New e-mail addresses at SCCAP

Email addresses at SCCAP were changed today. The old domain names, @sccap.monroe.in.us and @headstart.bloomington.in.us were both changed to @insccap.org.

This means, for instance, that my email address, which used to be doug@sccap.monroe.in.us, is now doug@insccap.org.

These changes coincide with an upcoming new website for SCCAP that will have the address insccap.org. You may have noticed that the old SCCAP website is available at that new address now.

For any questions about the new e-mail addresses, contact Beth Pankoski at 339-3447, ext. 233. Beth has distributed a memo to SCCAP staff that gives further explanation of this change.

CASI turns eatery into Head Start site

Here’s a story from the News-Tribune about how one of our fellow Indiana CAP agencies, Community Action of Southern Indiana, is spending close to $1.95 million in stimulus funds. One of the programs and projects these funds are being used to support is a new Head Start site in Sellersburg that used to be a restaurant.

http://www.news-tribune.net/clarkcounty/local_story_362230030.html?keyword=secondarystory

Not everyone enjoys peaceful winter day in Bloomington

As some of us are back in the office this week for another holiday-shortened week, it’s a peaceful day in Bloomington. IU students are out of town. Many of our co-workers and friends are still on vacation.

And it’s a cold day with a layer of snow on the ground. In contrast to the hoards of pre-Christmas shoppers, there aren’t many people on the roads today. It just doesn’t seem like much is happening in B-town.

But in our lobby at SCCAP, it’s a different story. We’ve had quite a crowd of people here seeking various types of assistance since early this morning. There was a story in the Herald-Times this morning about local agency leaders expecting to see greater needs for help in 2010.

It feels that way here today. While many people across the country are hoping for an economic recovery that will allow them to go back to leading their secure middle-class lives, what we see at SCCAP are people who likely were already struggling and have seen their lives become only more difficult with the recession. Job opportunities are scarce and the cost of living in Bloomington is still expensive. We see people every day having to make hard choices between such necessities as paying their rent and utilities, feeding themselves and buying medicine they need. We’re also seeing some formerly self-sufficient people who’ve never had to seek assistance from SCCAP before. And it doesn’t look like it’s getting any better at this point.

At SCCAP, we’re fortunate to be here to help those in need, and particularly to try to help them get back on a path where they can support themselves financially. We’re appreciative that the Obama Administration has provided us with more resources to do this job. But we still wish our lobby wasn’t so full and that there weren’t so many people struggling just to get by. They don’t get a holiday from worrying about being without power, without food or medicine, or without a place to live. There is no peace in their lives.

Being poor could be the greatest health burden

From the LA Times:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/12/being-poor-could-could-be-the-greatest-health-burden.html

Subscribe to Inside SCCAP

We’ve got a new “Email subscription” button that I’d like to bring to your attention. It’s at the top right corner of your screen.

Just click on it and provide your email address and you’ll be notified of each new post on Inside SCCAP.

SCCAP seeking website development contractor

Website Development RFP

South Central Community Action Program (SCCAP)  is currently soliciting proposals for the design, CMS development, custom application development, site maintenance, and hosting for insccap.org.

Stimulus funds to help area food programs

With the increase in people needing help in feeding themselves and their families in these difficult times, the South Central Community Action Program has allocated a portion of its federal stimulus funds to food programs in our area.

In all, SCCAP is providing $20,000 in federal Community Services Block Grants funds to the following organizations:

Hoosier Hills Food Bank – $10,000 to serve Brown, Owen & Monroe Counties
First Church of the Nazarene – $2,500 to serve Morgan County
Churches in Mission – $2,500 to serve Morgan County
Lighthouse Tabernacle – $1,000 to serve Owen County
Spencer Presbyterian Church – $1,000 to serve Owen County
St. Vincent DePaul – $1,000 to serve Brown County
Cunot Community Center Food Pantry – $1,000 to serve Owen County
Salvation Army – $1,000 to serve Brown County

SCCAP has received an extra $696,000 in Community Services Block Grant funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In addition to helping area food programs, SCCAP will also create a jobs program with this funding. The details of the jobs program are still being worked out.

Santa Claus is coming to SCCAP

Look who visited the South Central Community Action Program staff after a visit with our Head Start children.

SCCAP sponsors holiday dinner for Circles Initiative

About 70 people attended a Circles Initiative holiday dinner Thursday night at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church.

The meal of ham, potatoes, baked beans, mixed vegetable casserole, rolls and several delicious desserts was prepared by SCCAP staff and other volunteers.     

