The Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) provides funds to designated and entitled Community Action Agencies (CSBG network) and local/county government agencies for the revitalization of low-income communities and the empowerment of low-income families and individuals to become fully self-sufficient. Program activities supported by CSBG include a variety of community and economic development strategies that encompass: income and economic asset building, education and skill development, housing needs, access to health care and other needed social services, supportive networks, facilitation of client resourcefulness, and leadership abilities.
The CSBG will offer a proactive approach, with respect to its goals, which aim to offer collaboration and resources in assisting: neighborhoods and the people that live in them who are facing poverty, communities with fiscal difficulties, blight elimination, averting adverse impacts on health, safety and the welfare of their residents helping to put targeted areas back on track to good fiscal well-being and attending to the facets of poverty that require attention and impacts.
The overall driving mission of CSBG is to ameliorate the causes and conditions of poverty. Initiatives have included, but are not limited to: neighborhood linkages, leverage of community resources, conduction of Volunteer Income Tax Assistance sites, building housing capacity, provision of family self-sufficiency and case management, facilitation of Results-Oriented Management and Accountability and regional partnership initiatives.
For FY 2016 and FY 2017 CSBG Discretionary funds, DCED proposes to give priority to projects in the CSBG Network of agencies that meet the following criteria:
- Community Catalytic Work;
- New projects/programs;
- Innovative programs outside scope of regular agency operations;
- Partnerships within a community that will provide long term impact for said area or community;
- Provision of Training and Technical Assistance to meet Organizational Standards; and
- Statewide or regional co-ordination of services based on needs.