Here are the highlights:
1. The biggest change is probably that, instead of just focusing on Lucas County, Maureen and I are now going to be focusing on SIX Northwestern Ohio counties: Lucas, Wood, Henry, Fulton, Defiance and Williams.
One of the VISTAs recently decided to leave the program early, so we are going to be taking over her counties. Two of them, Henry and Fulton, are very rural and don't currently have much OBB action, so we are going to be focusing heavily on outreach there.
We got some pointers from fellow VISTA Sharon, who heroically covers 11 rural counties by herself, shaming Maureen and I as we recalled whining about how long it took to drive to outlying areas of Toledo for flyering, etc.
2. Planned and hosted an Ohio Benefit Bank regional meeting (see next post).
3. Planned and hosted a tax clinic at Sylvania Area Family Services. The clinic saw a total of 19 clients, including 5 walk-ins, and only 4 no-shows. Of the 18 federal returns the 10 counselors were able to complete, the clients returned a total of $28,570 to the community in returns. Six were eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, for a total of $4,711. Woo!
4. Worked four other tax clinics: Upper Sandusky, Thomas M. Wernert Center in Toledo, Bowling Green, and Lima.
When we arrived in Upper Sandusky, we found out there were very few people signed up so we weren't really needed. We contemplated taking extra flyers out into the community and herding some more people in...but we didn't. So it basically became a day where we drove over an hour to eat Mexican food with some fellow VISTAs and then head back. But that's cool :)
The picture above is from the Upper Sandusky clinic. It's hard to see, but I didn't notice until now that there's a tiny H&R Block in the background above the sign hehe.
Surprisingly taxes have really died down. We had a crazybusy February, a mildly busy March and now barely any action in April. I'm speculating that the majority of our clientele would be expecting sizable refunds and want to file ASAP and get it done.
March did see some tax firsts, however: First non-US citizens (international students), first lottery winner with a W2-G.
5. Food stamp outreach: Another visit to Sylvania Area Family Services, this time to help Maureen talk to people about food stamps, etc., during their weekly food pantry distribution. The people were...interesting. Most thought we were there to do blood pressure checks. One guy with a really thick accent turned out to be a Holocaust survivor who'd lost his hearing from machine gun fire in a war (at least I'm pretty sure that's what he said..) There was also a missing-fingered, crazy-talking militia sympathizer who went off on an awkward not-sure-how-I'm-supposed-to-respond rant about Health Care Reform and Third Revolutions and Communists. "They better remember we all have guns." O-Kkkkkk.
6. Random outreach trips to Oregon and Bowling Green. The Oregon one fortuitously brought us into contact with a really cool guidance counselor at Fassett Middle School. He set up a meeting with us and the other counselors in the district to talk about OBB and they might become a site! Yay! That trip also showed us that the reason there are a lack of sites in Oregon is because...there are a lack of places to BE sites in Oregon. Trouble in BG was mainly a list of nonprofits we tried to find turned out to be residential houses...mysteries. But we will regroup, do some more research, and head out again.
7. March seemed to find lots of event cancellations: A tax clinic due to snow, a tax clinic due to lack of signups, two tax trainings due to no signups, two-day CareNet re-enrollment event that was rescheduled.
8. In other news, I got my car back! Better than ever. Yay! Thanks Uncle John!
9. And I baked bread! In the oven. From scratch. How domestic...and delicious :)
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