Faith Based GIS Using GIS to

1
Faith Based GIS- Using GIS to Locate Ohio
Benefit Bank Sites
Christopher Shaffer Governors Office of
Faith-Based and Community Initiatives
chris.shaffer_at_governor.ohio.gov 614-644-3974
2
Agenda

• Ohio Benefit Bank Information
• Why Use GIS?
• Mapping and Tools
• Contact Information
• Lots of Slides - but we will go through many of
  them quickly

3
Executive Summary

• GIS Technology assists with
• Outreach/Targeting
• Convincing organizations/boards of legitimate
  need
• Information sharing regardless of program
  sponsorship
• Decision Makers on all levels benefit from
  accurate, well crafted maps.
• Great for unconstrained programs
• Saves money

4
Our GIS Partners

• OGRIP
• Stu Davis
• Lane Wood
• Jeff Smith
• Larry Hellmer
• ODJFS
• Curtis Anderson
• Robert Hanover
• Calm River Demographics
• Richard Miller

5
The Ohio Benefit Bank Who We Are
The Ohio Benefit Bank is implemented through a
public-private partnership between the Ohio
Association and Second Harvest Foodbanks, The
Governors Office of Faith Based and Community
Initiatives, the Ohio Department of Development,
and over 600 faith-based and community
organizations across Ohio.
6

• The Ohio Benefit Bank software is offered free of
  charge to any organization seeking to better
  serve the citizens of Ohio.
• The program is Web-based and accessible from any
  computer with internet access and a printer.
• The OBB serves as a tool for economic
  stimulation, income enhancement, application
  completion, and potential eligibility calculation
  for various benefits and programs.

7
Our Partners

• The OBB works with partners, such as community or
  faith-based organizations, senior service
  programs, food banks or food pantries, health
  providers, and housing programs, in order to
  customize the outreach programs to the needs of
  individual communities.
• The involvement of Ohio businesses and
  faith-based and community groups is particularly
  important, because these organizations are
  well-positioned to reach underserved populations
  that might not access benefits through
  traditional channels.
• The operations of the OBB are supported by
  appropriations in the State budget, funds from
  the GOFBCI, grants from the Ohio Department of
  Development and non-profit and foundation
  supporters, and federal food stamp administrative
  matching funds. Additional partners who have
  recently given grants to the OBB include the
  George Gund Foundation, The Columbus Foundation,
  and Charter One Foundation.

8
Ohio at a Glance

• Over 600,000 Ohioans are eligible for but do not
  receive Food Stamps
• Over 100,000 adults and 150,000 children in Ohio
  are eligible for state and federal funded
  healthcare, but arent accessing it.
• Over 185,000 Ohioans are eligible for various
  tax credits, yet dont receive them.

9
History of the Ohio Benefit Bank

• The Benefit Bank is a project of the National
  Council of Churches (NCC), the Jewish Council on
  Public Affairs and several other national
  organizations.
• In early 2006, NCC chose Ohio as a pilot state
  for the Benefit Bank and outreach soon began when
  Episcopal Community Services Foundation of
  Southern Ohio started recruiting counselors and
  establishing Benefit Bank sites. 

10
History of the Ohio Benefit Bank

• The Columbus Foundation and the Ohio Department
  of Developments Office of Community Services
  provided substantial initial funding for
  community outreach.
• Later in 2006, the Ohio Association of Second
  Harvest Foodbanks (OASHF), the states largest
  charitable response to hunger, became the lead
  non-profit agency implementing the Ohio Benefit
  Bank (OBB).

11
Ohio Benefit Bank Utilization

• Taxes, Benefits or Both
• Appointment only- Existing Organization
• Open to the public in conjunction with another
  event- foodbank or rummage sale
• Free Standing Storefront
• Mobile

12
Ohios Unclaimed Funds

• Nationwide, billions of dollars in Federal funds
  go unclaimed each year.
• In Ohio, more than 1.5 billion dollars in tax
  credits and work support programs are unclaimed
  by Ohio citizens.
• Nearly 95 of those benefits and credits are
  Federal dollars.
• Unclaimed Federal dollars must be returned each
  year for re-allocation to other states or other
  Federal programs.
• The Ohio Benefit Bank strives to assist Ohioans
  in accessing these dollars, as
• these funds are revenue for our local economies.

