In 2nd place was Hargrove Engineers + Constructors of Mobile, playing for Penelope House.  In 3rd place was Alabama Arise, playing on behalf of its own organization.  In 4th place was Dynetics, Inc., playing for The Schools Foundation.  Protective Life will contribute $10,000 to each of these nonprofits.

Alabama’s Brightest Company Charitable Trivia Competition, sponsored by Protective Life Corporation, brought together more than 150 teams representing local companies and organizations that played on behalf of their favorite nonprofits.  More than 1,000 participants and spectators attended events in Birmingham, Huntsville, Mobile, and Montgomery.  The winning team in each city, listed above, received a $10,000 contribution to its chosen nonprofit organization and the chance to compete against the three other city winners for an additional $10,000 donation to its chosen charity.  In all, Protective Life contributed $50,000 to Alabama charities.  Other proceeds from the event benefited Impact Alabama initiatives.

To see media related to the competition, please visit http://impactalabama.org/media/.

During the 2012 tax season, more than 450 students from eleven college campuses prepared over 5,100 returns for working families – helping them to secure $9.2 million in tax refunds and saving them approximately $1.5 million in commercial tax preparation fees.

 In the Birmingham area, these students prepared returns for 1,350 families – helping them to secure $2.2 million in refunds and saving them approximately $400,000 in commercial tax preparation fees.

In its sixth year of service, SaveFirst collaborated with more than 200 community partners in operating sixteen free tax preparation sites in thirteen cities statewide.  Increasing the number of families we served by more than 19% over last year’s efforts, we are grateful to our amazing staff and an incredible response from students willing to participate.

Mobile’s Hargrove was the 2012 winner of the Mobile’s Brightest Company Charitable Trivia Competition, winning $10,000 for Penelope House, a shelter for battered women and their children in Mobile.

Today, though, the trivia questions seemingly proved too tough, and the workers came in second in the state finals of the contest sponsored by Protective Life Corporation and Impact Alabama.

“Most of them today were terrible,” said Jerry Betts, a Hargrove trivia team member who works in quality assurance.

Armed with smart phones and brown bag lunches, about two dozen Hargrove workers gathered in the basement of the downtown Mobile business to cheer on their friends and colleagues.

Other members of the Hargrove team were: Jerry Betts, Tim Hogue, Laura Martin, Ted Carson, Scott Peters and Thomas Bowie. Birmingham Public Library, playing on behalf of the Friends of the Birmingham Public Library, was the statewide champion and will be awarded $20,000 from Protective Life Corporation.

In Montgomery, Alabama Arise, playing for its own organization, placed third. Dynetics, Inc., of Huntsville, playing for The Schools Foundation, took fourth place.

Here’s one question not a single team answered correctly during today’s contest:

“In the first season of HBO’s “The Wire,” what westside Baltimore drug kingpin is the primary target of police?”

This year, it was the Birmingham Public Library that won the title in Impact Alabama’s annual trivia competition.

After emerging victorious from the Birmingham’s Brightest Company contest earlier this year, the library won the statewide title on Tuesday. For winning the statewide title, contest sponsor Protective Life Corp.  (NYSE: PL) will donate $20,000 to Friends of the Birmingham Public Library.

Mobile’s Hargrove Engineers + Constructors came in second, followed by Alabama Arise of Montgomery and Dynetics Inc. of Huntsville.

Last year, Indian Springs School won both the Birmingham and statewide competitions.

Birmingham Public Libraries won $10,000 tonight in Birmingham’s Brightest Company Charitable Trivia Competition, sponsored by Protective Life Corporation and Impact Alabama.

Protective Life will donate $10,000 to the libraries, who represented themselves in the competition at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel.

Maynard, Cooper and Gale, who played on behalf of Childcare Resources, and Black Warrior River Keepers, who played on behalf of themselves, tied for second place. Balch and Bingham, playing for Camp Cosby, placed third.

Over 70 Birmingham-area businesses and organizations competed, with over 650 individuals in attendance.

Impact Alabama and Protective Life are inviting companies from the Mobile region to participate in the Mobile’s Brightest Company Charitable Trivia Competition on March 15 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza. The event will benefit charities statewide.

The winning team will receive a $10,000 contribution to the nonprofit of its choice. A contribution of $500 enables your company to sponsor a team of two to six employees. For companies with fewer than 10 employees, the team can include employees’ immediate family members or significant others. Contribution levels are also available for multiple teams.

Teams in Birmingham, Huntsville and Montgomery will also compete for their city’s title. A winner will be declared in each city, and the four city champion teams will compete for an additional $10,000 for their nonprofit in one final competition to be held in April.

To read the official rules and to register, visit impactalabama.org/mobiletrivia. The deadline to enter is March 7.

The Mobile’s Brightest Company Charitable Trivia Competition, which benefits charities statewide, is gearing up for its second annual contest on March 15 at the Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza.

The event, which runs from 6 to 8 p.m., pits companies from the Mobile region against each other in an evening of trivia to raise money both for Impact Alabama and the winning teams’ selected charities.

