Employees Excel During Busiest Time of the Year

Every year, when winter starts to hit and the temperature drops, our utility assistance season kicks into high gear. This is a program that we value greatly, because it gives us the opportunity to reach thousands of households across northeast Indiana. But it is definitely our most difficult program to administer.

The heating assistance portion of the program provides financial assistance on heating bills to families who qualify. The amount they receive is based on a number of factors, such as income level, heating type, and more. It is a critical basic need for most of these families; without it they would struggle to keep their heat on during the winter. Quite literally, some individuals would freeze to death without this service.

This piece of the program runs from November through May this year, a shorter time frame than we have had in previous years. Because of this shorter window, the large number of families we need to serve and the limited funding provided to run the program, we definitely battle every year to make it all happen.

We have hundreds of people calling our office every day, and despite having three staff answering phones, the hold times are long. Despite an organized appointment system and staff working diligently, we have many people coming in with emergencies every day, further swamping the caseload.

The sheer volume is one thing, but the issues that our families face are also difficult, sometimes heart-wrenching. CANI employees work here because they want to make a difference in people’s lives, but that work can become overwhelming at times.

I know that this is our busiest, most stressful time of the entire year. That is what makes me even more proud of our employees during this time. The Family Support staff work extremely hard to get people their services. Other departments pitch in to help when we get overloaded. Despite the massive numbers, we always serve the most people that we can, as well as we can.

Because we are CANI and that is what we do here.

Fighting Homelessness - Fighting Poverty

I am really excited that CANI has launched two new programs in the last couple of weeks. Well, they are technically new, but are very similar to work that we've started over the last couple of years. The programs are very similar in nature. Both are modeled after the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Rehousing Program (HPRP), which CANI has administered for the last couple of years in our region.

HPRP was started as a pilot program across the country using ARRA stimulus funds through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Those funds of course have come to an end, but HPRP was so successful, that HUD has shifted some of its traditional funding into starting a new program using this model.

The goal of HPRP was to prevent long-term homelessness by rapidly rehousing homeless families (or preventing them from becoming homelessness in the first place) by providing short-term rental assistance. This is obviously an important stabilizing benefit, but of more importance was that the rental assistance was combined with intensive case management services. The goal of the program was to make families housing stable by the time their rental assistance ended, which was around nine months.

CANI has served hundreds of families with HPRP across eleven northeast Indiana counties. These families are basically the hardest to serve, because of their homeless situation, and the vast majority of these families left the program with stable housing. It was imperative that we find a way to maintain this program locally, and nationally as well.

I am excited to say that after a gap of about 10 months, CANI is once again serving families using this model. The program does not have an official name yet, although we have been referring to it as ESG (Emergency Solutions Grant) because of the funding from HUD that goes by this name. The program is smaller than before. We can only serve Allen County now, instead of all of the counties in our service area. And the funding mix is much more complicated, but still we consider it quite a victory to have been able to piece this program back together.

We have many partners to thank for this effort. Most notably, the City of Fort Wayne has combined funding from several of their programs to serve clients from inside the city limits. The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority (IHCDA) is providing about half of the funding. Our fantastic partnership with Lutheran Social Services continues with this program, as they will be helping us provide the case management for the program.  Our local United Way, through its 211 program, will be providing initial screening on potential clientele. And we will be working with area housing shelters in close partnership, as they help families move from their crisis situation into our program.

In total, this is a unique collaboration that combines the services of many different organizations, and provides clients with two vitally important pieces in their quest to become self-sufficient: housing and case management. I am proud that CANI has a key role in providing this program in our community.

The other program that has started is nearly a carbon-copy of the program I've described above. It is called Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF). It too combines rental assistance with case management, but with less rental assistance and heavier emphasis on case management. I am really excited to be working with Veterans. I am a Veteran myself, and I feel that communities need to do much more to help these families with their very unique issues. We have long wanted to do more for Veterans here at CANI, and this is a significant step.

I have written many times about the need to help families meet their basic needs so they can focus on developmental goals. Shelter is at the top of that list. I also believe that case management, and especially CANI’s own Family Development model, is one of the most successful poverty fighting programs that we have. Starting two new programs that combine these vital services is a truly exciting step for our organization and the communities that we serve.

Who Am I Voting For Next Week?

Election Day is next week and I can’t help but think that this is one of the most important elections in my voting life. When I was a younger person, not yet into my career, I remember feeling like it didn't really matter who we elected into government positions. I had this feeling because it didn't seem to me that government affected me that much.

