Organizational standards, Head Start approvals, Bylaw reviews, Strategic Plan updates, reporting approvals... Oh My! Are you having trouble keeping up with all the board tasks and responsibilities. This webinar will focus on a board planning tool that will keep your staff and board members on track with meeting and approving all CAA requirements throughout the year. This planning tool is being used by New River Community Action and helps them ensure they are meeting all the requirements in a timely manner. Join us on Dec. 11th at 2pm as we review the board planning tool and discuss how it can be best used at your agency. We will also showcase a Strategic Planning tool that is used by staff and board members to track whether strategic plan goals are being met.

https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/363132989

United States: +1 (224) 501-3412

Access Code: 363-132-989

Recently we learned that out of the approximately 800 Community Initiative Status forms submitted from across the country last year, only about 5% were considered to meet the criteria of a Community Initiative by Federal OCS on their initial review. Here in Virginia, we urged agencies to only submit forms that met the full criteria to be a Community Initiative; thank you to agencies for your work on this.  We want to encourage all agencies to review the Community Initiative Status Form examples provided by NASCSP , and begin to think if you have any Community Initiatives you would like to propose for the 2020-2021 Community Action Plan. And we would like to remind everyone that we know there is great Community level work that may not fit the components of a full Community Initiative. You should definitely be working towards Community level outcomes, creating meaningful targets, working with partners, setting up data collection plans, collecting Community level data, and analyzing the results for future Needs Assessments and Strategic Plans, whether or not those things go into a Community Initiative Status Form. We encourage all agencies to enter information under "Strategies only", at the top of the Community Initiative Status Form, to ensure that your plan captures your Community level work that doesn't match a Community Initiative fully. We will discuss this during the OVCS Roundtable at the January VACAP Meeting/Conference,  and office will be doing a webinar later that month.  If you would like to talk to our office about possible community initiatives any time however, please email your program representative.   

The 2020-2021 Community Action VISTA Program Application cycle is underway. An informational webinar was conducted on Tuesday, November 12th. That webinar was recorded and can be accessed here . An initial Letter of Interest is due December 13th. The application will be released on January 15th and due back on February 28th. If you are interested in having a VISTA at your agency for 2020-2021 please send a Letter of Interest to csbg@dss.virginia.gov by December 13th. The criteria for the Letter of Interest can be found here .

Virginia ranks at number 8 on MSN's list. After adjusting for medical expenses, work expenses, taxes, and other factors included in the supplemental poverty measure, the percentage of Virginia residents considered living below the poverty line rises from 10.7% to 12.8% -- an increase of 177,000 people. One factor accounting for the large spike may be the low SNAP recipiency rate in the state. An October 2019 Census Bureau study determined that SNAP had the third greatest effect of any federal anti-poverty subsidy on keeping individuals above the federal poverty line, as measured by the supplemental poverty measure. In Virginia, just 75.0% of eligible individuals receive SNAP benefits, the 11th smallest share of any state. Read about the other states that made the list.

Virginia ranks at number 8 on MSN's list. After adjusting for medical expenses, work expenses, taxes, and other factors included in the supplemental poverty measure, the percentage of Virginia residents considered living below the poverty line rises from 10.7% to 12.8% -- an increase of 177,000 people. One factor accounting for the large spike may be the low SNAP recipiency rate in the state. An October 2019 Census Bureau study determined that SNAP had the third greatest effect of any federal anti-poverty subsidy on keeping individuals above the federal poverty line, as measured by the supplemental poverty measure. In Virginia, just 75.0% of eligible individuals receive SNAP benefits, the 11th smallest share of any state. Read about the other states that made the list.

SAMHSA recently launched a searchable  webpage  to locate substance use treatment. Containing 13,000 treatment facilities across the country and filters for treatment type, form of payment, and special programs, the tool aims to connect more people with quality, affordable treatment. This is a great tool to assist clients in finding services that are tailored to their needs.