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Community
Action
Solutions |
| Volume 2, Issue 5 |
November 2000 |
|
In
This Issue Upcoming meetings Michael
E. Jones named OKACAA executive
director
Michael E. Jones, Edmond, has been named executive director of
the Oklahoma Association of Community Action Agencies (OKACAA) in
Oklahoma City. He replaces Wanda DeBruler who resigned to begin a
private consulting practice.
Jones had been the Housing and Energy Director where he provided
technical assistance to Community Housing Development Organizations who
develop low-income housing throughout the state. He also coordinated
model energy code training programs for housing officials.
Before joining the OKACAA staff, Jones was a grants manager for
the Oklahoma Developmental Disabilities Council and a programs manager
for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, both in Oklahoma City. He also
operated a retail store in Guthrie. Heavy
rains, water line break create problems
Flood waters from torrential rains came to within a half-block of
Washita Valley Community Action Council’s front door last month.
But it was a water line break that created most of the problems
in Chickasha. The Head Start center and Senior Nutrition program were
closed as the call went out from city officials to conserve water, said
Greg Campbell, executive director.
Flood waters limited operation of the transit system, but buses
were able to continue operating on an emergency basis.
Some transit system staff helped evacuate people from the north
side of the community when flood waters began rising. Transit system
vans were later made available to the city to take FEMA officials to
inspect flood damage.
Community Action Agency of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma/Canadian
Counties Valley Brook Head Start center basement became a temporary home
to over 50 neighborhood residents during the storm. Annual
Report Available
The 1999-2000 OKACAA Annual Report is available. Designed around
the Dialogue on Poverty, the annual report focuses on efforts by
Community Action Agencies programs related to housing, meeting needs,
and jobs and income.
Request copies by contacting OKACAA at 405-524-4124.
Calendar
of Events Dec.
5 - Leverage Your Housing Opportunities with the Community
Reinvestment Act seminar at the Doubletree at Warren Place in Tulsa.
Contact: 405-524-4124. Dec.
6 - OKACAA Board of
Directors meeting at the Doubletree Hotel at Warren Place in Tulsa.
Contact: 405-524-4124. Dec.
6 – Oklahoma
Weatherization and Housing Advisory Council meeting at the
Doubletree Hotel at Warren Place in Tulsa. Contact: 405-524-4124. Dec.
6 – Oklahoma Head
Start Association meeting at the Doubletree Hotel at Warren Place in
Tulsa. Contact: 405-524-4124. Dec.
6 - 8 - OKACAA Winter Conference
at the Doubletree at Warren Place in Tulsa. Contact: 405-524-4124 Dec.
19 - Oklahoma Housing Finance
Agency Home Operations Training - Other Federal Requirements at OHFA,
1140 N.W. 63, 4th floor,
Oklahoma City. Contact: Garcia Tarver at 405-419-8132. Human
interest important in selling story to news media
What is the key ingredient for a good story?
The first thing is to find a way to humanize the story, said
Angela Buckelew, KWTV anchor/reporter. “We are looking for a way to
tell the story through someone’s eyes,” added Susan Parks,
anchor/reporter for KOCO.
The pair were on a panel discussing “Media Relations: A Key to
Visibility” at the Day of Philanthropy sponsored by the Oklahoma
Chapter of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives on Oct. 24 in
Oklahoma City.
Daily Oklahoman staff
writer George Lang added that stories that tell only who, what, where
and when are boring. He looks for human interest and people who can be
quoted on an issue.
How do you improve your chances of getting coverage?
“Bug us,” said Parks. “People that make themselves known
get covered.”
Other hints: •
Don’t call between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. and just before a
newscast. •
Keep news releases short. • Send a story by email to a reporter rather than by fax.
Family
Week observance Nov. 19-26
“Family Week” is Nov. 19-26 and the Oklahoma Family Resource
Coalition is calling for a statewide celebration of the importance of
family.
The coalition suggested a number of activities organizations can
do during the observance. •
Display family photos on a bulletin board. •
Ask a speaker to present on a parenting topic during a lunch. •
Have a fall family picnic inside or outside. •
Ask employees to have their children draw pictures to display at
work. •
Have a “Family Open House” so the kids may see what Dad and
Mom do at work. •
Sponsor an information fair. Invite professionals from the
community to spend a few hours in your break or conference room handing
out brochures and answering questions about their services. Agency
News
Little Dixie Community Action Agency
has been approved for a $542,900 Rural Community Development
Initiative grant from U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development
to fund an economic development partnership with the Choctaw Nation and
Oklahoma Department of Commerce.
A total of 20 communities in an 11-county area are eligible to
receive assistance through the loan, Bob Yandell, executive director,
said.
Several economic development coordinators and trainers will
provide assistance to eligible communities during a three-year period.
“Staff members will provide technical assistance to increase a
community or organization’s capacity to undertake economic development
as well as projects to provide affordable housing,” he said.
Technical assistance will be provided to the Choctaw Nation in
the areas of new business recruitment, entrepreneurial development and
the development or expansion of existing businesses. The majority of the
technical assistance will be direct help in attracting and expanding new
industry.
