West Virginia Alliance for Sustainable Families
Charleston, WV. May 2010
Innovation and West Virginia may be an unexpected combination, but the West Virginia Alliance for Sustainable Families (WVASF) has made it work. They have created a state-wide coalition adapted to their rural, mountainous geography. With a solid foundation in community tax preparation, they are helping to promote a new state-wide Individual Development Account (IDA) program and making it easier for taxpayers to obtain health insurance for their children.
Creating a New Organizing Model
- A taxpayer has her taxes prepared by a West Virginia Alliance for Sustainable Families volunteer, 2010.
Organized in 1996 as a welfare reform coalition, the WVASF pioneered a unique organizing model that may be relevant to other rural states. Their state-wide coalition is composed of 7 regional coalitions, each with a regional coordinator. The regions feed information up to the state level, where goals and the agenda are set for the whole state. However, implementation is at the regional level, where local coalitions know the best partners for particular activities and programs. It works really well, allowing them to expand and bring in other partners for health insurance outreach or asset building activities.
Calah Young, Executive Director of the WVASF, says that West Virginia has always been home to successful grassroots groups, but the terrain has discouraged networking. So as they create a new state-wide Asset Building Coalition to integrate asset building with tax sites, they intend it to connect West Virginia with the “outer world”. Local groups have been active and successful, and have much to teach the wider world. Facing the challenges of rural poverty in small communities not connected to either the internet or other population centers in the state, they have built upon a local focus and strong relationships.
Asset Building
Their partnership with the Kanawha Institute for Social Research and Action (KISRA) to promote IDAs illustrates their success. To increase financial independence for victims of domestic violence, KISRA is working to provide them with IDAs. Fourteen women’s shelters in 11 counties have trained financial counselors, supported by Allstate Insurance. The role of the Asset Coalition is to connect the women in the shelters with free tax preparation and use the refunds to seed IDAs. Young hopes they can further expand by allowing non-shelter residents to access the financial counseling that the shelter network provides. Then she would like to increase the number of financial counselors available outside the shelters. The role of WVASF is to promote IDA’s through outreach, connecting clients to the program through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) sites and support policy change that makes IDA’s more appealing.
- 3 West Virginia Alliance for Sustainable Families volunteers ready to provide tax preparation, 2010.
Children’s health insurance (CHIP) is another area the WVASF is working on. They have received federal dollars to increase outreach and enrolment in CHIP and Medicaid. A board member who works in this area realized that the income eligibility for EITC mirrors that of CHIP and that VITA sites could be an excellent place to connect taxpayers with health insurance. At their tax sites, they ask taxpayers if their children have health insurance, then direct them to appropriate resource or enroll them online immediately, which saves the clients having to go to a state office.
Advocating for a State EITC
In last 2 years, the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy (WVCBP) was established, providing new fiscal data collection and research capacity. This has boosted the push for a state Earned Income Tax Credit (SEITC), led by the WVASF and the WVCBP. A West Virginia SEITC would boost the incomes of more than 145,000 working West Virginia families. The WVASF is currently working to develop a coalition around this issue to educate citizens and legislators and advocate legislative change.
In the past, it has been difficult to advocate for replacing the existing State Family Tax Credit, which is not refundable and not tied to work, with the SEITC because of the anticipated fiscal impact. Now the WVASF is exploring the use of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds to finance the SEITC; the WVCBP estimates this would bring in new federal funds that are currently unused, which could spark the interest of legislators.
Recently they promoted a grassroots campaigns at VITA sites to build support for the SEITC. Taxpayers wrote postcards detailing how they would use the money from a SEITC, and mailed the cards to their legislators. At the same time, the WVASF was showing legislators the economic impact in their districts of the federal EITC and a potential SEITC.
Growth and Excitement
Kelli Hinkle, State-wide EITC Outreach Coordinator, is excited by what is happening with the WVASF. They have new funders, new partners, new people interested in what they are doing. They are developing new opportunities related to what they already do at VITA sites with IDAs, health insurance, asset building, outreach to people with disabilities and advocacy for the SEITC. People see value in the network they can provide, and capitalize upon that.