13
Barriers To Accessibility
Some of the reasons why Ohioans dont access
benefits and work supports

• Cant take time off of work.
• Some applications are confusing and complicated.
• The need to travel to too many places to gather
  the appropriate documents and records.
• Stigma that benefits and work supports are
  welfare and neighbors will perceive them as needy
  or poor.

14
What We Offer

• A potential eligibility indicator
• An application completion tool
• A free income tax assistance program
• An educational outreach program that helps
  raise awareness of available tax credits and work
  support programs

15
Heres How It Works

• New Counselors attend training.
• Trainings are offered on a fixed schedule within
  4 different regions of Ohio.
• Once trained, the counselor can then assist
  clients in
• preparing their application
• packages for Job and Family Services, as well as
  educating them on the process they will need to
  complete and some of their responsibilities to
  their programs.

16
Heres How It Works

• The software is multi-lingual, providing access
  for both English and Spanish speakers.
• The software is question guided and composed in
  simple, easy to understand language.
• The software serves as the expert. Its
  programmed to calculate and evaluate with each
  answer you provide. The more accurate the
  responses are, the more precise the eligibility
  screening.

17
Programs Supported By The OBB

• Eligibility screening AND
• application completion ability
• Food Stamps
• Health Care Programs for Families and Children
• The Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP)
• Child Care Assistance
• Ohios Best Rx
• The Golden Buckeye program
• Free and Reduced Price Lunch Program for school
  children

• Application completion only
• The Ohio Senior Community Service Program
• Ohio cash assistance (OWF)
• Women Infants and Children (WIC)
• Child and Family Health Services (CFHC)
• Bureau for Children with Medical Handicaps (BCMC)

18
Free Economic Stimulus Assistance
OBB can assist people in filing a tax return in
order to receive their stimulus payment. Many
seniors who have not filed a return in a long
time must file a return to receive this payment.
The deadline for this is return is October 15th,
2008.
19
(No Transcript)
20
OBBs FREE Tax Services

• The OBB trains volunteers on how to assist
  clients with filing income taxes.
• Income tax training covers the basics of what is
  required to complete an income
• Tax return and how to utilize The Benefit Bank as
  a question guided tool to screen for various tax
  credits as well as simplify completing a return.
• Once complete, the software provides the option
  to E-File directly to the IRS system, as well as
  the Ohio Department of Taxations system.

• Here are some of the selected the
• tax credits that often go unclaimed,
• but are screened for by the
• software
• Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
• Child Tax Credit
• Additional Child Tax Credit
• Child and Dependent Care Credit
• HOPE Education Credit
• Lifetime Learning Credit
• State AND Federal Back Taxes

21
OBBs FREE Tax Self-Serve

• Anyone in Ohio with a household income of 54,000
  or less can file their income taxes for free,
  right from home!
• Heres How
• Visit www.obb.ohio.gov
• Click, Use the self-serve income tax program
• Click, Register now!
• File your taxes!

22
The Ohio Benefit Bank So Far

• So far, OBB has returned approximately 28
  MILLION dollars to Ohioans!!!
• This money goes directly to local economies
  through medical expenditures, food purchases, and
  a variety of areas through income tax refunds.

• Currently, the OBB has
• More than
• 600-700 Sites
• 2700 trained counselors
• Assisted over 12,000 households

23
GIS Applicability
24
Why use GIS technology and partner with OGRIP and
ODJFS?

• Easy to display complex information
• Public data (Census) or we can create our own
  through Geocoding.
• Consolidate data from a variety of seemingly
  unrelated sources- critical for decision makers
• Better holistic understanding of all community
  services and assets

25
Why use GIS Technology? - continued

• Objective
• Great for community presentations
• Grant proposal or operational determination
• Increases effectiveness of new programs
• Ultimately Saves Money

26
Compounded Value-County Example

• Make a map for targeting/outreach at a county or
  regional level
• Export Map as a JPEG or PDF
• PDF files have increased functionality
• Maps may help persuade potential OBB sites or
  give them a better understanding of area
  demographics.

