State Agency and Association Partnership The example from Oklahoma

State Structure Oklahoma Department of Commerce Cabinet Secretary and Executive Director appointed by Governor Mission: Increase quantity and quality of jobs –Expand and Recruit Business –Workforce Development –Community Development (CAA Programs)

Association Structure Governed by 18 member Board of Directors consisting of our member agencies’ Executive Directors Association Mission is to coordinate Anti Poverty efforts with all member CAAs, share information and ideas, develop statewide policy approaches to address poverty in Oklahoma and provide professional development and training for CAA staff The Association is responsible for representing community action at the statewide level with state and federal agencies, other nonprofits and various interest groups. It is also charged with impacting legislative policy. One of the core activities is providing Technical Assistance and Training to our member CAAs. This is done in partnership with our primary State Agency (ODOC).

Successful Collaborations Weatherization, including ARRA OKACAA and ODOC worked very closely to develop the procedures and funding allocation process for distribution of the ARRA weatherization funds. OKACAA developed an intensive Weatherization Client Education program design and ODOC provided the funding for it to enable CAAs to set up a dedicated client education program throughout the state. Enabled us to reach many more low income families and devote more time with each client by using trained educators instead of putting the client education burden on the Weatherization program director, auditor or inspector.

Successful Collaborations Weatherization OKACAA serves as the state’s principal weatherization training and technical assistance provider and is funded directly by ODOC and works hand in hand with ODOC on designing training programs and identifying training needs ODOC provided funding for development and implementation of the Oklahoma Weatherization Training Center, one of 17 Regional Training Centers in the nation.

Weatherization Training Facility

Successful Collaborations Weatherization Training on weatherization during ARRA was intensive; ODOC supported our training with funding and our efforts resulted in: 387 individuals trained in 57 different training sessions. 594 classroom training hours provided. Trained and certified 660 individuals for RRP- EPA required Renovation, Repair and Painting Certification Trained 93 individuals in Building Performance Basics, Building Analyst and/or Shell/Envelope for a total 157 BPI certifications

Successful Collaborations Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) OKACAA collaborated with ODOC to begin providing ROMA training across the state and to help support the addition of new ROMA trainers Will include participation at local training events by ODOC CAA Liaisons RPIC: OKACAA worked closely with ODOC in the development of our RPIC proposal to ensure our common objectives were being addressed

Successful Collaborations Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) ODOC has provided CSBG Discretionary Grants to OKACAA for statewide tax preparation services to complement OKACAA’s two federal EITC grants from the Office of Community Services. Funding provided to local CAAs to assist with VITA site operational costs; averaging over 16,000 low income tax returns ODOC continued annual funding even after the end of the OCS EITC grants

Successful Collaborations Community Service Block Grant (CSBG) ODOC has provided funding to OKACAA to provide Poverty Simulations sponsored by our CAAs, churches and universities, and in conjunction with statewide conferences. Discretionary Grants provide templates and replicable best practices for the CAA network

Successful Collaborations Head Start ODOC receives the federal funding for the State Head Start Collaboration Office—and has funded operation of that office through OKACAA since ODOC provides state appropriated funds to OKACAA to provide training for Head Start programs and also to conduct onsite technical assistance for those programs receiving their federal monitoring review in the current year.

Communication Open Communication is the key to our successful relationship ODOC staff attend the monthly OKACAA Board of Directors’ and Weatherization Directors’ meetings OKACAA staff serve on the Weatherization Policy Advisory Council

Communication Training for the various programs is developed in close cooperation to ensure the requirements of ODOC and the CAAs are met Program policy changes or updates are shared with the state association Public Hearings for CSBG, Wx and other programs are held at our training facility or in conjunction with one of our training conferences

Contacts Michael Jones, Executive Director, OKACAA Marshall Vogts, Director of Programs, ODOC