SCCAP is seeking Head Start employees

The South Central Community Action Program (SCCAP) is seeking to fill several positions as a result of receiving a grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to expand its Head Start program. 

Safety-Net is back

Safety-Net (PDF of new issue: SF Nov 2009) is a quarterly multi-agency newspaper sponsored by the South Central Community Action Program (SCCAP) that addresses issues confronted by those in our community experiencing difficulties related to poverty, lack of or potential loss of housing, under-employment or lack of employment, inadequate health care, as well as other needs that can be addressed by a caring community.

The goal of the newspaper is to foster a positive interaction within our community between people that have resources that they can share with those who have fewer resources and want to cross the bridge to a better life. Such positive interactions already exist in our community, and one of the goals of this publication is to increase awareness of what is being done, and what must be done, and also to foster more caring interactions between our community members.

 Readers will learn what SCCAP and the other local social service/non-profit agencies, the city of Bloomington and Monroe County governments do to help those in need, and how you can volunteer to help.

You can check out the 16-page November edition by clicking here: SF Nov 2009.

There are stories about all of SCCAP’s program on pages 5-7.  Five thousand hard copies of this newspaper will be available at SCCAP and other locations around the community later this week.

We give our thanks to Safety-Net Editor David White and page designer Evan Wade! They donated many hours of their time to make this publication possible.  We also thank Mayor Mark Kruzan and others who contributed articles to the November issue, which is focused on poverty and homelessness. Also, thanks to Joe Lee for his editorial cartoons.

The Harvest Report

Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, an local organization that focuses on providing healthy food, has a new newsletter out with the news that MHC has won a “Best of the Best” award for innovative programs. Congratulations!

First family to have SCCAP weatherize its home with Recovery Act funds loses wife/grandmother

UPDATE 11/5/09: There is an excellent story in the Herald Times today about this family. The link is http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2009/11/05/news.qp-8507578.sto?1257449327  for those with subscriptions.

Reminder: SCCAP is taking donations to assist this family. Please give any contribution that you’d like to make to Cherly Ann in the Weatherization Dept. by this Friday, Nov. 6. She can be reached at cherlyan@sccap.monroe.in.us or 339-3447, ext. 224.

I want to share a sad, but touching story about the family that lives in the first home that SCCAP’s Weatherization Program has completed with Recovery Act funds.

SCCAP finished the energy efficiency improvements on this home early last week. Because it was the first of about 150 that we will be weatherizing with close to $900,000 in Recovery Act funds, I decided to go to the home to get some pictures and talk with the homeowner for a story on this blog.

When I arrived, the homeowner, Peter Elliott, happened to be standing outside his home just blocks from the SCCAP office. He told me that he’d be glad to share his experiences with having his home weatherized, but that it wasn’t the best day to go inside and do that because his wife was expected to die that day.

I’m telling you this story today because we just learned from a death notice on HeraldTimesOnline.com that Peter’s wife, Eva Elliott, died last Thursday, a day after I’d met him.

SCCAP Head Start needs more classroom space

With the receipt of a grant from the Office of Head Start, SCCAP Head Start will serve 32 additional children in full-year classrooms. For the low-income families we serve, this crucial opportunity to have full-year care means they won’t have to find other child care in the summer that could impact their employment, education and/or financial situation. Two current Head Start locations will be used for the full-year program, but this means two of our school-year programs urgently need new homes from January through May.

We need classroom space with at least 560 sq ft. inside, a bathroom in the room, preferably two exits, and an outside area of at least 1200 sq ft. that can be used as a playground. Playground equipment is not needed.  If you have space that meets these minimum requirements, please contact Shirley Stumpner at shirley@headstart.bloomington.in.us .

Today’s book sale is underway

Stop by and check it out! It will be open from now until 2 and from 4-5.

Book prices range from just 25 cents to a dollar. Crazy Kate is wheelin’ and dealin’. Make her an offer!

Notes from this week’s staff meeting

The SCCAP book sale will be today (Thursday) from 11:30-2 and 4-5. There will be several hundred books for sale. Prices are just 25 cents to a dollar per book.

SCCAP will hold a Thanksgiving meal for employees at lunchtime on Nov. 16. The agency will provide turkey and employees will provide side dishes. There will be a contest for the best side dish.

