On May 22, 2009, the CFC Board of Directors and Mark A. Sullivan, Jr., CFC’s Executive Director hosted an Employee Appreciation Night at McCoy Stadium, home of the Pawtucket Red Sox.
Under clear and warm skies over 200 CFC employees, family and friends enjoyed a buffet of traditional ballpark food along with a PawSox 2-1 victory over the New York Yankee’s AAA farm team.
Through the generosity of the Community Foundation of Southeastern Massachusetts – Servant Fund, Citizens for Citizens, Inc. (CFC) has received a $1600 grant award.
Mark A. Sullivan, Jr., CFC Executive Director has conveyed the agency’s appreciation to the donor advisor of the Servant Fund for the Fund’s support of and confidence in the antipoverty programs provided by Citizens for Citizens, Inc. to our less fortunate citizens in the Southeastern Massachusetts area.
The Citizens for Citizens, Inc. (CFC) Head Start Program touches the lives of more than 450 low-income families in Southeastern Massachusetts every year. A major goal of Head Start is to increase the family’s effectiveness in dealing with everyday school and life issues while encouraging parents to be their child’s primary educator and advocate.
The Head Start teachers and specialists have become increasingly concerned about children acting-out at home and about their parents’ skills to address this behavior in an effective and appropriate fashion. The search to help parents successfully resolve their child’s conduct problems led the Head Start Program to the implementation of The Incredible Years – BASIC Parent Training Program.
The Incredible Years – BASIC Parent Training Program, presented weekly at the CFC Head Start Program’s 427 Robeson Street location, is lead by Jennifer Newkirk, Ph.D., a licensed child clinical psychologist at Psychological Centers, Inc. Dr. Newkirk is assisted by Donna Avylla, the CFC Head Start Disabilities & Mental Health Manager.
The program provides education and training in four areas of parenting: strengthening children’s social, emotional and school readiness skills, using praise and incentives to encourage cooperation, positive discipline through rules, routines, and limit setting, and handling misbehavior. During the sessions, parents learn how to augment their parenting skills through group discussion, watching DVD vignettes of parents interacting with their children, and doing role plays.
Free child care is provided for the participating parents during all the workshops. Jennifer Newkirk recently noted, “It has been such a pleasure for me to watch the eleven parents, participating in CFC’s first Incredible Years group, develop their self-confidence, increase their satisfaction, and improve their skills as parents.”
Parents interested in participating in future workshop sessions of The Incredible years – BASIC Parent Training Program should contact Donna Avylla at the CFC Head Start Program at 508-675-2157 (extension 245).
In the fall of 2008, it became evident to staffers at Citizens for Citizens, Inc. (CFC) that families and individuals who had become eligible under the expanded income eligibility guidelines for the Citizens for Citizens, Inc. Fuel Assistance Program were not taking advantage of the funds that were now available to help them pay their fuel bills during the winter heating season.
For the first time, the Fuel Assistance Program income guidelines have been raised to 60% of the state median income. For a family of four, that translates into $53,608 in gross annual income. With the unemployment situation in CFC’s service area on the upswing, (Fall River at 16%) and census data that indicated a significant number of new households could be assisted with paying their heating bills, but only a handful of new applicants had applied for benefits. It became apparent that the new eligibility information was not becoming widely known in the Greater Fall River and Greater Taunton areas.
Telephone calls and visits were made to area supermarkets and small businesses by CFC staff; asking if CFC flyers announcing the new expanded fuel assistance guidelines could be placed in their customers’ shopping bags. The answer was an overwhelming yes!
Before this local campaign had begun, Citizens for Citizens, Inc had received less than 85 applications from new households who now qualified under the higher guidelines. As of this April, CFC has assisted more than 1,625 income-eligible applicants who qualified under the expanded guidelines and who have now received assistance with their heating bills. Not only do these qualified households receive help paying their heating bills, they also become eligible for other services offered by Citizens for Citizens, Inc. These services include programs like the CFC Weatherization Program, which provides free help to eligible homeowners or renters with reducing the amount of energy a home or apartment consumes. Also available is the Heating System Repair/Replacement Program that helps homeowners with needed repair or replacement of their heating system. New CFC clients can qualify for an AMP audit, and if their refrigerator or freezer meets certain criteria, it can be replaced at no cost to the homeowner or tenant. Reduced rates for utilities such as electric and telephone are also an additional benefit available to income-eligible Citizens for Citizens fuel assistance clients.
The CFC Fuel Assistance Program deadline for accepting applications has been extended to May 15th 2009. Families or individuals who may qualify for the program should call (508) 676-7397 for more information.
Each local merchant participating in the fuel assistance outreach campaign has received a Certificate of Thanks from Citizens for Citizens, Inc.
The area merchants participating in the program were:
Super Stop & Shop
501 Rodman St.
Fall River, MA
Super Stop & Shop
333 Marianno Bishop Blvd.
Fall River, MA
Super Stop & Shop
815 Grand Army Highway
Somerset, MA
Super Stop & Shop
125 Highland Ave.
Seekonk, MA
Shaw’s Fall River
4171 North Main Street
Fall River, MA
Shaw’s Fall River
485 William Canning Blvd
Fall River, MA
Michael’s Provision Company
317 Lindsey Street
Fall River, MA
Economy Liquors
929 North Main Street
Fall River, MA
Trucchi’s Supermarket
53 Tremont Street
Taunton, MA
