visits and what we learned. In addition, while we are in Washington, we will also meet with the National Community Tax Coalition and attend their ten year celebration, and then go to a few sessions at the Opportunity Nation Summit being held concurrent with the CFED conference. The FPP was approached this week by Opportunity Nation and asked to join--which, of course, we did.
It's time again for the Fall FPP Regional Meetings, so please save time in your schedule to attend one of the following gatherings. We are pleased to have some new hosts and different venues as we increase our presence across Florida. Come find out what's going on with organizations and programs in your area and let us know what you're working on as well. There is probably somebody who is waiting to meet you and work with you. The meetings are:
- October 9, from 10:30 am to 1:30 pm - Real$ense Prosperity Campaign, Jacksonville, FL
- October 10, from 12 noon to 3:00 pm - Heart of Florida United Way, Orlando, FL
- October 11, from 11:00 am to 1:30 pm at the Hilton Garden Inn in Fort Myers, FL - this meeting is sponsored and co-hosted by IBERIABANK, new FPP sponsor
- October 16, from 11:00 am to 2:00 pm - Envision Credit Union, Tallahassee, FL
- October 17, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm - Chipola College, Marianna, FL
- October 23, from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm - The Urban League, Fort Lauderdale, FL
- November 13, from 9:00 am to 11:00 am - Juvenile Welfare Board, Clearwater, FL
Invitations will be coming out shortly, but for more information about each location or to register click here. In addition, please check out the other scheduled events and dates in the sidebar section of this newsletter. Coming up shortly on September 10 is the quarterly FPP webinar, presented this month by the National Disability Institute and jointly sponsored by the Florida Developmental Disability Council (FDDC) and the FPP. The subject/title of the webinar is "Understanding Asset Building and Public Benefits for People with Disabilities in Florida." Please click here for details. You are probably aware of the controversy going on in Florida between Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Legislature about who is responsible for spending the more than $300 million that came to Florida from the nation's loan servicers as a result of the foreclosure crisis. As soon as the settlement was announced, the FPP wrote to Attorney General Bondi, encouraging her to spend the money on those who had been most affected by the crisis and who still needed the most help. A number of groups, led by Florida Consumer Action Network, are now publicly voicing opinion to encourage Attorney General Bondi to let the funds work where they will do the most good. Please click here to see the press release. I also encourage you to check out Member News--Mark Batchelor from Heart of Florida United Way, has a workshop coming up pretty quickly and Brian Kirk has made an offer from Florida Covering Kids and Families to provide Florida KidCare materials to those who can use them. Make certain to see these articles, along with Katie Metz's article about the upcoming NDI/FDDC/FPP webinar, and news updates from the National Community Tax Coalition, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Treasury. Have a wonderful September--I'll see you next month at the FPP Regional Meetings. Sincerely,  |
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 BANK ON FLORIDABy Bill Mills, Bank On Florida Director
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BILL MILLS
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Some quick items about things we are working on as the summer comes to a close:
- The Bank On Florida Pre-paid webinar is on September 7 at 10 AM (this is a separate from the scheduled FPP webinar). Dan Quan from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Romy Parzick from the Center for Financial Services Innovation (CFSI) will be our special guests. There is limited space available, so if you are interested in attending, please let me know ASAP. This will be invitation only.
- We held a webinar on August 31 to introduce an interactive web-based training, Fresh Start, being produced by UF/IFAS. This program is designed for those seeking second chance accounts in the Bank On programs. The webinar introduced the program in its beta form to our Bank On Florida Advisory Council who were excited to hear its innovative features. We look forward to telling you more about this program as it progresses.
- Bank On Florida had some great press this past month in the Lakeland Ledger. I was quoted in an article entitled, "Learning to Manage Money Is Part of Leaving Home for the First Time". You can read it here.
- We are now working on a Regional Bank On Tampa Bay program. There will be a forming meeting on October 5. If you work for a financial institution, a community based organization, or a government organization in the area and are interested in attending, please contact Eddie Burch at eburch@jwbpinellas.org.
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COMMUNITY EDUCATION UPDATE
By Pat Nelms, Community Education/Program Manager
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PAT NELMS
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Summer holidays are over, the kids are back in school and our high school graduates are off to college. We can now bring our focus back to our fall scheduling for Train-the-Trainer financial education classes.
