Voices For Ga's Children Launching Coalition to Support 0-5 Priorities

The leadership team of the newly instituted Georgia Birth to Five Coalition (GB5) has set a preliminary agenda around budget, legislation and advocacy priorities supporting the state's youngest children, intending to push the group from incubation stages to a fully engaged alliance.

Voices began pulling the coalition together nearly a year ago as a vehicle for building consensus among the state's advocates, policymakers and legislators around commitments to bolster support for children in the critical 0 - 5 age group, as outlined in its Compounding Interest report from 2008. The angenda drafted by the leadership team is intended to target specific policy objectives with which a variety of organizations can find commonality.

On matters of budget, GB5 calls for supporting Gov. Perdue's FY 2009 and FY 2010 budget proposals for Child and Parent Services (CAPS) child care subsidies as the minimal amount pending determination of additional fund distributions from the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (estimated at $82.8 million ).

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Take 3 minutes to help

Homeless families need your help and the help of your family and friends. Less than 3 minutes of your time is needed to help the less fortunate families that we serve.

Congress is considering a fiscal year (FY) 2009 omnibus appropriations bill, which includes significant investments in programs that prevent and end homelessness. On February 25, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the bill. The Senate will vote on a bill this week. It will be more difficult to pass the bill in the Senate due to procedural differences which allow for more amendments. It is expected that some Senators will offer amendments to cut spending. We want to make sure the proposed increases remain in the bill and that it passes quickly.

Here's the part where you can make a difference.
"Cut" the email below.
Go to www.congress.org and enter your zip code.
Then, click on write to your federal elected officials.
Keep the President and your Senators checked.
Title your email: Omnibus appropriations to support homeless families.
Select HOUSING as the issue area.
Paste the email.
Fill in your contact information.
Hit send.

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As a voter who cares about homeless families, I ask you to support the FY2009 omnibus appropriations bill this week. Be sure to protect the monies set aside for housing and homeless assistance programs including :

McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants: $1.7 billion;
Section 8 Tenant Based Vouchers: $16.8 billion, to continue providing 1.9 million vouchers and to provide 14,000 new, targeted vouchers for the disabled and homeless veterans during the housing crisis;
Section 8 Project Based Vouchers: $7.1 billion;
Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing Vouchers (HUD-VASH): $75 million for 10,000 housing vouchers for homeless veterans;
Family Unification Program (FUP): $20 million for incremental rental voucher assistance;
Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA): $310 million;
SAMHSA Competitive Homeless Services programs: $75 million total;
Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY): $105 million;
Health Care for the Homeless: $190 million;
Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH): $59.7 million;
Second Chance Act: $25 million, $15 million of which is for state and local demonstration grants and $10 million of which is for nonprofit grants;
Mentally Ill Offender Treatment and Crime Reduction Act: $10 million;
HOME Investment Partnership: $1.8 billion;
Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program: $26.3 million; and
Community Development Block Grants (CDBG): $3.9 billion.