New Haven Independent

CAA, the city’s largest anti-poverty organization in the city, is gearing up to expand its social service programs with the help of the $1.5 million from the feds. At the center of the new rollout is the “Passport to Prosperity,” intended to help CAA to work with other agencies to ensure that people in need find help.

CAA President and CEO Amos Smith unveiled the passport on Wednesday evening at the agency’s Whalley Avenue headquarters. His announcement came at the monthly meeting of the Individual Development Account class, a group of families participating in a matched savings program.

The meeting began with a meal donated by the Greek Olive restaurant. Tucking into a plate of mashed potatoes and London broil with gravy, Smith explained that CAA had just received the $1.5 million federal Community Services Block Grant as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. “It’s a big deal, because it’ll allow us to kick off some programs we’ve had on the drawing board,” he said.

The federal dollars are going to fund CAA programs on housing and homelessness, computer literacy, and support for single mothers. The money will also help CAA to expand its summer youth programs to a year-long project that will provide career counseling for teenagers and teach them budget management and conflict resolution skills.

CAA will use the federal money to provide small grants to eight or ten local social services organizations that it works with. The new Passport to Prosperity is intended to help this network of agencies to work together to provide services.

Pulling out a prototype of the new passport, Smith explained how that new program will work. When individuals or families come to CAA for help, staff will assess their need and determine which programs are best for them. Individuals who have a number of needs to be addressed will be issued a color-coded Passport to Prosperity — from Red/Crisis to Yellow/Prevention to Green/Stable.

As individuals with passports find help at the various agencies in the CAA network, their passport will be stamped. Stamps can be given, for example, for education and employment services or financial education and asset building programs. Smith explained that agencies will tailor the “level of service” they offer depending on the color-code of the passport.

Smith said that the passport will help CAA to better track the progress of its clients and to ensure that they are receiving the services that they need. “We want to keep clients connected in a cadre of services,” he said. The passport is “something we believe will be a template for how to collaborate,” he said.

After the meal, Smith stood to address the room. He began by showing off the new passport, explaining that it was about “surrounding an individual with support services.”

“This is really about how to perfect and serve you,” he said.

After outlining several of the other programs that CAA is working on, Smith took some time to talk about the agency’s troubled history. “There was a period in the recent past when we were going through a very rough time,” he said. Prior to Smith taking over the agency, CAA weathered more than a decade of scandals involving mismanagement of funds and political infighting.

As he discussed the new Passport to Prosperity, Smith made it clear that CAA is entering a new chapter and leaving its past behind. “If people talk about the ragtag Community Action Agency, corrupt Community Action Agency… all that’s the old Community Action Agency,” he said. “The Passport will revolutionize the way we provide services.”

Smith stressed that he had cleaned house since taking over at CAA two years ago. “All the crazy people ain’t here no more. All the people that wanted it all before you got it ain’t here no more,” he said. Smith said that he cut total staff in half at CAA and took processing time for a energy assistance application down from four and a half weeks to less than an hour.

As part of the continued progress at CAA, the organization is placing a greater emphasis on the evaluation of program effectiveness, Smith said. “We use that to extract the disappointment out of the system,” Smith said.

After the meeting broke up, program participant Brenda Barnes shared her response to the Passport to Prosperity announcement. “I think it’s awesome,” she said. “It gives people a commitment of sorts.”

Shakaya Kitchens (at left in photo with CAA staffer Sandra McKinnie), another program participant, said that the passport will save time. “It makes the client seem important,” she said.