The Virginia Community Action Partnership currently sponsors 3 programs for our members. In addition to the 3 programs, VACAP also sponsors an annual Legislative Conference held in Richmond each January, an annual Membership Workshop Conference held in Virginia Beach each June, and 2 Executive Director Roundtable Luncheons held in April and October of each year.
The Virginia Community Action Partnership (VACAP) EITC Initiative supports community groups and local coalitions throughout the Commonwealth as they provide free tax preparation services to low income working individuals and families.
VACAP is working to promote the EITC through the Virginia CASH Campaign (CASH stands for Creating Assets, Savings and Hope). Collectively, the mission is to raise awareness of EITC among all taxpayers and to educate workers, employees, clients, and customers of the importance of obtaining all tax credits to which they are entitled.
VACAP encourages financial literacy, savings, and asset building as coalitions develop an outreach program to link EITC with other asset building programs. All programs enable clients to work towards self-sufficiency.
» Visit the VACAP Earned Income Tax Credit Initiative WebsiteVirtual CAP is a web site which provides an in-depth look at innovative programs and projects developed by Community Action Agencies around the United States. Programs can be researched by state, category or keyword. Each contains a summary description, as well as useful links to download materials and related websites.
Virtual CAP serves as a clearinghouse of information and material that can be used by Community Action Agencies and others to help low-income persons and families move toward self-sufficiency and to reduce poverty in communities across the United States.
Kenneth Ackerman is the Project Manager for Virtual CAP. He has been involved with Community Action Agencies since July 1971, including serving as Executive Director of the Monticello Area Community Action Agency in Charlottesville, Virginia for 24 years. Ken is certified as a peer reviewer for the Award for Excellence/Pathways to Excellence in Community Action.
» Visit the Virtual CAP WebsiteThe Public Information Exchange Project is an initiative to provide dynamic, stable and current web environments for all VACAP members. Participants in the project will be encouraged to provide information to the public via their website. This information will be inclusive of a listing of services provided by the agency, eligibility requirements for listed services, and downloadable documents pertaining to listed services. Websites developed under the P.I.E. Project will also subscribe to the VACAP news service, which will provide current community action news to each site. Furthermore, site visitors to websites developed under this project will be able to communicate from the website directly to the agency staff via email.
The project goals are staggered over a 3 year cycle. The first year will primarily focus on purchasing hardware and software to implement web hosting for our 29 members and development of a dynamic web template to be used for the sponsored website's. First year participants will be limited to members which currently do not have a website.
Second year participants will be targeted to members with existing websites which are outdated, unreliable, and static in nature. After the second year, all members will be able to participate in this project.
Member agencies which currently have dynamic and aesthetically pleasing websites are still encouraged to participate in the project because of the project savings to each participating agency. Members who choose to participate in the project will not have to pay any hosting fees (a substantial yearly savings) and will have assess to a trained web developer to initiate changes and updates to their website. Furthermore websites hosted under the project will have access to Coldfusion and .NET technology used to create modern websites. This technology enables websites to be more dynamic and fluid in nature and allows data collection and storage.
» Read More about P.I.E.The Virginia Community Action Partnership holds two annual conferences during January and June. The conferences provide an opportunity for our member agencies to meet fellow community action agency members; to discuss and share ideas and projects; and to receive training. VACAP offers valuable training and project ideas to its member agencies during these conferences. All training meetings held at the conferences are approved by VACAP's Training and Arrangements Committee.
The January conference is held in Downtown Richmond, VA and is Primarily a Legislative Conference. The Conference provides our member agencies the opportunity to meet with the Virginia Legislature. The January conference is generally held during the Martin Luther King holiday week.
The June conference is held in Virginia Beach, VA. This is generally the larger of the two conferences and is primarily a workshop conference. Reservation space is limited for the June conference due to the seasonal nature of the conference location, and reservations should be made as soon as the June conference reservation opening is announced by VACAP. The opening announcement is generally made at the beginning of April of each year.
In addition to the two large conference held in January and June, VACAP also sponsors two small Executive Director Roundtable Luncheons twice a year in April and October. These meetings are limited to Executive Directors and are designed to allow the free flow of information between them.
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