Head Start is looking for two new sites to serve children in Monroe County, so if you know of any possibilities, please get in touch with Director of Head Start Shirley Stumper.

Shirley also reported that we expect to get the official word in mid- to late-December on whether our application to start an Early Head Start program was approved.

SCCAP Section 8 Coordinator Kathleen Edwards has been meeting with people at the top of our Section 8 wait list with the expectation that up to 70 additional households will receive vouchers to subsidize their rental costs to live in private housing.

The Energy Assistance Program staff continues to be exceptionally busy in the offices in all four SCCAP counties. So far, 1,643 households have been approved for heating assistance since the winter program began on Oct. 5.

The Weatherization Program has finished four homes with Recovery Act funds and has another 47 in process. The weatherization staff is also exceptionally busy in working to meet a goal of 45 homes completed by the end of November.

The Circles Initiative has been able to recruit all of the Allies it needs for now, which is very good news. In addition, Circles will be adding new Circles Leaders in January as a new Getting Ahead class begins.

Circles will hold a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, Nov. 19. Turkeys for that meal have been donated by the Clear Creek Christian Church and food baskets have been donated by a group at IU. Look for a story about Circles in the December issue of Bloom Magazine.

Many families living above the official federal poverty line don’t earn enough to meet basic needs

A recently completed report shows that the actual amount of income required to live self-sufficiently and meet basic needs in Indiana is far higher than the federal poverty standard. Big surprise there, huh! 

 

This report, The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Indiana 2009 by the University of Washington School of Social Work, provides its own minimum “Self-Sufficiency Wage” based on costs for housing, childcare, food, transportation, health care, taxes and other expenses, as well as on where you live.

 

Examples of the annual self-sufficiency wage in the Bloomington area, for instance, are $17,244 for an adult; $31,946 for an adult and a preschooler; $41,612 for an adult, an infant and a preschooler; $28,063 for an adult and a teenager; $55,482 for an adult, an infant, a preschooler and a school-age child; and $47,226 for two adults, a preschooler and a school-age child.

 

CJAM 5th Annual Breadfest on Nov. 18

From www.cjam.org:

Nov 3, 2009 UPDATE: We are extending the deadline for baker registrations to MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16 at 12 NOON

Breadfest 2009 is our fifth annual celebration of mediation and restorative justice with our community friends and supporters.  A stunning array of breads and snacks, local juices, vintages and brews, local music and a silent auction.  Date:  Wednesday, November 18th 6-8:30 p.m. at Fountain Square Mall Ballroom.  Admission $10 at the door.  All ages welcome.

New bus for Head Start to arrive in December

More improvements are on their way for the SCCAP Head Start program.

A new, $56,346 bus has been purchased thanks to a grant through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It will arrive in December.

The upgrade, said Transportation Coordinator Kathy Potts, was needed. Previously, the program used a 13-year-old 1997 wheelchair accessible bus.

Potts said this bus was incurring five to seven times more maintenance costs than newer models. Additionally, parts were becoming harder to find, as the manufacturer went out of business.

The new bus will be a 2010, 27-passenger model that will be equipped with a wheelchair lift and tie downs as well as a “tracked” floor that can secure either a wheelchair or removable seats.

The bus will also contain more advanced mirrors and defrosters, as well as lighting and cooling systems.

The most important aspect, Potts said, is how tailored the bus will be to the needs of kids. It will have a Child Alert System, which will tell drivers that all children who have boarded have also departed. Additionally, it will have seats specially made for children’s smaller size, which will boost safety.

Potts says this bus will be more cost-effective and help better serve the children using it overall.

“We are very privileged and thankful to have been awarded this grant to purchase a new bus,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Study: Nearly half of U.S. kids will receive food stamps

A newly released study says that nearly half of U.S. children and 90 percent of black children will be on food stamps at some point during their childhood.

Can these numbers actually be close to correct? If so, what would that say about the state of our economy and the difficulties faced by average families? What would it say about the growth in income disparity between the haves and the have-nots that in a country where some people have so much that almost half of the children in the country – and 90 percent of black children! - would live in families eligible for food stamps at some point?

To read about this new study in the Indianapolis Star, click here.

Don’t forget about Halloween yet!

done

Take a look at this slideshow from the Eigenmann Halloween party with Head Start and the Circles Initiative!

Click the button on the bottom right corner of the slideshow for a full-screen view.