As a part of its commitment to the project, the Oklahoma
Department of Commerce will provide a full-time economic developer for a
portion of the area. -----
The weather may be cool now, but Community Action Agency of Oklahoma City and Oklahoma/Canadian Counties
will be ready for next summer’s hot weather with 1,000 fans to
distribute.
The fans were donated by Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse and
Honeywell Corp., according to a report in the Daily
Oklahoman. -----
Community
Action Project of Tulsa County
joined forces with the Tulsa Association for Enterprise Opportunity to
assist low-income families and individuals starting their own
businesses, the Tulsa World reports.
Volunteers are either business owners themselves or from
organizations the provide financial assistance for small business
ventures.
The entrepreneur program delves into a multitude of topics, from
defining and financing a business plan and managing records to finding
the best market, and pricing products and services. ----- United Community Action Program has received a federal grant that will enable Early Head Start to be offered to 48 infants and toddlers and 14 low-income pregnant women in Okmulgee County and west Tulsa County.
Washita
Valley supports youthful offenders sanction program
Washita Valley Community Action Council is collaborating with the Grady
County District Attorney in a program to require accountability from
juveniles in trouble with law enforcement or school officials.
Parents and the juvenile meet with officials to discuss the
problems and are given an opportunity to participate in the Graduated
Sanctions program.
Juveniles may be eligible to participate in the program for
offenses ranging from minor offenses such as truancy or disobeying
parents to major violations such as car theft or assault.
If the parents and child agree to participate in the sanctions
program, they sign an agreement with the district attorney who agrees to
delay filing a petition with the court.
The juvenile is then required to participate in one or more
sanctions for up to one year. Sanctions include a 48-hour bootcamp,
community service, Saturday school, counseling, drug/alcohol assessment
and treatment, writing a letter of apology to the victim, restitution,
and obeying parents and elders.
Washita Valley is providing funding for the juveniles to attend
the bootcamp operated by the Oklahoma National Guard. The agency also
provides transportation for juveniles
doing weekend community service such as picking up trash.
A five-year-old child, who accompanied his brother on a burglary,
is the youngest to go through the sanctions program.
Benefits of the program are that there are no court costs and
attorney fees and the juvenile who successfully completes the program
does not have a court record.
About 300 juvenile offenders go through the program annually. KI
BOIS partners to develop affordable
housing in Pocola
KI BOIS Community Action Foundation is partnering with a
developer to construct 20 affordable houses in Pocola.
The developer will build the houses on lots KI BOIS is purchasing
with funding from the HOME Investment Program, explained John Jones,
housing developer.
KI BOIS will reduce the price of the land to make the houses more
affordable to buyers, Jones added.
The homes will be about 1,100 square feet with three bedrooms,
two baths with central heating and air, and one-car garages ‘Paint
the Town’ project begins
Fifteen Americorps members are spreading out over four counties
to revitalize communities through a yearlong clean-up and painting
program.
The “Paint the Town” project is sponsored by KI BOIS
Community Action Foundation with $175,000 in funding coming from the
Corporation for National Service, explained Roger Bartlett, consultant.
Additional funding is being sought from local governments and community
sponsors.
The goal of the program is to operate a neighborhood and
community revitalization effort in partnership with the local utilities
companies and local government, Bartlett explained.
The Americorps members will be working in targeted areas of
Stigler, McAlester, Poteau and Wilburton painting home of low-income and
senior citizens. They will also work with local governments to clean out
drainage ditches, work in municipal parks and paint community buildings.
The plans calls for general clean-up of neighborhoods, repairing
and painting 50 homes of the low-income and 12 community centers each
year. The program is planned for three years.
Members will do 1,700 hours of community work during the year.
They receive a $750 monthly living allowance and a $4,725 educational
grant after completing the year of service. Bartlett noted that more women than men are applying for the program. A typical candidate comes from a middle income family who needs money for college, he added.
Funding
approved for homebuyer education
program
The Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka is providing $25,000 in
funding to the Oklahoma Homebuyer Education Association (OHEA) to begin
a statewide homebuyer education program.
The Oklahoma Association of Community Action Agencies (OKACAA)
will provide staff support for the OHEA and take the lead in developing
an education curriculum and facilitating its delivery throughout the
state. OKACAA is also providing over $47,000 in additional funding to
support the effort.
OHEA was recently formed by a coalition of lenders, real estate
professionals, housing developers and others to explore the possibility
of creating a statewide homebuyer education and counseling initiative,
said Michael Jones, OKACAA executive director.
The plan calls development of a standardized curriculum and
certification program for trainers. OKACAA will also coordinate efforts
with other groups providing homebuyer services to not duplicate their
efforts and focus on underserved areas.
OKACAA will serve as a central clearinghouse for information on
available homebuyer education and will provide referrals, Jones added.
