WASHINGTON, DC. "The Compassion Capital Fund strengthens what President Bush calls the 'armies of compassion' with the necessary resources to help those most in need," stated United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt as he announced the availability of $32 million in funding in two categories of funding: DEMONSTRATION FUNDING GRANTS and TARGETED CAPACITY-BUILDING GRANTS. "These funds will help faith-based and community groups build the capacity to serve the poor, the hungry, the homeless, at-risk youth, rural communities and to strengthen marriage across the nation." The Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) has announced the availability of funds in two funding competitions for faith-based and community organizations: Demonstration Funding Grants and Targeted Capacity-Building Mini-Grants. The CCF was created by President Bush in 2002 as a special initiative to help faith-based and community organizations improve their effectiveness, enhance their ability to provide social services and emulate model social service programs. Secretary Leavitt is pictured here.

DEMONSTRATION FUNDING GRANTS. The HHS Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has announced that applications will be accepted for $16,900,000 for up to 17 new CCF grants to experienced organizations (intermediaries) to deliver capacity-building services to faith-based and community organizations through the provision of training, technical assistance, and sub-awards. Awards of approximately $1,000,000 will be made through Cooperative Agreements for a 17-month period. Grantees must provide at least 20 percent of total approved cost of the project. Fiscal year (FY) 2003 and (FY) 2004 Compassion Capital Fund Demonstration Program grantees are ineligible to apply. All grant proposals are due June 13, 2005 at 4:30 p.m. (Eastern Time).

The goal of the Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) Demonstration Program is to help grassroots faith- based and community organizations maximize their social impact as they provide services to those most in need including: homeless people, prisoners reentering the community, children of prisoners, at- risk youth, addicts, elders in need, health marriage, and families in transition from welfare to work.

Organizations selected for funding will be in well- defined geographic locations with a proven track record of community involvement and experience in providing training and technical assistance to smaller faith- and community-based organizations. These intermediary organizations serve as a bridge between the Federal government and the grassroots faith- based and community organization that the CCF Demonstration Program is designed to serve. The intermediary organizations will provide two services within their communities: capacity-building training and technical assistance to faith-based and community organizations, and financial support - thorough sub-awards - to some subset of the organizations receiving training and technical assistance.

Intermediary organizations will assist faith-based and community organizations with capacity-building activities in five critical areas: leadership development; organizational development; programs and services; funding; and community engagement. The CCF Demonstration Program does not fund direct social services. Rather, the Program funds capacity- building activities that produce measurable impact resulting in more sustainable organizations. Capacity- building activities are designed to increase an organization's sustainability and effectiveness, enhance its ability to provide social services, diversify its funding sources, and create collaborations to better serve those most in need.

TARGETED CAPACITY-BUILDING GRANTS. ACF has also announced that applications will be accepted for $15,000,000 fin up to 300 CCF grants of up to $50,000 each to help build the capacity of grassroots faith-based and community organizations that address the needs of distressed communities. The CCF Targeted Capacity Building Program funds capacity-building activities that produce measurable impact resulting in more sustainable organizations. Grants will be made for a 12-month period. ACF encourages and will grant preference to organizations whose annual operational budget is less than $500,000, or whose tribal membership is less than 5,000. All grant proposals are due May 31, 2005 at 4:30 p.m. (Eastern Time).

Organizations selected for funding will help build the capacity of faith-based and community organizations that address the needs of distressed communities. A "distressed community" is defined as a neighborhood or geographic community with an unemployment rate and/or poverty rate equal to or greater than the state or national rate. Priority areas of need include: homeless people and at-risk youth, healthy marriage, or social services to those living in rural communities. Based on the priority areas of need, organizations must use funds to build their organizational capacity in at least one of these five critical areas: leadership development, organizational development, programs and services, funding, and community engagement. Grantees must use these awards to increase efficiency and capacity. These awards cannot be used to augment or supplant direct service delivery funds.

