Community Action: Partnerships with People
By Hal Cohen Executive Director

Dear Friends:

For the Central Vermont Community Action Council this year has been one of challenge, opportunity, and accomplishment.  Like nonprofit organizations across the nation we are continuing to feel the negative impacts of a down economy at home and unrest abroad.  With the loss of many well paying jobs in our region, we are seeing greater demand for our family emergency services. With the falling stock market we can expect foundations and private individuals to have fewer dollars to invest in community programs.  With our national leadership’s continuing focus abroad, we can expect that the domestic agenda, including welfare reform, will continue to take a back seat.

Now more than ever we must focus on our mission and the partnerships and people who are responsible for CVCAC’s successes.  In a time of great uncertainty, our challenge is to forge ahead with what we do best: provide quality programs and services to Vermonters.  We must continue to help Central Vermont families advocate for themselves and build better lives free from poverty and grounded in community.

At Central Vermont Community Action Council, we are driven by our mission: to help people achieve economic sufficiency with dignity and to support individual and family development.  CVCAC staff, board members, and community partners are committed to providing the resources, technical assistance, and support to help make people’s dreams for a better future become realities.

We accomplish our mission through creating partnerships.  Our list of partners is long and is growing longer.  It would be impossible to mention them all but here are a few:

• ·     Vermont’s network of community action agencies working together statewide for micro business development and individual development accounts

• ·     The Vermont Food Bank and local churches who support the food shelf and other emergency services

• ·     Child care providers who partner with CVCAC Head Start/Early Head Start and our Child Care Food Program to ensure quality out of home care for children

• ·     The Small Business Administration, the Commission on Women, the Secretary of State’s Office, the Small Business Development Center, and others to provide comprehensive services through the new Vermont Women’s Business Center

• ·     The Vermont Department of PATH which partners with our Welfare-to-Work Program to assist Vermonters transitioning from public assistance to training and employment

We are grateful for these and the many other partnerships CVCAC staff form with individuals and organizations to do the essential work of community action.

In this year’s annual report we are highlighting several of our accomplishments and I invite you to join me in celebrating our mission, our partners, and the people of community action.  In particular, I invite you to join me in honoring our program participants.  These are our friends, neighbors, and family members who are using CVCAC resources to become more self-sufficient, to create a better future for their children, and to improve the quality of life in their communities for the betterment of us all.

And finally, please join me in recognizing the highly talented staff of CVCAC—to a person they are responsible for the success of our many programs and services.  They are responsible for making Central Vermont a better place to live and for that we should all be very proud and grateful.

Community action is about people.  And together we are the people that make things happen.

With warmest regards,

Hal Cohen

Executive Director

Head Start/Early Head Start

CVCAC’s Head Start and Early Head Start programs help families prepare young children for future success in school and in life. This year, 428 children participated in these programs.  Through partnerships with schools, day care providers, our own centers, parents groups, and home visits, CVCAC staff provided parents with the resources, referrals, and supports they needed to be the best primary educators of their children.  This year 39% of enrolled children received classroom-based services and we increased the number of children receiving full day, full year services from 10% to 16%.

A competitive expansion grant allowed us to add 25 additional home-based slots for children ages birth to three in our Early Head Start program.  Our Free to Grow initiative is helping families confront the issues of substance abuse and prevention in their communities.  The Early Head Start Fatherhood program is working with fathers and father figures to develop skills so they can become positive role models in the development of young children.

To accommodate increasing demands for center-based programs, we will continue to seek funding to establish new facilities and create additional partnerships within the communities we serve.

Family and Community Services

Family and Community Services (FCS) staff are the gateway to many other CVCAC programs and services.  Often when people contact CVCAC they need immediate assistance with food, shelter, and home heating fuel.  FCS staff are trained to help people identify and prioritize their needs and to make referrals to other programs within CVCAC and within the greater community.  This year 5,460 individuals in 2,284 households received direct assistance and referrals.  During the winter months 944 households received Crisis Fuel assistance.

Through our partnership with the Vermont Food Bank we were able to stock our Emergency Food Shelf and provide the equivalent of 30,000 meals to 6,000 Central Vermont residents.  Private donations of dollars and food items from churches, individuals, and other organizations also supported this effort.

FCS expanded CVCAC’s tax preparation assistance program to help more low-income working Vermonters correctly file their tax forms and receive both state and federal earned income tax credits, as well as other rebates for which they were eligible.  This year 341 families received a total of $467,306 in returns, credits and rebates.

With help from the Family Housing Partnership more families are remaining in their homes with a comprehensive system of education and support that enables them to pay their bills and maintain positive relationships with landlords, mortgage holders, and neighbors.  This year we’ve documented an 80% success rate in working intensively with 36 households and ## family members at risk of losing their housing.  We will continue to strengthen our existing services while exploring new partnerships to develop transitional housing for families who are homeless.  We will also work to expand services for home owners to help them avoid foreclosure in tough economic times.

