Cumberland Community Action Program Inc

“The organization has a policy council for its head start program, which is mostly comprised of parents from the head start centers that the program benefits. The policy council has the power to appoint one of the members of the organziation's governing body.”

“The organization has a policy council for its head start program, which is mostly comprised of parents from the head start centers that the program benefits. The policy council approves the items such as policy changes, budget, etc. As related to the head start program. The organization's governing body is not required to act according to the decisions of the policy council, but a matter of disagreement between the governing body and the policy council may be subject to dispute resolution through the u.s. Department of health and human services, which funds the head start program.”

“The 990 is presented at a quarterly board meeting and reviewed by the finance officer. A copy of the 990 will be provided to the entire board for review and approval prior to filing.”

“Employees are required to report any conflicts of interest as they arise. Accounting staff have to sign a conflict of interest statement each year and must report conflicts as they arise. Should a conflict arise during the year, a board member would recuse himself or herself and an employee would have to resolve the conflict or refrain from working on the transaction.”

“The human resource director does a salary and wage study every 3 years in order to determine reasonable compensation for the ceo and any key employee. The board of directors approves the study and the resulting compensation packages. The decision is documented in the board minutes.”

“The organization's governing documents, conflicts of interest policy and financial statements are available upon request.”

“Families through projects and programs in four distinct areas: early childhood education, hunger, housing, and client services. Each program area addresses human needs along a continuum from basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter to career and education assistance and financial empowerment. Ultimately, we aim to produce viable, productive members of society with a focus on their own success and the goal of giving back to their community.”

“Early childhood development - programs such as head start/early head start and nc pre-k provide comprehensive early childhood development services for at-risk infant, toddler and preschool children. Action pathways, inc.'s head start/early head start is a federally funded grant program administered in cumberland county to serve 900 preschool infant and toddler children. In 2015 head start was in it's 49th year of operation. Head start/early head start provides center-based educational, health, nutritional, social and disability services to a total of 890 at-risk children age birth to five, 96 infants/toddlers in private child care centers, and home-based services to 10 infants/toddlers and pregnant women. Action pathways, inc.'s head start/ early head start has 20 four and five star early childhood centers through the north carolina division of child development and early education. Each center is strategically located throughout cumberland county to ensure services are available to most in need children and families. Services are free to cumberland county residents who meet the eligibility criteria as prioritized by the policy council and governing body. In 2015, action pathways, inc.'s head start/early head start was funded to offer comprehensive early childhood development services for 786 pre-school aged children and their families, as well as 210 infants, toddlers, and pregnant women. Individualized programs are developed for each participant and their family to ensure their specific needs are met. Children are accepted into the program at 6 weeks of age and remain eligible for services until age 3, at which time parents must reapply for preschool head start services for the upcoming program year if the child's birthday falls on or before august 31st. Pregnant mothers are also enrolled for services when eligible. The child nutrition program is a federal pass-through grant that serves nutritious meals to all children attending the head start/early head start program. Approximately 404,267 meals were served to head start/early head start children in 2015. The nutrition service area provides each child with 1/2 to 2/3 of their daily nutritional needs and contributes to each child's physical, emotional, and social development. A registered dietician is available to review menus to ensure all dietary requirements are met. The nutrition coordinator presents menus to the health/nutrition advisory committee for input and approval. Children with allergies are provided individualized service for each and every meal. Meals are not only nutritious, they also reflect variety and cultural diversity. Classroom activities relating to nutrition are provided as well as the involvement of parents in nutrition trainings. Parents are also referred to the local wic program and provided information on the food stamp programs as well as referral to the food bank operated under action pathways, inc. Action pathways, inc.'s head start dually enrolled and served 292 nc pre-k children in 2015. Nc pre-k is a state-funded, community based pre-kindergarten program designed to provide 4 year old children, who may not otherwise be served with a valuable educational experience. This full day program provides young children with access to an early childhood curriculum and preschool experience to enhance their school readiness. The pre-kindergarten standards are built on the premise that in order to be successful academically in school, children need to be prepared in all five major domains of development. School readiness goals have been developed for ehs and preschool head start children. Families are encouraged to develop family partnership agreements that include goals specific to the needs and desires of each family such as the pursuit of education, purchase of a home, obtaining a driver's license, etc. In 2015 all enrolled families had developed family partnership agreements. Family advocates are available at the head start centers for all families. A”

