Project Proposal Summaries
             Class of 2005

Debbie Anschutz: Strategic Planning Session
CAC of Fayette County

Debbie plans to organize a Strategic Planning Session for her agency to reevaluate their mission statement and create a vision statement. Pre-surveys will be created and distributed to all staff to gather ideas of issues to be addressed. Evaluation will occur at the completion of the strategic planning session to determine if the plan was put into place.

Marilyn Berlekamp: Head Start/Early Head Start ERSEA Plan
Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership

Marilyn will be updating, improving and formalizing the MYCAP Head Start/Early Head Start Eligibility, Recruitment, Selection, Enrollment and Attendance (ERSEA) process to meet funded enrollment levels. Two teams will assist in putting together an effective ERSEA process. Evaluation will be completed to determine response to recruitment and applications completed.

Sue Blevins: Website and Brochure Development
Community Action Partnership of the Greater Dayton Area

Sue will be developing a website and brochure to bring awareness of the services available to senior citizens in Miami County. The website and broche will enable seniors to find services such as transportation, homemaker and home delivered meals. Evaluation will be completed through surveying seniors when they call to determine how they received the information.

Mike Bottoms: Improved Communication in Employee Workshop
Sources, CNS

Mike will be planning, organizing, and coordinating a workshop focused on increasing communication amongst workers at his agency. Evaluation will be completed through pre-and post-surveys of the workshop as well as through observance of changes in behaviors amongst workers.

Tim Brown and Amy Sutherland: Erie-Huron CAC, Inc. Website
Erie-Huron Counties Community Action Commission, Inc.

Tim and Amy are planning to revitalize the agency's website. A re-design is planned so that it may be utilized by customers and the public to learn information about the agency, its services and programs, as well as links to other services that are available in the community.

Malcolm Creager: Annual Report
Community Action Organization of Delaware, Madison and Union Counties

Malcolm will be creating, producing and distributing an Annual Report for CAO DMU in conjunction with the strategic plan. Evaluation will come in the form of increased knowledge of the organization from comments garnered by board members, county managers and the executive director.

Becky Eaton: Website Update
Community Action Program of Washington Morgan Counties

Becky will be working on updating the website of the Washington Morgan CAP. New changes will help the community access programs more readily and provide on-line applications for programs or links to these applications. Evaluation will be done by tracking the increase traffic to the web page as well as through completion of a Staff Survey.

Angie Franklin: Agency Cross-Training: A Key to Comprehensive Services
Northwestern Ohio CAC

Angie will be planning and implementing a model for cross-training of agency social service staff to provide an opportunity for professional development through intra-agency staff meetings and trainings with a goal of improving collaboration among diverse programs. Evaluation will occur at the completion of each training or meeting to determine what resources and education they would benefit from and efforts to fulfill requests will be made.

Loretta Floyd-Pleas: Farmer's Market Nutrition Program
Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership

Loretta will be working towards expanding services of the MYCAP-Mahoning County WIC Program's services to provide nutritionally at-risk women and children with fresh fruits and vegetables. Local farmers will be contacted to be vendors, and a brochure will be created to alert WIC participants of availability of vendors. Evaluation will consist of determining the rate of redemption and through surveys of both vendors and participants for satisfaction and input for improvements.

Becky Hammond: Development of Volunteer Database
Pickaway County Community Action Organization, Inc.

Becky's project is to develop a volunteer database to be used by PICCA and all member agencies of the Pickaway County Continuum of Care. Becky will design a volunteer questionnaire to determine availability, services and contact information, to be distributed to all member agencies as well as the general public. Evaluation will be completed through surveys of each Continuum of Care member agency at the quarterly meeting.

Joyce Huntley: Culture and Diversity Training Program
WSOS Community Action Commission Inc.

Joyce will be creating a Cultural Diversity training that builds on previous trainings to ensure that information gathered is not forgotten and to help employees develop greater awareness and sensitivity to the diversity in the communities served as well as within the organization. Evaluation will occur at the completion of the trainings, as well as at start up to measure changes.

Gale Hutchison: Grant for Home Delivered Meals for Senior Citizens
Community Action Partnership of the Greater Dayton Area

Gale will be writing a grant to obtain funding for the cost of meals, delivery and administrative fees for seniors of Greene County. Gale will evaluate the project through surveys to customers, family member and referral sources regarding customer satisfaction.

Eva Ibarra: Site-Based Management
Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership

Full proposal not yet submitted

Karen Johnson: Human Resources Training & Development Manual
Columbus Metropolitan Area Community Action Organization

Karen will be creating and training/staff development manual to be used as a reference by all programs, allowing Human Resources to have documentation of all mandatory state and federal trainings which are required ensure that each department is meeting those regulations. Evaluation will be in the form of surveys, tests and observation of job performance to determine success.

Pete Natal: Update Employee Handbook
Ohio Partnership for Affordable Energy

Pete's project will be to update and redesign the OPAE employee handbook. He will review current laws, regulations and policies to ensure the manual is current. After all updates are complete, the executive director and board will review and adopt the new manual.

James Smith: The Importance of Having an On-Bus Instructor
Mahoning-Youngstown Community Action Partnership

James will be addressing the issue of having bus drivers re-certified prior to their expiration date. Training and pre-testing during the year to provide assistance to those driver's that have weaknesses. Evaluation will occur through monitoring of the percentage of drivers that pass/fail re-certification.

Karin VanZant, Jessica Randolph and Jason Elchert: Legislator Education on Local Community Action Agencies
OACAA/OCATO

The group from OACAA/OCATO will be working on educating the Ohio Legislature and local Community Action Agencies about the success and impact that Community Action is having in Ohio. They plan to compile information from each Community Action Agency and then meet with legislators or staff to report findings. Evaluation will be in the form of feedback from local CAAs and legislators as well as the number of meetings held with Ohio Legislators.