Around Indiana
Developing Indiana Neighborhoods: Program 3 Tomorrow, August 1, Ice Miller LLP, the Indianapolis Coalition for Neighborhood Development (ICND), and IACED are pleased to present program 3 of a 4-part educational series, Developing Indiana Neighborhoods, for CDCs and other nonprofit owners and economic development officials in Indiana. Program 3 will include an in-depth presentation of New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) and a reception/networking opportunity. The program will be offered at no cost to ICND and IACED members from 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm. For location and event details, check out our blog post here. Registration is requested, but not required, by emailing Zachary Davis at zachary.davis@icemiller.com. Individual Development Account Tax Credits Support Asset Building for Hoosier Families IACED member and partner the Indiana Community Action Agency Association (INCAA) published a story in their newsletter on July 10, 2012 about Indiana's Individual Development Account (IDA) tax credit as a way to support the savings of low-income Indiana residents. IDAs are matched savings accounts that help people with modest means to save towards the purchase of a lifelong financial asset, such as a home. In Indiana, IDA funds are available to qualifying residents for the purchase or rehabilitation of a home, furthering educational opportunities, or starting or expanding a small business. Individual participants may receive matching funds for their IDA account from the State of Indiana through the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority. IDAs are available for Indiana residents who are below 175% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. Besides an appropriation from the Indiana General Assembly and federal grant funds, one of the ways Indiana generates revenue to match the savings of participating low-income Hoosiers is via the sale of the IDA tax credits. The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority recently announced the availability of $100,000 in IDA tax credits for purchase by individuals or companies to support IDA programs across the state. For more information, click here. Engagement Tools: One-on-one Interview This month, IACED staff has focused much of our blog content on community engagement and community organizing. One of the foundations of community organizing (or community engagement) is the one-on-one interview. A good community organizer will do one-on-ones continuously, and train others to so the same. The relationships need to be built between people, not just between the organizer and the residents. The one-on-one interview is a means of initiating or building a relationship. One-on-ones aren't just to get information and are certainly not for direct recruiting. The one-on-one process will reveal unexpected things: ideas, actions, partnerships, possibilities, strategies, and insights. In the context of a comprehensive community development process (and most contexts) it is important to remember that the work of relationship building needs to be done by those who need to be in relationship - hiring college interns to do the interviews will not yield relationships for the future. Interviewers need to be people who live or work in the neighborhood. For more information and some helpful guidelines, click here. Engagement Tools: Listening Circles There are many techniques for community engagement and organizing, one of those tools is listening circles. Listening circles are small groups that come together around a single topic, listening deeply as each person speaks (Mindful Peacebuilding). The listening circles create a "safe place" for people to be heard, without fear of judgement or negative consequences. Most listening circles involve a facilitator and 6-10 participants. Only one person speaks at a time. Each person is allowed 3-5 minutes to speak what he/she feels about the topic. Some experts believe that taking notes while a person is speaking inhibits the facilitator from observing body language, while others encourage note taking. After everyone has spoken there may be time for reflection on what has been said as a group. (American Values LLC) Listening circles are not a support group, a study group, a debate club, an action group, or a prayer group. They are a place where people can have their voices heard on a topic (American Values LLC). The discussion may lead to action groups, but that is not the purpose of the listening circle itself. To read more, click here. Across the Nation HUD Publishes Interim Regulations for the New Continuum of Care Program Under HEARTH Today, July 31, the interim HEARTH Act regulations for the new Continuum of Care (CoC) program within the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants program were officially published in the Federal Register. HUD had already released a copy of these regulations that can be found here. The existing homeless assistance programs that comprise the Continuum of Care program are the following: the Supportive Housing program, the Shelter Plus Care program, and the Moderate Rehabilitation/Single Room Occupancy (SRO) program. The Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Act of 2009 (HEARTH Act), enacted into law on May 20, 2009, consolidates three of the separate homeless assistance programs administered by HUD under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act into a single grant program, and revises the Emergency Shelter Grants program and renames it the Emergency Solutions Grants program. With today's publication in the Federal Register, the interim CoC regulation will go into effect on August 30, and public comments will be due on October 1. Please add your valuable input by submitting your comments here. Receiving Federal Funds? Know About the Federal Governments Conversion to the System for Award Management At the end July 2012, eight federal procurement systems and the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) will migrate to a one-stop federal system, the System for Award Management (SAM). Systems slated for consolidated in SAM include the Central Contractor Registration (CCR), the Federal Agency Registration (FedReg), the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), and the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS). Once the System for Award Management is online, the other systems will be shut down. All IACED members who are grant recipients or otherwise vendors of the federal government are encouraged to renew their Central Contractor Registrations (CCR) immediately to ensure that accurate information is migrated into the new System for Award Management. IACED encourages members to take steps now to ensure that your CCR registration has not expired, information is accurate, and your organization's points of contact for receiving messages from the CCR system are current. Guidance and support on the CCR can be found at www.ccr.gov and information on the upcoming SAM can be found at www.sam.gov. For more information, read our full blog post on this news by clicking here. | 