As I have grown up, started a family, and worked at CANI, I have absolutely changed that view. We are affected by government throughout most aspects of our lives. And without question, the non-profit world is profoundly impacted by the decisions, or lack of decisions, that our governments make.

Even though I've decided who I am voting for, I would absolutely say that I wouldn't care who was elected, if it meant that our elected officials would work better together and that we would all tone down the partisanship. The people of this country are so much more similar than different, and I think we've lost sight of that. I have family members with vastly different viewpoints, and I love them all. I have friends with vastly different viewpoints, and I have the same amount of fun with all of them. I have coworkers with vastly different viewpoints, and we get a whole lot done here at CANI every day. I think our government and society can be just like this, and my hope for this election, and any election, is that in the end, we focus on what unites us.

We all know that there are lots of decisions made throughout our lives that both help and hurt us. No matter who is elected as President or what Congress looks like, that will continue to be the case. But as I have mentioned before, what hurts us at CANI even more than a change here or there has been the lack of decisions of any kind. The uncertainty of what is going to happen, the delays in implementation, and the problems caused by starting and stopping services make programs nearly impossible to manage.

In my position at CANI I have had the pleasure to meet many elected officials, from different parties and at different levels of government. I can say that absolutely, all of these folks care about the people they represent and care tremendously about their nation, state, and local community. I have been impressed by the knowledge and dedication of all of those I have met. We have the greatest governmental system in the world. We absolutely have the potential to be the greatest government in the world.

I have high hopes that this election will result in us reaching that potential, and it starts with each one of us. If you have a vote, please, please do so. I am not going to mention here who I am voting for because it doesn't matter. What is most important is that we all show that the people of this country are engaged in our democracy. And if we all join our elected leaders with a focus on compromise and getting decisions made, I feel that we will be in a much better position to reach our potential as a government and a nation.

Getting Things Done for America

On Thursday morning at our RECAP event, CANI’s AmeriCorps members will be making their pledge. It is as follows:

AmeriCorps Pledge 

I will get things done for America –

to make our people safer, smarter, and healthier.

I will bring Americans together to strengthen our communities.

Faced with apathy, I will take action.

Faced with conflict, I will seek common ground.

Faced with adversity, I will persevere.

I will carry this commitment with me this year and beyond.

I am an AmeriCorps member, and I will get things done.

This is our first group of AmeriCorps members, and we are tremendously excited to bring this program to northeast Indiana. It is the culmination of about two years of work with our partners United Way of Allen County and Lutheran Social Services. We have been working hard on this for so long because we know that AmeriCorps will help make our community stronger and will help us get things done.

Our members will be working in various areas within CANI, including our Head Start program and Covering Kids and Families program. They will be helping us in our Community Economic Development programs as well as helping us increase our organizational capacity to serve people. They will also be working in programs at Lutheran Social Services and helping with projects at United Way. They will be serving families who need help. They give us yet another resource to accomplish the work of our organizations.

On Sept 20, CANI Corps members worked at
Community Harvest Food Bank on their first of
many service projects that will be conducted
throughout the year. 

I am deeply impressed by the service mindset of our members. They are focused on helping people. They are dedicated to strengthening northeast Indiana and the organizations they will be working with. I know that we will all learn a great deal from these individuals over the coming year.

I am particularly excited because this is just our first year, and we are looking at this project as just the first step in growing the program and adding many more partner organizations in the coming years. We are getting our feet wet this year, we are learning a lot about the program and how to administer it. In coming years we hope to add more member slots, so the impact of these incredible individuals can spread throughout our community. I have already been approached by many different organizations desiring their own AmeriCorps members.

The potential we have both now and in the future is truly exciting and we welcome our inaugural group of members into the CANI family.

Planning for the Future

As CANI's Executive Director, there are a lot of great activities that I get to participate in. But one of my favorite events took place last week - our Board of Directors' strategic planning retreat.(No, I'm serious!) And since my blog actually came up in conversation during the retreat a couple of times, I thought it perfect to talk about it here.

The strategic planning retreat is one of my favorite events because it is the major step of a long and detailed process that sets CANI’s direction for the subsequent three years. Before the retreat we spend time and resources studying the needs of our clients and community and gathering input from those we serve. And after the retreat, we spend time fleshing out ideas and developing steps that will put our ideas into action. But it is at the retreat that our board discusses in detail what our broad strategies for the next three years will be.

It is exciting to me to bring together our group of dedicated, volunteer leaders to determine ways to better meet our mission. Our board already dedicates a great deal of time to CANI throughout the year, and yet they carve out a large chunk of time for this very important retreat. I was really proud to be among this group of people.