Farmworker Program

This year CVCAC’s statewide Farmworker Program assisted 21 adults in the Central Vermont region in improving their income opportunities through job training and placement in better paying employment.  Workers wishing to stay in agriculture were placed with farm owners willing to provide on the job training so workers could increase their agricultural skills and earn higher wages.  For individuals seeking nonagricultural employment CVCAC worked with them to find alternative job training programs and employment opportunities.  A successful reapplication for federal funding will allow us to continue this program throughout Vermont this coming year.

Welfare-to-Work

CVCAC’s intensive case management approach has proven effective in transitioning people from public assistance to full employment.  Welfare to Work staff continue to train people in job skills while supporting them on the job.  Staff have shifted their emphasis from readiness training to employment maintenance since holding down a job over the longer term during uncertain economic times continues to be a challenge for many participants.  A recent program review indicates that 68% of our participants placed in unsubsidized employment are still on the job after six months—an amazing success rate considering that these people must overcome multiple challenges.

We attribute much of our success to our highly trained and caring staff, the many partnerships we have established with community organizations and the Vermont Department of PATH, and the willingness of participants to engage in extremely challenging personal growth.  A no-cost extension from the U.S. Department of Labor will allow CVCAC’s Welfare-to-Work program to continue through December 2003.  Continued federal funding beyond 2003 is questionable; therefore, we are exploring new partnerships and resources to support this successful program.

 Weatherization

 Thanks to CVCAC’s weatherization specialists, 509 Central Vermont residents will be warmer this winter and their energy costs will be lower.  Staff worked with 225 households this year to conduct home energy audits and followed up with insulation, draft reduction measures, and heating system efficiency improvements.  They also installed energy efficient lighting, replaced or insulated hot water heaters, and made other essential modifications.

CVCAC’s Community Economic Development Program

Central Vermonters participating in our Individual Development Account programs—a matched savings strategy—are accruing “equity” to apply toward goals of home ownership, post-secondary education and training, and micro business development.  This potent combination of economic literacy training, a relationship with trained, caring staff, and real dollars to match earned income, is contributing to greater housing security and investment, a better-educated workforce, and community economic development in very “tangible” ways.  This year 90 working Vermonters began saving for future assets.

Micro Business Development.  CVCAC’s efforts to assist area residents in finding jobs with livable wages included training in micro business development (including readiness, business skills, and loan acquisition) so that participants had the necessary skills to either start up or expand their small businesses.  This year 168 adults received business counseling services.  We continue to stress follow-up services so that MBDP “graduates” can transform their small businesses from struggling operations to viable enterprises, paying their owners livable wages and potentially creating additional jobs within the community.

            Vermont Women’s Business Center.  With an award from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Vermont Women’s Business Center is now a program of CVCAC.  We anticipate many significant opportunities will arise from the partnerships we are developing so that comprehensive business development and support services can be provided to women throughout Vermont.  While this program is not specifically focused on low-income individuals it does target resources to an underserved population—women entrepreneurs.  We expect that approximately 40% of the women served through the new Women’s Business Center will be low-income.

            Vermont Revolving Loan Fund.   This year the loan fund, administered by CVCAC staff, was successful in obtaining $225,000 to supplement the fund.  Renewed marketing and outreach activities have increased the visibility of this program attracting increased community interest.  This year $176,824 in loans, and an additional $19,000 in leveraged funds, were disbursed to six businesses in Waterbury, Berlin, and Warren, Vermont.  Other loans totaling $90,000 and leveraging $35,000 in other funding were obligated to two additional businesses.

            Child Care Food Program.   This year we supplemented the meals for 24,618 children in 225 day care centers in Orange, Washington, and Windsor Counties as well as portions of the Northeast Kingdom.  This year we will increase our marketing and outreach effort to encourage more providers to participate.

Community Action Motors

Many low-income working families in Central Vermont lack reliable vehicles to travel to work, transport children to day care, and access essential resources and services.  CVCAC’s Community Action Motors received 80 donated cars this year that were repaired and distributed to families in need.  In addition, 80 vehicles were repaired to help keep families on the road.  Since its inception, Community Action Motors has issued 200 vehicles to low-income families.

Advocacy

In collaboration with CVCAC, the Vermont Community Leadership training program continued to provide low-income community members and others with training and the tools they need to advocate effectively for community change.  This year 26 Central Vermont residents participated in the program and as part of their training initiated a number of community projects.  Projects included educational programs, heritage celebrations, personal safety initiatives, social justice, and environmental-related events.  In addition to these activities, CVCAC’s community involvement director continued working with several local and regional organizations to ensure that the voices of the low-income community were part of community dialogs.  CVCAC’s second annual legislative breakfast attracted several legislators from our region who learned about successful program outcomes from both staff and participants.

A new weekly column in The Washington World, began highlighting CVCAC programs and availability of resources to families throughout the region.  Participation in Community Awareness Days and other local events continues to help spread the word about community action.  A highlight for this year was CVCAC’s co-sponsoring role in the Prescription for Change Campaign, which advocates for universal health care, and a late summer rally at the state’s capitol that attracted health care professionals, community members, and legislators.  This upcoming year, CVCAC’s advocacy activities will continue to focus on deepening community understanding of the complexity of poverty and engage citizens in creative and innovative approaches to developing community-based responses.