SCCAP one of three to receive Head Start expansion and Early Head Start grants

The lists of organizations receiving new Head Start Expansion and Early Start Expansion grant awards with stimulus funds is now public. The South Central Community Action Program was one of three organizations in Indiana to receive awards for both programs.

Head Start Expansion Awards:

Lincoln Hills Development Corporation	Suzette Zellers
Kokomo Center Township Consolidated School Corp.	Julie Worland
South Central Community Action Program	Shirley Stumpner
Family Development Services, Inc.	Kim Rhodes
GEMINUS Corporation	Len Jozwiak

 Early Head Start Expansion Awards:

South Central Community Action Program	Shirley Stumpner
Community Care in Union County	Jennifer English
GEMINUS Corporation	Len Jozwiak
Lincoln Hills Development Corporation	Suzette Zellers
Elkhart & St.  Joseph Counties Head Start Consortium	Kathy Guajardo
Human Services, Inc.	Jill Hammer
Community Action of Northeast Indiana, Inc.	Mary Lee Freeze
Community Action of East Central Indiana, Inc.,	Melissa Lingar
Action, Inc. Head Start,	Nancy Robinson
Community Action of Southern Indiana	Joy Shanks

Great news for Section 8 clients

We received some great news today from the state office that oversees SCCAP’s Section 8 funding and vouchers.  

Since SCCAP opened its Section 8 wait list in September, we’ve been able to add 72 households to the program in our f0ur-county service area. Those households have received a Section 8 voucher that gives them a federal subsidy to their rent to make a decent home affordable to them.  

We previously had been told by the state that we were not going to be able to provide any more new Section 8 vouchers after Dec. 15 (yesterday), but we learned today that at least for now we will be able to keep providing vouchers to families on our wait list.  We currently have the following number of households on wait lists:  Brown 9, Owen 4, Morgan 26, and Monroe 54. 

If we get through those wait lists and are still allowed to keep providing additional vouchers, it’s possible that we’ll open our wait lists again. We’ll keep you updated about that possibility.

Local reactions to the new “hybrid system”

SCCAP Executive Director Todd Lare was quoted in a story in Tuesday’s H-T about local reactions to Indiana’s overhaul of its failed welfare system. Here’s the quote that was used in the paper:

“My overall assessment of the hybrid is very positive,” said Todd Lare, executive director of the South Central Community Action Program. “Everything we do is based on building a relationship, and it’s hard to build a relationship on a telephone line. It sounds like this new system is bringing back that face-to-face contact to the county offices.”

For those who have subscriptions, you can read the entire story here: http://heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2009/12/14/news.qp-4738957.sto

SCCAP receives federal grant to start Early Head Start Program in Bloomington

The South Central Community Action Program announced at a news conference Tuesday at City Hall in Bloomington that it has been awarded funds to launch an Early Head Start program. Here are photos and the news release that was distributed to the media at the news conference.

We thank all those who participated in and attended this event.  The speakers included Mayor Mark Kruzan, Field Representative Jason Carnes from Congressman Baron Hill’s staff, SCCAP Executive Director Todd Lare and SCCAP Director of Head Start Shirley Stumpner.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Local families will soon have access to Monroe County’s first federally funded, low-cost program to provide child care and development services to children at the most critical time in their development — from birth to three years old.

The new Early Head Start program will begin in May 2010 thanks to a $578,160 grant to the South Central Community Action Program (SCCAP) that Congressman Baron Hill’s office announced Tuesday. That grant is for the first 10 months of the program’s start-up and operation. The federal Office of Head Start has committed to fund another 12 months after that and the hope is that funding will be ongoing in future years.

The second-year of funding, at $734,321, brings the two-year budget to more than $1.3 million.

FSSA releases details of new eligibility system

INDIANAPOLIS (December 14, 2009) - Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration has been known for bad customer service, subpar timeliness, and high error rates in the way it determines eligibility for Medicaid, Food Stamps (SNAP) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Family (TANF) programs. From 1990 to 2002, Indiana was fined eight times for more than $60 million by the federal government for its failure to make decisions on SNAP eligibility in a timely manner. Thirty-five percent of the Medicaid long-term care applications (FFY 2003) and 25 percent of the TANF applications (FFY 2006) approved by FSSA contained errors, and in FFY 2005, FSSA paid SNAP recipients $33.9 million more than they were entitled. 

In the news . . .