Free training conference calls on the grants will be conducted starting this week and cover aspects of the CCF program announcement: Getting it Right: Compliance and Requirements; Strategy for Capacity Building; Building an Effective Grant Narrative; and Building a Grant Budget. Although call registration is filled, Power Point presentations with audio and transcriptions will be available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ccf following each call.

WASHINGTON, DC. The United States Department of Labor (DOL) has announced additional resources to support potential applicants for DOL's Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives funding for the Social Security Administration's Ticket to Work program and Employment Network RFP Technical Assistance Training conference call and for the President's Prisoner Reentry Initiative. Department of Labor Secretary and United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Vice-chair Elaine Chao is pictured here.

TICKET TO WORK. Ticket to Work, the Social Security Administration program helping individuals with disabilities transition into the workforce and achieve self-sufficiency, will be the focus of a scheduled 90-minute conference call. Participants will learn how 1,500 faith-based, community action, employment and training, and nonprofit community development organizations providers are serving people with disabilities in neighborhoods across the nation. Because these providers are offering job coaching and placement services, education and training, housing and transportation assistance, vocational rehabilitation, and other critical supports, nearly 100,000 individuals with disabilities are pursuing work, many for the first time ever.

Participants will receive detailed instructions for completing the free RFP and application to become an approved contractor (Employment Network) in the Ticket to Work Program. Download the free RFP for review at www.yourtickettowork.com/rfp. Employment Networks are eligible to receive up to $20,000 in flexible, non-restricted funding when those they serve meet Program requirements. EN funds can be used in any manner organizations find most beneficial. And organizations are encouraged to use the Ticket to Work resources, opportunities and funds to leverage other funding including federal, state and local grants. To date, nearly $2 million in Ticket to Work revenue has been paid to participating Employment Networks.

PRISONER RE-ENTRY INITIATIVE. DOL also currently has four funding competitions underway for $27 million in workforce investments for the reentry and veterans populations and faith-based and community organizations. The Department has announced upcoming conferences for applicants for the $20 million Prisoner Reentry Initiative. Eligible applicants are faith-based or community-based organizations. Applications are due July 13, 2005.

Prisoner Reentry Initiative Informational Conferences are scheduled for: May 12 in Los Angeles, California at The Westin Los Angeles Airport; May 19 in Dallas, Texas at Sheraton Grand Hotel at Dallas/Fort Worth; and May 26 in Washington, D.C. at the Loews L'Enfant Plaza Hotel. Each conference will start promptly at 8:30 am and will last until 5 p.m., with registration from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. According to the Department of Labor, each individual's travel expense to the informational conferences is not a reimbursable activity; the Federal government will not assume costs associated with travel to these conferences.

For registration and logistical information on the informational conferences, please visit http://www.pri-conference.com or call 301- 589-2547. Online registration is also available, and faxes are accepted 301-589-2546. To register, please include the following information: Full Name, Title, Organization, Address, Phone, Fax, Email, and which conference you will be attending. If you cannot attend any of the PRI 2005 conferences, a webcast will be available online at the Department of Labor Employment Training Administration website (www.doleta.gov) following the conferences.

The President's Prisoner Reentry Initiative seeks to strengthen urban communities characterized by large numbers of returning prisoners through an employment-centered program that incorporates mentoring, job training, and other comprehensive transitional services. This program, which involves several federal agencies, is designed to reduce recidivism by helping inmates find work when they return to their communities, as part of an effort to build a life in the community for everyone. The Department of Labor (DOL) will be awarding grants under this competition to faith-based and community organizations (FBCOs) to be the agencies carrying out this demonstration.

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA. Stating that solutions require partnerships among all levels of government, the private sector, service providers and charitable foundations, Norfolk, Virginia, Mayor Paul Fraim (pictured here) this week unveiled his city's 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. At the same time, Mayor Fraim became the 60th signatory to the Mayors' Covenant of Partnership to End Chronic Homelessness, witnessed by United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano, who was invited to keynote the event. Stated Director Mangano during the event, "Each level of government, and each sector of the community has to pull together in a single direction, partnered for results, making investments that yield a return. The return we're looking for is that people who are on our streets or in our shelters will move beyond homelessness to productive, self- sufficient lives." Also attending the event were Congressman Bobby Scott and Senator Yvonne Miller.

