Utah Community Action Partnership Association

Partners are a Key to Success

Good partnerships can be the key to the success of a program. For Utah Community Action Partnership Association (UCAPA), relationships with partners have driven their work over the last 20 years. UCAPA is an association that works with and on behalf of Utah’s nine community action agencies. UCAPA’s goal is to coordinate those nine agencies in order to reduce poverty statewide, and it does so by providing those agencies with training, advocacy, public policy work, research, and coordination for some direct service programs.

Clients having their taxes prepared at one of UCAPA’s VITA sites

Because UCAPA does not provide direct services, they accomplish much of their work for low-income families through partners, which include not just the nine community action agencies, but also a variety of other non-profit organizations, government agencies, and community groups. UCAPA’s partners have helped to ensure the success of their Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program. UCAPA coordinates VITA services for the state of Utah through the Earn It. Keep It. Save It. Coalition. This coalition consists of members of seven smaller local coalitions throughout the state, which are themselves made up of community partners, non-profit organizations, government agencies, schools, businesses, and more. In all, the statewide VITA program coordinated by UCAPA includes over 70 partners.

Free Tax Prep Program Booming

All of these diverse partners working together have helped to make the free tax preparation program a huge success. UCAPA began coordinating VITA three years ago. Although 2008 was only their third year preparing taxes, the coalition was able to run 53 static sites statewide, in addition to 25 roving sites. At these sites, UCAPA’s partners completed 15,569 returns and brought $14 million back into the pockets of their clients with the help of 656 volunteers. 3,490 of UCAPA’s clients qualified for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), totaling $4.3 million in EITC refunds. These numbers represent roughly a 20% increase over last year, both in total number of returns and in EITC refunds.

Utah’s Challenges

The success of their VITA program is particularly notable because of some of the challenges to coordinating a VITA program in Utah. Utah is a state with diverse population patterns. While Salt Lake City is very urban, traveling a few hours outside of the city can take you to extremely rural places with severe poverty. Even though the percentage of unemployment in Utah is low, wages in Utah are also low. Oftentimes, people will have one or even two full-time jobs, but will still not make a living wage. Furthermore, because much of the state is so sparsely populated, it can be difficult to establish new sites outside of the city. While the need for a site in an area may be great, finding the resources, the staff, and the volunteers in rural areas is often difficult.

UCAPA’s Partners Help Solve Problems

UCAPA looks to its partners to help find the volunteers and the resources for new sites in these rural areas. UCAPA is able to build on their institutional history and their partnerships with large organizations like the United Way of Utah, 211, and the IRS to get the resources they need to establish new sites. In 2008, one of UCAPA’s partners in Provo, Brigham Young University (BYU), helped to solve the problem of lack of volunteers in a rural area. Because BYU’s accounting program requires students to volunteer for BYU’s VITA program, they often have a surplus of student volunteers.

This year, UCAPA worked with BYU and IRS SPEC to establish a new model for those surplus BYU volunteers to help rural clients who can’t get to Provo to have their returns prepared. Using the model they established, one student volunteer traveled to rural communities and collected the information and paperwork needed from a client. The student then transmitted the information electronically to student volunteers at the BYU VITA site. Volunteers at BYU prepared the return, sent it back to the rural site electronically, and the volunteer at the rural site reviewed the return with the client. Through this model, UCAPA was able to help low-income clients in an area where it is very difficult to establish and find volunteers for tax sites.

One of UCAPA’s 656 dedicated VITA volunteers

UCAPA has also partnered with corporations to help establish new sites in urban areas. Last year in Salt Lake City, UCAPA partnered with Intel, GMAC, and Wal-Mart to operate tax sites. Wal-Mart hosted three tax sites in their stores, which were staffed by volunteers from Intel and GMAC. These sites were huge successes, partly because people in the community know and trust Wal-Mart as an established presence, and partly because the sites were always staffed with volunteers from Intel and GMAC. Because of its success, UCAPA has plans to expand this model statewide.

VITA clients
Clients having their taxes prepared at one of UCAPA’s VITA sites

The Impact UCAPA Has on Lives - Sylvia’s Story

UCAPA’s partnership model has been a lifesaver for clients all over Utah, like Sylvia. Sylvia is a Cuban immigrant who worked hard to get her citizenship. She now finds herself divorced from her Cuban husband, who left her several years ago to be a “treasure hunter” outside of the country, leaving Sylvia to raise her two teenage sons alone on her salary of $12,000 a year. In addition to working full-time and raising her boys, Sylvia also goes to school to try to better the lives of her and her sons. Sylvia has always wanted to be a good citizen and file her taxes, but before their divorce, Sylvia’s husband refused to file. Since their divorce, Sylvia has filed her own taxes, filing married filing separately. Last year Sylvia attended a VITA site for the first time. To her amazement, she had a refund of $5,200. Sylvia had never known about the EITC. A volunteer then amended her 2006 tax return. Her additional refund for that year was $4,300. That came to a total of $9,500. For Sylvia, this was like a dream come true. She danced around the room and said "I can buy a house for me and my boys." When asked if VITA had made her day, she said "You made my life.”