President Obama Releases FY 2016 Budget

On Monday, the President released his FY2016 Budget and it included several pieces of good news along with other components that will require additional review.  David Bradley and NCAF provided a great review of key Community Action-focused funding components.  As NCAF noted, CSBG is in the bu dget at last year's level, which is wonderful news! NCAF quoted the budget document which states,

"This request reflects the significant effort and program improvements achieved with the establishment of a new performance management framework for CSBG. Most notably, ACF has led a nationwide effort, in consultation with the CSBG Network, to develop and implement organizational standards for local agencies as well as establish new accountability measures for states and the federal office. This budget level supports implementation of ongoing reforms and innovations to CSBG that will strengthen accountability and performance management at the federal, state and local levels, and provides flexibilities to local communities to achieve better results by continuously monitoring and improving their performance." 

To access the relevant budget documents/information, see the links below:

President Obama's Budget: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Overview/

HHS Budget Highlights: http://www.hhs.gov/budget/fy2016-budget-factsheet.html

HHS Budget in Brief: http://www.hhs.gov/budget/fy2016/fy-2016-budget-in-brief.pdf

ACF Budget Justification to Congress: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/olab/2016_acf_cj_final_for_print_1_28_upted.pdf

Investing in America's Future (see page 40 for the Upward Mobility Project which includes CSBG): http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2016/assets/investing.pdf

HUD: http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/budget

DOE: http://energy.gov/cfo/downloads/fy-2016-budget-justification) 

This webinar was recorded and has been posted on the Partnership's website along with the slides in both .PDF and .PPT form.  This webinar and the resources mentioned can also be found in the Resource Bank of the CSBG T/TA Resource Center at www.csbgtta.org.

Please keep an eye out for additional informational webinars from OCS and the Partnership. You may want to visit our website where updates are posted on Standards and ROMA Next Generation here.

An Interview with Denise Harlow in the Nonprofit Quarterly

Many of you have met Rick Cohen over the years at various Community Action events.  You may have read his writing on Community Action, nonprofit management, good government, and other topics.  Rick recently spoke with Partnership CEO Denise Harlow to talk about her new position and the challenges facing Community Action and the families we serve. 

A portion of the article is below and click here to read the full piece.

....Every year, the State of the Union brings up a particular linguistic, anthropological question: Will the president, or any recent president, mention the word "poverty"? No president since Bill Clinton has grappled with poverty as an issue, concept, or theme in his annual address to both houses of Congress, and this year was no exception. Just imagine: The president knits his most recent State of the Union address around middle-class economics, while Mitt Romney, the two-time candidate who wrote off nearly half of the electorate as too dependent on government to vote anything other than Democratic, announces that poverty might be a central theme if he takes a third try. Go figure.  But that's the challenge Denise Harlow faces as she takes the helm of the Community Action Partnership, the national association that represents and advocates for the nation's network of some one-thousand community action agencies....

To read more, click here. 

The President's Task Force on New Americans and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) invite you to participate in a listening sessions on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015, from 1 to 2 p.m. (Eastern) to discuss federal strategies to strengthen the civic integration of new Americans.

On Nov. 21, 2014, President Barack Obama issued a memorandum establishing a White House Task Force on New Americans, an interagency effort to develop a coordinated federal strategy to better integrate new Americans into communities.

During these listening sessions, Task Force members and USCIS officials will provide an overview of the Task Force on New Americans and seek your feedback on best practices or strategies for successfully integrating immigrants into local communities.

To register for these sessions, please follow the steps below: 

• Visit our registration page to confirm your participation
• Click here to register
• Enter your email address and select "Submit"
• Select "Subscriber Preferences"
• Select the "Event Registration" tab
• Provide your full name and organization
• Complete the questions and select "Submit"

Once we process your registration, you will receive a confirmation email with additional details. If you have any questions about the registration process, or if you do not receive a confirmation email within two business days, please email us at Public.Engagement@uscis.dhs.gov.  

1095 A Video Now Available  

Who: Is your CAA operating a VITA Site?  Then learning more about Form 1095-A is critical. 

What: A new video has been produced to help explain the basics of Form 1095-A

Title: The Affordable Care Act and Form 1095 A - The Basics

Description: A brief overview of the basics around Form 1095-A, including general questions and answers relating to the form.   This includes a background of who would get the form, what the form looks like, what is included on the form,  and descriptors of the household information.

Tags: Form 1095A, Affordable Care Act and Taxes, APTC, PTC, Tax Credit

Access it here! http://youtu.be/2YQa9-7H7f8    

 2015 Assets & Opportunity Scorecard from CFED

The 2015 Assets and Opportunity Scorecard issued by the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), provides state-by-state data on financial assets and income, businesses and jobs, housing and home ownership, health care, and education.

Have you checked out the New Realities Blog on the Partnership's homepage lately?  If not, you may want to take a read here.  Below, it this month's posting that may be of interest! 

Nope, that's not a typo.  RREAL is short for the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance, the Minnesota based non-profit that is the source of that hopeful story I promised in the last post.  Here is how RREAL tells their story:

RREAL was founded in 2000 by Jason Edens, a high school teacher with a keen interest in solar technologies and a vision for a better way to help struggling families through the winter. Supported by a group of dedicated volunteers, RREAL operated from Jason's basement and garage for five years. RREAL remained an all volunteer organization until 2005, when organizational development and fundraising had matured to a point where Jason was able to dedicate himself full-time. RREAL has been mushrooming in growth ever since. Late in 2006, a significant jump in RREAL's capacity was made through the Americorps VISTA program. RREAL has had available the talents of 7 full-time VISTA members.

RREAL is now far from its humble basement roots, and operates out of a fully equipped facility on the Hunt Utilities Group research campus in Pine River. We are a lean, green, fully functioning manufacturing, contracting, research and advocacy machine.

Looking to work on CSBG at the national level?  NASCSP is hiring!

The National Association for State Community Services Program (NASCSP) in Washington, DC, has the following positions several positions open:
 

Calling All Trainers!

The Community Action Partnership's 2015 Annual Convention will be August 25-28 at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis.   Do you have best practices to share with your peers?  Innovative program models?  Then consider submitting a presentation concept through the Community Action Partnership's Call for Presentations which is now open.  

The deadline for submissions for the Call for Presentations is April 10, 2015.

Put in today for August!