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HIGHLIGHTS

Community Services Block Grant Information System (CSBG/IS)

Statistical Report, FY 2000

FY 2000 CSBG Network Resources

Fifty states reported in the FY 2000 CSBG/IS Survey that: 

The CSBG network was made up of 1,105 local eligible entities, 86 percent of which were Community Action Agencies (CAAs).

Community Action Agencies (CAAs) used CSBG funding for their core operations and for developing and coordinating programs to fight poverty in 96 percent of the counties in the U.S.

The network's funding from all sources totaled nearly $7.5 billion.

More than $523.7 million was expended from federal and state CSBG appropriations to support the core activities of the CSBG network in forty-eight states, DC and Puerto Rico. Of this sum, $508 million was from the federal Block Grant appropriation.

· Nearly $7 billion of other federal, state, local, and private resources was mobilized and coordinated to combat local conditions that kept people in poverty. This level represented real growth in every funding source over five years.

Data from the Fiscal Years 1997 – 2000 show how CAAs used the increases that Congress first appropriated to the Block Grant in FY 1997 to:

· Increase leveraged state, local and private funding:

o Every CSBG dollar was matched by $15.10 from all other sources, a 13 percent increase over the last year;

o $5 of that total match came from state, local, and private donations. Private donations alone were 60 percent higher than in FY 1996, the year before the CSBG expansion. In fact, private funding in the network exceeded FY 2000 CSBG resources;

o About 30 million hours of volunteer service were contributed to local CAA programs, the equivalent of nearly 13,000 full-time employees, up 10 percent in this fiscal year.

· Invest in activities not supported by other, less flexible funding, including growth in:

o Family development programs that integrated multiple services for continuous support to those seeking to become self-sufficient;

o Emergency responses to prevent family crises from becoming permanent suffering; and

o Other new initiatives, including health services projects and programs for youth and the elderly.

 
FY 2000 CSBG Network Clients

CSBG/IS data on CAA clients indicated that in 46 states reporting client data, the CAAs provided services to:

· As many as 22 percent of persons in poverty in 2000; and
· Nearly 10 million clients, who were members of more than 4 million low-income families, most of whom were in great need. Of these,

o More than 1.6 million families had incomes below their federal poverty threshold, including:
 
§ 402,000 families who were “severely poor,” as they had incomes below 50 percent of their poverty thresholds;
§ Another 1.2 million families with incomes between 50 and 75 percent of their poverty guideline;
§ 2.8 million children in poverty; and
§ Over 2 million adult clients with low education levels, and other sub-populations with typically high poverty rates, such as the elderly living alone.

CAAs Served Vulnerable Populations:

· Single parents headed 63 percent of CAA client families with children, but far fewer had any public assistance to help them support their family.

· While client numbers had remained constant, CAAs reported there were 437,000 TANF recipients among their FY 2000 clients, a 40 percent drop from the number five years earlier.

· “Working poor” clients felt the economic consequences of leaving TANF, and the impact of welfare-to-work provisions; including insufficient wages, lack of proper health care, child care, transportation, and stable employment.       

FY 2000 CSBG Services

CSBG funds activities that most other funding does not support. The top three service priorities, as measured by CSBG expenditures alone, were:

· Linkage Programs
These programs coordinate programs and resources, conduct community organization and advocacy efforts to meet defined needs, and make formal efforts to bring resources together to bear on a single problem.  In addition, clients must be linked to community resources in order to make continuous progress toward stability.

· Emergency Services
As the population that received TANF funds shrank, CAAs found themselves shifting more resources into responding to the urgent needs and the emergencies of uninsured, low-wage, working families. The hardships of life that all families face endanger the stability and livelihood of those families without assets or adequate income; Community Action Agency emergency services prevent a crisis from becoming a new cause of impoverishment.

· Self-sufficiency Programs
All activities funded by the CSBG encourage self-sufficiency, but CAAs created specific programs to provide a continuum of services to assist families in self-assessment and in the design and implementation of a strategic plan to become more financially independent.  They typically include case management to track and evaluate progress as well as a mix of the services and training needed by low-income workers and their families.