November 1, 2016

PARTNERSHIP NEWS

2017 Management and Leadership Training Conference
Share your Agency's Success with the Ignite Presentation Model

NEWS YOU CAN USE

ROMA Next Gen 30 Day Comment Period
Homelessness Among Young Children Calls for Coordinated Two Gen Approch
New Outcome Briefs Show Services Work for Low Income People and Highlight Policies
10 Percent of VA Home Loans are Made to Women Veterans
USICH Discusses Sustaining Momentum in Ending Homelessness with new Administration
Upcoming Funding Opportunities

TRAININGS AND WEBINARS

Decreasing Family Homelessness Session 4
Supporting the Wellness of Military Children and their Families

PARTNERSHIP NEWS

2017 Management and Leadership Training Conference (MLTC)

Share Your Agency's Success

This year's MLTC will feature a session based on the Ignite presentation model.

The Partnership is looking for five agencies to share a success story demonstrating an agency best practice and impact
.

To be considered for this session, please send a one paragraph overview of what you'd like to share to cnewman@communityactionpartnership.com and jtolbert@communityactionpartnerhip.com by Friday, December 2nd, 2016.

Please note the Ignite presentation model affords presenters 20 slides, which automatically advance every 15 seconds. The result is a concise and entertaining presentation which lasts just 5 minutes.

To learn more about Ignite, visit: http://www.ignitetalks.io/

NEWS YOU CAN USE

ROMA Next Gen 30 Day Comment Period

OCS released the revised version of the CSBG Annual Report and Dear Colleague Letter on October 25, 2016, prior to the official start of the Federal Register Notice (FRN#2) 30-day comment period. The FRN#2 was released today, officially starting the 30-day comment period.

To read the FRN#2, click here

To read the Dear Colleague Letter, click here.

To download the entire package, click here.

Today, the National Partners will host a ROMA NG/CSBG Annual Report Update webinar. Don't miss this opportunity to join Jeannie Chaffin, OCS, Jenae Bjelland, NASCSP, Denise Harlow, CAP, and Barbara Mooney, ANCRT as they walk through the revised package and the process to provide feedback.

What: OCS, NASCSP, ANCRT, and Community Action Partnership National webinar

When: November 1, 2016 at 4:00 ET/3:00 CT/2:00 MT/1:00 PT

Register: http://bit.ly/2CommentWebinar

Please note this webinar will be recorded and available to you if you are unable to attend the live event.

Statement on Homelessness Among Young Children
Calls for Coordinated Two-Generation Approach to Care

An Interagency Policy Statement was released this week from the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Education (ED) on "ways in which early childhood and housing providers at the local and, in some cases, State levels can collaborate to provide safe, stable, and nurturing environments for pregnant women and families with young children who are experiencing or at risk of homelessness."

Many of the findings are aspects of poverty that Community Action understands well: the influence of poverty and homelessness stressors on children's development leading to toxic stress, the barriers of trauma for children and parents when seeking services, and the prevalence of under served racial groups experiencing poverty and homelessness.

Yet some of the statistics may not be as well known:

Almost half of the children in families accessing shelter and transitional housing in a given year are under age 6-over 150,000 young children
According to the recent HUD-funded Family Options Study, 27.1 percent of families experiencing homelessness were headed by someone under the age of 25

The Statement offers a number of recommendations that Community Action has the capacity to participate in and implement in its communities including:

Support a Two-Generation Approach by Developing and Strengthening Partnerships across Early Childhood and Housing Programs and Systems
Enhance early childhood program and system integration with the Continuum of Care (CoC)'s coordinated entry process
Improve, leverage, and integrate early childhood homelessness data

Read the complete statement for more details on the experience of young children facing homelessness and learn how local agencies can make a difference.

New Outcome Briefs Show Services Work for

Low Income People and Highlight Policies to Help Even More

Having the numbers to prove that a program has significant benefits, does what it was intended to do, and the funding and legislation that could help maintain or improve the services is an incredibly powerful tool. The Coalition on Human Needs has released just that.

Their outcome sheets on Child Care Assistance, Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Social Security Disability Insurance, and Supplemental Security Income provide data on the need, data on the outcomes, and legislative or funding proposals that could help or hurt the program.

Did you know:

The SNAP benefit formula makes up for the difference between 30 percent of a family's income and the amount needed to meet the US Agriculture Department's Thrifty Food Plan.
Of participants between 2008 and 2012, 26% left the SNAP program within four months.
SNAP is good for local economies, as every $5 in new SNAP benefits generates as much as $9 of economic activity.
According to the CBPP, about 83 million people-including 47 million children-claim the ETC or the low-income component of the CTC.
Most EITC recipients claim the credit for 1-2 years at a time, mainly to offset the cost of a child's birth or a spouse's loss of income.
In 2013, the number of children in poverty would have been one-quarter higher without the EITC.
Funding has not kept pace with rising costs: according to a report by Child Care Aware, a family of three living at the poverty level would have to pay between 24% and 85% (depending on their state of residence) of their income for full-time center-based care for one infant.
65% of parents' work schedules are affected by child care challenges an average of 7.5 times over a six month period.