SCCAP Executive Director Todd Lare was quoted in a story Sunday in the Indianapolis Star about the slower than projected progress of Indiana organizations in weatherizing homes with Recovery Act funds:  http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009912130381

Obama proposing “Cash for caulkers,” a new stimulus program to provide reimbusement to homeowners who use contractors to make energy efficiency improvements: http://money.cnn.com/2009/12/14/news/economy/energy_retrofits/index.htm

SCCAP applies for City CDBG funds to expand parking lot

Here’s an update I should have provided earlier in the week – SCCAP submitted an application for City of Bloomington CDBG funding last Friday to help pay for an addition of 15 spaces in the parking lot at our Bloomington office.

As anyone who visits that office knows, SCCAP has a shortage of parking. It’s often difficult to find a space and as a result, we have cars parked in areas not intended for parking. This creates potentially dangerous situations, particularly with Head Start buses having to squeeze through narrow spaces and 70 Head Start children served at this location every day.

In addition, with the elderly and disabled composing a large part of the clientele that SCCAP serves, it is both difficult and dangerous when they have to park on streets away from our office.  

The next step in the CDBG application process is to make a presentation at a public hearing on Jan. 7. We’ll keep you posted on the status of this application.

Energy Assistance Program busy, busy, busy

SCCAP’s Energy Assistance Program continues to be ahead of the pace of recent years in how many clients it has served this winter and how much assistance has been provided to help people heat their homes.

Here are the numbers for 2009-10 EAP winter program since it began on Oct. 5. 

2,913 EAP applications have been approved for the winter heating assistance program.  $1,108,215.00 of regular assistance has been obligated.

Applicant numbers for crisis assistance are at 1,020 and $348,719.37 has been obligated.

Monday, we were at 2,768 households served (an increase of 145 over the same time last year) and $1,056,650 (an increase of $51,565) in regular assistance and $330,543 (an increase of $18,176) in crisis assistance.

Our EAP staff will be working this weekend to process as many pending applications as possible, so we’ll have new numbers next week.

Great job, SCCAP Weatherization staff!

The South Central Community Action Program brought in lunch for its Weatherization staff today to celebrate the accomplishments of that staff in weatherizing 37 homes with Recovery Act funds.

Given the need to hire and train new staff, this wasn’t an easy accomplishment. SCCAP and other Indiana organizations didn’t get approval to spend these stimulus act funds until the last week of August.

Our Weatherization staff (pictured above) worked extremely hard to exceed its goal, required by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, of 36 homes  in Monroe County to receive energy efficiency improvements by the end of November. From what we’ve heard, SCCAP was one of just four of the 30 Indiana organizations that received Recovery Act Weatherization funds to meet its Nov. 30 goal.  

Great job, SCCAP Weatherization staff! You’ve still got a tough job ahead with a total of 145 homes to be weatherized with Recovery Act funds by the end of May, but we know you can do it.

Recommendations for Indiana’s Public Assistance Benefits Eligibility Process

The following recommendations, which were developed by the Indiana Coalition for Human Services, are now being endorsed by the Indiana Community Action Association of which SCCAP is a member.

THE GOAL: A SYSTEM THAT WORKS – As policy makers consider ways to improve Indiana’s eligibility system, we believe that everyone can agree on the desired outcome: a system that allows all individuals to apply for, maintain and sustain benefits for which they are eligible in a fair, fully accessible and efficient fashion.

ACCESSIBILITY ‐ The system should include multiple ways to access benefits, including face‐to‐face, telephone, fax and internet, with the objective of securing benefits with the fewest number of contacts.

• Every potential applicant or recipient to FSSA eligibility services should have the option of direct access to a trained person who is accountable and has the authority to make an eligibility determination.
• Full accessibility, including access to assistive technology, must be available for people with special needs.
• The consumer should be able to have the issue resolved in a single transaction unless additional documentation is required.

Details on the Benefit for Lissie

Here are some more details we received today on the benefit for Lissie Wyatt:

Mike’s Music and Dance Barn, Sunday, Dec. 13

Inside sale from 11-4 – name brand clothing of all sizes, books, knick-knacks, antiques and holiday decorations.

Music and fun starting at 5 – Featuring the Reel Tyme String Band, White Lightning Boys, Tim Tryon and Sarah Flint, Frank Jones and guests; tickets are $10 in advance and $12 at the door. Can get at Calzone Jones or call Beth Harris at 812-720-2768.

Silent auction featuring local art and goods.

Please come and support the Wyatt family.

To make donations for the yard sale or auction, or to contribute money, call Beth at 812-720-2768.

Book signing by local author and illustrator John Sisson, Sat. Dec. 12, 1-5 at Calzone Jones. Enjoy a nice lunch and fine conversation with John and get your Believe and Brown County Chronicles of Gunther Flumm books signed.