I can’t get into any specifics yet, as there is more work to be done over the next three months before we formally adopt a new strategic plan. But I can tell you a few things about the retreat. For one, the consensus of the group was greater than I would have normally expected. Most of the ideas that were put forth were universally agreed upon as key strategies for us to pursue. While every retreat inevitably leads to consensus to a degree, this retreat generated more than I have seen in the past. This level of support for our goals and objectives will invariably help us down the road as we work on implementation.

I can also say with pretty strong confidence that when our new strategic plan is released, you will see CANI continuing to work on goals and objectives that we have initiated in the past, as well as some brand new items that will enhance the work that we do. This has me particularly excited, because for one, we have more work to do on initiatives that we have started, despite making great strides on many of them. And I am also excited about the prospect of exploring new things as we work to become an even more effective organization at accomplishing our mission.

The new plan will be complete in January, 2013. I look forward to sharing it with you then. Now, back to work!

It's That Time of Year Again!

If you have kids, you know what time it is – it’s back to school time! Most kids are not that happy to be ending their summer vacation and getting back to “work”. Many parents, on the other hand, are just a little happy to get their kids out of their hair for a while each day. (It is no different in my household!) But all kidding aside, I am also excited that my kids get to go back to school to continue their education.

We all know the importance of education. Studies show that children develop 85% of their intellect, personality, and skills by age 5. Early childhood education has a profound impact on the development of children and who they will become as adults.

This is why I’m so proud of CANI’s Head Start program. Because each and every year, we are working with about 800 children between 3 and 5 years old, setting them on the path of lifelong learning.

Head Start is a truly comprehensive preschool program. Our teachers do an excellent job preparing children for kindergarten and the years beyond. But we also focus on the health and nutrition of the children, which are important factors in their early formation. Likewise, we work closely with the families of our children, because we know that a child’s most important teacher is his or her parents.

Besides early childhood education, decisions that young people make in high school have a profound impact on their adulthood. The two most important indicators of poverty among those that CANI serves are education level and single parenthood. Those with a college degree or equivalent credential earn about twice as much annually as those with only a high school diploma. The gap only widens for those without a high school education. And while single parenthood occurs for a number of reasons, one reason is young women having children while still in high school.

Working with youth is critical to CANI’s mission, which is why I’m so pleased that CANI now has the JAG program (Jobs for America’s Graduates.) This year we will work with approximately 350 youth in 9 high schools throughout our region. The goal of the program is to work with students to help them stay in school, access post-secondary education, and secure quality entry-level jobs that lead to career opportunities.

So as our community goes back to school, CANI is going back to school as well. I love that we can have such a great impact on young people through Head Start and JAG. To learn more about these programs, check out our web site, www.canihelp.org.

Opportunity is the Key at Any Age

Yesterday, I turned 40 years old. My family, friends, and coworkers have made it a wonderful week of celebration for me. Aside from the many comments about me now being “over the hill,” I have also had several people ask me: “Are you where you expected to be at 40?”

As a teenager and young adult, I had no desire whatsoever to work at a social-service organization. I certainly knew about poverty, but it was not one of “my causes.”

I came to work at CANI thirteen years ago because I couldn’t find employment in the field I thought I wanted to work in. I needed a job, so I took one here. I continued to look for a position elsewhere over my first several months at CANI. But what I know now that I didn't know then is that I got exactly the job I was meant to have. Life is funny that way, isn't it?

CANI has provided me with more than I could ever have imagined. I found a career at CANI, for sure. I also met my wife at CANI, and I would not trade our relationship, or our children, for anything else in the world.

But what I have really found at CANI is a cause that I believe in. I have never lived in poverty myself, but I was fortunate to have worked as a case manager in my first nine months at CANI. I worked with families very closely and I saw the issues they faced and how hard they worked to improve their lives and their children’s lives. Their stories, as well as the stories of the thousands of families we have served since then, continue to fuel me today.

When I think about where I am today, I think about the opportunities that have been provided to me that have helped me get here. Two incredible parents who provided for me at great sacrifice to themselves, and who shaped me into the adult I am today. A wife who has supported me every single step of the way and is my most important partner in life. An excellent education, from pre-school all the way through graduate school. Military service that truly changed me from a boy into a man. Friends and coworkers who have supported me throughout my life.

How we take advantage of opportunities is what defines us as individuals. But you have to have opportunities first. That's what we are providing here at CANI: Opportunities for communities, families, and individuals to build brighter futures. And I couldn't be prouder than to work for an organization that does that.

