Denise Harlow, CCAP, MSWChief Executive Officer

Community Action Partnershipdharlow@communityactionpartnership.com

Ryan P. Gelman, Esq.Senior Associate for Public Policy & Advocacy

Community Action Partnershiprgelman@communityactionpartnership.com

CAP Public Policy Platform2019 - 2020

Policy Platform Objectives

Unified policy vision based on our strategic plan that incorporates CAP Values

Create a tool for local agencies and State Associations to use to engage community members and policymakers

Policy Platform Process

Board of Directors

Policy Committee Framework

Policy Platform review by full Board

of Directors

Input from Network

Approval by Board of Directors

Finalized and posted

to CAP Website

Policy Platform Areas

• Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Funding & Reauthorization

• Creating an Economy that Works for All with Sufficient Income for Family Well-Being

• Providing Equitable Access to Clean, Affordable Energy & Infrastructure

• Expanding Safe & Affordable Housing

• Ensuring High Quality Education & Workforce Readiness Regardless of Circumstance

• Promoting Universal Health & Well-Being

• Establishing Structural Equity in the Criminal Justice System

• Protecting Immigrant Community Members

• Encouraging Civic Engagement that Allows Every Voice to be Heard

• Strengthening Community Resilience

CSBG Reauthorization & Funding

H.R. 1695 – Community Services Block Grant Reauthorization Act of 2019

• Authorizes: FY2019 – FY2023 $850 million each year FY2024 – FY2028 such sums as may be necessary

• Preserves and strengthens core CA principles

• Reinforces efforts to continuously improve performance and management

• Establishes a CA Innovations Program & Opioid Response Grant Program

• Establishing a living wage

• Increasing access to and funding for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

• Protecting SNAP benefits

• Protecting Social Security benefits

• Expanding retirement planning programs and services

• Protecting and expanding low income tax credits, including the Earned Income Tax Credits (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC)

• Mitigating “cliff effects” in benefit disbursement

• Updating poverty measures to accurately reflect poverty in America

• Expanding access to universal and quality affordable child care

• Protecting senior citizen well-being

Creating an Economy that Works for All with Sufficient Income for Family Well-Being

Providing Equitable Access to Clean, Affordable Energy & Infrastructure

• Reauthorizing the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP)

• Maintaining funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)

• Establishing state-level Percentage of Income Payment Plans (PIPP)

• Expanding renewable energy research, funding, and implementation

• Providing access to clean water for all communities and individuals

• Promoting advanced telecommunications capability, including rural broadband access

• Improving access to effective infrastructure systems, including public transportation

Expanding Safe & Affordable Housing

• Expanding current housing initiatives at HUD and USDA, including housing choice vouchers, supportive housing programs, and rural rental assistance.

• Promoting affordable housing production through mechanisms like the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) and removal of local zoning rules and construction restrictions.

• Ensuring equity in access to affordable, safe housing opportunities for all community members, including historically marginalized minorities, individuals with disabilities, families, and previously incarcerated individuals.

• Protecting renters from evictions through more efficient and equitable adjudication mechanisms and eviction crisis assistance funds for exigent circumstances.

Ensuring High Quality Education & Workforce Readiness Regardless of Circumstance

• Promoting and protecting Head Start / Early Head Start programs

• Expanding quality afterschool programs

• Expanding access to debt-free public education, including vocational and technical schools

• Addressing student debt crisis through strengthening public education funding, increasing education opportunities for low-income students, and enforcement of predatory lending rules

• Increasing access to job training programs

• Access to workforce readiness programs through One-Stop Centers/American Job Centers (AJC)

Source: Career Ready PA Campaign

Promoting Universal Health & Well-Being• Promoting universal health care coverage

• Medicaid expansion in every state

• Expanding mental health counseling and substance use services

• Equitable access to affordable prescription drugs

• Safeguarding funding for Community Health Centers (CHC)

• Protecting and expanding access to quality care for senior citizens

• Mitigating effects of the opioid crisis by reducing over-prescription and barriers to treatment

Establishing Structural Equity in the Criminal Justice System

• Expanding pretrial justice programs, including restorative justice

• Eliminating the current cash bail system

• Preserving the rights of convicted individuals post-release, including “banning the box” on employment and housing applications, and restoring voting rights

• Promoting equity in juvenile justice systems by increasing the age of majority and expungement for certain juvenile records

• Abolishing private prisons

• Promoting community policing and requiring law enforcement to engage in implicit bias and de-escalation training

Source: Mathematica, Progress Together

Protecting ImmigrantCommunity Members

• Opposing efforts to legalize child incarceration without due process by eliminating or removing the protections in the Flores consent decree

• Opposing the new public charge rule and providing implementation resources for the Community Action Network

• Protecting individuals who immigrated to America as minors and became undocumented.

Source: Bristol County for Correctional Justice

Encouraging Civic Engagement that Allows Every Voice to Be Heard

• Protecting the right to vote for all Americans

• Promoting Community Action engagement in the 2020 Census, including an emphasis on consistently undercounted populations such as children, low-income individuals, and communities of color

• Instilling democratic values in our communities through engagement in local organizations

Source: VectorStock

Strengthening Community Resilience

• Promoting systems and procedural safeguards that foster community resilience

• Establishing the ability to respond to challenges and adapt to changing circumstances while keeping values intact

• Current challenges include the climate crisis, economic crisis, and equity issues

• All members of a community must be responsible for and exercise their power to move toward community resilience through equitable processes that engage all

Source: CARE Climate Change

Policy Resources

• Congress.gov www.congress.gov Current Legislation Congressional Record

• Congressional Research Service (CRS) https://crsreports.congress.gov/

• PolicySource www.policysource.org National Human Services Assembly

• National Conference of State Legislatures

• Policy-driven websites and media

• Follow organizations, coalitions, and hashtags

NCAF Annual Conference

March 17th – 20th, 2020

Washington, DC

Policy Platform Next Steps

• The policy platform will be posted on the Community Action Partnership website and serve as the cornerstone for an expansion of policy resources.

• We hope that CAAs and State Associations may find it helpful at the local and state levels.

Denise Harlow, CCAP, MSWChief Executive Officer

Community Action Partnershipdharlow@communityactionpartnership.com

Ryan P. Gelman, Esq.Senior Associate for Public Policy & Advocacy

Community Action Partnershiprgelman@communityactionpartnership.com

Questions?