A contribution of $500 from each competing company to Impact Alabama serves as an entrance fee and entitles the company to field a team of up to six employees. A team then plays for a chance to win up to $20,000 for the Alabama charity of its choosing. Companies may sponsor multiple teams.

Topics include current events, arts and culture, sports, science, geography and history. A cash bar and complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be available at each competition site throughout the evening.

A final round of competition pits winners in each of the four cities- Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, and Huntsville- for the overall title.

Birmingham- based Impact Alabama, founded by Stephen Black, is a non-profit that develops service learning opportunities in coordination with colleges and universities across Alabama.

For official rules and to register, visit impactalabama.org/mobiletrivia. The deadline to enter is Feb. 22.

by Val Walton

February 2, 2012

A Birmingham woman who lost her home in last spring’s tornado outbreak won $10,000 this afternoon for investing some of her 2010 income tax refund in a federal savings bond for her daughter.

Myra Jackson, 55, learned the news during a surprise presentation at Hygia Health Services, where she works.

Surrounded by her co-workers, Jackson sat stunned when she learned of the grand prize.

Trembling and in tears, Jackson said the money provides a “new start” for her family. Their apartment home on Cherry Avenue was destroyed in the April 27 tornado outbreak.

“We lost everything,” Jackson said. “This is an answer to prayer. I am so shocked.”

Jackson won the money in the SaveNow WinLater initiative through the University of Alabama Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility.

Families making less than $50,000 a year with one or more children in the home, or less than $25,000 annually without children are eligible to participate. For every $50 they invest in a federal savings bond, they earn a chance to win the grand prize as, well as smaller monthly prizes.

The program works with Impact Alabama’s free income tax preparation through the city of Birmingham.

Jackson, who got her taxes done at the Smithfield Library in the spring, said she never envisioned she would win when she invested $50 in a bond for one of her daughters, Rochelle, now 20.

Jackson said she thought she had lost the savings bond when the tornado destroyed her apartment, but her husband, Barry, found it in the rubble.

The couple has since moved to the Aspen Run apartments.

Jackson said rebounding from the tornado had been hard, but she was strengthened by her sister and co-workers.

Scott Comas, Hygia’s owner, and his wife, Tracy, said it was hard to keep the secret from Jackson. The couple said Jackson, an 8-year employee, was deserving of the prize. They said she is an inspirational employee who has won many awards, including the “Build Us Up Award.” “She makes us so much better,” said Tracy Comas.

The University of Alabama Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility announced the first grand prize winner in its nationally-unique, prize-linked savings initiative, SaveNow WinLater, with a surprise visit to Myra Jackson of Birmingham.

Jackson, who lost her home in the April 2011 tornadoes, was selected in a drawing from more than 550 entrants to win $10,000 by investing a portion of her 2010 income tax refund in federal savings bonds for her child.

Jackson was presented the $10,000 check in a surprise visit by CESR representatives on Thursday, Feb. 2, at her work place in Birmingham.

SaveNow WinLater is a partnership with Doorways to Dreams, D2D, a financial innovations nonprofit, and UA’s Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility. More than 100 UA students have been involved in the development and implementation of the initiative since January 2011.

SaveNow WinLater operates in conjunction with Impact Alabama’s free income tax preparation initiative in partnership with the City of Birmingham, helping working families save a portion of what is often the largest lump-sum payment they receive all year – their income tax refund. Last year, more than 15 percent of taxpayers who used Impact Alabama’s tax service and received a tax refund purchased savings bonds, all earning chances to win the grand prize.

The contest continues this tax season. Families earning less than $50,000 per year with one or more children in the home or childless families earning less than $25,000 are eligible to participate. For every $50 invested in a federal savings bond, participants earn a chance to win the grand prize. In addition, they are entered to win smaller monthly prizes.

During the program’s inaugural year, 552 Alabama families purchased 1,030 savings bonds and invested $51,500 through SaveNow WinLater. As a result of the initiative, Alabama led the nation in savings bonds purchased through tax returns in 2010.

Eligible individuals may also participate by purchasing federal savings bonds through any bank or credit union.

Alabama residents interested in participating in SaveNow WinLater or in scheduling a free tax preparation appointment should call 1-888-99-TAX-AL.

Because savings play a critical role in insulating families from financial shocks,  SaveNow WinLater tackles this problem by focusing on two critical elements: utilizing the best possible savings product and creating the strongest possible incentive to save. Those eligible can enter without risking any principal or interest. Moreover, they can participate with the knowledge they are building important financial assets for themselves and their families.

What do you do for Impact? What special teams and projects have you been working on?
I serve as a Regional Coordinator with Impact. I am a member of the grants and fundraising team and the social media team, where I act as one of the blog editors. We (the blog editors) are working to create a diverse and ongoing narrative of what working for Impact really entails, and to more clearly portray our relationships with those we serve and with those who support our endeavors.