Photos by Michael Lantow. Slideshow by Lauren Sedam.

Dine at Lennie’s for the United Way tonight

From the United Way of Monroe County: Just a reminder to join us tonight (Monday, November 2nd) for a delicious United Way fundraiser. From 4-11 pm, Lennie’s Restaurant will donate 20% of your dinner bill to United Way of Monroe County when you have a Helping Hand Certificate.

 

Be sure to swing by United Way if you don’t already have your Helping Hand Certificate (Give us a call at (812) 334-8370 with any questions). Only one certificate per table is needed so bring your friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. Lennie’s is located at 1795 E 10th St in Bloomington.

Enjoy a great meal at Lennie’s while helping to improve lives in our community!

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is the deadline for SPEA Toolkit 2009 to be held Friday

The NonProfit Alliance of Monroe County and Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) present a 1 day symposium comprised of guest lecturers from a wide array of expertise on Major Gifts, Board Development, Event Planning, Internal Dispute Resolution, Media Relations and Planned Giving. 

 

Date: Friday, November 6, 2009

SCCAP staff getting ready to help other communities start their own Circles Initiative

Okay, it may not look delicious yet, but give it 10 days and it will be.  

The South Central Community Action Program’s Todd Lare, Linda Patton and Bonnie Vesely made the bread starter for Amish friendship bread last week. They’re making the bread –  it takes 10 days to prepare – to get ready for a conference they’ll be attending next week.

At that conference on Nov. 9-12 in Phoenix, they’ll be participating in a ”train the trainer” process to help them get ready to be part of an upcoming Circles training center in Indiana. That center will help c0mmunities in Indiana who want to join the national Circles Campaign and start their own local Circles initiative.   

In today’s news . . .

We have excerpts and links below about the following:

• A story about the possibility of billions more in federal funds for early childhood education. 
• A blog post written by self-described weatherization fanatic and U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Cho
• A column about a state effort in Colorado to find a middle ground between leaders who believe in assisting the poor and others who want the poor to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.    
• A story about Rep. Joe Lieberman’s vow to end poverty (OK, this never happened, but why not read about it anyway?).

National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week Nov. 15-21

From shalomcommunitycenter.org:  National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week provides us with an opportunity to see more, learn more, and do more about poverty in our local community. Though this week is observed nationally, our focus is on the problems of hunger and homelessness right here in Bloomington, Indiana. Please join us as we raise awareness and work together to alleviate poverty.

Saturday, November 14 – Join us at the Showers Atrium at 11 a.m. for the official mayoral proclamation of Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

Monday, November 16 – “Show and Tell: Stories of Poverty,” 7 p.m. at Rachael’s Cafe, 300 E. Third St. A collection of monologues performed by IU students taking a public speaking course focused on issues of hunger and homelessness. Free.

Report: Pelosi pushing bill to expand Medicaid

Nancy Pelosi is backing off of a public option which uses Medicare rates, and is pushing instead a bill that will increase Medicaid coverage to anyone making 150% of poverty. A summary of the Affordable Health Care for America Act is available at PBS.org.

The new House bill would expand Medicaid to cover childless adults, parents and others with incomes less than 150 percent of the poverty level, or $33,075 for a family of four. This goes beyond the earlier House bill and a companion measure in the Senate, which would extend Medicaid to people with incomes less than 133 percent of the poverty level ($29,327 for a family of four).

Read this entire article at TrueSlant.com.

A poverty discussion . . .

"The reality is," says Dannel Malloy, Stamford's mayor, "We live in an America where poverty has been mostly ignored for most of the last nine years. We live in an America that has not minded, quite frankly, seeing poverty increase across our country ... We live in an America that has chosen to lower taxes on the very rich while [cutting] services, relatively across the board, to those who are least among us ... it's not been a very pretty America to live in."


From the Huffington Post. Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-st-jean/poverty-a-discussion-amon_b_337771.html

Head Start settles into fall, gets ready for expansion

As students are settling in and making pumpkin projects, the Head Start program is preparing for some changes.

Director of Head Start Shirley Stumpner said moving from the summer to fall, when most programs start back up, has been busy but relatively smooth.

At the beginning of the year, she said, staff spends a lot of time trying to come up with a final roster as students come and go, as well as trying to integrate new and old students into the classes.

She also said they have been sorting out several staff changes due to leave and hiring subs.