Head Start is a national school readiness program that provides wide-ranging education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families. Nearly 25 million pre-school aged children have taken advantage of Head Start programs since its beginnings in 1965.

What does Head Start offer? Head Start provides early childhood services to prepare your child and your family for the first years of public school.

Typically, your child will spend a half-day at a permanent center engaging in both educational and enjoyable activities along with other children who are close in age. He/she is also eligible for free health screenings, and other services such as dental and medical care.

Who is eligible? Children from birth to age five, and families with income below the poverty line qualify for Head Start (preschool-age children) and Early Head Start services (birth to age three and pregnant women).

Children from families receiving public assistance (TANF or SSI) are eligible for Head Start and Early Head Start services, along with foster children. In each of these cases, you and your family are entitled to receive Head Start program benefits regardless of income.

Your local program can explain the paperwork you should bring to apply and they will also determine whether your family is eligible. To locate the program or center nearest you, go to http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/HeadStartOffices

In addition to programs for your child, you may qualify for free learning assistance programs. Since parents are the first teachers of their children, Head Start believes school readiness should help ensure the strength and stability of the child’s family.

Parents are encouraged to take part in training classes such as child rearing, job training, learning about health and nutrition, and using free resources in your own community. Some parents learn the English language; while others learn to read or get help towards their General Equivalency Diploma (GED) or other educational opportunities.

Head Start staff members also refer families needing help to medical, social welfare, or employment specialists in the community, who will follow up to be sure you receive assistance.

Becoming a Head Start volunteer provide experience supervising children and is a wonderful way to give back to the community. This experience may later qualify you for training which can help you find employment in field of child-care.

Finally, you can have a voice in the Head Start program by serving on various committees. Parents’ experiences in Head Start have raised their own self-confidence and improved their ability to make decisions.

Head Start is a comprehensive pre-school program offers a wide range of child development services. More information is available at the Head Start Bureau’s website at: www.headstartinfo.org/recruitment/child_hs.htm

If you have other questions, or need more help to find a Head Start or Early Head Start program in your area, please call toll free at 1-866-763-6481.

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If you are a low-income, disabled or elderly person, you may qualify to receive free government assistance to help you pay your utility bills. These funds are used mainly for helping those who’s energy bill takes up too much of their income to stay warm in winter or cool in the summer. Some funds are also available to help protect your home from extreme weather.

LIHEAP dollars are distributed by local community action agencies, usually at the state and county level. This Federal program is different than most, as the applications, rules, types of assistance, and benefits can be very different depending on the state in which you live.

To find out if you are eligible to receive help, check with your state LIHEAP office. Each state has its own income limits for Federal energy assistance, so, the amount of income needed to qualify for assistance will depend on which state you live in. Each state considers a household’s total income. Decisions about what is counted as income under your state’s LIHEAP program, as well as the time period used for counting that income, are left up to the state. However, generally speaking, states count household income in one of the following ways:

• Net income (household income after taking out certain deductions) may be used. Deductions can include things like certain types of income, (such as disability income), or some costs (such as shelter or medical costs).

• Gross household income (income before taking out any deductions) may also be used.

However, being eligible for LIHEAP assistance does not guarantee that you will receive the assistance. This depends on how much federal LIHEAP funds are available for the year. When LIHEAP funds are exhausted, grantees can no longer provide federal help until Congress provides funds for the next federal fiscal year. One hopeful sign is that President Bush signed a resolution in September, 2008 for $5.1. billion more money toward continuing to ensure the funding of this program.

There is a directory of state agencies on the federal LIHEAP website. After clicking on the page below, click on the name of your state to find out who to contact: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/liheap/grantees/states.html

People who need information for other available utility programs or assistance resources in their area, can go to http://neaap.ncat.org/programs/index.htm and select their state to find a listing of its low-income energy programs, including website links, email addresses and 800-phone numbers.

The LIHEAP Clearinghouse provides free telephone and e-mail referrals for those who want to know where to apply for low- income energy assistance. If you are seeking help, call the National Energy Assistance Referral (NEAR) project toll-free at 1-866-674-6327 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Eastern Time) or email energyassistance@ncat.org. Please include your city, county and state in your email message.