What did you do before Impact? What brought you to this job?
I grew up in a small suburban town about 20 miles northeast of Birmingham. I attended Birmingham-Southern College and majored in Economics with a focus on Latin America. In the spring of my junior year I spent a semester in Peru studying indigenous peoples and globalization. While in Peru I completed an independent field research project on the economic effects of international tourism in a small, rural town in Arequipa called Yanque. My time with Impact began in the spring semester of my freshman year when I chose to take Dr. Rossmann’s Economics of Poverty course (this course is also what inspired me to study Economics)*. The course had a required service-learning element with Impact Alabama’s FocusFirst and SaveFirst initiatives, and I spent three out of four of my undergraduate years volunteering with Impact.

*Editor’s note: Regional Coordinator Brendan Griffin also took Dr. Rossmann’s The Economics of Poverty course at Birmingham-Southern, and discusses his experiences in the course in his recent blog post.

Our staff is particularly driven, creative, and energetic. What motivates you to do the work you do for Impact?
Because I have lived in Alabama my entire life I have often seen first-hand the effects of poverty on its residents. When I began to take on more in-depth studies of the causes of poverty through my studies in Economics I started to look for solutions to poverty as well. Volunteering with Impact gave me the opportunity to see how such potential solutions are successfully implemented, and I decided that I wanted to be involved in a greater part of the work that Impact does for the community.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
There are a variety of places I see myself in five years, and I have no idea which one will actually come to pass, but I’m looking forward to finding out. Part of me wants to pursue a PhD in Economics and International Development and travel the world studying different economies and how they all combine to form our global economy. I also have dreams of working up to a career in non-profit management within organizations that work to alleviate poverty. Although, as long as what I end up doing is interesting, I’m sure I’ll have tons of fun.
What is the most incredible or funniest thing that has ever happened to you while working for Impact?
Of course, working with children is always entertaining, but the most incredible part of my job at Impact so far has been discovering wonderful places all over the state. Driving to remote locations where the GPS doesn’t always work and cell signal becomes non-existent is guaranteed to be a fabulous adventure.

En route via boat to a FocusFirst vision screening in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, you shipwreck and are stranded on a desert island. You can bring one food; one figure from world history and/or one fictional character; one book; and an ipod with one song on it. What do you bring and why?
As far as the food goes, I would bring Peruvian tamales for sure. They’re delicious and I would go back and forth to Peru every day if I could just to eat a couple tamales (the alpaca in Peru is quite yummy as well).

My one book is a toss-up between The Hobbit and Pride, Prejudice and Zombies. They’re both fabulous and I never get tired of reading either of them.

Rupa and the April Fishes’ “Culpa de la Luna” is definitely a song I could listen to while stranded for an extended amount of time. It’s interesting, upbeat, and it makes me think (and not only because it takes me a while to process Spanish).

As far as the person who I’m forcing to be stranded with me, assuming that fictional characters from television are perfectly acceptable, I would probably go with Malcolm Reynolds from Joss Whedon’s Firefly. Who wouldn’t want to hang out with a witty space cowboy?

Impact staff members travel around the state to work on our various initiatives. What is your favorite place in Alabama that you’ve discovered through work with Impact? Why?
My favorite place I’ve discovered so far through my work with Impact is Monroeville. Exploring and learning the history of the home town of Harper Lee and Truman Capote was fascinating, and I came across the most wonderful coffee shop called Beehive Coffee & Books. There’s also a delicious restaurant called Radley’s that serves one of the top 100 foods in Alabama to try before you die, a BLT made with fried green tomatoes. It was absolutely delicious.

A charitable fundraising event hosted by Impact Alabama

March 20, 2012 • 6:00-8:00pm
Renaissance Montgomery Hotel

Montgomery’s Brightest Company Trivia Competition invites companies from the Montgomery region to participate in an evening of trivia to raise money both for Impact Alabama and the winning teams’ selected charities.

Official Rules

Participating Teams:
A contribution of $500 to Impact Alabama serves as an entrance fee and entitles a company to field a team of 2-6 employees to play for a chance to win up to $20,000 on behalf of any Alabama charity of their choosing. Companies may sponsor as many teams as they would like. Companies with less than ten employees may fill their roster with employees’ immediate family members or significant others.

Competition Format:
The trivia competition consists of three nine-question rounds played by all companies in the competition and a final nine-question round played by champion teams in each of four cities – Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, and Huntsville.  The final round to determine the state champion will be played on an evening following the completion of all city events.

Questions will be presented to the players three at a time. In addition to announcing the questions aloud, each team will be given an answer sheet on which the questions will be printed. Questions will also be projected onto a big screen at the front of the ballroom. Teams have the length of one song (approximately three minutes) to prepare their answers and write them on the answer sheet. Teams will assign a point value to each of the questions, assigning five points to one question, three points to one question, and one point to one question. Each question they answer correctly will be worth the number of points they assigned to it. Wrong answers are not penalized. Before the song is over, teams must hand in their answer sheet to a volunteer.

If the team feels confident that they will get all three questions correct, they may choose to assign eleven total points to the three questions as a whole. However, if they do not get all three questions right, they will not earn any points.

At the end of each nine-question round, the top three teams will be announced along with their point totals. No other rankings will be announced during the event.

Please take care to write legibly and with correct spelling. Do not abbreviate. Should your team misspell an answer, the judge’s decision as to whether to accept your answer or not is final. If the answer to a question is a person’s name, you only need to write down the last name of the person.

