Community Services Consortium

Serving Linn, Benton, and Lincoln counties in Oregon. Helping people. Changing lives.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Uninsured, Poor Oregonians Should Take a Chance with the Oregon Health Plan

Over the next week, uninsured Oregonians with few earnings who take a few minutes to register with the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) stand a good chance of obtaining free or low-cost health insurance.

The Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS), which administers OHP, will randomly draw 20,000 names from the registry on October 20. Those selected will then be invited to apply for health coverage under a program called “OHP Standard.”

It costs nothing and it takes only a few minutes to register and you can also add the name of someone you know who you think qualifies to the reservation list.

To register for the reservation list, visit the Department of Human Services website, www.oregon.gov/DHS/open or call toll-free 1-800-699-9075. At that number you can also find out if you qualify for other health insurance programs.

Information from Oregon Center for Public Policy News Release October 6, 2010. To read the complete press release visit http://www.ocpp.org/2010/nr20101005OHPLottery_fnl.pdf

Make A Difference Day Coat Drive


Make a difference by joining the LBvision Volunteer Center, RSVP and Community Services Consortium in a community coat drive culminating on Make A Difference Day on October 23.
The organizations are partnering with OSU sorority Alpha Chi Omega and local nonprofits to collect and distribute new and gently used winter coats. The coats will benefit homeless and low income persons in the two counties served.

Drop-off locations in Benton County include Community Services Consortium and Corvallis Senior Center. In Linn County, coats may be donated at Community Services Consortium, Albany Senior Center, Albany Public Library, and two Richards Cleaners locations.

Nonprofit partners receiving the coats will include Vina Moses and Old Mill Center in Corvallis. Albany Helping Hands Homeless Shelter, Christ Walk and Sweet Home Emergency Ministries are recipients in Linn County.

Richards Cleaners, located at 623 Lyons Street and 630 Hickory NW in Albany, will dry-clean the Linn County donated coats.

Act Now to Help a Neighboring Community Action Agency

You can help a neighboring community action agency trying to win $250,000 in the Pepsi Challenge ---but you’ve got to act now!

Yamhill County is trying to build a food warehouse. They have raised over $2 million and have about $800,000 to go. They have entered the Pepsi Challenge in the $250,000 category. That puts them in some pretty stiff competition, but, with the help of Newburg High School students, they have climbed from #51 to #26 spot in the last 10 days. The idea with the most email or text votes wins. Only the top 2 ideas pass into the finals on October 31st. If you want to help, we have to move them up 24 spots by the end of the month.

You can “vote” once a day from every email address you have, and you can also text once a day.
If you would like to help:

Log onto yamhillcap.org
Under the column entitled “Capital Campaign” click on the button that says “Vote for This Idea.”
That takes you to the Pepsi Challenge website and the YCAP voting page. (You’ll have to create a name and password the first time).
Then click on “In the Running for $250,000”. When your vote has tallied, you’ll hear the sound of a Pepsi can opening and you’ll get a “thank you” message.

You can also text your vote by texting 102615 to 73774 (or, on a BlackBerry, text to 73774 and in the message box type 102615. You will receive a thank you text confirming your vote right away.

And Community Services Consortium thanks you for helping out our neighboring CAP agency!

Energy Conservation Workshops for People with Low Incomes

Stephanie Bugni, from the Emergency Services Department Presents Energy Conservation Workshop

Sign up for an Energy Conservation Workshop and learn about what affects your energy bill, what are the top 5 highest energy users in your home. Learn all the small things you can do to make a difference on your energy bills.

For attending the workshop to help improve your home’s energy efficiency, you will receive:


a FREE weatherization kit valued at over $65!
A workbook with hundreds of energy saving tips!
you will be eligible for a free home energy audit

To sign up for a workshop:
Contact Stephanie Bugni, Energy Education Coordinatior at (541) 758-2639 or Email sbugni@communityservices.us

Energy Education Workshop Schedule
Albany
Workshops are held at Community Services Consortium, 250 Broadalbin SW, Suite 2A,
Friday, October 15th 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Wednesday, October 27th 10:00 - Noon

Corvallis
Workshops are held at Community Services Consortium, 545 SW 2nd St. – Suite A (upstairs), Monday, October 11th, 10:00 a.m. –Noon
Monday, October 18th, 2:00 p.m. –Noon

Lebanon
Workshops are held at Community Services Consortium, 380 Market St.,
Wednesday, October 13th 2:00—4:00
Friday, October 29th, 10:00 –Noon

Newport
workshops are held at Community Services Consortium, 120 NE Avery St., (Hiland Castle room) Tuesday, October 19th 10:00–Noon
Tuesday, October 19th 1:00–3:00

*Energy Conservation Workshops are held monthly. If you are unable to attend a workshop in your area, please contact Stephanie Bugni at (541) 758-2639 or sbugni@communityservices.us for future workshop dates.

