Michael Swayze's Community Resources

Blog

  • Today Is National 2-1-1 Day

    With every passing year, new partnerships are made between NJ 2-1-1 and government and community organizations. These partnerships establish clear pathways for people to follow when help is needed. In celebration of national 2-1-1 Day, we celebrate how 2-1-1 makes help happen in New Jersey.

    In 2016 NJ 2-1-1 connected 363,627 people with services they might otherwise have missed. NJ 2-1-1 community resource specialists answered 155,737 calls for assistance. Another 5,835 calls were forwarded directly to state hotlines. Our website received 202,055 visitors.

    Our partnerships with United Ways across New Jersey, as well as state and local government help connect people in-need with existing services and programs. In 2016 our partnerships and special initiatives took us above and beyond traditional information and referral and enabled us to make help happen. See our Year in Review.

    Since 2005 NJ 2-1-1 has been providing residents of our state with connections to essential resources that often move callers in crisis from despair to hope. “While many of the calls we receive come from families who are looking for solutions to the most basic of needs like utility assistance, food and affordable housing,” states NJ 2-1-1 board president Gina Plotino, “we answer calls for many
    other things too, such as mental health counseling, childcare or transportation. Call 9-1-1 for emergencies. Call 2-1-1 for everything else.” With a resource database of nearly 3,000 agencies and more than 10,000 programs and services, NJ 2-1-1 is the easiest place to start to find a solution to any problem relating to health and human service needs.

    Source: A February 10, 2017 email titled, “The Easiest Place to Start” from the Executive Director of the NJ 2-1-1 Partnership.

  • Philadelphia Resistance and Progressive Groups

    The following is a list, not all-inclusive, of progressive groups in Philadelphia. They are a few of the Resistance groups based on my personal knowledge or experience that stand with the community. The links below serve as a tool to empower you to join the movement to stop Trump.

    To learn and join in our daily events it is strongly recommended you find a group. All have either a Facebook, Twitter or a webpage. Now is the time to get a Facebook account and a Twitter account, if you want to stay informed.

    Useful Resistance/Progressive sites include:

    • Indivisible offers a free, practical guide for resisting the Trump agenda. Former congressional staffers reveal best practices for making Congress listen. Read and study their Indivisible Guide. Link up with an Indivisible local group today.
    • Reclaim Philadelphia is a group founded by former Bernie staffers and volunteers and is committed to continuing the Political Revolution in the City of Brotherly Love.
    • Philadelphia Neighborhood Networks is a progressive Democrat organization, active since 2004. You can follow them on Twitter @Philly_NN.
    • Indivisible: Philly NW is a local organization formed to resist Trump’s authoritarian agenda. Join them at their next meeting, February 5. See their Facebook page for details.
    • Philly We Rise helped to chase Trump out of our city last week, so they boasted on Facebook. Signup for their text alerts.
    • Shout Out Philly likes to raise the volume on progressive activism in Philadelphia. Read their Take Action Now or Events pages online.
    • Seeds for Action is a Philadelphia based coalition focused on taking the barriers out of social justice and activism and translating the emotions of the last election into accessible direct action.
    • 215 People’s Alliance is a multi-racial collaborative dedicated to fighting for equity and justice in Philadelphia – at the ballot box and in the street.

    Direct action is currently concentrated on calling the offices of our Senators and holding rallies outside their district offices. It is making a difference! Join #ResistTrumpTuesdays events, especially at Senator Pat Toomey’s office, 1628 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Philadelphia. You should also call his office to leave a timely message. He can be reached at 215-241-1090 (Philadelphia) or 202-224-4254 (DC). Senator Bob Casey’s Philadelphia office is located at 2000 Market Street. His telephone numbers are: 215-405-9660 (Philadelphia) or 202-224-6324(DC).

    You may find the voice mailboxes are sometimes full when you call. You can try calling another of their district offices. Consult their contact pages for options: Toomey, Casey.

    Urge you Senators to slow down the Cabinet selection process until we know where the nominees stand on the issues, particularly the illegal Executive Orders on immigration. No Senate confirmation vote should be taken until they answer our questions. Make Congress listen.

  • EITC Awareness Day

    Once a year at the end of January the Internal Revenue Services and its partners do a one day media event to advertise the Earned Income Tax Credit program, a tax program that has been around since the Nixon Administration. Today, January 27, 2017, is another EITC Awareness Day.

    The good points about EITC are that it provides tax relief for low and moderate income working families. The IRS even encourages people to take advantage of it. They partner with software companies to make tax filing free to many households. Checkout Free File. EITC tax refunds lift millions out of poverty and make life a little easier.

    The bad news is that one out of five households do not take advantage by claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit. In New Jersey, an estimated 197,000 taxpayers are losing out of an average EITC refund totaling approximately $2350. Do the math – unclaimed tax refunds equal to $462 million. To make matters worse, New Jersey once was recognized as a leader of EITC but now has sunk to near bottom, 45th among 50 states, in the EITC participation rate ranking. See https://www.eitc.irs.gov/EITC-Central/Participation-Rate.

    Here are a few tips. To find a free tax preparation site (generally if you make $54,000 a year or less) visit either NJ 2-1-1 Partnership’s NJ VITA Sites or IRS Get Free Tax Prep Help Page or the AARP Tax-Aide Locator.

    To first find out if you qualify, visit the EITC Assistant. By answering all the questions you can find out if you are eligible for EITC. The tool also provides an estimate of the amount of your credit.

    Employers have a responsibility to let their workers know about this program. They should be distributing a notice titled, “Have You Told Your Employees About the Earned Income Credit (EIC)?” Ask your employer to runoff copies and attach it to W-2 statements.

    There are a number of web sites useful to IRS partners, employers, government agencies/offices and nonprofits. These website provide outreach material, flyers and other social media tools. They include: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Get It Back Campaign and EITC Central. County welfare agencies and One Stop Career Centers distribute the Division of Family Development’s 2016 EITC Fact Sheet.

    EITC Awareness Day – can you afford to do without it?

    Other useful tax preparation assistance information is available at the NJ Community Resources website.