This holiday season, all of us at the Community Action Agency of Butte County, Inc. want to wish you and your loved ones a time of peace, healing, and joy.

Whether natural disaster, health crisis, or an underperforming economy, Butte CAA has found ways to assist our most vulnerable community members. We want to express appreciation to all the Board, Staff, and Volunteers who make our efforts possible each day. Butte CAA remains committed to our communities as we have since 1967. 

Even during this unusual year of 2021, we were able to accomplish much through our efforts. 

VITA

Our Volunteers in Tax Assistance program pivoted in light of COVID-19 from a drop-in program to an appointment only. Even with the change, we were still able to assist 542 households with their tax returns. This saved approximately $162,600 to low-income residents in preparation fees and amounted to $562,841 in tax returns.

Since the majority of these funds are spent in our locality, they benefit our local economy to the tune of $1.5 million, based on a conservative 3:1 multiplier effect. One dollar to the wallet of someone who got their tax return turns into grocery shopping which supports the employee at the grocery stores wages that they use to pay their rent.

Energy

Our Energy and Environmental Services Program improved the safety and energy efficiency of 319 homes through our home weatherization program. We also delivered 347 batteries to Butte County residents with medical needs to ensure their medical devices could be powered during the Public Safety Power Shutoffs.

Our Utility Assistance Program provided $1,160,473 of energy bill assistance to 1,902 households. That program also helped 469 families with $413,552 worth of wood and propane assistance to heat their homes.

Food Bank

Our North State Food Bank distributed nearly 2 million pounds of food this year – the most in any single year of our operation. We acquired 3 new delivery vehicles that replaced our aging fleet. We had them wrapped and they look great. Give us a wave when you see us out on the road!

Esplanade House

Our Esplanade House continued to be impacted by the ongoing pandemic, but we still graduated 31 formerly homeless families from our Transitional Housing program. Each of those families moved out to safe and secure housing in the community. We conducted 312 group classes and provided 639 Case Management sessions.

We celebrated the 30th Anniversary of our Esplanade House this year. Through the last few months we have reflected upon the past and looked ahead for what is in store for this program and are hopeful for its future. 

530 Food Rescue Coalition

We partnered with the Center for Healthy Communities to form the 530 Food Rescue Coalition. This program will use technology to redirect perfectly good food away from going to the landfill and supply it to food pantries and congregate feeding sites around the county.

Our 530 Food Rescue app just launched on December 21 and is available in the Apple Store and Google Playstore. Please check it out and consider being a volunteer!

We wish you all a Happy New Year and can’t wait to see what we accomplish together in 2022!

Together in Service,
The Board, Staff and Volunteers of CAA

 

If you would like to end this year on a generous note and help us continue our work, please consider donating via the link below. 

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The Volunteers in Tax Assistance (VITA) Program has come and gone another year, but for the second year during a pandemic. In 2020, we had very little warning of how everything was about to change, and the program pivoted the best it could. This year we were ready with a plan to keep people safe and still provide one of the most integral services of our agency.

Due to pandemic restrictions, we could no longer take walk-ins because of the lines and people being in such close proximity, so we scheduled people via appointment instead. The pandemic also put restrictions on location and promotional efforts, but our team overcame and served over 500 members of our community!

There were unique challenges that understandably made it hard for people to volunteer with VITA in these times. That’s also why we were so happy when people did agree to help, for one person in particular, their life was changed through volunteering this year with VITA.

Though he doesn’t want his name shared, we still will share his story.

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Want FREE help with your tax preparation?  

Did your household earn $57,000 or less in 2020?

You are in luck! Starting February 16th, you can schedule an appointment to get free help filing your 2020 Federal and State income taxes.

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It's EITC Awareness Day! This tax season, you could be eligible for EITC depending on your income or household. If your household has earnings of $56,844 or less, you should see if you qualify online or visit one of our VITA program sites. 

If you qualify for EITC, you must file a federal income tax return and claim the credit to get it, even if you owe no tax or aren’t required to file a return. Our VITA program can help you prepare your taxes and find out if you qualify for EITC!

More information on our VITA 2021 program to come soon. Subscribe to our blog and follow us on Facebook and Instagram to get the latest updates!

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Northern California has shown its resiliency repeatedly since 2018. We don’t need to tell you all that we’ve experienced, but we do want to tell you about the good that’s happened in our community.

By coming together, we were able to make some great things happen. Our mission at Butte CAA is to lift others up and out of poverty, but everyone in our community plays a part as well through volunteering, donating, and spreading the word about our programs. Let’s look at some of those achievements together.

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Wow what a year 2020 was! We, as an agency, were put to work in ways we couldn’t have imagined in life before a pandemic. But now that we are here in 2021, we are ready to help you, our North State community, by providing you with tangible resources and supplies when in need.

Looking Ahead with Hope

We are hopeful that this year will be better. For us, hope is non-negotiable. It’s how we operate. Since we are in the business of helping our community members who are experiencing tough times, we are actively supplying hope in forms like boxes of groceries or ensuring that power bills get paid.

Though we are ready to meet the critical needs we know of, we can’t tell the future or know what may happen in the next 12 months. If you would like to help our efforts financially or by volunteering, we welcome your interest and there are many areas to get involved.

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Dear North State, 

This holiday season all of us at the Community Action Agency of Butte County, Inc. want to wish you and your loved ones a time of peace, healing and joy. The year 2020 has brought many things that we do not want to see continued into 2021, but Butte CAA remains committed to our communities as we have since 1967. 

Whether natural disaster, health crisis or underperforming economy, we are here to help in whatever way that we can. I want to express appreciation to all of the Board, Staff, and Volunteers who make our efforts possible each day. 

When we look at our strengths, we have many people in our organization who are motivated and feel a humble sense of responsibility to others. This combination is a dynamite one for our agency and helps us get what needs to be done to help people in need. Our employees and volunteers are inspiring - day in and day out they get the job done with quality effort. 

Even during this unusual year of 2020, we were able to accomplish much through their efforts. 

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The holidays will be here soon, and we are gearing up to help where we can around the North State by partnering with other nonprofits. We are happy to be a part of the multiple organizations trying to do good in our communities.

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Our mission is to improve the economic security of low-income individuals, and we enjoy sharing stories of success in our community. It's a great way to show everyone that our work at Butte CAA is having a positive impact on lives. 

However, stories can only tell part of the picture. Our very own CEO, Thomas Tenorio, visited Vince Haney at KKXX Chico NOW! radio and had a conversation about Butte CAA's impact measured in numbers. 

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Local KKXX radio show Chico Now, had our very own Krystal Tyranowski, Assistant to the CEO, and Amanda Scofield, Program & Marketing Specialist on as guests to talk about this years’ VITA program. 

Thank you, once again, to Vince Haynie for hosting us on the show to help spread the news about this and other programs we provide to the community.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking here, or read the transcript of the interview below.

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