News/Blog
April 15th may seem far away, but the deadline for 2023 taxes will be here before you know it. Having a professional file your taxes can cost you hundreds of dollars and a ton of headaches. But CVCAA has a better solution. Our team of trained, professional volunteers can file your taxes in less than 30 minutes, and they’ll do it all for free!
CVCAA is proud to be a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) site again in 2024. We have four highly qualified professionals that volunteer hundreds of hours each year to help low-income families get the most out of their tax refund without spending a dime.
Our volunteers will file your return electronically so that you get your return as fast as possible. We do not take any percentage or fee so 100% of your return goes directly to you.
Appointments will begin on January 18th, and you can call our office now to schedule yours.
Please visit https://www.cvcaa.org/free-tax-assistance to see program requirements and to find out what you’ll need at your appointment. You can also download any required documents to save time at your appointment.
Call our office at (325)653-2411 to schedule your appointment today!
There is a special bond between a pet and their person. For most of us a pet provides snuggles, a welcome home, and loving companionship. For our homeless neighbors, a pet can also be protection while you sleep, warmth on a cold night, and a small measure of consistency in an unstable situation.
But caring for a pet while homeless can create an extra burden that forces some of our neighbors to choose between themselves and their dog when it comes time to eat.
That’s why CVCAA is so excited to be the first location in West Texas for Feeding the Pets of the Homeless. As a FPH participant, we are set up to take donations of food, leashes, toys, and other pet care items that will make taking care of a furry friend easier for our homeless neighbors.
These items will be distributed during the monthly Homeless Navigation Day. Additionally, we will be distributing through The Oasis Day Shelter at St. Paul Presbyterian Church. We have a great start on our supply thanks to Love ‘n Leashes. This supportive organization held a donation drive for our Pet Supply Closet and showed up in a big way to make sure that no pet goes hungry!
If you would like to contribute, we are accepting donations at our CVCAA office during our open office times. Monetary donations can also be made online HERE. Just select Feeding Pets of the Homeless as your preferred fund. Every donation received will go directly to caring for the pets of our most at-risk neighbors.
If you have any questions or prefer to schedule a donation time, please contact Chrysanthemum Crenshaw at [email protected].
At CVCAA we are constantly looking for ways to improve so we can better serve our community. One of the areas we are always looking to do better at is making it as easy as possible for neighbors to apply for our services.
This year, we have modified our application process to help control the flow of applications and make sure that no one is stuck waiting for answers. As part of that change, we are now only accepting applications during the first full week of each month. This will give our staff a chance to process the applications and give each of them the time they deserve.
The only exception to this is for our veteran clients. We will be taking applications for our veteran services at any time.
You can find more information about the time frames and when we are accepting applications on our website at www.cvcaa.org/forms.
Please note that funds for utility assistance are very limited this year. If you need utility assistance for 2024 we strongly encourage you to apply early in the year.
.png)
We have all heard of the Census. Every 10 years, surveys are sent to mailboxes across the country and census workers knock on doors. All of this so that we know how many people live in our country and who they are. But what about our neighbors that don’t have a mailbox or door?
For our homeless neighbors, every January the Concho Valley participates in the Point in Time (PIT) Count. For one day, we will visit known campsites, soup kitchens, and windy underpasses to survey our homeless neighbors.
This information is used in the same way we currently use the census. Not only does it help us understand who our homeless neighbors are, it also helps us to help them. The information collected is used for grants and determines some levels of government funding for programs like housing assistance.
Last year, our team identified 198 homeless neighbors in San Angelo alone, but we know the numbers are much higher.
This year, we are asking you to help us be part of the team to make sure that every neighbor is counted. We are looking for volunteers to participate in this year’s PIT Count on January 25th. There will be shifts throughout the day so there are plenty of ways to help.
Sign Up to Volunteer or Donate Food
If you have any questions, please reach out to one of the event leaders:
Sidney Timmer: [email protected]
Jason Priddy: [email protected]
Your support shows our unhoused neighbors that everyone counts!
Click HERE to see the data from 2023.
It’s a new year! We made it through 2023! Onwards and upwards! Seize the day! Should old acquaintances…yeah you know the song. As we close the book on 2023 and open 2024 there are a lot of things to ponder and new things to wonder. Maybe this past year was a banner year, and you were able to reach new heights and successes. Or possibly 2023 had a lot of grief and sorrow in it for you. One thing I do know is that with each new year comes 12 new months, 52 new weeks, 365 new days, and 525600 new minutes…or in the case of 2024 - 266 new days and 527040 new minutes thanks to the leap year.
How ever you look at this, we all have a chance to embrace the new, the unknown. Many people use this time of year to make new year resolutions. They try to change things about them or their situation and that is great.
Here at CVCAA, 2024 is bringing some new changes and challenges as well. With Congress going back and forth on the federal budget, it affects what we can do here in the Concho Valley. One big change for us is that we are now only taking applications at specific times of each month. By the time you read this, we’ll be either well into our January application window (January 8-12) or past it. February 5-9 and March 4-8 are our next windows. If you are a veteran though we will take your application at any time. We know that this will be a big change, and a big challenge for some of the people we serve. We’ve also fine-tuned our application process to make it more expedient and easier for those in need.
One thing that hasn’t changed though is our commitment to assisting those in need in our communities. We hold dear the Promise of Community Action and work daily to enact it in our agency:
THE PROMISE OF COMMUNITY ACTION - Community Action changes people’s lives, embodies the spirit of hope, improves communities, and makes America a better place to live. We care about the entire community, and we are dedicated to helping people help themselves and each other.
New for 2024, I’m very excited to share with you the promise in Spanish!! Kudos to our team for the translation:
PROMESA DE ACCIÓN COMUNITARIA - Comunidad Acción cambia la vida de las personas, incorpora el espíritu de esperanza, mejora las comunidades y hace los Estados Unidos un lugar mejor para vivir. Cuidamos de nuestra comunidad y nos dedicamos a ayudar las personas para que aprendan a ayudarse ellos mismos, y a los demás.
We try hard to make this promise a reality in all we do. I hope you find it as inspiring as I do. “We care about the entire community” is powerful.
Because of the budgeting situation in Congress our funds have been limited. We have fewer dollars to help an increasing number of people in need. If you are inspired by the Promise of Community Action, then I humbly ask for your financial support to CVCAA. If you head over to https://www.cvcaa.org/donate-to-cvcaa you can make a gift and become a Change Maker and help our communities. Working together we CAN make the Concho Valley a better place to live for ALL our neighbors.
For everyone born,
Mike