Attention school staff and volunteers! Want to help your students and their families connect to public benefits like food assistance or Medicaid, and tax credits like the EITC? View the brief presentation below to get an idea of what the Benefit Bank is.
Interested? Contact Sarah Olinger to discuss further how you can use this tool, or go ahead and register as an OBB site HERE. See a recent press release on our efforts HERE.
Or, to submit your communication preferences to Sarah, fill out this form.
To view this Prezi, click on the gray arrow at the bottom of the box and keep clicking to view each step. You can also view it in another window by clicking the "OBB in Schools" link beneath the box.
Or, to submit your communication preferences to Sarah, fill out this form.
To view this Prezi, click on the gray arrow at the bottom of the box and keep clicking to view each step. You can also view it in another window by clicking the "OBB in Schools" link beneath the box.
You can also view a more comprehensive and detailed look at the Ohio Benefit Bank via a webinar I created on YouTube here:
Ohio Benefit Bank testimonial from Ms. Carletta Griffis-Anderson, the Physical Education Teacher at Columbus City Schools Linden STEM Academy
To Whom It May Concern,
My name is Carletta Griffis-Anderson and I would like to take time out to tell you how beneficial The Benefit Bank is to my school community. The Ohio Benefit bank became a part of Linden S.T.E.M. Academy in February, 2010. With the guidance and direction of our school principal, Dr. Hinds, I was granted permission to expand opportunities for our parents and the community as a whole. I learned about The Benefit Bank in a book my pastor, Gary Keesee wrote called Fixing The Money Thing. In the last chapter of his book, he shares ideas and organizations that can help financially. At that point I did nothing with the information. It wasn’t until I began to study school documents and saw that 92 percent of my school population was on free and or reduced lunch. I saw a need to do something to impact the economic conditions in the school community. I shared my dream and desires with my friend, Ms. Teri Thomas, who is our school librarian. She too, was excited about the possibility to impact economic conditions at Linden. She too, decided to do whatever was necessary to get the program started in our school.
Ms. Thomas and I took the necessary training to bring the program to our school. Since then we have the technical support to conduct all aspects of the program.
What is of particular importance, of The Benefit Bank being in our school, is the fact it is indeed helping families. Because we advertise throughout the community, people are beginning to get the help they need. Children are getting health care, families are getting the benefits of the SNAP program and people who have been incarcerated are getting the help they need without the hassles they have experienced in the past. Just recently, it was with great pleasure to see the life put back into a couples face after we assisted them with completing an application for Save The Dream (housing) initiative. This couple came to us to simply apply for SNAP, but walked out armed with completed paperwork for so much more.
I cannot begin to tell you the number of times we hear “thank you” and see the change in disposition when someone walks out of our school after receiving the help they needed. It is a great joy to see people get the kind of help the benefit bank provides. I know this program is working and others are coming by word of month from outside of our community. Just last week I helped a family in the 43207 zip code to complete a HEAP application. This is a long way from our community.
Personally, I believe more good could be done in other communities if The Benefit Bank was in other schools where the student population mirrors the Linden community. People are hurting financially, yet, they may qualify for some benefit, yet they may not know nor have the ability to find out. Schools can bridge that gap.
Currently, it is our desire at Linden to expand our services. At the present time we can only provide services during our lunchtimes and or in between our classes. We would like to meet the needs of our community with expanded hours during the evenings and weekends, especially with the upcoming tax season. This is one of the reasons we applied for a grant. We don’t want the services in our community to be stifled due to lack of hours. We want to see our community prosper in this area. It is our hope that someone will see the benefit this program has had on our community and expand to other schools within the Columbus City School district.
Carletta Griffis-Anderson
School (Linden STEM Academy): 2626 Cleveland Ave. Columbus, OH 43211 (614) 365-6537
Ms. Carletta Griffis-Anderson has been with Linden STEM Academy for four years as the Physical Education Teacher, however, she has been with Columbus City Schools for 24 years. She is working on a PhD in Education Administration at Ohio University. Ms Griffis-Anderson is a single parent of a five year old in kindergarten. Ms. Griffis believes the OBB is an invaluable tool to help parents bridge the gap between financial and educational barriers. She believes the OBB should be available in schools to families throughout CCS and the State of Ohio
Ms. Carletta Griffis-Anderson is incredibly delighted to be a champion of the OBB.
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