This compiled data and advocacy talking points could be helpful for discussing the causes and conditions in a Community Needs Assessment, deciding priorities in a Strategic Plan, or designing messages for advocacy.

Download and share the Outcome Sheets from CHN at http://www.chn.org/outcomes/

10 Percent of VA Home Loans are Made to Women Veterans

Over the past decade, Women Veterans have made up roughly 10 percent of Veterans and Service members who use their VA home loan benefit. In FY15, nearly 66,000 Women Veterans obtained VA-guaranteed loans totaling nearly $16 billion. Over the past five years, over 270,000 Women Veterans have taken advantage of their home loan benefit.

"The drive to own a home was so powerful that I took advantage of my first VA-backed home loan at my first permanent duty station in the Army. I used it again to buy a house once I was a civilian, and it was meaningful for me and my husband to have our own home when we had children."

To read the full article, click here

USICH Discusses Sustaining Momentum in Ending Homelessness

United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) Chair and HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell convened our third Council meeting of 2016 on October 18. Council members discussed the progress seen on ending homelessness across the country and efforts underway to make sure that momentum is sustained.

The Council invited three national organizations to share their perspectives on priorities for 2017 and also heard from four of the interagency working groups on efforts planned for 2017.

Four common themes came from the meeting:

We must continue to strengthen our data, estimates, and projections.
We must secure the necessary investments of resources to take interventions to scale.
We need to continue to provide guidance and technical assistance to communities to help them build capacity to use resources and best practices as efficiently as possible.
We must continue to engage mainstream systems to ensure a strong focus and partnership on housing and homelessness issues.

Read the full update

Upcoming Funding Opportunities

RURAL HEALTH NETWORK DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

The Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP) will award approximately $27 million over a three-year project period to support the Program's goal of assisting rural health care providers in acclimating to the evolving health care environment, including delivery system reform and the focus on population health and value based payment. Eligible networks applying to this program will demonstrate that they have positioned themselves for these changes and must be mature, integrated health care networks that have combined the functions of the entities participating in the network in order to: achieve efficiencies; expand access to, coordinate, and improve the quality of essential health care services; and strengthen the rural health care system as a whole.

Click here for more information.

Applications are due Monday, November 28, 2016

ASSETS FOR INDEPENDENCE

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Community Services (OCS) will be accepting applications for grants to administer projects for the Assets for Independence (AFI) demonstration program. AFI is a community-based approach for giving low-income families a hand up out of poverty. Utilizing existing individual and community assets, AFI strengthens communities from within through the use of matched savings accounts called Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). Through financial education, AFI demonstrates the use and impact of IDAs to help low-income individuals move toward greater self-sufficiency.

Click here for more information.

Applications are due: April 3, 2017

COMMUNITY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT HEALTHY FOOD FINANCING INITIATIVE

The Department of Health and Human Services is offering grant funds to CDCs for community-based efforts to improve the economic and physical health of people in areas designated as food deserts or where applicants can point to indicators of need, such as poor access to a healthy food retail outlet, a high percentage of individuals with low-income, incidence of diet-related health conditions, or high concentrations of persons eligible for food assistance programs. Through the Community Economic Development (CED) program and within the framework of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI), the Department seeks to fund projects that implement strategies to increase healthy food access, foster self-sufficiency for individuals and families with low income, and create sustained employment opportunities in communities with low incomes

Click here for more information.

Applications are due April 28, 2017

TRAININGS AND WEBINARS

Decreasing Family Homelessness Session 4

Decreasing Family Homelessness Session 4:

Young Children Experiencing Homelessness

Wednesday, November 9th

2 pm ET

The Partnership is pleased to collaborate with the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) to provide our next national webinar series event, Decreasing Family Homelessness Session 4: Young Children Experiencing Homelessness.

This webinar, part of the Decreasing Family Homelessness Webinar Series, will examine homelessness among very young children and their families. Speakers will provide an overview of the research on the extent and impact of homelessness among young children, examine federal policy initiatives designed to improve their access to early education, and how state and local partners are working to improve the integration of housing and early child development services. The role of community action agencies in facilitating the integration of housing and child services will also be explored.

Register Here!

Supporting the Wellness of Military Children and their Families

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)'s Service Members, Veterans, and Their Families Technical Assistance Center Presents:

Resources, Innovations, and Partnerships: Supporting the Wellness of Military Children and their Families

November 22, 2016; 1:30-3:00 p.m. ET

Since 9/11, millions of military children across the country have experienced the heartbreak of having a parent leave for a prolonged deployment. Research has shown that military and veteran children are particularly resilient, especially when provided with the right tools, activities, and support. Strengthening their resiliency and helping military families to cope with frequent moves, family transitions, loss, and separation are important steps in supporting our military and veteran families. But, how to start, and where to go?

Click here to learn more and register for the webinar

Community Action Partnership
1020 19th Street, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20036
www.communityactionpartnership.com