December 2015 Newsletter – Arkansas Community Action Agencies Association

See newsletter for full story on each of these items

• ACAAA Board of Directors will meet on Wednesday, December 16
• Peer Assistance Review Volunteers needed! – The Peer Review Team reviews the approved standards in these five component areas: Administration and Governance, Community Relations, Personnel Management and Development, Financial Management, and Goals, Strategies, and Results.
• ACAAA Board of Directors will convene for a two-day board meeting & training session on January 20th & 21st. The training will have a focus on Fundraising and Advocacy.
• ACAAA has launched its newly redesigned website! – Check out the all-new look at www.acaaa.org!

• 2016 LIHEAP Training Conference will be held on December 3.
• 2016 Management and Leadership Training Conference being held by the Community Action Partnership (CAP) will be held January 6-8, 2016, in New Orleans, LA.
• 2016 Mid-Winter Training Conference for NASCSP will be held February 22-26, 2016, in Alexandria, VA.
• NCAF will be holding its 2016 Legislative Conference on March 15 – 18 in Washington, D.C.

• Monitors Training Webinar Series for CSBG being hosted by NASCSP is being held December 7-11.
• CharityHowTo.com is offering a free webinar, Start Your 2016 Grant Strategy Off Right!, on Tuesday, December 8, at 12:00 PM CST.
• 4Good.org is offering a free webinar, Nonprofit Boards and Effective Governance, on Wednesday, December 9, at 12:00 PM CST.
• Deadline to register for the Community Action Partnership’s Learning Community project is December 11.
• CFED is offering a new publication – Top 10 Checklist: How Community Tax Programs Can Help Increase Health Insurance Coverage.
• VirtualCAP—the resource clearinghouse for the Community Action Network—recommends a newly-released book from a long-term Community Action leader: Navigating the Nonprofit Rapids by Ted Edlich, former president and CEO of Total Action for Progress.
• The national Office of Community Services has issued an announcement directed to “state LIHEAP leaders” that there has been an “extension to the A-87 cost allocation exception for the development of integrated eligibility and enrollment systems within a state.” The original deadline has been extended by three years to December 31, 2018.

• Arkansas River Valley Area Council and Community Action Program for Central Arkansas are both participants in the “Amazon Smile” program.
• Crawford-Sebastian Community Development Council has signed a grant contract for $312,500 that will go towards “helping 16 families build their own homes under the USDA’s Mutual Self-Help Housing Program – see Grant to help build homes, Press Argus-Courier and Grant will Help 16 Families Build Homes (inc. video), KFSM.
• C-SCDC invites everyone to join them for their 50th Anniversary celebration being held Thursday, December 17.
• United States Representative Rick Crawford recently paid a visit to Crowley’s Ridge Development Council.
• Employees of the Month – Virginia Zermeno, the Family Advocate for the Lonoke Head Start Center, was named the November 2015 Employee of the Month for Community Action Program of Central Arkansas and Cedric Anderson, a Cook for Crowley’s Ridge Development Council's Northeast Arkansas Regional Recovery Center, recently proved himself a true “lifesaver” when he performed the Heimlich Maneuver on a choking client who might otherwise have suffered serious injury or death.

See newsletter for links to Facebook pages of each CAAs in Arkansas.