"The strategies we develop in Norfolk will have an impact across the region," said Mayor Fraim, who announced that Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf, Chesapeake Mayor Dalton Edge, Portsmouth Mayor James Holley, Suffolk Mayor Bobby Ralph, and Isle of Wight Chairman Phillip Bradshaw have agreed to form a Southside Hampton Roads Regional Taskforce on Homelessness.

The action plan for Norfolk, a city of just over 234,000, has been underway since February 2004, when the Mayor and the Norfolk City Council approved the creation of the Blue Ribbon Commission to implement their performance-based, results- oriented plan, augmented by two other action steps: creation of an Office on Homelessness and adoption of a regional approach to achieving the city's goal. Catherine Kitchin now heads the Office on Homelessness. In addition to the Mayor, the Vice Mayor, City Manager, City Attorney, Schools Superintendent, Housing Authority Director, and Planning Commission Chair, Commission members included U.S. Representative Robert Scott, Tidewater Community College's President, United Way's Executive Director, and four corporate executives.

"We also know it's a problem that will not solve itself," said the Mayor as he unveiled the city's 19 proposals ranging from establishing a 24-hour service center to creating a trust fund to prevent homelessness. The new plan supports an SRO project that would provide permanent housing with support services for 60 homeless adults.

BRADENTON, FLORIDA. A new collaborative effort led by Bradenton, Florida, Mayor Wayne Poston, Manatee County Commissioner Pat Glass and Manatee Glens Chief Executive Mary Ruiz brings to 190 the number of city and county 10-Year Planning processes underway in the nation. The new regional plan seeks to develop a coordinated, cost-feasible, capital-based master plan to move persons experiencing chronic homelessness off the street and into permanent housing over the next decade.

"Local governments can work together when faced with a critical need like homelessness," Commissioner Glass told the group of more than 60 leaders from business, education, health care, social services and the faith-based community. Planners began the first of six months' of meetings last week at the Manatee Convention and Civic Center with a broad cross- section of leaders

City of Bradenton planning representative Matt McLachlan observed, "We have a moral obligation to help the poor, but government can't do it alone," adding that business sector participation will help create jobs and housing alternatives for chronically homeless people. Planners expect that focusing on homeless person with the most complex problems - the chronically homeless and chronically ill - will reduce spending in law enforcement, the judiciary, hospitals and jails.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA. Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn, who will shortly join regional partners to roll out a completed county-wide 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness, has become the latest mayor to join the Mayors' Covenant of Partnership to End Chronic Homelessness, placing California Mayors well ahead of the nation in their support of the Mayors' Covenant. Nineteen California cities are now signatories to the Covenant, including Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neill, Richmond, California, Mayor Irma Anderson, Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum. Mayor Hahn is pictured here second from left, at the 2004 opening of the St. George Hotel, Los Angeles' permanent supportive housing site under the federal $55 million Collaborative Initiative to End Chronic Homelessness.

In January 2005, 35 mayors representing cities from Anchorage to Key West signed the Covenant of Partnership with each other and with the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness agreeing to deepen their commitment to ending chronic homelessness by collaborate to exchange data, share best practices, and to welcome other cities to join the collaboration. The signing of the Covenant took place at a meeting of the Hunger and Homelessness Task Force during the U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting in Washington.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA. San Francisco continues to report results in implementing the goals of its 10-Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness. Mayor Gavin Newsom, who reported in February that San Francisco's homeless population had dropped more than 25% in two years, this week pointed to one year of results in moving nearly 800 people to supportive housing and using the new Care not Cash program to cut by 73% the general assistance program targeted to homeless people.

