New Corporation Environment Listserv

The Corporation for National and Community Service has created the env-cncs listserv to promote discussion about using service to address environmental challenges facing our communities. Staff of all three Corporation programs – AmeriCorps, National Senior Service Corps, and Learn and Serve America – are invited to join this forum to share information and resources, successful practices, training and promotional materials, continuous improvement strategies and general issues of concerns to service programs working on environmental issues.

Join by visiting http://lyris.etr.org/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=env-cncs

or by sending a blank email to:
join-env-cncs@lists.etr.org

Pennsylvania Federal Surplus Property Program
The Department of General Services Surplus property – virtually anything from building materials and trucks to computers and clothing – is available to nonprofit, tax exempt organizations that serve the public good in the areas of health or education and to government agencies and political subdivisions.

For more information please contact:
The Department of General Services
Pennsylvania Federal Surplus Property Program
1-800-235-1555

A new free weekly email report of key representatives’ votes. More information on the Megavote newsletter is available at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/megavote/

Megavote provides you with information about how your Senators and Representative voted on key bills this week, as well as highlights the following weeks’ bills.

The Center for Responsible Funding (CRF) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to expand the fundraising capacity and funding base of non-profit organizations working for social and economic justice.

Summary: 30 hour/week position providing administrative support and managing the office for the Center for Responsible Funding (including work with the City of Philadelphia Employees’ Combined Campaign and the Center’s Academy for Fundraising Training/TAFFT). The Director of Operations will report to the Executive Director.

Specific Areas of Work:
Operations
– manage the office; coordinate staffing of mass mailings, inquiries, and special
projects; answer phone and take messages; order all office supplies and maintain them; fill requests for information from the public; provide support service to the joint functioning of the Executive Director and the Board of Directors
– oversee computers; handle backups and upgrades; investigate computer and software problems and either solve them or refer them to computer consultant; assist and train students and volunteers in use of computers and programs;
maintain web site.
– oversee postage machine for 924 Fifth Floor co-op; summarize postage use and maintain postage machine; post CRF mail

Information Systems
– coordinate CRF event registration; create phone registration forms; track all RSVP responses; create registration lists; keep count for caterer; set format for on-site registration; track all payments from participants
– manage banking functions; maintain cash receipts journals and on-site financial records; prepare deposit slips and make deposits
– facilitate and troubleshoot City Campaign donations; coordinate information collection from multiple City constituents; coordinate printing of pledge cards; oversee collection of payments from participating organizations; pick up and process pledge envelopes; process invalid cards, retiree gifts, late gifts and United Way sub agency checks; solve all errors before reports are printed; answer donor and solicitor questions and solve donor problems; coordinate generation of donor reports

Other
– perform other duties as assigned

Requirements:
Background
– HS diploma or equivalent, plus one to three years of experience with non-profits (paid or volunteer work). Some higher education preferred. Life experiences may substitute for stated educational/work requirements.

Knowledge/skills
– Must be responsible, dependable, highly organized and work well with a variety of people.
– Background in basic non-profit financial practices and operations.
– Attention to detail is essential.
– Knowledge of MS Office software is important. Macintosh familiarity is helpful but PC experience is also acceptable. Willingness to learn other computer programs as necessary. Ability to do computer trouble-shooting is also helpful.
– An interest in the work of social justice non-profits is preferred.

Salary: Commensurate with experience. Benefits are pro-rated.

Interested candidates should send a resume and cover letter to Carole Boughter, Center for Responsible Funding, 924 Cherry Street, Suite 520, Philadelphia, PA 19107, (215) 925-6140. Email info@responsiblefunding.org or visit our website at
http://www.responsiblefunding.org/. The search will remain open until a successful candidate is identified. The Center anticipates that work will begin August 15, 2002.

The Center for Responsible Funding is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Thank you,
Lisa Batt
Director of Operations and Information Systems
Center for Responsible Funding
924 Cherry Street, Suite 520
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(215) 925-6140
(215) 925-4933 fax
http://www.responsiblefunding.org

GlaxoSmithKline is accepting nominations for the sixth annual GlaxoSmithKline IMPACT awards program, which is designed to reward excellence

Building Neighborhoods of Choice: A Workshop on Marketing Neighborhoods and Affordable Housing will be Aug. 26-27 in Detroit, Mich.

Hosted by the LISC Center for Home Ownership, this workshop will offer information, tools, templates, and resources to help housing development practitioners market their communities and affordable housing.

This workshop will be offered again Oct. 22 in Houston,Texas.