Answer Challenge:
If a team wishes to challenge an answer, the presiding competition judge will determine whether that team will receive points for the answer. The judge’s decision is final.

Tiebreakers:
Should two teams have the same number of points at the end of the evening, a tiebreaker round of three questions will be held to determine the winner. If there still exists a tie, this process will be repeated until one team remains.

Use of Technology:
Please turn OFF your cell phone and put it away for the duration of the competition. If you must have your cell phone on for an emergency, please turn it to vibrate and leave the room should you need to take a phone call. You will not be allowed to re-join your team until after the three-question set has concluded.

Question Topics:
Topics include current events, arts and culture, sports, science, geography, and history. Questions are prepared by Impact Alabama staff members and answers are validated through at least two independent sources such as the Encyclopedia Brittanica and the New York Times.

Eligible Charities:
Charities selected by each team must provide services in Alabama, be registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) entity, and focus on direct service to disadvantaged families, health, education, and/or the arts. Churches, Synagogues, Mosques etc., are not eligible to receive awards. Impact Alabama reserves the right to request the selection of an alternate charity. $10,000 will be donated to each charity sponsored by the winning company in each city. The four city champion teams will compete for an additional $10,000 for their charity in one final round at a later date. The winning charities must submit a W-9 to Impact Alabama in order to receive the award.

Participation in this event constitutes contest participants’ full and unconditional agreement to these rules and Impact Alabama’s decisions, which are final and binding in all matters related to the contest.

A cash bar and complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be available at each competition site throughout the evening.

A charitable fundraising event hosted by Impact Alabama

March 15, 2012 • 6:00-8:00pm
Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza

Mobile’s Brightest Company Trivia Competition invites companies from the Mobile region to participate in an evening of trivia to raise money both for Impact Alabama and the winning teams’ selected charities.

Official Rules

Participating Teams:
A contribution of $500 to Impact Alabama serves as an entrance fee and entitles a company to field a team of 2-6 employees to play for a chance to win up to $20,000 on behalf of any Alabama charity of their choosing. Companies may sponsor as many teams as they would like. Companies with less than ten employees may fill their roster with employees’ immediate family members or significant others.

Competition Format:
The trivia competition consists of three nine-question rounds played by all companies in the competition and a final nine-question round played by champion teams in each of four cities – Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, and Huntsville.  The final round to determine the state champion will be played on an evening following the completion of all city events.

Questions will be presented to the players three at a time. In addition to announcing the questions aloud, each team will be given an answer sheet on which the questions will be printed. Questions will also be projected onto a big screen at the front of the ballroom. Teams have the length of one song (approximately three minutes) to prepare their answers and write them on the answer sheet. Teams will assign a point value to each of the questions, assigning five points to one question, three points to one question, and one point to one question. Each question they answer correctly will be worth the number of points they assigned to it. Wrong answers are not penalized. Before the song is over, teams must hand in their answer sheet to a volunteer.

If the team feels confident that they will get all three questions correct, they may choose to assign eleven total points to the three questions as a whole. However, if they do not get all three questions right, they will not earn any points.

At the end of each nine-question round, the top three teams will be announced along with their point totals. No other rankings will be announced during the event.

Please take care to write legibly and with correct spelling. Do not abbreviate. Should your team misspell an answer, the judge’s decision as to whether to accept your answer or not is final. If the answer to a question is a person’s name, you only need to write down the last name of the person.

Answer Challenge:
If a team wishes to challenge an answer, the presiding competition judge will determine whether that team will receive points for the answer. The judge’s decision is final.

Tiebreakers:
Should two teams have the same number of points at the end of the evening, a tiebreaker round of three questions will be held to determine the winner. If there still exists a tie, this process will be repeated until one team remains.

Use of Technology:
Please turn OFF your cell phone and put it away for the duration of the competition. If you must have your cell phone on for an emergency, please turn it to vibrate and leave the room should you need to take a phone call. You will not be allowed to re-join your team until after the three-question set has concluded.

Question Topics:
Topics include current events, arts and culture, sports, science, geography, and history. Questions are prepared by Impact Alabama staff members and answers are validated through at least two independent sources such as the Encyclopedia Brittanica and the New York Times.

Eligible Charities:
Charities selected by each team must provide services in Alabama, be registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) entity, and focus on direct service to disadvantaged families, health, education, and/or the arts. Churches, Synagogues, Mosques etc., are not eligible to receive awards. Impact Alabama reserves the right to request the selection of an alternate charity. $10,000 will be donated to each charity sponsored by the winning company in each city. The four city champion teams will compete for an additional $10,000 for their charity in one final round at a later date. The winning charities must submit a W-9 to Impact Alabama in order to receive the award.

Participation in this event constitutes contest participants’ full and unconditional agreement to these rules and Impact Alabama’s decisions, which are final and binding in all matters related to the contest.

A cash bar and complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be available at each competition site throughout the evening.