After the Storm

I spend a lot of my time talking to people about CANI’s mission. I love our mission for many reasons.  Among them, I love that it states that we address both the “causes and conditions of poverty”. Few would argue that we would much rather address causes than conditions. We would much rather “teach people to fish” than “give them a fish”. At CANI, we spend the bulk of our resources “teaching people to fish”, but I was personally reminded two weeks ago why we cannot ignore the conditions either.

Like so many others in northeast Indiana, my family was without power for an extended period of time after the storm on Friday, June 29^th. It is amazing how much we take electricity for granted. Without electricity, we lose light; we lose the ability to store and cook food; we lose the ability to wash our clothes. Most importantly, for many of us we lose the ability to heat or cool our home. And if you have well water, like we do, we lose the ability to get water into our homes.

My family spent four days without power at my home. I thought about CANI’s mission many times over this period. I spent those four days completely focused on meeting my family’s basic needs. We are fortunate to have a generator, which we connected to our freezer and our sump pump to keep our basement from flooding. However, the generator sprung a fuel line leak, and after spending several hours trying to fix it, I spent several more hours trying to purchase a new one.

Without water, there was no way for us to wash clothes, take showers, or flush toilets as we normally do. We were fortunate to have a small pool already filled with water for our three young kids to swim in, and so at least we could fill a bucket of water each time someone needed to use the bathroom. We were also fortunate that my wife could take several hours to travel to her parents and do laundry on Saturday night.

It also happened to be quite hot over those four days. We were exceptionally uncomfortable and spent a great deal of time just trying to keep everyone cool (setting up the basement to sleep in, taking drives in our air conditioned van, sitting in our dwindling 3-foot pool). And as uncomfortable as I was, I was worried about the health of my parents in the heat, who were also without power.

Food was also a chore. I already mentioned keeping generators going to keep our food from spoiling. But without an oven, we took a lot of trips to restaurants, and when we did eat at home, it meant disconnecting the freezer from the generator so we could microwave our food.

On Monday morning, when I woke up after three days of no power and my mood was not good. I was angry and generally not at all pleasant to be around. I was this way for several hours, until my wife finally told me to get out and go for a drive on my own. I drove through Monroeville, initially to see if there were any signs that power might be coming back soon. But as I drove through town I was reminded that others’ homes and businesses were in much worse shape than mine. Suddenly, my attitude began to shift. I certainly had no right to be angry or feel sorry for myself when other people were suffering worse than I!

A couple hours later, our power was restored. Moods immediately brightened, the home started to cool, the kids jumped on the Wii (and stopped driving us crazy), and we cooked a nice lunch. Our lives returned to normal, even while others continued to live without power until later.

As I reflect on those four days, it is a reminder to me about why meeting basic needs is so crucial to CANI’s mission. Even with resources to draw upon – such as working vehicles, money to buy gas for generators and food at restaurants, and family to help us – my wife and I spent four days fully focused on meeting our family’s basic needs. Work, aside from concern over how coworkers were doing, was an afterthought. No doubt, if I was still in school that would have been an afterthought as well. We spent no time reading to our kids and certainly didn’t think about how they were developing as children. Heck, even my relationship with my wife and kids was an afterthought especially by that Monday morning when I just had a bad attitude.

While I was in school, I often came across Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in my studies. The theory essentially states that people must meet a certain level of need before they will have the ability to move on to another level. I have been fortunate in my life that I have rarely had to worry about the most basic needs in Maslow’s Hierarchy, which includes things like food, shelter, safety, and so forth.

My family spent only four days focused on our basic needs. Many of the families CANI serves are not so fortunate. They struggle daily with providing the basic needs for their families, and with fewer resources than my family had to work with over the power outage. If we ever want to truly help these families leave poverty behind forever, to acquire new knowledge and skills and better jobs, we must help them first meet the basic needs of their families. At CANI, the strategy is not whether “to teach them to fish” or “give them fish”, but actually to do both.

May is National Community Action Month

May is a pretty special month for CANI, as it is officially National Community Action month. During this month we spend a little extra time and effort as a national network raising awareness about poverty, the issues low-income families face, and the work that Community Action Agencies do in their communities to combat these issues.

Awareness is a critical tool for us, now more than ever. While some have started to feel positive outcomes from the improving economy, there are still thousands of people in our community struggling to recover themselves. They face unemployment and struggles keeping their family housed and utilities paid, many for the first time in their lives.

Yet at the same time the demands for our programs are higher than normal, social service organizations face a struggle themselves. Federal budget cuts and tougher-to-come-by charitable donations have meant decreasing budgets and programming locally, at just the time when we need to be expanding. For these reasons, it’s as important as ever to raise awareness about poverty in northeast Indiana, and resources to fight that poverty.