For more information visit http://www.liscnet.org/cho/training.shtml#build

More information will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. Please mark your calendars to attend.

ACCION International is pleased to announce the publication of The Commercialization of Microfinance: Balancing Business and Development. Published by Kumarian Press in July 2002, this book documents microfinance’s entrance into the commercial realm, a trend that has been occurring for the past decade.

The book explores many of the issues derived from the increased commercialization of microfinance, including MFIs’ experience with supervision and regulation, governance issues, the transformation process, the effectiveness of private investment, the role of credit unions, various models for credit bureaus, the impact of competition as well as country and institutional case studies.

To order a copy, please visit www.accion.org/micro_order_our_pubs.asp.

Please contact Patty Lee at plee@accion.org or 617-625-7080 x1255 with any questions.

From: “Peter Dreier”
Colleagues,

My publisher just emailed me the news that my book, PLACE MATTERS: METROPOLITICS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY, has won the 2002 Michael Harrington Book Award from the American Political Science Assn. It is given for the “outstanding book that demonstrates how scholarship can be used in the struggle for a better world.”

I was both suprised and very pleased by this award, because Mike was first my hero (I heard him speak when I was in junior high school and THE OTHER AMERICA had just come out), then my mentor, and later (when I served on the DSA national board) my friend. Terry and I named one of our daughters, Sarah Michaela, after Mike.

Mike always described his politics as advocating the “left wing of the possible” in contrast to being utopian or sectarian. This is what we tried to do with PLACE MATTERS. The award will be presented at the APSA meetings in Boston on August 31st; although I won’t be there, my coauthors, John Mollenkopf and Todd Swanstrom, will be there to accept it.

Peter

I am very pleased to announce the next COMM-ORG working paper, by Moshe ben Asher, titled “Secession is Not the Solution.”

This will be an interesting paper for those of you concerned with how to truly make politics, and government, local. So much of community organizing is about taking back local control, but we have very few models of how to institutionalize such control. This paper presents one possibility.

You can find the paper linked from the COMM-ORG “Papers” page:

http://comm-org.utoledo.edu/papers.htm

or directly at:
http://comm-org.utoledo.edu/papers2002/benashergov.htm

This is a reminder that ISCV will be conducting a PhillyBlocks Town Meeting on Thursday, August 8th, from 7:00PM-9:30PM at the Friends Meeting House, 3rd & Arch Sts.

The two main topics will be Neighborhood Transformation and Safe Streets–but we take a holistic view of both programs.

Ray Jones from NTI will be there.
We are assured that someone appropriate from the Police Department will be there to discuss Safe Streets.We’re working on a couple of other relevant Departments as well. We hope to see you there.

We’ll provide name tags so that people can actually *see* who has been sending email back and forth on our lists.

Ed Schwartz
Institute for the Study of Civic Values, 1218 Chestnut St.,Rm. 702, Philadelphia, Pa. 19107 215-238-1434 edcivic@libertynet.org

Global HIV Prevention Working Group Releases Blueprint for HIV Prevention Efforts

The Global HIV Prevention Working Group, convened earlier this year by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ( http://www.gatesfoundation.org/ ) and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation ( http://www.kff.org/ ) and comprising nearly forty of the world’s leading HIV prevention experts, has released a blueprint designed to help prevent millions of new HIV infections by the end of the decade.

The report, Global Mobilization for HIV Prevention: A Blueprint for Action, was released in conjunction with a new HIV study conducted by a group that includes UNAIDS ( http://www.unaids.org/ ), the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/ ), and the U.S. Census Bureau ( http://www.census.gov/ ). The study estimates that an additional 45 million people will become infected with HIV by 2010, but also says that as many as 29 million of those cases could be prevented with aggressive prevention efforts.

The working group’s blueprint calls for spending on HIV testing, behavioral change programs, condom distribution, mass media campaigns, counseling, and school and workplace programs to quadruple to $4.8 billion by 2004. Similar prevention efforts in the U.S. have cut annual HIV infections by two-thirds since the mid-1980s. Several countries in Africa, Asia, and South America have also seen positive results from comprehensive prevention programs.

“There is clearly a major gap in access to prevention worldwide,” said Helene D. Gayle, director of the Gates Foundation’s global HIV/AIDS program and co-chair of the working group. “While we treat those infected, while we search for a vaccine, we have to embark on an unprecedented expansion of existing, proven HIV prevention programs…. We have a moral imperative both to prevent millions of new HIV infections and to care for those who are already infected.”

