Get Help with Home Heating

Given the high cost of home heating oil, natural gas, and electricity, hundreds of thousands of working families will have tremendous difficulty heating their homes this winter. If you need help with home heating costs, please call your local Community Action Agency. You may qualify for its fuel assistance program. For an easy-to-use list and map with contact information for your local Community Action Agency, visit our Agencies and Services page. Also, for home heating safety tips, visit the Department of Fire Safety's website at www.mass.gov/dfs (once there, scroll to—or search on—"Keep Warm, Keep Safe").

Need free help with your taxes?
Want to bring in extra money?
Want to help people prepare their taxes?

You may be eligible for a refund through the
Earned Income Tax Credit.

MASSCAP Executive Director Joe Diamond discusses EITC and the Massachusetts EITC Campaign with NNN host Chris Lovett.
Run video >>

Look no further. Visit your local community action agency for free tax preparation.

You can access the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) at any of the 24 Community Action Agencies across Massachusetts. You may be eligible for up to $5,547 between the federal and state EITC. The EITC is a great way for low-income working families to bring in extra money to pay bills, start or add to a savings account, or save for a house or for college. For more information on the EITC, click here (PDF).

• If you are interested in free tax preparation assistance for accessing the EITC (federal and state), click here for a list of Community Action Agency locations in the state and contact information.
• If you want to volunteer at an EITC site operated by a Community Action Agency:
  • Click here for a list of CAA locations and contact information.
  • Click here to submit your expression of interest.

Last year, CAA EITC sites helped thousands of low-income working families receive a total of over $5.5 million.

For general information about EITC, please read this flyer (PDF). To access information about the Massachusetts EITC Campaign—an outreach campaign promoting the EITC—please click here.

MASSCAP sponsors information-sharing meetings of all nonprofits that run free tax-preparation services to help people access the EITC. These quarterly meetings are held in Boston and Worcester. The sessions provide important technical assistance to those who administer these sites and those who help clients with their tax returns.

To read an April 10 Boston Globe Editorial on research conducted by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy, Heller School, at Brandeis and MASSCAP about the value of the ETIC and financial education, click here (PDF). For the full text of the research study, click here (PDF).

Also to read a Globe Op-Ed about Asset Development by Joe Diamond, MASSCAP Executive Director, and Sandra Venner, program director for the Institute on Assets and Social Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, click here (PDF).

The EITC program (free tax preparation) that Community Action Agencies provide is one of several programs that fall under the broad category of Asset Development—programs that help people to acquire, grow, and protect assets like homes, small businesses, and higher education. Other Asset Development Services include:

• Individual Development Accounts are programs in which participants save money that is matched by public or private resources for up to 5 years. At the end of that time, the participant can use the resources to buy a home, start a business, or seek higher education.
  
  
• Financial Literacy Education programs help people use and save their money wisely, improve their credit score, and focus on important topics like basic budgeting and productive use of banking services.

Taken separately or in combination, Asset Development Services can help low- and moderate-income working people achieve long-term and sustainable economic independence.

In the coming weeks, we will add a section called the Asset Development Resource Center that will include a list of specific EITC contact people at the Community Action Agencies. In the meantime, please call your Community Action Agency for information about our Asset Development Services or call MASSCAP at 617-357-6086.

State Commission with Community Action Representation Releases Report on Asset Development

MASSCAP Launches Financial Education Training to Help Address Homelessness

Read the Report See the state Commission on Asset Development's final report "Asset Development: Removing Barriers, Building Futures." >> (PDF)

Members of the state's Asset Development Commission gathered recently on the steps of the Grand Staircase of the Massachusetts State House for a ceremony announcing release of the Commission's final report: "Asset Development: Removing Barriers, Building Futures." Governor Deval Patrick, Commission Co-Chairs Senator Jamie Eldridge, and Undersecretary of Housing and Community Development Tina Brooks hosted the event on June 25, 2009. Serving on the Commission were Joseph Diamond, MASSCAP Executive Director, and Kathleen McDermott, Montachusett Opportunity Council Executive Director. More >>

Joe Diamond, MASSCAP Executive Director, and Kathleen McDermott, Montachusett Opportunity Council Executive Director (second and third from left, respectively, in top row) stand with other members of the Asset Development Commission at a State House ceremony to announce release of the Commission's final report. On hand for the occasion were Governor Deval Patrick (fourth from left, bottom row), Commission Co-Chairs Senator Jamie Eldridge (first on left, bottom row) and Undersecretary of Housing and Community Development Tina Brooks (to the right of the Governor). The financial education training pictured below is one example of how MASSCAP is working with others to implement the Commission recommendations.
(Photo by Philip Hailer, Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development)
[View an enlarged version of the photo.]

Jonas Parker of the Institute on Assets and Social Policy (IASP) at the Heller School, Brandeis University, teaches a class in financial education to case managers from Community Action Agencies, shelters, and other community-based organizations. This is one of several regional trainings MASSCAP and IASP will hold across the state in support of the Department of Housing and Community Development's comprehensive initiative to address homelessness. The trainings provide case managers and others who work with homeless and near homeless people with important information on how to offer appropriate financial education ideas and tools to their clients when needed-in short, the right information at the right time. The training—underwritten by a grant from Citizens Bank—is based on a Financial Education Toolkit developed by MASSCAP and IASP under a grant from the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) led by Tina Brooks, Undersecretary, DHCD. Bringing financial education to case managers and staff and to others is one of several recommendations made by the Asset Development Commission related to providing financial education to low income and working people using a variety of delivery approaches across different settings and venues.
[View an enlarged version of the photo.]

Recovery/Reinvestment Funding at the Local Level

Community Action Agencies are bringing American Recovery and Reinvestment Act resources to local communities and vulnerable individuals and families across the state. As described on the federal Recovery.gov website, the Act "is an unprecedented effort to jumpstart our economy, create or save millions of jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so our country can thrive in the 21st century." Read more about the Act >>

MASSCAP is a proud Communities Count partner.