During May, and even a little into June, CANI will pump up our own efforts to raise awareness and provide opportunities for people to get engaged. On May 17^th we will be conducting our signature event – our Poverty Simulation. This is simply an excellent opportunity for people to participate in a fun and engaging activity, that provides a taste of the issues that low-income families face. Past participants have reported that it was a moving, eye-opening experience for them. And so our goal is to conduct these simulations as often as we can, and May 17^th is the next opportunity for you to participate. More information can be found here.

On May 21^st, join us from noon – 2pm as we celebrate the grand opening of Hopewell Pointe – a 35-home affordable housing subdivision in Waynedale. These wonderful new homes are providing a life-changing opportunity to the families who are now living here. The development has also been a valuable economic investment in this southwest Fort Wayne community.

On June 7^th we will host our annual golf outing at Noble Hawk Golf Links in Kendallville. CANI Golf is one of our top fundraising events of the year and is a great way to support our fight against poverty while having a great time as well. We still have openings for teams and sponsorships. Participants routinely state this is one of the best outings of the year!

Besides events, we hope that you will see and hear more of us in other ways as well. Check out our recently launched, new and improved web site – www.canihelp.org. And our 2011 Annual Report should be in your hands by mid-May. The Annual Report highlights stories of individuals and families who have fought poverty in their own lives and have achieved great successes.

The purpose of all this activity is to put poverty front of mind in our community just a little bit more. If we can mobilize people to support our cause, advocate for the issues, and give of their time and financial resources, together we can fight poverty and build hope in our neighborhoods, communities, and northeast Indiana.

Energy Assistance Funds Still Available

One of our biggest programs in terms of the number of people served is our Energy Assistance Program.  We annually serve over 11,000 households with this program.  Because of many changes and issues with the program this year, we still have the ability to serve many more people before the program closes down on May 15^th.

It has been a truly difficult year for this program, both for our staff, and admittedly, for our clients as well.  First, the start date of the program was delayed a month from previous years.  We also only received a small portion of our funding at the start of the year, ran out of that, and had to shut down the program for a few weeks at the end of 2012.  We also saw a very significant reduction in the benefit amounts per household.  This change was put in place because of a fear of significant budget cuts, which only partially came to fruition.

All of these changes, and many other issues, have made it a particularly difficult year to administer the program.  We also know that it has been particularly difficult on the families we serve, and we are working hard to advocate for changes to the program next year.

In the meantime, however, because of these changes we have the ability to serve many more clients between now and May 15^th.  If you or someone you know could use help with your utility bills, please contact us today.

Happy (belated) New Year!

It’s hard to believe we’re already into the second month of the New Year. The last two years have been very busy for CANI, and 2012 is shaping up to be just the same. We will continue to serve hundreds of children in our Head Start program, help thousands of people who need help with their utilities and child care, and much more. Just maintaining what we do makes for a busy time. But we have several exciting new developments on tap for 2012 as well.

As of February 1^st, CANI is now managing the Jobs for America’s Graduates program in Northeast Indiana. This program is focused on helping youth stay in school through graduation, pursue post-secondary education, and secure quality entry-level jobs leading to career advancement opportunities. We will be in nine high schools throughout the region, serving 35-45 youth in each school. We have conducted youth services for some time now, but this program is an exciting expansion enabling us to reach more young people from vulnerable backgrounds.

Also this year, CANI submitted our application to become a certified Community Development Financial Institution. We began lending to businesses and individuals a little over a year ago, and have continued to develop our infrastructure over that time. We have already provided seven small business loans and twenty credit-builder loans, and continue to provide for new customers.  But the CDFI certification would mark a dramatic increase in our ability to serve many, many more customers.

In 2012 we will also see the completion of our Hopewell Pointe housing development. The 35 single-family homes in Waynedale should be completed by June, marking a significant investment in that community. Already, eight families have moved in – a tremendous housing opportunity for them and the other families who will soon live there.

We will see an expansion of our Poverty Simulation in 2012 as well. This event, which gives participants some degree of appreciation for the issues that low-income families face, has become our signature event. We are seeing increasing demand to put this on in our community, and we are working to increase our capacity to do it many more times per year.

We will continue to work on enhancing all of our programs in 2012, just as we do every year. We will be working on internal improvements to help build an even greater organization. We will be working closely with our partners to enhance our community network of service provision. AND, we will continue to seek resources to do more in every county we serve.

Yes, 2012 is shaping up to be another busy year at CANI. When there are so many people in need, we wouldn’t have it any other way.