We just completed a very successful Train-the-Trainer class with 26 participants in Ocala, Florida on Monday August 13th. I co-facilitated this class with April Atkins from the FDIC, and the training was sponsored by the National Disabilities Institute (NDI) and the United Way of Marion County.
On August 27th we facilitated a Train-the-Trainer class in Daytona sponsored by United Way of Volusia/Flagler. Additionally, there will be 2 training classes at the Duval County Extension Services in Jacksonville September 18th and 25th.
I am also very eager to receive your help with referrals for Train-the Trainer classes so we can live up to our organization's mission of creating financial stability in the State of Florida. Please call or e-mail me with your requests!
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MEMBER NEWS
By: Janet Hamer
WEBINAR: Understanding Asset Building & Public Benefits for Persons with Disabilities
By Katie Metz
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KATIE METZ
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We are pleased and excited to announce that the FPP's September 10 full membership call will highlight our valued partnership between National Disability Institute, Florida Developmental Disabilities Council, and Florida Prosperity Partnership by providing board members, partners, and individuals throughout the state of Florida with a valued educational webinar on public benefits for persons with disabilities. The recent FPP conference stated survey results noted the disability field was an area our FPP membership was highly interested in reaching out to and learning more about in the future. Please be sure to register and join us for both parts of this webinar with highly sought out information on this topic.
- WEBINAR & FULL MEMBERSHIP CALL: Understanding Asset Building & Public Benefits for Persons with Disabilities
- Presented by FPP, FDDC, & NDI
- Date: September 10 & 24, 2012
- Time: 1:30 to 3:00 PM Eastern
- Register today!
For more information click here.
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Get Florida KidCare Materials for Free By Brian Kirk
Community Outreach Coordinator
Florida Covering Kids & Families
Florida Covering Kids & Families is currently working overtime to ensure that Florida businesses, community-based organizationsand state agencies have Florida KidCare materials and resources on-hand during this Back-to-School season. We are pleased to provide all of our partners the ability to order Florida KidCare materials for distribution to their employees, clients and community, free of charge. Please CLICK HERE for an inventory list and let us know which items you would be interested in receiving and forward any materials requests to Brian Kirk at Florida Covering Kids & Families, bkirk@health.usf.edu, and we can submit the form on your behalf. Florida Covering Kids & Families will help to cover the associated shipping costs for outreach materials. Florida Covering Kids & Families helps to not only provide materials but we also work to link organizations with community partners that may be able to assist with application assistance and outreach. If you are conducting a Back-to-School event and would like Florida KidCare information present, please contact Brian Kirk, Community Outreach Coordinator at (813) 974-2180 or bkirk@health.usf.edu. Also, please remember we would gladly help to provide Florida KidCare presentations and application assistance training to interested organizations.
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TAX BUZZ FROM THE NCTC Please click here to access the latest issue of the NCTC Tax Buzz newsletter. __________________ Heart of Florida United Way and the Internal Revenue Service, in participation with The PROSPERITY CAMPAIGN OF CENTRAL FLORIDA Invite you to a workshop: Helping Employees, Clients, and Customers Move Ahead Through Financial Stability Friday, September 7, 2012 12:30pm - 2:30pm Heart of Florida United Way
RSVP (by Sept. 4) to Mark Batchelor
Mark.batchelor@hfuw.org or 407-835-9762
In these difficult times when all businesses are doing more with less, there are ways to help give hardworking employees a "raise" of up to $5,700* - at no cost to your company.
This is possible by partnering with Heart of Florida United Way's Prosperity Campaign of Central Florida in promoting the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which provides valuable federal tax refunds to workers whose income is within the eligibility guidelines.
EITC dollars also provide a significant boost to the Central Florida economy. An astounding $1 billion in refunds have been claimed regionally over the past four years - helping people reduce debt, save for a home, enroll in job training, pay for childcare, or cover any expense they chose. Most of that money is spent right here at local businesses.
Taxpayers can claim this credit and have their taxes prepared for free at one of dozens of free tax preparation sites throughout Central Florida. Learn more. |
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