You may also want to contact the National Energy Assistance Referral (NEAR) project. NEAR is a free service for people who want information on where to apply for LIHEAP help. NEAR can be contacted by e-mail energy assistance@ncat.org (please include your city, county and state along with your e-mail message) or by using NEAR’s toll-free phone number, 1-866-624-6327.

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Section 8, or the Housing Choice Voucher Program, is a program that was first established in the 1970s to help provide affordable housing to low-income renters and homeowners. This assistance helps limit the amount you pay in monthly rent, so that you can live in housing that is affordable for you and your family.

To qualify for a housing voucher you must be a low-income person (or have income that is less than 30-50% of the median income in your area). To determine the income limits in your area, you will need to find out how much you can afford to pay. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) considers annual housing costs to be affordable if these payments are not more than 30% of your family’s annual income. By law, a housing authority must provide 75 percent of its voucher payment funds to applicants whose incomes do not exceed 30 percent of the area median income. Income levels are published by HUD and vary by location. The public housing authority serving your community can provide you with the income limits for your area and family size.

During the application process, the housing authority will collect information on family income, your assets, and family composition. They will also verify that information with local agencies, your employer and your bank, and will use the information to determine program eligibility and the amount of the housing assistance payment.

If it is determined that your family is eligible, your name will be put on a waiting list. Once your name is reached, the housing authority will contact you and issue to you a housing voucher.  Once you receive a housing voucher, you can locate and lease a unit either within an apartment complex or any house or apartment in the private sector, as long as it meets certain requirements. All subsidized units must meet minimum standards to ensure that the family has a healthy and safe place to live.

However, in many localities, waiting lists for housing vouchers may be very long, with waits of three to five years common. Your local housing authority may establish preferences for certain applicants from its waiting list. For example, preference may be given to a family who is:

(1) Homeless or living in sub-standard housing.

(2) Paying more than 50% of its income for rent, or

(3) Unwillingly dislocated.

Families who qualify for such preferences move ahead of others on the waiting list. Each housing authority has the freedom to establish local preferences that reflect the housing needs and priorities of its community.

People who participate in the housing voucher program must also abide by rules and regulations in order to maintain their voucher, including reporting all changes in household income and/or family composition to the housing authority so the amount of their subsidy can be updated.

For more information about how to qualify and rent a Secton 8 property, go to: http://www.hud.gov/offices/pih/programs/hcv/about/index.cfm, or http://www.hud.gov/renting/.

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As of October 1, 2008, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the new name for the former National Food Stamp Program. SNAP is a federal program that helps with food when you can’t afford to pay the bills and still need to buy groceries.

In order to qualify for SNAP, a family of four must earn less than $27,564 before taxes. You are allowed up to $2,000 in resources such as a bank account. You can also have $3,000 in the bank if at least one person is 60 or older, or is disabled. But you don’t have to be on welfare to qualify, and you may be eligible even if you are currently working. It all depends on your income, the money you have saved, and how many people live in your household.

To find out if you are eligible for SNAP, use the Internet at your local library, public school, or community center by going to www.foodstamps-step1.usda.gov. Once you determine that you are eligible, you can apply for the program at the local United States Department of Agriculture’s Office of SNAP. Find the location of this office by going to the website listed above, or look in the government section of your telephone book.

You must apply in person to start receiving SNAP benefits. You can also call the local office and ask for an application to be mailed, but final application must be done in person. The process includes completing and filing out a form, being interviewed, and verifying facts crucial to determining your eligibility. Bring your driver’s license, Social Security card, proof of income, daycare and medical expenses, and proof of other properties if no children under 19 live in the home. With some exceptions, a household that meets the eligibility requirements is qualified to receive monthly benefits.

Legal immigrants who are children or disabled can now get food stamps, as can legal immigrants who have lived in the United States for at least 5 years.

Currently, program benefits provide an average of up to .90 cents a meal per person, or about $320.00 per month for a four-person household. Your monthly benefits will be transferred into an account like a bank account, and you’ll get a card that looks like a bank or a credit card. This card can be used at grocery stores, market stores, convenience stores and other locations. However, SNAP benefits can only be used to buy food, beverages, and items that produce food, such as seeds or plants. Benefits cannot be used to buy alcohol, non-prescription drugs, pet food, soap, tobacco, toilet paper, toothpaste, or other non-food items.

