Total Action for Progress (TAP) is one of 1,000 Community Action Agencies in the country. The core funding that supports these agencies is now at stake.
President Trump proposes to eliminate the Community Service Block Grant (CSBG), Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), all of which provide core funding for Community Action Agencies including TAP.
Community Action Agencies all share a common mission: fighting poverty by empowering low-income individuals and families to achieve self-sufficiency. Agencies respond to short-term crises that can topple a working family into poverty, and address chronic conditions that can trap multiple generations into dependency.
David Bradley, CEO of the National Community Action Foundation, stated that “Cutting CSBG, flexible local dollars that create an opportunity for 16 million people across the country, a program with bipartisan support in Congress, abandons every community in America and burdens local communities.”
Here are two local examples of these dollars at work:
• TAP helped a mother who was forced to move due to domestic violence. She needed a safe place to live and a job so that she could care for her family. TAP assisted her in establishing goals, completing nurse aide training and moving into a house built by our YouthBuild students. She and her children now live free of government support.
• TAP assisted a 69-year-old man whose home, an old wheat-packing house, lacked electricity, running water and indoor plumbing. Friends and neighbors reached out to TAP for help, and we were able to build the man a brand-new home. He will now live the rest of his life in comfort.
These are just two of the thousands of success stories that TAP has created over its 53-year history. Over 5,000 individuals and families benefit from TAP’s services each year. This work would not be possible without CSBG, WAP and LIHEAP funding.
We encourage TAP supporters to contact their congressional legislators and voice their support for Community Action Agencies and the crucial funding they depend on.
-Submitted by Annette Lewis, TAP President & CEO
