Arizona Community Action Association Inc

Programs: The home energy assistance fund experienced a very productive year, allowing our partners to continue assisting vulnerable families throughout the state. Throughout fy17, 39 partners served all 15 counties and provided assistance to over 8248 households. Individuals received bill assistance, weatherization, utility appliance repair and replacement, or assistance with a utility deposit. Staff intervened in four utility rate cases during 2017, advocating for affordable rates for low-income customers, and additional bill assistance support. All these cases have now been resolved with discounted rates, bill assistance and weatherization funding intact, and in some instances significantly increased from the original request.

marguerite casey foundation 61,584 mcf and 16,832 weaver our grant with the marguerite casey foundation was renewed in 2016. Acaa continues to support educating arizona communities on the root causes of poverty. Our focus includes racism, privilege, oppression, and economic equity, which includes wages, wealth building, employment and ending economic exploitation. In addition, we train members of the community on solutions for ending poverty, including activism, advocacy and education, social movements, public policy and organizational change. Our marguerite casey foundation work aims to grow a community that is prepared to tackle poverty in arizona. In 2017, acaa hosted over 20workshops and engaged over 500 community members. We also began exploring new acaa projects related to wages, employment, economic exploitation, and wealth building. Acaa continues to work in collaboration with other marguerite casey foundation funded organizations across the state to create a network of social change agencies, and received funding in 2017 to further this work.

snap outreach and education between july 2016 through june 2017, community partners explained snap eligibility process and requirements to clients on site to 156,117 individuals. Computers were provided to 18,917 people to complete heaplus applications and, 56,020 individuals received assistance with arizona self help prescreening. Partners assisted with 74,567 heaplus applications of which 17,398 were new applications. These applications included 70,451 applicants of which 26,057 were new applicants. From october through november, partners explained the snap eligibility process and requirements to 22,233 clients on site. 2,589 individuals had access to a computer to apply online to heaplus. Partners assisted with 9,835 applications of which 2,904 were new applications. These applications included 38,080 new applicants. Consumer surveys collected over a two week period in january reflected 1273 respondents, an average 9. 5 out of 10 rating for comfort to partner about services, 97 had all questions answered and 62 will return for renewal services.