Community Services Consortium

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

Thursday, December 6, 2012

LBFS Winner in PacificSource Healthy Life Challenge

The 2nd annual PacificSource Healthy Life Challenge was held from October 23rd to November 21st, with more than 1,000 people taking the pledge to be more active, smoke free, eat healthy, and/or reduce stress. For each pledge participant, PacificSource agreed to donate $1 to one of four local charities, which were also voted on by pledge participants. Linn Benton Food Share won the pledge participant vote, which means a healthy donation will be coming their way from PacificSource. Thank you to everyone that participated in the Healthy Life Pledge and congratulations to LBFS!

For more information on the PacificSource Healthy Life Challenge, click here.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Basic Budgeting Workshops Scheduled for December

Want to take control of your money? Basic Budgeting Workshops are two-hour classes that focus on how we can learn to take control of our money by setting up a monthly budget and spending plan. The workshops are offered to any CSC client receiving housing or energy assistance. Topics covered in these workshops include:
  • Identifying and prioritizing expenses
  • Tips to trimming your budget
  • Creating a monthly budget
  • Setting financial goals
  • Developing a spending plan that is right for you
Attendees will receive a free personal planner and money organizer.
 
Workshops will be held at the Albany, Corvallis and Lebanon locations listed below:
 
Corvallis CSC Office 545 SW 2nd St., Suite A, Corvallis, OR 97333
  • Wednesday, December 12th, 1:30pm-3:30pm (Workshop ID# BBC121212)
  • Thursday, December 26th, 10:00am– Noon (Workshop ID# BBC122612)
 
Albany CSC Office 250 Broadalbin SW, Suite 2A, Albany, OR 97321
  • Tuesday, December 4th, 10:00am-Noon (Workshop ID# BBA120412)
  • Thursday, December 20th, 9:00am-11:00am (Workshop ID# BBA1220712)
 
Lebanon CSC Office 380 Market St., Lebanon, Or 97355
  • Monday, December 17th, 1:00pm-3:00pm (Workshop ID# BBL121712)
  • Wednesday, December 26th, 2:00pm-4:00pm (Workshop ID# BBL122612)
To register or for more information, contact Cindy Pratt-DeMarzo at (541) 758-2632 or cpratt@communityservices.us.

Festival of Trees Event to Benefit Community Outreach Shelter

The Festival of Trees, a spectacular winter event, will be kicking off on December 8 with a gala and auction at 6pm. The gala will feature music from the OSU men's award-winning a capella group "Outspoken," as well as food, drink, a dessert bar and raffle prizes. Family Day will be on December 9 from noon-4pm and includes cookies, coffee and punch and candy canes and photos with Santa for the kids.

Events will be held at the CH2M Hill Alumni Center on the OSU campus. Tickets are available at Rice's Pharmacy, Grass Roots Book Store, and Community Outreach, Inc. To buy tickets online, visit www.tickettomato.com.

For more information about the event, visit Community Outreach, Inc.'s event web site.

OHCS and LASO Launch New Foreclosure Assistance Program

Low-income homeowners and renters affected by foreclosure now have access to new a statewide service that provides free legal assistance from an attorney to help address urgent foreclosure issues.

Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS) has contracted with Legal Aid Services of Oregon (LASO) to develop and deliver the new program. The statewide service will be offered both over the phone and in person from offices in Portland, Medford, Hillsboro, Eugene and Bend.

Interested households can call 1-855-412-8828 toll-free or 503-227-0198 in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties to learn more about the program. Intake specialists will screen callers for income eligibility and will refer qualified households to an available attorney. Program phone lines are staffed between 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., and 1:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Assistance can be provided in English and Spanish, with additional translation services available if necessary. Program phone lines are not staffed by attorneys and intake specialists cannot give legal advice.

The program is funded by a May 2012 legislative appropriation, utilizing proceeds from the National Mortgage Settlement, settled in part by the State of Oregon’s Department of Justice.

In addition, OHCS and LASO are developing a referral program to provide legal assistance to moderate income households, utilizing sliding-scale and pro-bono assistance from private attorneys. This component of the program will provide moderate income households the opportunity to have a free one hour consultation with an attorney, with additional representation offered at a discounted rate. Information about the program will be posted as it develops at OregonHomeownerSupport.gov.

Interested households can learn more about accessing legal assistance and other foreclosure prevention programs by visiting OregonHomeownerSupport.gov. For additional foreclosure prevention assistance interested person can also visit the above website or dial 211 toll-free from any phone in Oregon.

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!