That’s a Wrap

After 6 years and 400 posts, the Tulsa Initiative blog is calling it a wrap. We here at CAP Tulsa first dipped our toe in the water of social media through this blog, with the goal of building a community of readers interested in the things we were interested in – early childhood education; anti-poverty policy; food insecurity; workforce development; innovation; and others. It was part of a larger idea that a “Tulsa Initiative” could be built that would support Tulsa’s vulnerable children, and their families, from early education through high school graduation and beyond.

While “the Tulsa Initiative” did not come to full fruition, CAP Tulsa helped launch a neighborhood and community-based comprehensive development project called Growing Together in two Tulsa neighborhoods.  The Innovation Lab at CAP Tulsa, which has staffed this blog, helped build CareerAdvance, an innovative two-generation strategy at CAP that helps parents build careers and provide stable economic footing to support their children’s development. And CAP Tulsa embraced social media and is now on Facebook and Twitter.

Meanwhile, lots of great organizations continued to produce and distribute lots of great work – much of which we have posted to this site. We feel confident we will not be leaving too big of a hole in the blogosphere.

We thank you for reading and supporting us. Please do continue to stay connected to the work of CAP Tulsa through our website www.captulsa.org or our Facebook page.

 

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CAP Tulsa Free Tax Prep Information for 2013

This post contains outdated information from 2013; for current information check out our 2014 Tax post for local and online resources or visit CAP Tulsa’s website.

It is tax season once again, and with it comes a variety of questions.  While this post cannot answer all your tax questions, we can guide you to more information about CAP’s Free Tax Preparation program.  CAP Tulsa will be operating two tax preparation locations this year, one at Exchange Center and one at the Bank of Oklahoma on Pine & Lewis.  (This is outdated information.  Visit CAP Tulsa’s website for more current information or check out our new Tax Post for local and online resources available in 2014.)

Free tax prep is available to families who make $50,000 or less.  The appointment line is now open, and making an appointment is strongly encouraged.  While walk-ins will be considered on a day-to-day basis at both sites, this can change at a moment’s notice due to capacity. The only way to guarantee you’ll be seen on a given day is to call 918-382-3333 to make an appointment.

For more information on locations, hours and what to bring, please click here.

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Welcome Tonya Thurman to the Innovation Lab

Tonya  is our new Research Specialist with the Innovation Lab at CAP.

Hello, my name is Tonya Thurman.  I am the new Research Specialist with the Innovation Lab at CAP and I also have the pleasure of being the new writer for the Tulsa Initiative Blog. I am a native Oklahoman, and recent graduate of the University of Tulsa College of Law, with a background in education and customer service.  After graduation my goal was to work for a local government or non-profit agency where I could make a difference in the lives of Oklahomans.  So I am thrilled to be with CAP, where the focus on children and parents helps to remove barriers for low-income families.  I look forward to working with this great team and sharing what we learn here with you.  

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Goodbye Post

Last week, you read a welcome post from Valerie.  Today, you are reading a goodbye post from me (Elizabeth).  For the past two years, I have been your faithful (sometimes not so faithful) blogger from the Innovation Lab, but last week was my last week as a member of the Lab.  I am now a Strategic Planning and Organizational Performance Specialist at CAP, so I will be around – possibly even blogging on occasion.  Please bear with the blog as it transfers from one blog master to another.  If you think you might have what it takes to become the next Researcher in the Innovation Lab and therefore the next blog master, click here to read the job description and apply.

It has been a joy to share this space with you!

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Election 2010

I love Fall! I love the weather, the color in the trees, sweaters, and college football. I also love Election Day! But, for some it can be stressful. I thought I would try to help make the process a little less stressful. The links below are to great election-related resources.

 Oklahoma Policy Institute’s overview of each of the 11 state questions on Oklahoma’s ballot can be found by clicking on the icon to the left.

 Information about polling places and early voting can be found by clicking on the Oklahoma State Election Board’s icon to the left.  The State Election Board also provides a list of candidates for each office in the state.

Happy voting, and wear your “I Voted!” sticker with pride!

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Innovation Lab Welcomes New Member

For those of you only reading this via email, this is Monica.  I must be getting old because I drafted a little something over a month ago to welcome Elizabeth Harris, the latest addition to CAP’s Innovation Lab, and then promptly forgot to actually post it.  Guess I need some more Gingko Biloba! 

