Tom Harkin: “people say, What do community services block grants do? Here are some of their activities: Parenting education to…”

“people say, What do community services block grants do? Here are some of their activities: Parenting education to 175,000 Head Start families, helping people be good parents; transportation for elderly Americans to medical appointments, which I mentioned earlier, such as the community health centers; home ownership counseling for the low income, how they might be able to afford and pay for their own home; mentoring and counseling for at-risk youth; in-home chore services for homebound elderly. Think about that. Domestic violence services. I mentioned refrigerators and transportation services for food banks; transitional housing for homeless families. You wonder what happens to homeless families? Community service action agencies find them transitional housing and especially now with winter coming on. Lead inspection programs, screening homes for lead-based paint, and we know how devastating that is on low-income children. Food stamp outreach, going out to make sure low-income people know they are eligible for food stamps, that they do not have to go hungry. Community services block grant networks, let me talk about who these people are. Their local networks were made up of 1,090 local eligible entities, of which 88 percent were Community Action Agencies. The local agencies use CSBG funding for their core operations developing and for developing and coordinating programs to fight poverty in 99 percent of the counties in the United States.…”