REAL ECONOMIC IMPACT TOUR
KICK-OFF 2012 SEASON
MICHAEL R. ROUSH, MA
[email protected]
Special Thank You To Our Sponsors
National Disability Institute’s Real Economic
Impact Tour would like to recognize and thank
its 2011-2012 sponsors:
PURPOSE
• Build disability inclusive free tax assistance, financial education
and asset building opportunities for persons with disabilities
through trusted networks
OUTCOMES
• Growing awareness that disability is a key component of
diversity
• New income poverty research linked to disability
• New partnerships between the asset building and disability
communities
• Improving access and accommodations to VITA and financial
education programs
3
National Community IMPACT
Year
Cities
Local
Partners
Returns
Prepared
Refunds
Received
Tax Prep $
Saved
2005
11
----
7,600
1,710
$0.7 m
$ 6.8 m
$1.5 m
2006
33
200
17,223
3,875
$1.6 m
$15.3 m
$3.4 m
2007
54
355
36,275
8,162
$3.7 m
$32.6 m
$7.2 m
2008
62
555
90,653
20,397
$9.7 m
$81.5 m
$18.1 m
2009
84
634
181,152
40,759
$19.4 m
$176.6 m
$36.2 m
2010
100
710
360,499
81,112
$38.5 m
$351.5 m
$72.0 m
2011
100
>800
397,090
119,127
$43.7 m
$387.1 m
$87.4 m
1,090,492
275,142
$117.3 m
$ 1.05 b
$ 225.8 m
TOTAL
EITC Claims EITC Amounts
Real Economic Impact Tour Staff
Left to Right
• Katie Metz, Regional Specialist, Region 2
• Caroline Burke, Program Assistant
• Johnette Hartnett, Ed.D., Director of Research & Strategic Partnerships, Region 1 (DC, VA, MD)
• Michael R. Roush, MA, National Program Director, REI Tour, Region 3 & 4
REI TOUR 2012
Technical Assistance
•
•
•
•
REI Tour Mini-Grants
REI Tour Workgroup Meetings
Asset Development Summits
Public Benefits Trainings
REI Tour Goes Virtual
Virtual REI Tour Toolkit
www.reitour.org/Resources/Virtual-Toolkit.aspx
Includes online tools that will assist in building your
disability initiative.
•
•
•
•
REI Tour Listserv
Virtual REI Tour Workgroup Meetings
Virtual VITA Pilot
E-learning courses on disability awareness for VITA
Volunteers, Public Benefits, and Financial Education for
Persons with Disabilities
REI Tour Listserv
• Fosters the opportunity for collaboration
amongst REI Tour partners to share best
practices, ask questions, and to share
resources and tools.
• The listserv is exclusive to REI Tour partners
To sign-up for the REI Tour Listserv
send an email to:
[email protected]
Virtual REI Tour Workgroup
Meetings
• Using the latest technology, NDI’s REI Tour will host
Virtual REI Tour Workgroup meetings.
• The Virtual REI Tour Workgroup meetings will allow
partners in local communities to come together in
the comfort of their own office to participate in an
interactive meeting that will follow the same format
as the traditional REI Tour Workgroup meetings
described above.
• If you would like to host a Virtual REI Tour Workgroup
meeting, please contact [email protected].
Education & Training
•
•
•
•
•
Webinar Series
TaxAccess
Disability Awareness Training
Effective Strategies
30-Second Trainings
Webinar Series
• Webinar Series will take place the 3rd Thursday at 2:00 PM EST of each
month (except for April).
• Webinar series will be free and available to VITA coalitions, disability
partners, and asset building partners.
• The webinars will be delivered by a team of experts on specific topics
relevant to this work.
• A variety of topics will be offered through the webinar series that may
include:
 Tax Time Primer…..Top Ten Tips for 2012 (December 15, 2011)
 Access and Accommodations for VITA Sites
 Public Benefit Programs
 Engaging Disability Community Organizations to Enhance Participation
Rates for VITA, Self-Tax Prep, Financial Education and IDAs
 Best Practice Series: Strategies That Are Making A Real Economic
Impact
TaxAccess
• The TaxAccess Project is a pilot project that was
started in 2011 to increase awareness and provide
technical assistance to VITA sites in 6 pilot cities in
the Southeast portion of the United States.
• The TaxAccess Project is a collaborative project
between NDIs REI Tour and the Southeast ADA
Center.
• The TaxAccess Project provide a forum (safe zone) for
questions and answers via email communication to
disability accessibility experts.
www.adasoutheast.org/taxaccess/
TaxAccess
Disability Awareness Training
Disability Awareness Training Video
• Created by United Way of Buffalo & Erie
County - http://youtu.be/8vS3pCe0eO4
Effective Strategies
Effective Strategies are an
opportunity to highlight best
practices and provide case studies
that REI Tour partners can
distribute to individuals, coalition
members and can be used as a tool
to implement new strategies into
their existing program.
www.realeconomicimpact.org/Res
ources/Virtual-Toolkit.aspx
30-Second Trainings
• Designed to be short, easy and fun,
• They are not designed to be a test but rather to increase
knowledge on a variety of topics.
• The trainings should take only about 30 seconds to review
and can be viewed on any computer and will be
downloadable from NDIs website.
• The interactive trainings will include national resources where
individuals can go to get additional information.
• The 30-second training will include the following topics:
 Free Filing Options, Self-tax Preparation, VITA , SNAP/WIC
You can find 30-second trainings at:
www.realeconomicimpact.org/Resources/Virtual-Toolkit.aspx
Questions?
National Disability Institute
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