A charitable fundraising event hosted by Impact Alabama

March 22, 2012 • 6:00-8:00pm
Jackson Center
600 Genome Way • Huntsville, AL 35806

Huntsville’s Brightest Company Trivia Competition invites companies from the Huntsville region to participate in an evening of trivia to raise money both for Impact Alabama and the winning teams’ selected charities.

To register, please click here.

Official Rules

Participating Teams:
A contribution of $500 to Impact Alabama serves as an entrance fee and entitles a company to field a team of 2-6 employees to play for a chance to win up to $20,000 on behalf of any Alabama charity of their choosing. Companies may sponsor as many teams as they would like. Companies with less than ten employees may fill their roster with employees’ immediate family members or significant others.

Competition Format:
The trivia competition consists of three nine-question rounds played by all companies in the competition and a final nine-question round played by champion teams in each of four cities – Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, and Huntsville.  The final round to determine the state champion will be played on an evening following the completion of all city events.

Questions will be presented to the players three at a time. In addition to announcing the questions aloud, each team will be given an answer sheet on which the questions will be printed. Questions will also be projected onto a big screen at the front of the ballroom. Teams have the length of one song (approximately three minutes) to prepare their answers and write them on the answer sheet. Teams will assign a point value to each of the questions, assigning five points to one question, three points to one question, and one point to one question. Each question they answer correctly will be worth the number of points they assigned to it. Wrong answers are not penalized. Before the song is over, teams must hand in their answer sheet to a volunteer.

If the team feels confident that they will get all three questions correct, they may choose to assign eleven total points to the three questions as a whole. However, if they do not get all three questions right, they will not earn any points.

At the end of each nine-question round, the top three teams will be announced along with their point totals. No other rankings will be announced during the event.

Please take care to write legibly and with correct spelling. Do not abbreviate. Should your team misspell an answer, the judge’s decision as to whether to accept your answer or not is final. If the answer to a question is a person’s name, you only need to write down the last name of the person.

Answer Challenge:
If a team wishes to challenge an answer, the presiding competition judge will determine whether that team will receive points for the answer. The judge’s decision is final.

Tiebreakers:
Should two teams have the same number of points at the end of the evening, a tiebreaker round of three questions will be held to determine the winner. If there still exists a tie, this process will be repeated until one team remains.

Use of Technology:
Please turn OFF your cell phone and put it away for the duration of the competition. If you must have your cell phone on for an emergency, please turn it to vibrate and leave the room should you need to take a phone call. You will not be allowed to re-join your team until after the three-question set has concluded.

Question Topics:
Topics include current events, arts and culture, sports, science, geography, and history. Questions are prepared by Impact Alabama staff members and answers are validated through at least two independent sources such as the Encyclopedia Brittanica and the New York Times.

Eligible Charities:
Charities selected by each team must provide services in Alabama, be registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) entity, and focus on direct service to disadvantaged families, health, education, and/or the arts. Churches, Synagogues, Mosques etc., are not eligible to receive awards. Impact Alabama reserves the right to request the selection of an alternate charity. $10,000 will be donated to each charity sponsored by the winning company in each city. The four city champion teams will compete for an additional $10,000 for their charity in one final round at a later date. The winning charities must submit a W-9 to Impact Alabama in order to receive the award.

Participation in this event constitutes contest participants’ full and unconditional agreement to these rules and Impact Alabama’s decisions, which are final and binding in all matters related to the contest.

A cash bar and complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be available at each competition site throughout the evening.

Lead Sponsor: $2,000 (3 teams)
Sustaining Sponsor: $1,000 (2 teams)
Sponsor: $500 (1 team)

Lead Sponsor: $2,000 (3 teams)
Sustaining Sponsor: $1,000 (2 teams)
Sponsor: $500 (1 team)

Lead Sponsor: $2,000 (3 teams)
Sustaining Sponsor: $1,000 (2 teams)
Sponsor: $500 (1 team)

Lead Sponsor: $5,000 (3 teams)
Sustaining Sponsor: $2,000 (2 teams)
Sponsor: $1,000 (1 team)

Auburn – Boykin Community Center
400 Boykin Street
Auburn, AL 36832

Bessemer Public Library
400 19th St N
Bessemer, AL 35020

Birmingham – Smithfield Library
#1 8th Ave W
Birmingham, AL 35204

Birmingham – West End Public Library
1348 Tuscaloosa Ave SW
Birmingham, AL 35211

Birmingham – Woodlawn Public Library
5709 1st Ave N
Birmingham, AL 35212

Decatur – Turner-Surles Community Center
702 Sycamore St NW
Decatur, AL 35601

Dothan – Houston Love Memorial Library
212 West Burdeshaw Street
Dothan, AL 36303

Florence – Weeden Elementary School
400 Baldwin Street
Florence, AL 35630

Gadsden – Family Success Center
821 East Broad St
Gadsden, AL 35901

Huntsville – United Way of Madison County
701 Andrew Jackson Way
Huntsville, AL 35801

Mobile – Gordon Smith Community Center
2448 Gordon Smith Dr
Mobile, AL 36617

Mobile – Cottage Hill Community Center
5013 Cottage Hill Rd
Mobile, AL 36693

Montgomery – Old Cloverdale Junior High School
1125 E Fairview Ave
Montgomery, AL 36106

Tuscaloosa – McDonald Hughes Community Center
3101 MLK Jr Blvd
Tuscaloosa, AL 35401

Tuscaloosa – Holten Heights Church of the Nazarene
4401 17th St NE
Holt, AL 35404

SaveFirst Training Slides

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If you have not yet filled out an online availability form, please email Channing Kennedy.