27
Unlimited Institutional Data

• Join a shape file with data
• Find join field typically STFID
• It could be any field as long as the information
  is the same.
• Merge shapefile with data saved as a DB IV
  through Microsoft Excel
• Merge a wide variety of data. Great for analysis

28
(No Transcript)
29
(No Transcript)
30
Local Data

• GEOCODING
• Build Queries to examine the information.

31
Maps

• Outreach Steps

32
Determining Need

• First adopters
• Mass promotion
• Determine gaps (based on criteria)
• Map/Query to identify gaps
• Contact organizations within the gap area
• Determine gaps
• Continue steps 4 and 5

33
Determining a New Site

• Call organization within the gap
• Provide map of area showing need
• Possible visit
• Provide training support
• Follow up

34
Ohio Benefit Bank Sites as of December 2007
The Ohio Benefit Bank (OBB) is a web-based,
counselor-assisted program that provides free
tax return and public benefits application
assistance to low- and moderate-income Ohioans.
Current Data

• Providing access to more than 1.6 billion in aid
  unclaimed annually in Ohio
• More than 95 of these unclaimed tax credits and
  benefits are federal dollars

• Eligible clients claim as much as 6,000 in
  credits and benefits
• Credits and benefits help families meet basic
  needs and retain employment
• Counseling by over 2,200 counselors at over 570
  sites in 78 of Ohios 88 counties.

35
(No Transcript)
36
(No Transcript)
37
(No Transcript)
38
(No Transcript)
39
(No Transcript)
40
(No Transcript)
41
(No Transcript)
42
Poverty Percentage Greater than 30 OR
Unemployment Percentage Greater than 30 OR Per
Capita Income Less than 10,000 per person AND
Population Greater than 1,000
43
(No Transcript)
44
(No Transcript)
45
(No Transcript)
46
(No Transcript)
47
(No Transcript)
48
(No Transcript)
49
(No Transcript)
50
(No Transcript)
51
(No Transcript)
52
(No Transcript)
53
Fairfield County Analysis
54
(No Transcript)
55
(No Transcript)
56
(No Transcript)
57
(No Transcript)
58
(No Transcript)
59
Other Tools

• Regression Mapping
• Microsoft Excel Data Analysis Tool pack
• Site Calculator
• Excel Spreadsheet

60
Regression

• Closer to 1 the more correlated the data
• Allows or additional mapping or trend analysis

Site Calculator

• Assists when resources are extremely limited.
• Quantitatively determine where to focus effort

61
(No Transcript)
62
Conclusion

• Efficient use of resources
• Time
• Quality of results
• Persuasive
• Organizations that view the GOFBCI website
• Organization Identity and Programs
• Help with grant funding
• Compounded Value
• We will continue to utilize the technology in the
  future.

63
Get Involved

• Volunteer!
• Counselors need to have basic computer knowledge
  and be comfortable using a mouse and the
  Internet.
• If you dont currently have a site to work with,
  we can set you up with a site that could use your
  help!

• Become an OBB Site
• Sign a Organizational Agreement
• Have staff or volunteers trained
• Get Trained
• Pick one or both!
• Benefits Training (6-7 hours)
• Tax Training (6-7 hours)

64
OBBs Regional Breakdown
Regions Are Organized By Regional Coordinators
65
Regional Support and Contacts

• Northwest Ohio
• Gayle Loyola
• 614-221-4336
• gayle_at_oashf.org

• Northeast Ohio
• Maryjo Woodburn
• 330-777-7578
• maryjo_at_oashf.org

• Southwest Ohio
• Meredith Bateman
• 513-874-0114
• meredith_at_oashf.org

• Southeast Ohio
• Jessica May
• 614-221-4336
• jessica_at_oashf.org

66
Websites

• www.obb.ohio.gov
• http//www.thebenefitbank.com/

67
(No Transcript)
68
(No Transcript)
69
Contact Information

• Contact The Ohio Association of Second Harvest
  Foodbanks
• 1-800-648-1176
• Or
• Jason N. Elchert - jason_at_oashf.org
• www.obb.ohio.gov
• http//www.thebenefitbank.com/TBBOH