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By MARK MILLER
Three local community leaders were able to take advantage of a national summit meeting in early June in Chicago that will further local efforts to address poverty and low-income family issues.
Wells County United Way executive director Pamela Beckford acquired scholarships for herself, Bluffton Mayor Ted Ellis and Bluffton Regional Medical Center executive Tamra Boucher, who is also a member of the local United Way board of directors, to attend the three-day “2008 Financial Stability Leadership Summit” at no cost.
The program, organized by the United Way of America (UWA), is part of their ongoing effort to “provide hard working individuals and families with tools and resources to maximize their income (and) build savings” to improve their lives.
All three were excited about what they learned at the conference and how that might be applied to local efforts to address poverty through the Inclusiveness Initiative that has been working towards those same goals.
“It was so much better than I had expected,” Boucher said. “I am amazed at the disparity of what is being done across the country in terms of helping people obtain more financial stability.”
Mayor Ellis was pleased to learn what the UWA is doing. “They’ve embraced dealing with poverty in America wholeheartedly,” he said. “We can utilize their resources and not ‘re-invent the wheel’ in what we’re doing here.”
The highlight of the conference was a first-of-its-kind agreement between the UWA and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). According to a news release from the UWA, the agreement will “facilitate collaborative outreach and programs ... to bring unbanked and underserved individuals and families into the financial mainstream.”
While the agreement covers better access to basic banking services for lower income families, the main focus of this new “Alliance for Economic Inclusion” is an education curriculum entitled “Money Smart” that is tailored for youth in schools and young adults.
“We have to do something about financial education at a younger age,” Beckford said. She would like to get the FDIC lesson plans in local schools.
While the Inclusiveness committee, a group that has hosted Bluffton seminars by Dr. Ruby Payne and Dr. Phil DeVol during the past nine months, has been working towards a “Getting Ahead” class aimed at adults and families, she sees the FDIC program as more of a “nuts and bolts” approach to teaching financial skills.
“Dr. DeVol’s ‘Getting Ahead’ classes take a look at more of the big picture,” she explained, “like building a future by identifying and using community resources.”
Boucher’s dream would be to work with state education officials to have Wells County become a test pilot for the FDIC curriculum.
“We could be a leader in the state,” she continued, noting that perhaps the three school superintendents in the county might be catalysts for such an initiative, particularly with Bluffton-Harrison’s Dr. Julie Wood recently being elected to head the state’s association of school superintendents.
Tax rebate help
The second major initiative to come out of the conference is a new emphasis on educating the public about the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
According to figures supplied to Beckford by her national associates, Wells County left $9 million unclaimed in 2007 through the tax credit that Congress established to assist low-income working families.
“This is $9 million that could be in the pockets of local families,” Beckford said. “And ultimately into our local economy.”
The EITC gives low-income working families who have children at home a tax rebate if certain conditions are met.
Ellis sees the biggest challenge as communicating this to people who need to hear it.
“They’re generally not newspaper subscribers,” Ellis said. “Reaching them will be the most difficult part.”
The EITC issue will add urgency to the Inclusiveness Committee’s intent to set up a VITA effort during the 2009 tax season.
VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) is a program to provide free assistance in completing and filing income tax returns utilizing computer programs and e-filing. These procedures should, Beckford says, make identifying EITC recipients much easier.
And Ellis sees that as not an end in itself.
“Once you get them identified and into the VITA process,” he said, “you can make them aware of other programs, such as free job training or the educational classes.”
Education a key
There is a consensus among the three coming back from the Chicago meeting that education is a key component to that plan, and now see the FDIC partnership as a new avenue.
“We have three excellent local community banks and two other larger, nationally-based banks who are very involved in the community,” Ellis noted. “Perhaps we can work together to find a solution that can help people get started down the right road.”
Beckford sees one possibility as savings accounts with small balances that don’t have fees or charges. “That could be a good start,” she says.
Small town, big effort
Of the 350 people in attendance at the Chicago conference, Bluffton was almost surely the smallest community represented.
“Almost all efforts like this are in the larger cities,” Ellis said.
“That’s what I’ve come to really appreciate about this community,” Boucher said. “We look ahead, we work together. It’s the personality of the community.”
Boucher recalled that shortly after she came to Bluffton to work at the hospital, the community received an “Outstanding Community of the Year Award” from the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. That award came in 1990 in recognition of the revitalization effort that spruced up downtown and created the Rivergreenway.
“We don’t wait for someone to tell us what needs to be done,” she continued. “We’re a very pro-active community.”
Ellis noted that while he may have initiated the inclusiveness effort, he credits Beckford with “taking the ball and running” with it.
“I don’t take credit for it because others step up and take ownership of different aspects,” he said. Ellis noted that, for example, Bluffton Middle School principal Jon Bennett led efforts to get teachers and administrators certified in Ruby Payne training to help deal with students from low-income homes; and Rev. Cindy Osgood for furthering efforts to get senior citizen programs revitalized.
“It’s fun to see these things happening,” the mayor continued.
Boucher also credited Beckford for not just being a catalyst and worker for these programs, but in aggressively finding funding for programs and for seminars such as the one the three just attended.
“The United Way of America typically awards just one ‘scholarship’ a year to a local chapter to attend these things,” Boucher said. “But she not only got a gift for her to go to the annual conference, but also awards that allowed the three of us to attend this conference in Chicago at no cost to the community.”
miller@news-banner.com