Anyway, in his farewell post Micah alluded to the great work Elizabeth’s been doing quietly on this blog for the past couple months.  And so, in the spirit of “better late than never”, I give you my own, embarassingly late introduction.

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June 3, 2010

Our faithful readers will have noticed several posts by a new blogger. Elizabeth Harris joined our team in May as a Research Associate and she will be making regular contributions to the blog.

Elizabeth comes to us after completing a stint with AmericaCorps, where she was stationed at the American Red Cross Tulsa.  She taught various safety courses and it is through this work that she became acquainted with CAP, teaching CPR at several of our early childhood sites.  She also performed disaster casework.  She has a B.S. and M.A. in Political Science, both from OSU.  She has been a teaching assistant and a research associate and served as an intern at the Government Accountability Office in Dallas.

We are thrilled to have her on the team!

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Primary Elections – Vote Today

If you’re registered with a party, don’t forget to vote today in the primaries. For more information about candidates some great resources to check out include the League of Women Voters Metropolitan Tulsa and the Tulsa City County Library has put together a fantastic voter resource page as usual found here. Polls are open 7 am- 7pm. To find your voting precinct, click here. You have no excuse now!

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Farewells

Today is my last day at Community Action Project. I started here 921 days ago with the intention of getting some solid work experience before moving on to graduate school, and hopefully a little direction as to just which type of program I should attend.

In those almost one-thousand days, I’ve accomplished basically all I set out to do in my time. Least importantly, I learned that public policy wasn’t the direction I wanted to take in my life, that I want to pursue a career in city and regional planning. That’s because CAP gave me the opportunity to do what I always said I wanted to do – apply research and evidence to professional practice and in programs that would bring the most benefit to the people they served. That may not be CAP’s mission statement, but it is certainly among it’s greatest strengths. I feel certain after spending time here, even though it’s not “city planning” per se, that the planning approach to community- and region-level challenges shares this commitment to research, evidence, application, and service.

And so that’s what takes me from my desk here on the 2nd floor of Exchange Center East to, literally, “New East” – home of the Department of City & Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Most importantly, I developed relationships whose impacts will stay with me for a lifetime. I said in a parting email to my work friends that:

In the time I’ve spent here, the single best thing about my job has been the relationships I’ve formed. The clients we served through CareerAdvance were an entirely new challenge for me – in how I view social programs, in my understanding of the causes and consequences of economic disadvantage, and in what it takes for people to change – and so watching them persist and succeed has been immensely rewarding. I will miss them.

It’s true. I will miss those relationships, both with clients and colleagues, and I will miss the work. I hope to continue to find reward in my coming studies and, especially, my coming career.

I’ve been surprised at how many people know me from this blog. When people hear I’m leaving CAP they ask “but what will happen to the blog?” Many of you receive these blog entries by email, and these do not list the author of each post. My colleague Elizabeth Harris has been the blogger you’ve been reading over the last couple of months, and she will continue to do so when I leave. She must be doing a great job if so many of you are still worried about what will happen to this space.

Thanks for all you do in your careers, all you do for those you serve, and all you’ve done for me in my time here at CAP. I will miss you all.

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Our Friends in High Places

Just wanted you all to know our very own Micah Kordsmeier is featured on the University of Tulsa’s home page.  Micah is currently the Project Coordinator for our CareerAdvance pilot project.  He began as a Reseach Associate.  We are fortunate to have him on the team.  Congrats, Micah!

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Public Input – OK’s Race to the Top

Gov. Henry’s new Chief of Education Strategy and Innovation, former Tulsa Mayor Kathy Taylor, will be hosting a public meeting in Tulsa Tuesday December 15th at 5:30 at Fulton Technology and Learning Academy. Taylor will be presenting ideas to be included in the state’s “Race to the Top” grant application and seeking input from the public. The grant application will focus on four required areas:

College/work-ready standards and high-quality, valid and reliable assessments

Pre-kindergarten to higher education data systems

Grant teachers and leaders

Intensive support and intervention for the lowest-performing schools

According to the Tulsa World, Tulsa’s meeting is one of 6 taking place Monday through Wednesday this week around the state.

The Fulton Technology and Learning Academy is located at: 8906 E. 34th Street in Tulsa.

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