Money Smart Week

During Money Smart Week (April 21-28), free classes and activities are available in more than 30 states to help consumers manage their personal finances. You might learn how to apply for a mortgage, prepare for retirement, or teach a young person how to save. If your state doesn’t offer free classes or activities during Money Smart Week, check out these online resources on personal finance from the Federal Reserve. Oklahoma is hosting a few events; check them out at http://www.oklahomajumpstartyourmoney.org/

HUD-VASH Resource Guide Now Available

HUD-VASH Resource Guide Now Available
HUD and VA are happy to announce the release of The Department of Housing and Urban Development and Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) Resource Guide for Permanent Housing and Clinical Care.

HUD-VASH’s goals are to place homeless Veterans in safe, stable, affordable, and, most importantly, permanent housing. Under the auspices of the program, HUD provides housing vouchers while the VA provides long-term case management, ensuring not only that Veterans receive the medical and counseling services they need but that they are able to sustain residence and avoid relapsing into homelessness.

The HUD-VASH Resource Guide was designed to provide case managers, social workers, treatment specialists, program managers, and other clinicians who work with homeless Veterans through the HUD-VASH program with a comprehensive set of resources. The guide includes a wide range of information such as useful tools, exercises, worksheets, and links to other homelessness resources and programs. The guide will help the HUD-VASH program more effectively address the multifaceted and complex housing, clinical, medical and psychosocial needs of homeless Veterans and their families.

The Guide is now available for use by the public and can be found here: http://www.va.gov/HOMELESS/HUD-VASH.asp. We hope that you find the information contained in the Resource Guide to be useful in your critical and important work with homelessness and hope that it will help to raise awareness of the HUD-VASH program.

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Practice and Policy Lecture on Oklahoma’s Improvement Plan for Child Welfare

Please share this important announcement with your community partners. thanks

FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2012, NOON TO 1 P.M.
OKLAHOMA HISTORY CENTER, CHESAPEAKE ROOM

DEBORAH G. SMITH,
DIRECTOR, OKDHS CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES DIVISION
OKLAHOMA HISTORY CENTER

THE OKLAHOMA PINNACLE PLAN: AN IMPROVEMENT PLAN FOR CHILD WELFARE SERVICES
Click here to pre-register.
Oklahoma’s plan to improve child welfare services will be presented by Deborah Smith, Director of OKDHS Children and Family Services. The plan is a key component in settling a federal class action lawsuit. . This lecture will summarize the efforts planned to improve outcomes for Oklahoma’s 8,000 children in foster care including improving safety, increasing the number of foster homes, and decreasing the length of stay.
OKDHS is committed to:
ü equity, where all children, youth and families have access to and receive unbiased
treatment and services.
ü keeping children safe with their families through prevention services, kinship
placements and timely reunification whenever possible.
ü ensuring every child is safe while in out-of-home care and custody by matching them
with an appropriate, supportive family who can provide for their safety and wellbeing.
ü recruiting, retaining, and supporting the best child welfare staff and ensuring they
have manageable caseloads and workloads.
ü engaging local communities in improving child welfare outcomes. We can’t do it alone.

Deborah G. Smith, M.S.W., was appointed the Director of OKDHS Children and Family Services Division in 2010 and has worked in child welfare services since 1998. She has expertise in child protective services, permanency planning, foster care, the CFSR process, program improvement plans, supervisor case reviews, and the use of data to inform practice and policy. She helped develop and lead the implementation of Oklahoma’s Child Welfare Practice Model. She has a strong network of professional relationships and is skilled in continuous quality improvement. Smith’s combination of direct practice experience in rural and metro Oklahoma counties and has working knowledge of all six geographic areas of the state.

Lecture attendees will receive 10% off purchase at the Winnie Mae Cafe. Please arrive early if you plan to purchase lunch.

The Practice and Policy Lecture Series has been developed to provide thought-provoking presentations on Oklahoma’s emerging policy issues, trends and best practices. The series is sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Human Services Office of Planning, Research and Statistics and the University of Oklahoma Center for Public Management with the goal of providing the best educational opportunities available in a forum that offers participants an opportunity to question, share and learn from each other.

All lectures are free and open to the public. OKDHS staff can receive training credit for this event. CEUs are available for social workers. For more information contact the Office of Planning, Research and Statistics at 405-521-3552. View the complete lecture series lineup at: Practice and Policy Lecture Series website (Link opens in new window)
Connie Schlittler, LCSW, MPA
Chief Information Officer
OK Department of Human Services
PO Box 25352
Oklahoma City, OK 73125-0352
405-521-2907
Connie.schlittler@okdhs.org

Zarrow Symposium – Call for Presentations/Save the Date – From Housing to Recovery: Building

**PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL**
See Email Listed Below for Responses

Call for Presentations / Save the Date

Don’t miss your opportunity to present at the
2012 National Zarrow Mental Health Symposium
and Mental Health America Annual Conference
From Housing to Recovery: Building Community, Building Lives

September 19-21, 2012 • Tulsa Convention Center

www.fromhousingtorecovery.org

This national conference will feature programs and research focusing on housing and best-practice recovery and support models for people living with mental illnesses and co-occurring disorders. More than 800 people from across the country are expected to attend.

Conference Promotional Partners Include:
ODMHSAS
SAMHSA
National Alliance to End Homelessness
National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare
Dartmouth Psychiatric Research Center
Oklahoma Department of Corrections
Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation
Temple University Collaborative on Community Inclusion of Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities
…and many more.

For more information, including a downloadable copy of the call for presentations, see www.fromhousingtorecovery.org.

Or, contact the Mental Health Association in Tulsa at 918/585-1213 / info.