Lincoln City Land Trust Home Open House—Come Celebrate!

The first Lincoln Community Land Trust home to be sold in Lincoln County will be open for tours on Tuesday, September 21. Make plans to stop by the house at 2219 NE 28th St. in Lincoln City and learn about the trust, see the home, and meet other land trust fans. You won’t want to miss out on this opportunity.

A general presentation about the land trust will be held at 5:30PM followed by a ribbon cutting and cake at 6:00PM.

Lincoln City Mayor, Lori Hollingsworth and Lincoln County Commissioner and Board Chair, Bill Hall will present. Please park at the Lincoln City Community Center and enjoy a half mile walk to the home. Parking at the home is limited and we do not want to disturb the neighbors.
Lincoln Community Land Trust (LCLT ),
For further information, contact: Benjamin Baggett, (541)758-2761, bbaggett@communityservices.us

Mark your calendars and plan to be a part as the Lincoln County Land Trust makes land trust history with its first home. Invitations and an informational brochure are available on the land trust website. Please send your RSVP to Alison Robertson, alisonn@lincolncity.org.

The Magic Barrel

Friday, October 22, at 7:00 pm, in the Corvallis High School Theater

"The Magic Barrel: A Reading to Fight Hunger" features some of Oregon’s finest authors in a benefit for Linn-Benton Food Share. Linn Benton Food Share, a program of Community Services Consortium works to relieve hunger in the mid-Willamette Valley.

The line-up features several local writers with freshly published books--fiction writer Tracy Daugherty, (One Day the Wind Changed), and poets Jennifer Richter(Threshold) and Charles Goodrich (Going to Seed). Also reading are Oregon Book Award-winner Scott Nadelson (Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories), Virginia Browne and Linda Hamner (Letters from Cleo and Tyrone), OSU historian Bill Robbins (Oregon, This Storied Land), OSU English instructor Wayne Harrison, and local poet Beth Russell. Bob Crum will serve as emcee, and Sideways Portal will provide live jazz.

Suggested donation is for $7 at the door, but no one is turned away for lack of funds. Now in its 17th year, The Magic Barrel is sponsored by the OSU Center for the Humanities, with support from OSU Printing and Mailing, the Spring Creek Project, and other area donors.

For more information, call Sarah Williams at 541-737-9560, or visit the Magic Barrel website: http://www.magicbarrel.org/

"Building Bridges" CSC's AmeriCorps* VISTA Program

The ‘Building Bridges’ AmeriCorps*VISTA program at Community Services Consortium welcomed nine new members to eight project sites, listed below:

· Alix Stinnett at Central Linn School District (CLSD)
· Belinda Judelman at Lincoln Commission for Children and Families
· Jackie Stapleton at Linn County Mental Health (LCMH)
· Katherine Griffin at Ten Rivers Food Web
· Katie Neiert at Community Services Consortium
· Lola Jones at Lincoln Commission for Children and Families (LCCF)
· Maria McGrew at Benton County
· Michael Spinello at Mid-Willamette Valley YMCA
· Rachel Karasick at Corvallis Environmental Center (CEC)

In remembrance of 9/11, the team spent the day at Starker Arts Garden for Education (SAGE) where they worked with Corvallis Environmental Center staff, RSVP members, and community members to harvest 341 pounds of produce that went to Stone Soup, a Corvallis soup kitchen and to prepare some of the garden area for winter.

Welcome to CSC's blog and e-newsletter!

These communications tools can be used to make announcements, acknowledge donors and volunteers, post videos and slideshows–whatever we want to share with our online community.

There are 3 ways to deliver info to stakeholders:

  1. The blog itself, which can be linked to our current website
  2. Email news blasts (blog articles sent via email as eNewsletters)
  3. RSS Feed (subscribers read in Google Reader or other feed reader, can also send posts to Facebook and Twitter)
We're excited about these communication tools and look forward to both your input and feedback for continuing improvement and positive information-sharing.

If you have agency/program information you'd like posted on this blog, please send full text and/or photos and videos, ideas, or suggestions to Janet Hessel and she will take the next steps.

Enjoy!