“The community service block grant (csbg) aspire self-sufficiency program provides comprehensive services designed to assist low income individuals and families become self-sufficient and rise out of poverty. In 2015, csbg served and positively impacted a total of 185 individuals and their families. The csbg aspire self-sufficiency program served 144 indiviudals in cumberland county and 41 individuals in sampson county. The number of families who rose above the poverty level and maintained income above the poverty level for 90 days while in the program was 18. The number of participants that achieved either academic or vocational education goals was 24. The number of participants obtaining employment was 25 and the of those 6 received jobs with medical benefits. The average wage rate was $8.90, which is $1.65 above minimum wage in north carolina. The second harvest food bank of southeast north carolina distributes food to 1.4 million individuals annually throughout our seven county service area which includes bladen, cumberland, duplin, harnett, hoke, robeson and sampson counties. The mission of second harvest is to feed the hungry in southeast north carolina by soliciting and judiciously distributing healthy food and grocery products through a network of nonprofit partners and to be an advocate that educates the community on the problems of domestic hunger. Second harvest food bank has over 253 member agencies consisting of faith-based organizations serving as soup kitchens, pantries, and other non-profit helping agencies. Direct service programs operated by second harvest food bank include the mobile pantry program, the backpack program, the mobile fresh market program, the volunteer program, and the community garden. During 2015, second harvest food bank distributed 9.8 million pounds of nutritious food and non-food items serving 194,800 unduplicated households. The backpack program provided over 40,062 packages of child-friendly food products for 1,899 children in approximately 46 elementary schools across our service area. More than 160,248 pounds of food were distributed to students at risk of hunger. Backpacks provide a 2-day meal package with whole grain cereals, shelf stable low fat milk, entrees, 100% fruit juices, and healthy snack choices. The mobile pantry held 82 distributions, serving more than 5,698 households, or roughly 14,902 individuals by distributing over 228,980 pounds of food with the assistance of 1,162 volunteers that donated over 4,137 hours of volunteer service. In 2015, volunteers donated 18,930 total hours by assisting with second harvest food bank activities. The second harvest food bank collected over 237,250 pounds of food from local businesses, organizations, and individuals. Major community food drives include the national association of letter carriers food drive, students against hunger, nextfest 2015, and the heart of carolinas food drive. In addition to food drives, second harvest food bank hosted events aimed at bringing awareness to the community and raising financial support. Major events held during 2015 included the 7th annual driving out hunger invitational golf tournament and 5th annual strike out hunger bowl-a-thon.”

“Low income housing - this program provides affordable home ownership and rental assisted living for eligible participants. The weatherization assistance program is a federal pass through grant that provides energy saving measures and improvements to families who are at or below 200% of the poverty guidelines. The services provided reduced air infiltration into homes in order to reduce energy consumption. In 2015, the weatherization program expanded by adding 7 additional counties. 206 homes were weatherized in bladen, brunswick, columbus, cumberland, hoke, montgomery, moore, pender, robeson, sampson, and scotland counties. The heating appliance repair replacement program repaired or replaced 165 heating and/or cooling units.”

“The action pathways, inc. Community housing development program has been established to provide affordable housing in cumberland county through the acquisition, rehabilitation, or construction of homes. There are 11 housing units in action pathway inc.'s community housing development organization (chdo) program. All chdo properties are managed by a property management company, who ensures all properties are continuously rented to low-income families. Consumer credit counseling services of fayetteville (cccs), provides comprehensive housing education and housing counseling, financial literacy education, credit and money management counseling, financial workshops and outreach, as well as free tax preparation services through its network of 5 branch locations serving eastern and south eastern north carolina. Cccs of fayetteville is a member of the national foundation for credit counseling (nfcc) and in many cases exceeds the quality standards required of a member. The program maintains high standards for counselors in terms of acquiring certifications and completing ongoing training and education. Each counselor must earn their housing counseling certification through the association of housing counselors (tahc), or through the national foundation for credit counseling (nfcc). Though the quality standards call for a counselor to be credit certified within one year, the cccs of fayetteville program averages 4 months to get a new counselor certified. In addition, as certification classes become available, the program sends counselors for their reverse mortgage (hecm) certification through the north carolina housing finance agency (nchfa), and loss mitigation training through the us department of housing and urban development (hud), nchfa, and neighbor works. The program has demonstrated with each hud grant (funded over 28 years), that it has the ability to deliver successful completion of grant goals, as evidenced by early depletion of grant funds and timely reporting. Additionally, in 2015 cccs of fayetteville received 3 mortgage default counseling contracts from the north carolina housing agency. The first contract was under the national foreclosure mitigation counseling (nfmc) program, for rounds 9. The second contract was to provide interest free loans to families who were at risk of losing their home due to loss of income (nc hardest hit funding-mpp). The third contract with the north carolina housing finance agency was to provide counseling service to north carolina families in foreclosure. Cccs of fayetteville completed the grant and contract goals successfully for the year of 2015. The program maintains a strong and committed presence in the communities we serve and has the experience and knowledge to get help to the people who need it most. The program has expanded its way of counseling by offering not only face to face counseling sessions, but counseling sessions via internet and telephone. The program also delivers financial literacy by way of one-on-one counseling sessions and by rendering workshops and participating in outreach programs with the primary focus on the most needed communities. The program's success has been because of the knowledge and efficiency of the staff, the program's operating procedures in which the existence of operating procedures creates uniformity, employee policies, and employee training. Also the program uses web based debt management software ( from cpr) which allows management to continuously monitor progress and make necessary adjustments when warranted in "real time". The software also allows the program to manage branch activity levels by way of reports, and reviewing files. Trends and needs can be easily detected and evaluated with the use of information retrieved from the system. This has allowed the program to produce high productivity and accurate reporting. The results of our education and counseling program in 2015 were as follows: total number of education and counseling programs”