IRS Publication Resources

IRS Publication 4491 (Student Training Guide)

IRS Publication 4012 (Spiral Resource Guide)

IRS Publication 17 (Your Federal Income Tax)

IRS 1040 Instructions

Internal Revenue Service

IRS Certification Information

In order to volunteer, you you will need to pass the IRS certification test with a score of 80%. You can find a copy of the Basic Certification Test below. Remember to use TaxWise where necessary. When you are ready to submit your answers, follow the ClassMarker link below.

IRS Basic Certification Test

ClassMarker — submit your basic test answers here

IRS Intermediate Certification Test

IRS Advanced Certification Test

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Consent to Use and Disclose Form

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TaxWise Online Software

TaxWise is a great resource for you to learn to prepare returns correctly. When you log in to the website, your username is your last name + first initial in CAPS (e.g., Randall Smith would be SMITHR).

TaxWise Online Training Site (requires Internet Explorer)

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Volunteer E-file Administrator Guide

Civil Rights Poster (English)

Civil Rights Poster (Spanish)

Additional Resources

Defined Benefit Pension Plans (not subject to Alabama tax)
**Note: This is not an exhaustive list. If the retirement plan in question is not listed here, call the Alabama Department of Revenue or the plan administrator (e.g., Fidelity or Morgan Keegan) to determine if the plan is a defined benefits plan.

Alabama Department of Industrial Relations

Quality Alerts

A charitable fundraising event hosted by Impact Alabama

March 13, 2012 • 6:00-8:00pm
Sheraton Birmingham Hotel

Birmingham’s Brightest Company Trivia Competition invites companies from the Birmingham region to participate in an evening of trivia to raise money both for Impact Alabama and the winning teams’ selected charities.

Official Rules

Participating Teams:
A contribution of $1,000 to Impact Alabama serves as an entrance fee and entitles a company to field a team of 2-6 employees to play for a chance to win up to $20,000 on behalf of any Alabama charity of their choosing. Companies may sponsor as many teams as they would like. Companies with less than ten employees may fill their roster with employees’ immediate family members or significant others.

Competition Format:
The trivia competition consists of three nine-question rounds played by all companies in the competition and a final nine-question round played by champion teams in each of four cities – Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, and Huntsville. The final round to determine the state champion will be played on an evening following the completion of all city events.

Questions will be presented to the players three at a time. In addition to announcing the questions aloud, each team will be given an answer sheet on which the questions will be printed. Questions will also be projected onto a big screen at the front of the ballroom. Teams have the length of one song (approximately three minutes) to prepare their answers and write them on the answer sheet. Teams will assign a point value to each of the questions, assigning five points to one question, three points to one question, and one point to one question. Each question they answer correctly will be worth the number of points they assigned to it. Wrong answers are not penalized. Before the song is over, teams must hand in their answer sheet to a volunteer.

If the team feels confident that they will get all three questions correct, they may choose to assign eleven total points to the three questions as a whole. However, if they do not get all three questions right, they will not earn any points.

At the end of each nine-question round, the top three teams will be announced along with their point totals. No other rankings will be announced during the event.

Please take care to write legibly and with correct spelling. Do not abbreviate. Should your team misspell an answer, the judge’s decision as to whether to accept your answer or not is final. If the answer to a question is a person’s name, you only need to write down the last name of the person.

Answer Challenge:
If a team wishes to challenge an answer, the presiding competition judge will determine whether that team will receive points for the answer. The judge’s decision is final.

Tiebreakers:
Should two teams have the same number of points at the end of the evening, a tiebreaker round of three questions will be held to determine the winner. If there still exists a tie, this process will be repeated until one team remains.

Use of Technology:
Please turn OFF your cell phone and put it away for the duration of the competition. If you must have your cell phone on for an emergency, please turn it to vibrate and leave the room should you need to take a phone call. You will not be allowed to re-join your team until after the three-question set has concluded.

Question Topics:
Topics include current events, arts and culture, sports, science, geography, and history. Questions are prepared by Impact Alabama staff members and answers are validated through at least two independent sources such as the Encyclopedia Brittanica and the New York Times.

Eligible Charities:
Charities selected by each team must provide services in Alabama, be registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) entity, and focus on direct service to disadvantaged families, health, education, and/or the arts. Churches, Synagogues, Mosques etc., are not eligible to receive awards. Impact Alabama reserves the right to request the selection of an alternate charity. $10,000 will be donated to each charity sponsored by the winning company in each city. The four city champion teams will compete for an additional $10,000 for their charity in one final round at a later date. The winning charities must submit a W-9 to Impact Alabama in order to receive the award.

Participation in this event constitutes contest participants’ full and unconditional agreement to these rules and Impact Alabama’s decisions, which are final and binding in all matters related to the contest.