For more information on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other federal nutrition programs, contact the local office of the United States Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service agency or go to www.foodstamps-step1.usda.gov. You can also contact the office at 703-305-2286, or by mail at 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 914, Alexandria, Virginia 22302.

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The National Free and Reduced School Lunch Program is a federal program that provides nutritionally balanced low-cost or free lunches to children in public and non-profit schools and residential child care facilities each day.

At the state level, the program is usually run by state education agencies, which operate the program through agreements with school food authorities, schools of high school grade or under and private residential child care institutions. School food authorities can also serve after school snacks to children up to age 18 years.

Any child at a participating school can buy a meal through the National School Lunch Program if they are approved based on their income. Families must meet federal income guidelines to qualify for the program. Those guidelines are adjusted each year based on the national poverty level.

in 2008, for a student to qualify for a free lunch, a family of four must earn $27,580, or less. For a reduced-price lunch, the same size family must earn no more than $39,220, according to the National School Lunch Program guidelines. With reduced price meals, students can be charged no more than 40 cents.

After school snacks are also provided to children on the same income eligibility basis as school meals. However, programs that operate in areas where at least 50 percent of students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals may serve all snacks for free.

The nutritional goal of the school lunch program is to provide children a meal that contains approximately one-third of the Recommended Dietary Allowance of nutrients. The lunches provide on average one-third of this nutrition. Yet every school lunch program is different. Although meals are planned by registered dietitians, some menus emphasize high-fat servings of beef and dairy products. If the meals served at your child’s school are less than what you desire, consider selecting two or three days a week for your child to participate, and then supplement with healthier, home-prepared lunches for the other days of the week.

For more information on the National School Lunch Program and other Child Nutrition Programs, contact the agency in your state responsible for the administration of those programs, or go to www.fns.usda.gov/cnd, and select “Contact Us”, then “Child Nutrition Programs.”

You can also contact the office of the United States Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service, Public Information Staff at 703-305-2286, or by mail at 3101 Park Center Drive, Room 914, Alexandria, Virginia 22302.

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Many people do not realize that the rules of bankruptcy have changed. The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 went into effect on October 17, 2005. This act came into effect because many individuals were abusing the previous bankruptcy law and repeatedly taking advantage of its generous rules. Unfortunately this has made it more difficult for those in financial trouble who were not purposefully taking advantage of the law to recover from their financial situation.

Individual bankruptcies are split among two types, ch. 7 and ch. 13. Ch. 7 bankruptcy eliminates either all or a reasonable portion of debt. Ch. 13 requires the debtor and a bankruptcy trustee to create a payment plan and repay the debt in full. Most individuals filing bankruptcy file ch. 7 bankruptcies and it is ch. 7 bankruptcy which now has stricter laws.

New rules for people declaring ch. 7 bankruptcy:

Before filing you must have a certificate stating that you have completed credit counseling.

If your income is higher than the median income for your family size in your state you will have to pass the “means test”.� Basically the means test is whether or not your disposable income is more than $100 above your debt payments.

The debtor’s assets, which used to be valued at their auction cost, are now valued at their replacement cost. This means the debtor’s assets will be valued higher and the amount they are assumed to be able to repay will increase.

Automatic stay has been reduced. Automatic stay refers to the time during the bankruptcy process where creditors are not allowed to collect. If bankruptcy is filed within one year of a dismissal automatic stay is over 30 days after filing unless the court decides otherwise. If there are two previous dismissals there is no automatic stay unless the court decides otherwise.

Within 45 days of filing you must provide documents detailing your debt and income. Common documents are bills, credit card statements, income taxes, etc.

Luxury items dismissal has been reduced. Of luxury items purchased within 90 days of filing bankruptcy, $500 can be dismissed. Of the luxury items purchased within 70 days of filing $750 can be dismissed.

After bankruptcy process and debt discharge, debt cannot be discharged again for 8 years.

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