“Leading AIDS Experts Call for Major Expansion of HIV Prevention.” Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Press Release 07/04/02.

http://www.gatesfoundation.org/globalhealth/hivaidstb/hivaids/announcements/announce-020704.htm

http://fdncenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=9700024

A major report has come out from the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance. This committee served at the pleasure of the US Congrress. The report has major implications on college access. Please read the article below. The main page for the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance is http://www.ed.gov/offices/AC/ACSFA.

To view the actual report go to http://www.ed.gov/offices/AC/ACSFA/emptypromises.pdf (you will need Adobe Acorbat to view this document).

Esteemed Colleagues, Friends and Associates:

As I count it, it has been more than two years since Technical Assistants published one of its survey reports. Most of that time has been spent pursuing a string of contracts, one of which was successfully bid.

That contract, in partnership with the North Philadelphia Financial Partnership, has allowed Technical Assistants to offer its entrepreneurship training to residents of the North Central Philadelphia Empowerment Zone. At the end of the first contract year, we are taking a look back at the training program.

You will find this report on Technical Assistants’ web site, “http://www.ta-online.org. While there, feel free to review some of the earlier reports, and send us feedback on the training class and the reporting for it. We’re always open for suggestions.

Keith Ferrell
Technical Assistants
1500 Market Street, 12th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19102
(215) 546-4530

Over the past year we have added many essays and articles on congregational and community organizing to the Gather the People web site (at http://www.gatherthepeople.org).

The list includes the following, which you’ll find on the Downloads page:

1. Conflict & Cooperation in Macro Theory & Practice (6 pp.)
2. Key Learnings in Congregational Community Organizing Workshops (3 pp.)
3. On Leadership (2 pp.)
4. Our Crisis of Faith: On Redeeming Ourselves, Our Faith Communities, and Our Country (4 pp.)
5. Paper-Driven to Paperless: Technology Implementation Drives Program Innovation (6 pp.)
6. Spirituality and Religion in Social Work Practice (5 pp.)
7. Why ‘Crisis Judaism’ Doesn’t Last (3 pp.)
8. Writing Daily Macro Practice Notes (10 pp.)

Gather the People is a tax-exempt nonprofit that provides webbased training and education resources without charge for congregational and community organizing.

The Finance Project introduces a new series of products that focus on strategies for financing children and family services, as well as community building and development. Each guide or strategy brief presents options for generating resources or for using resources effectively to fund specific programmatic needs. Each also illustrates these options with examples drawn from initiatives around the country and highlights relevant considerations to assist decision makers who are weighing the alternatives.

http://www.financeproject.org/newseries.htm

Interested in helping others?
Looking for a way to pay for school loans?
Willing to challenge yourself & learn new skills?

Then come hear about opportunities with:

AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, an exciting national service program where young people live and work together in teams to meet our country’s environment, education, public safety and human needs

AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) whose members serve to fight poverty — creating new programs and services — in low-income communities nationwide

AmeriCorps State and National, the network of AmeriCorps national service programs, as diverse as America’s people and its problems.

As an AmeriCorps member, you will earn a modest living allowance, health benefits, and a $4725 educational award after completing a year of service.

Openings are available now. Come learn how to apply!
Sound interesting?…
Find out more at the AmeriCorps information session!
When? Wednesday, July 31, 2002
Time? 6:00 p.m.
Where? Free Library of Philadelphia / Central Branch, Skyline Rm
1901 Vine St
Philadelphia, PA 19103

Questions? Contact your local AmeriCorps Recruiter:
Jason Scott / Phone (215)597-2715 / e-mail jscott@cns.gov
http://www.americorps.org

The Coalition for Healthier Cities and Communities, of which CCPH is a member, invites you to an AUGUST 28th ONLINE SEMINAR:”Fresh Ideas for Community Nutrition and Physical Activity”

Conference Date: 28-AUG-02
Conference Time: 04:00

On October 5, Come Out for Philadelphia Cares Day!

Join us for the 9th Annual Philadelphia Cares Day! This spirited day of service brings together 12,000 eager volunteers to revitalize our city’s public schools and celebrate our commitment to quality education. Volunteers will create libraries, network computer labs, paint classrooms, design murals, plant greenery, and much more!

Goals of the Day
– To provide more than 48,000 hours of service to Philadelphia public schools
– To raise funds to support Philadelphia Cares’ year-round mission
– To promote the spirit of volunteerism

Form Your Team Today! Gather your friends, co-workers, family, and neighbors and call us at 215-564-4555 or visit http://www.philacares.com to sign up! Looking forward to seing you on October 5th!