A cash bar and complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be available at each competition site throughout the evening.

Impact Alabama’s SaveFirst initiative will provide free income tax preparation services to families who make less than $50,000 a year with children in the home or $20,000 a year without children in the home.

Impact Alabama Founder/President Stephen Black and United Way of Madison County President and CEO Steve Kirkpatrick are announcing the service at a press conference Thursday at 10 a.m. at the Madison County Courthouse.

Tax returns will be prepared at the United Way of Madison County at 701 Andrew Jackson Way in Huntsville.

This year, families can also enter the SaveNow WinLater Sweepstakes for a chance to win a $5,000 cash grand prize jackpot by investing in savings bonds. For every $50 that eligible families invest in a federal savings bond, they will earn a chance to win $5,000 at the end of tax season and two smaller monthly prizes awarded in February and March.

Impact Alabama’s SaveFirst initiative is in its sixth year of operation. The tax preparation service is designed to help families eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, an income tax credit for low to moderate income working individuals and families.

Last year, more than 450 trained students from more than 10 campuses prepared tax returns for more than 4,300 families in cities statewide, according to Impact Alabama.

In six weeks, the statewide campus collaboration helped families secure more than $8.2 million in tax refunds, saving them more than $1.3 million in commercial tax preparation fees.

Want more?

To schedule a free tax preparation appointment or to take part in SaveNow WinLater, call 1-888-99-TAX-AL.

About Impact Alabama, email stephen.black@ua.edu or call 205-936-9963

http://blog.al.com/huntsville-times-business/2012/01/united_way_of_madison_county_i.html

January 17, 2012

By Kent Faulk

Beginning this week, a group will be offering free tax preparation help for lower-income families at four Birmingham area libraries.

Impact Alabama announced details Monday of its annual SaveFirst initiative. The service will be offered at libraries in Bessemer, Smithfield, Woodlawn and West End.

The initiative provides free income tax preparation services to working families making less than $50,000 a year with children in the home, or $20,000 a year without children in the home, according to a statement from the group.

Impact Alabama’s SaveFirst initiative is in its sixth year. Last year, more than 450 trained students from more than 10 college campuses prepared tax returns for more than 4,300 families statewide. The service helped families secure more than $8.2 million in tax refunds, saving them more than $1.3 million in commercial tax preparation fees.

The tax preparation service is aimed at assisting families eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC. The EITC is a federal government anti-poverty program for low-income, working families.

More than 35,000 families in the City of Birmingham claim more than $90 million through the federal EITC each year, according to the group. These same families lose millions to commercial tax preparers through preparation fees and refund anticipation loan costs, according to Impact Alabama.

Impact Alabama is a non-profit student service initiative that has been involved in community service projects since 2004.

This year, families also can enter the SaveNow WinLater Sweepstakes for a chance to win $5,000 by investing in savings bonds, according to Impact Alabama’s news release. The sweepstakes is a partnership with Doorways to Dreams, a nonprofit headed by Harvard University economist Peter Tufano.

Locations for the tax preparedness help are:

*Smithfield Library, 1 Eighth Ave. West.

*West End Library, 1348 Tuscaloosa Ave. Southwest.

*Woodlawn Library, 5709 First Ave. North.

*Bessemer Library, 400 19th St. North.

Alabama residents interested in participating in SaveNow WinLater or in scheduling a free tax preparation appointment should call 1-888-998-2925.

For general information about Impact Alabama, contact group founder Stephen Black at stephen.black@ua.edu or the group’s phone number at 934-0664.

In the inaugural competition (March 2011), 138 teams representing companies across the state participated.  More than 1,500 participants and spectators were in attendance to compete in an exciting evening of team trivia on behalf of their favorite charities.

For city-specific event details, please see the following links:

Birmingham’s Brightest

Huntsville’s Brightest

Mobile’s Brightest

Montgomery’s Brightest

For more information and to schedule an appointment, please call 1-888-99-TAX-AL.

FocusFirst provides a cost-effective direct response to the vision care problems of children who live in urban and rural communities in Alabama.  Since beginning service in 2004, over 2,100 colleges and universities throughout Alabama have participated with FocusFirst.  These students have screened more than 140,000 children in all 67 counties across the state, with approximately 11% of the children failing the screenings and receiving free or subsidized follow-up care as necessary through Sight Savers America.

“The generous support provided by Boeing will allow FocusFirst to provide comprehensive vision care to  thousands of children in North Alabama counties during our 2011-12 season,” said Stephen Black, President and Founder of Impact Alabama.  “Early vision screenings ensures that these kids can start school with the best vision medically possible.”

Tony Jones, VP Boeing Huntsville and Site Executive, said, “We are proud to partner with this unique and important effort and to celebrate this milestone with Impact Alabama.  FocusFirst has consistently demonstrated tremendous results in North Alabama and across the state.”

Poor vision adversely affects tens of thousands of children in Alabama each year, leading to poor educational performance, behavioral problems, and low self esteem.  Although these vision problems are most effectively detected and corrected during the preschool years, many preschoolers throughout the state do not receive adequate vision care.