Stated the Mayor in announcing the City's progress, "The best way to alleviate homelessness is by doing 'housing first' and giving homeless people a place to live before they have addressed all their other issues, and then working on the other things once they're inside. This has been proven to work here and nationwide, and this is our priority." According to City data, there were 2,400 homeless people drawing welfare checks one year ago, but that number has dropped to 653 people today. Resulting savings have been rolled into a $14.2 million fund that leased 793 rooms in 12 residential hotels. 789 homeless people have been moved into those rooms.

NEW YORK CITY. Mayors, Deputy Mayors, 10-Year Plan Czars, and mayoral designees gathered from a dozen cities last week in New York City in a national innovators' session focused on data strategies and best practices. Mayors of each of the cities represented are signatories to the Mayoral Covenant of Partnership to End Chronic Homelessness and included Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Cedar Rapids Mayor and Mayors Hunger and Homelessness Task Force Co-Chair Mayor Paul Pate, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield, and Ft. Myers Mayor Jim Humphrey. 10- Year Plan Czars included San Diego's Dene Oliver, Atlanta's Horace Sibley, Dallas' Tom Dunning, and San Francisco's Angela Alioto. Ms. Alioto is pictured here at the June 2004 unveiling of San Francisco's Plan, with Mayor Gavin Newsom (left) and United States Interagency Council on Homelessness Executive Director Philip Mangano (right).

Convened by the Common Ground Community and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, the cities heard from expert faculty including "Innovator's Dilemma" author and Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen, the United Kingdom's Louise Casey, architect of the successful "Rough Sleepers" initiative, United Way of America's Brook Manville, Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Tom Nolan, and Dr. Dennis Culhane of the University of Pennsylvania. State leaders also joined the Summit as observers, including Minnesota's Laura Kadwell, North Carolina's Martha Are, Utah's Gordon Walker, and Connecticut's Diane Randall.

Council Director Philip Mangano, who welcomed Summit attendees, stated, "Just two years ago we engaged mayors in a tangible expression of partnership, challenging 100 mayors to create 10- Year Plans to End Chronic Homelessness in their communities. As of today, 188 have done so, joining 51 Governors who have established State Interagency Councils. We are here to move forward with that deepened commitment to ending chronic homelessness."

WASHINGTON, DC. A cross-discipline training for criminal justice and substance abuse treatment professionals has been developed by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), Addiction Technology Transfer Centers' (ATTC) National Office. The training being offered is a training-of-trainers (TOT) approach to deliver the curriculum, "Criminal Justice and Substance Abuse: Working Together for Change." The curriculum has been adapted to include a focus on the federal Serious and Violent Offender Reentry Initiative (SVORI) and reentry. The goal of the curriculum is to improve communication, collaboration, and coordination between criminal justice and substance abuse treatment professionals.

The objective of this training-for-trainers project is to develop a cadre of trainers in each state who can deliver the ATTC curriculum. A pilot of the TOT was held March 05' in Chicago and received positive reviews. For more information and enrollment please go to www.nattc.org/reentry or contact Angel Lee at leean@nattc.org or by phone at 816-482-1135.

The schedule of up-coming training is as follows: Phoenix, AZ - May 3-6, 2005; Tewksbury, MA - May 3-6, 2005; Portland, OR - May 10-13, 2005; Las Vegas, NV - May 17-20, 2005; Minneapolis, MN - June 7-10, 2005; Orlando, FL - June 14-17, 2005; St. Louis, MO - July 12-15, 2005; Atlanta, GA - July 19-21, 2005; Philadelphia, PA - July 25-28, 2005.

WITH THIS ISSUE, the e-newsletter continues its focus on elements of the Title V federal surplus property and opportunities to secure resources for homeless programs under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Following are properties listed in the most recent Federal Register notice of suitable and available land and buildings.

The April 29 listing of suitable and available property contains a listing of Federal buildings and other real property determined to be suitable and available for use. Buildings are available in California, South Dakota, and Tennessee. Land is available in Arizona and Kentucky.

Title V provides that state and local governments, as well as nonprofit organizations, are eligible to apply for land and buildings that have been determined by the federal government to be "suitable and available" for eligible uses to benefit homeless people. More than two dozen agencies of the federal government are included as "landholding" agencies that may have property.