OKACAA will also market the program to homebuyers, real estate
professionals, lenders, and other nonprofit service providers. HOME’s
10th anniversary
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the HOME Investment
Partnerships Program. Since the program’s inception, over $12.2
billion has been awarded to HOME participating jurisdictions. Rising
energy costs will cause serious financial
problems for low-income families
Although Oklahoma is an energy-rich state, our costs are not
necessarily lower, Michael Jones, OKACAA executive director, told state
leaders at the Heritage Foundations Forum last month.
“We rank 23rd in per capita expenditures for energy, but 46th
in median income,” Jones said. That means the average Oklahoman must
spend a greater percentage of his or her income on energy than most
Americans, he added.
He warned that consumers, especially the low-income, will
naturally reduce their consumption of energy if possible as the price of
gas or electricity rises.
Unfortunately, even reducing the consumption of energy may not
help, he warned.
“If we have a very cold winter, the increased volume of energy
consumed with higher per unit prices may result in heating bills not
even imagined possible,” Jones said.
He said an increase in heating costs by 10 or 20 percent would be
a serious threat to the quality of life for those with moderate or
low-incomes.
“Twenty-five to 40 percent increases, as some are predicting,
may have catastrophic consequences,” he said.
Jones called for increases in funding for the Weatherization
Assistance Program. Making homes of low-income families more energy
efficient provides $1.80 in energy savings for every $1 spent, he added.
He urged utilities to invest some of their excess funds into
weatherization programs.
“Lower energy consumption means a reduced need for more
generating capacity or increased gas production,” Jones said.
He also called for more funds for the Low-Income Home Energy
Assistance Program to help offset high utility costs, especially for the
elderly. “We also need to find creative ways to help our low-income consumers replace their high energy consuming appliances with modern, efficient ones.
$1
phone service available to many
low-income Oklahomans
Low-income Oklahomans who are living on former tribal land and
who participate in at least one of 10 programs may apply for basic
telephone service for $1 per month.
Low-income residents interested in applying for the “Enhanced
Lifeline Service” program can call Southwestern Bell’s business
office at 800-464-7928 to request an application.
To be eligible for the $1 per month basic phone service, a person
must be participating in one of the following programs in addition to
living on former tribal land: •
Food stamps •
Head Start (income qualified only) •
Medical assistance (Medicaid) •
Supplemental Security Income •
Aid to Families with Dependent
Children •
Vocational rehabilitation (including hearing impaired) •
Oklahoma sales tax relief •
Bureau of Indian Affairs general
assistance •
Tribally administered Temporary Assistance for Needy Families •
National school lunch program (free lunch only)
The Universal Service Fund, which is financed by fees that phone
customers pay, is used to pay for the new Lifeline program. Poverty
rate drops, Census Bureau reports
The nation’s poverty rate dropped from 12.7% in 1998 to 11.8%
in 1999, the U.S. Census Bureau reports.
According to the poverty report, 2.2 million fewer people were
poor in 1999 than in 1998 -- 32.3 million versus 34.5 million.
Using three-year averages (1997-1999), the poverty rates ranged
from 7.6% in Maryland to 20.8% in New Mexico.
“Every racial and ethnic group experienced a drop in both the
number of poor and the percent in poverty, as did children, the elderly
and people ages 25 to 44,” said Daniel Weinberg, chief of the Census
Bureau’s Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division.
“Declines in poverty were concentrated in metropolitan areas,
particularly central cities.”
Eight out of 10 of the net decline in the number of poor occurred
in central cities of metropolitan areas, where three out of ten people
reside and four out of 10 poor people live.
The percentage of people 65 and over who were living in poverty
reached a measured low of 9.7% in 1999 and the proportion of the
nation’s children in poverty was the lowest since 1979 -- 16.9%.
Despite the drop in child poverty, children under age 6 remained
particularly vulnerable to this condition; those living in families with
a female householder and no husband present experienced a poverty rate
of 50.3%, more than five times the rate for children under 6 in
married-couple families (9%).
A three-year average (1997-1999) poverty rate for American
Indians and Alaska Natives was 25.9%, with an estimated 700,000 living
in poverty. Shelter
provides security and help for
domestic violence victims
From the outside, there is little to indicate that the
nondescript house on the corner is a refuge for women and children
victims of domestic abuse.
Yet inside this sanctuary is a safe place to stay and help for
women. The KI BOIS Community Action Women’s Shelter in Stigler can
accommodate up to 16 women and children. During the first three months
of 2000, there were 52 who lived in the shelter. In 1999, there were 89
women and 78 children who stayed in the shelter.
Staff includes supervisors who are there around-the-clock, a
child advocate, group leader, and director.
Clients may stay in the shelter for up to 30 days. While there,
the women must develop a “service plan” to become self sufficient.
Staff assists the clients with the plan which must be updated every two
weeks. The short-term plan is intended identify the steps the client
needs to take to become independent. Steps in the plan may be as basic
as finding a job or enrolling children in school.
There are also group sessions each weekday that focuses on
building self-esteem and learning life skills.
There is no typical client. Women in the shelter have ranged in
age from 16 to 78 years. The shelter is licensed by the Department of
Mental Health and receives funding from the District Attorney’s
Council.
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