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Oklahoma hosts Region VI Conference
   Derrick Len Span, national executive director of the Washington-based Community Action Partnership, warned that poverty and terrorism are clearly linked during a keynote address at the Region VI Community Action Conference held July 10-12 in Oklahoma City.
   He said that low-income communities need to be a priority of homeland security.
   Hate groups find poor communities as a breeding grounds, he warned. He also noted that poor areas are often near chemical plants and other potential targets for terrorists.
   He called for creating partnerships to educate people in low-income areas about terrorism.
   “Our intent is to ensure poor communities are protected from terrorism,” Span said.
   While in Oklahoma City, Span met with officials at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism and also made a stop at the Will Rogers Head Start Center to read to the children.
   More than 100 Community Action officials attended from the five-state region that included Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and New Mexico.
   The conferences featured workshops on a variety of topics including youth programs, housing and management.

Northeast Oklahoma Community Action
helping organize a ‘Community of Promise’
   Northeast Oklahoma Community Action Agency (NEOCAA) has helped pull together a variety of groups to create a positive youth development program called “Community of Promise.”
   Mary Ann Overall, Services Director, is spearheading the effort to establish the program in Delaware County. The group has identified community needs, resources and set goals.
NEOCAA is only one of several Community Action Agencies considering establishing a Community of Promise in their service areas.
   A Community of Promise is a city or county that mobilizes to fullfill five promises to youth:
•Ongoing relationships with caring adults
•Safe places with structured activities during non-school hours
•Healthy start and future
•Marketable skills through effective education
•Opportunities to give back through community service

Regional collaboration meeting held in Hugo
   Representatives from regional Head Start programs, day cares and public schools met at the Hugo Head Start
recently as a follow up to “Forging New Partners.” It was one of a series of collaboration meetings being held across the state.
   “Forging New Partners is something that started a few years ago,” said Kay Floyd, Head Start State
Collaborator Director. “Our goal is to improve the quality of early childhood programs through existing
and new partners.”
   The idea of Forging New Partners is a result of Head Start and Day Care Programs pushing for collaboration.
“We didn’t have any collaboration until 1998,” said Gail Landreth, Little Dixie Head Start Director. “Now we have collaborations with many area schools including Boswell, Soper, Grant, Hugo, Fort Towson, Clayton, Battiest, Eagletown, Valliant and Glover as well as two day cares – The Learning Tree in Idabel and
Discovery Land Learning Center in Valliant.”
   According to Landreth, the collaborations allow for the agencies to “pool” their resources to provide
better care and education for the children.
   Collaborations involve providing Head Start programs in the public schools and before and after school
care. The regional meeting was held to define roles for Head Start, child care and public schools, as well as
discussing issues relating to partnerships and defining collaborative group levels.
   All regional Head Start, day care and public school personnel were invited to attend.

Community Action Resource & Development & Deep Fork Community Action get housing funding
   Two Oklahoma Community Action Agencies have received funding from Oklahoma Housing Finance Agency’s Home Investment Partnership Program.
   Community Action Resource and Development, Inc. of Claremore received $107,638 to conduct predevelopment activities and eventually design, develop and construct 255 units of affordable housing in its service area of Mayes, Nowata, Rogers, Wagoner and Washington Counties.
   Deep Fork Community Action Foundation of Okmulgee received a $20,000 Community Housing Development Organization Project Specific Assistance Loan. Deep Fork will utilize the loan to conduct an economic and financial feasibility study into the purchase and rehabilitation of the Odd Fellows Retirement Home in Checotah to provide up to 40 units of affordable senior citizen housing.