Deadline to submit a workshop proposal for consideration – April 6, 2012

Join us for the 2012 National Zarrow Mental Health Symposium & Mental Health America Annual Conference
From Housing to Recovery: Building Community, Building Lives
September 19 – 21, 2012 • Tulsa Convention Center • www.fromhousingtorecovery.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karen H. LaPlante
Director of Education and Community Relations
Mental Health Association in Tulsa
1870 S. Boulder • Tulsa, OK 74119
Voice: (918) 382-2411 | Fax: (918) 585-1263
klaplante
www.mhat.org
Find us on Facebook at www.mhat.org/facebook

We need your support. Please donate at www.mhat.org/donate.

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Smart Start Oklahoma announces local project funding availability

OKLAHOMA CITY – Pursuant to Oklahoma Executive Order 98-37, the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness/Smart Start Oklahoma through the Oklahoma Department of Human Services announces the availability of Local Project Funding Number 13-001. The Oklahoma Department of Central Services will issue up to $1.2 million to no more than 18 communities. Each community is eligible to apply for up to $125,000. Contracts will be effective July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013 with an option to renew for two additional years.
Community agencies eligible for this Local Project Funding opportunity will develop community collaborations that engage parents, community leaders and other persons interested in early childhood to assure all children are safe, healthy and prepared for school. This shall be accomplished through implementation of the following strategies:

1. Early Care and Education Program Collaboration
2. Family and Community Engagement
3. Integration of Health and Mental Health
4. Early Literacy; additionally, the following optional strategy may be addressed:
5. Coordinated Professional Development

Eligible applicants include any public or private entity, including an Indian tribe or tribal organizations (as defined at 25 U.S.C. 450b), and community-based organizations, including faith-based organizations, which meet the following requirements:

1. Have at least two years of experience in providing community based planning or coordination of local community services.
2. An ability to financially support project-related activities for at least two months.

Preference will be given to applicants who have a demonstrated history of supporting an early childhood coalition through their organization and/or have support from an established early childhood coalition in their community.

Application packets will be available beginning March 19, 2012 and applications are due 5 p.m., April 20, 2012. To request an application packet, please contact Stephanie Mendenhall, Fiscal Manager.

Stephanie Mendenhall
Smart Start Oklahoma
421 Northwest 13th Street, Suite 270
Oklahoma City, OK 73103
(405) 278-6978
Stephanie.Mendenhall
www.smartstartok.org (Link opens in new window)

The closing date for receipt of completed application is 5 p.m., April 20, 2012.

Out of Reach 2012: Rental report form NLIHC

National Low-Income Housing Coalition
This report is a side-by-side comparison of wages and rents in every county, metropolitan area, combined nonmetropolitan area and state in the United States. For each jurisdiction, the report calculates the amount of money a household must earn in order to afford a rental unit in a range of sizes at the area’s Fair Market Rent (FMR), based on the generally accepted affordability standard of paying no more than 30% of income for housing costs. From these calculations the hourly wage a worker must earn to afford the FMR for a two-bedroom home is derived–this figure is the “housing wage.”

OK Office of Faith Based & Community Initiatives has a 4 month position open…..

The Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives has a 4 month position for an Administrative Assistant. The position will be for 4 days per week (32 hours) and will start early March and end on June 30, 2012. The pay rate is $11-13 per hour. The job will involve various projects and administrative support for the Director and Projects Manager. All applicants must have:

• Professional phone skills
• Strong data entry
• General clerical skills including filing and scanning documents
• Familiarity with Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Ability to process routine information requests
• Ability to navigate the web to research information
• Ability to handle routine correspondence including good grammar and sentence structure
• Ability to work independently and follow through to completion of assignments
If you are interested in this position, please send your resume to: Deborah.price@faithlinksok.org Feel free to forward this information to others who may have an interest. No phone calls please.

Free event: Asset Summit-Focusing on Match Resources in Region VI-OK, NM, AR, TX, and LA

Only two more days to register for this information-packed event. By attending you will hear from ACF leadership on the ASSET Initiative and seasoned practitioners on various funding streams from internally generated sources, banks, foundations, government, and more. You do not want to miss this no-cost opportunity. Don’t delay. Register today at www.theassetsummit.com. ****************************** We are pleased to announce that the ACF Acting Assistant Secretary, George Sheldon, will speak at this Roundtable. Click here for more information about the Acting Assistant Secretary. George Sheldon Acting Assistant Secretary Administration for Children and Families U.S. Department of Health and Human Services If you are interested in the Assets For Independence (AFI) grant and would like insight on how to raise the required match, and want insight from experienced panelists, this roundtable is for you! *********************************

2012 Poverty Guidelines Issued

For those working in government supported programs serving lower income households, the 2012 Poverty guidelines have been released. For a family of 4, the amount is $23,050. View listing here: http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/12poverty.shtml.

File Your Taxes Yourself For Free! Please share this throughout your network!

The IRS has started a new initiative called Facilitated Self Assistance (FSA). Under FSA, taxpayers prepare their own return using online interview-based software, while IRS-certified volunteers stand ready to assist with tax questions and/or computer issues.

We need your help in getting the word out. Please share with your affiliates, post links on your website or write news articles. Any means of distribution is greatly appreciated.

If you have questions please send an email to wi.spec.nat.partn. Thank you for your help with this initiative.

FILE YOUR TAXES YOURSELF FOR

FREE

If you have a simple tax return and need a little help or do not have access to a computer, you can visit one of the participating tax assistance sites and an IRS-certified volunteer will guide you through the process.

**Please see the attached listing or click on this link:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/fsa_list_irsgov_20120127_modified_v2.pdf
for a location near you!**