Heads Up
Resources
Written by Administrator Saturday, 30 August 2008 22:10
Grantee Toolbox
Help for Washington Families Fund Grantees
Technical assistance is an important component of the Washington Families Fund program. We can assist grantees with agency/partnership capacity building, as well developing and operating housing, employment, and support service programs targeting homeless families. In addition, we also provide training opportunities for funded agencies. See our upcoming trainings.
We are continually looking to grantees to tell us where you think you and your partner agencies would benefit from technical assistance. We see this assistance as a central part of the ongoing partnership between grantees and the Washington Families Fund.
Helpful Documents: Tools, Tips, and Research
How well does your organization support your ability to help tenants get employed? Fill out this vocationalization assessment form, Critical Ingredients for Offering an Integrated Employment Service in Supportive Housing, and find out.
Social Security (and Related) Benefits: Jonathan Beard's April 2009 training for providers was designed to increase their understanding of SSDI and SSI benefits including Medicare, Medicaid, the appeals process, and how work and wages impacts these. This training was extremely well received by the WFF grantees and other service providers who attended in 2008 and 2009.
Materials from the training include:
- Social Security (and Related) Benefits Training Overview
- SSDI, SSI and Social Security’s Work Incentives 2009 Handout
- Sample Letter of Support of a Claim for Psychiatric Disability
Nonprofit Legal Self-Assessment Checklist: A guide for helping nonprofits to understand common legal obligations and to highlight areas where greater inquiry should be made. Prepared by the Washington Attorneys Assisting Community Organizations.
The Trainer Bank Toolkit and Trainer Bank Program Summary from Intercommunity Mercy Housing give great tips on how to create a "trainer bank" to help your clients get the life-skills education they need. Read the "Trainer Bank Toolkit" first, to orient you to the step by step process. Then take a look at IMH's program summary to get an idea of how this would look at your agency!
Feeling the burnout at your organization? Check out the offerings of Cristien Storm, who gives trainings on self-care for human services professionals: Regeneration on the Front Lines
Helpful Links
The following tools may be helpful to you in assisting your clients to create budgets and plan for the future.
Basic Food Estimator: Calculates the estimated amount of assistance available to families based on income and expenses through the Basic Food program.
Basic Needs Budget Calculator: Shows how much a family needs to make ends meet without the help of work supports – making it a nice companion to the Family Resource Simulator, which shows the impact of work supports on a family budget.
Family Resource Simulator: Shows the impact of work supports on a family budget, illustrating how such as earned income tax credits and child care assistance—on the budget of a hypothetical family. Based on the answers provided on steps 1 through 7, the Simulator generates graphs that show how family resources and expenses change as earnings increase.
Information for Social Service Professionals: Help for social service providers to connect clients with food assistance, health insurance, health resources, and more. Includes up-to-date information about state and federal social service programs, income guideline “cheat sheets”, and application forms for assistance programs.
Contact us for assistance:
Emily Nolan, Grantmaking and Evaluation Manager
Contact Emily with questions about contracts, RFPs, and/or changes to program design.
Kelly Smith, Grants Specialist
Contact Kelly with questions on Washington Families Fund contracts, quarterly reports, client data reporting, and newsletter content. She is also the contact for anything related to Sound Families.
Margaret Hennings, Performance Measurement Specialist
Contact Margaret for information about the Washington Families Fund high-level services evaluation activities and related HMIS questions.