Early childhood programs offered at ‘One-Stop Shop’
   Delta Community Action Foundation has teamed up with the Comanche Public Schools to offer a “one-stop shop” for early childhood education programs at the Liberty Early Childhood Center.
   Housed in what was an abandoned elementary school in Comanche about 12 miles from Duncan, the center offers First Start, Head Start, public school Pre-Kindergarten program, child care for infants and a summer latch-key program for older children. In addition, a screening service is available for 3 – 5 year olds throughout the school district and a Parent as Teachers program is available.
   Christy White, School Site Director, oversees the 22 staff members who work in the rambling facility.
   “We share employees. We share equipment and toys. Everything is shared,” White said.
   The facility, which includes several classrooms as well as a large gymnasium, became vacant when the Comanche School District built a new facility. But soon a day care center moved into the old building and was quickly followed by Head Start, First Start and public school Pre-Kindergarten programs.
   Some 4-5 year old children may spend up to 12 hours daily at the center while participating in three programs, explained White. Dropped off by parents early, the children go into the day care program. Morning hours may be spent in the Head Start class with the afternoon spent in the public school Pre-Kindergarten program and then late afternoon hours back in day care until the parents pick their child up.
   “It’s a true one-stop shop,” White said.
   While Head Start and the Pre-Kindergarten program are not offered during the summer, there are other programs for children during the non-school months.
   A full-day program for latch key children – from kindergarten through fifth grade – has 44 children enrolled. The children take three field trips each week including one that is out-of-town. The literacy program features weekly trips to the library where children are required to check out a book.
   There are a dozen computers for children to use. Public school coaches and teachers conduct half-day mini-camps during the summer months, White explained.
   One of the newest services offered in the center is a screening program for children 3 – 5 years old from throughout the entire Comanche School District. Using a two-way mirror, video camera and palm computers, staff can identify potential problems earlier that might affect learning.
   A special education teacher reviews the videotapes and then sends instructions back to the staff on how to help the child.
   White said the program is designed to help identify hearing, speech and other developmental delays early so that when the child gets into school full services can be provided immediately.
   The Parents as Teachers program is available without charge to parents of children up to 3-years-old throughout the school district. A Comanche Public School employee makes monthly home visits to help parents learn how to help their children.
   White said there are about 24 families participating in the program. Many are single parents and teenage mothers, she added. They are provided information on health care and nutrition. There is a toy and video resource center where the parents can check out items.
   What’s next? Delta wants to add an Early Head Start program.

Homeownership becomes reality for public housing tenant
   Little Dixie Community Action joined forces with local and federal groups to help a six-year public housing tenant purchase a home for herself and two dependent great grandchildren.
   U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Oklahoma City Director Kevin McNeely formally presented keys to the house to Oretha Woods during ceremonies in Hugo.
   “Homeownership plays a vital role in a community,” McNeely said.
   Little Dixie played a key role by providing financial literacy classes, homebuyer education, credit counseling and loan packaging. The agency obtained a $340,000 Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation grant to fund the program.
   Ms. Woods, who is employed and is a HUD Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher holder, was able to qualify for a $33,431 home mortgage provided by Little Dixie by using her voucher for mortgage payments instead of rent.
Hugo Housing Authority Executive Director Stan Self noted that Congress had passed the legislation to allow housing authorities to use Section 8 vouchers for homeownership in 2000.
   Little Dixie worked closely with the Hugo Housing Authority which is the entity that issues Section 8 vouchers locally.
   To be considered for the program, applicants must have income of $10,300 annually and successfully complete the housing authority’s “self-sufficiency program” that deals with life-skill issues.
   Woods is the first in Little Dixie’s service area to purchase a home through the program. The program goal is to help at least 19 families make the transition from Section 8 Rental Assistance to homeownership by 2004.

Little Dixie aids in efforts to bring
health center to southeast Oklahoma
   Little Dixie Community Action Agency played an integral part in bringing $466,200 in federal funding to southeast Oklahoma for a new Community Health Center in Battiest.
   “We’re thrilled to have helped bring community health center funding to southeast Oklahoma,” said Bob Yandell, Executive Director. “We know this will be an enormous economic boost for our area.”
   Little Dixie staff worked to find local citizens with the expertise to govern a community health center. Twelve citizens were found to serve on a community health center board.
   Little Dixie assisted this board in submitting its application for incorporation to the Secretary of State. Little Dixie then assisted the community board in applying for its 501(c)(3) non-profit designation from the Internal Revenue Service.
   Little Dixie Community Action Agency then donated the time of its grant writer to write the Community Health Center grant for the Battiest Community.
   A total of 28 grants were awarded nationwide.
   The community health center at Battiest will provide high quality medical, dental, and mental health services, thus greatly improving access to health care in southeast Oklahoma. Eleven staff members will be employed during the first year, which will result in a much-needed economic boost to the area.

Little Dixie honors
Choctaw Nation Chief
   Choctaw Nation Chief Greg Pyle was honored last month at an appreciation dinner hosted by Little Dixie Community Action Agency in recognition of all the progress the Choctaw Nation has brought to
Southeast Oklahoma.
   A large group of community and business leaders were on hand to praise the Choctaw Nation and Chief Pyle for their support and contributions.
   Chief Pyle was presented a plaque which included a resolution, passed by the Little Dixie Community
Action Agency Board of Directors, praising Chief Pyle and the Choctaw Nation for their participation in
partnerships that provide services for all residents throughout 10 ½ counties in Southeast Oklahoma. Chief Pyle also received a plaque from U.S. Rep. Wes Watkins.