The grant from Boeing will also help support Impact Alabama’s CollegeFirst Initiative, which provides summer programming to high school students pursuing rigorous Advanced Placement coursework in math, science, and English.

CollegeFirst trains college and graduate students to help implement a Summer Advanced Placement Institute for high school students enrolled in AP Biology, AP Calculus, AP Chemistry, and AP English Language. CollegeFirst believes that all willing and academically motivated students deserve the opportunity to succeed in rigorous, college-level experiences and the advantages they bring.

CollegeFirst is a partnership with A+ College Ready, a collaborative initiative committed to expanding and strengthening math and science Advanced Placement (AP) programs in Alabama.  A+ College Ready and CollegeFirst play integral roles in responding to the declining stature of Alabama students in national and global competitiveness in math and science by heightening expectations of Alabama high school students, challenging them to cultivate their skills and abilities, and exposing them to the content knowledge they will need to succeed in college.

Congratulations to Mingo and Arrix!

The new laptops were a welcome surprise to the award-winning nonprofit debate initiative that has been relying on relatively old and slow machines for the past several years.  In addition to these generous financial and technology contributions, PANGEATWO will partner with SpeakFirst to conduct job-readiness and college preparation training seminars for the SpeakFirst debate team.

Stephen Black, the Founder and President of Impact Alabama and the Director of the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, expressed his appreciation for the collaborative efforts taking place between the two organizations. “Impact Alabama is grateful for a partnership in which our SpeakFirst high school students will receive high-level job-skill training from the founder of a very successful job placement company — and the kids will be blown away to see the new laptops come through the door.”

Jody Jones, President and CEO of PANGEATWO, credits much of his personal success in starting and growing a business to his participation in competitive team debate as a child.  “In a tough economy, job skills training and strategic thinking about higher education are critical for young people.  Because debate is an invaluable tool for preparing kids for their futures, the SpeakFirst debate team is an ideal partnership for our organization to help these students think more strategically about their college careers.”

PANGEATWO is a Birmingham-based executive search, consulting and staffing firm that focuses on acting as the common ground between companies and potential employees.  The organization strategically places executives within organizations to help give companies a competitive advantage, expand skill sets and build morale on an executive team.

You walk into a store and are greeted with joyous reminders that your loved ones deserve the very best under the tree this year. You get into your car and sing along to the bouncy strains of 24-hour holiday radio. Your favorite coffee shop sprinkles nutmeg and cinnamon on your drinks in snow-flake covered cups. You drive around and everything sparkles and sings. The holidays are here, and you’re happy.

Then, you realize it: the date. It is the first of November, you are still wearing short-sleeves, no chestnuts are roasting, and the silver and gold decorations should still be in boxes.

When this realization hits, most of us are mildly indignant at the transformation of a significant holiday celebration into a free-for-all of Christmas consumption. But, after a few shakes of the head, we move on either to start our holiday shopping early or to realize that there are more important things to worry about.

However, when Christmas cheer is commandeered to advertise an industry that perpetuates poverty, we have a problem:

In Tuscaloosa, above a picture of gold- and red-wrapped gifts piled high, a billboard reads, ‘‘tis the season,’ a seemingly harmless cue followed by the declaration, ’tis the solution: your friendly neighborhood payday lender. The message isn’t subtle, and the implications aren’t slight.
The billboard pokes and prods at the best intentions of cash-strapped friends, family, and parents. The pressure to purchase is unrelenting. The added expectations of the current Christmas season make it all but impossible for many Americans to choose to stay away from payday lending institutions.
Despite the claims on this billboard and others like it, payday loans are rarely a solution. It may be true that many patrons of these predatory lenders turn to these alternative financial services because they do not qualify for traditional bank accounts or loans, but payday loans rarely prove to be true, short term assistance during a single financial shortfall or desperate situation. More often, they initiate a long spiral into further financial trouble. According to the Center for Responsible Lending, 76% of payday loans are the result of repeat borrowing on the same principal.

For more information about why people to turn to payday lenders, here is a 2008 publication by Rebecca Blank for the Brookings Institution: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2008/0416_low_income_blank/0416_low_income_blank.pdf.

If you just want to get a little more information about what payday lending is, the impact it has had on families and communities across the country (including the statistic above), and a few ways we can begin to address the cycle that leads to or begins with payday lending, these links from the Center for Responsible Lending are a great place to start:

- http://www.responsiblelending.org/payday-lending/
- http://www.responsiblelending.org/payday-lending/research-analysis/payday-loan-inc.pdf

Also, to learn a little more about current discussions concerning payday lending in our local area, check out these articles:
-http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/09/birmingham_council_may_block_t.html
- http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/10/birmingham_council_delays_acti.html
- http://blog.al.com/birmingham-news-commentary/2011/10/your_view_perception_of_predat.html

These discussions (and others like them) of whether the high usage rates of payday loans should or could be addressed and whose responsibility it is to take action can get predictably heated. I won’t take this further and attempt to wholly examine or address the questions raised (I was told to write a blog not a book), but I will explain that this is more than a rant against a single billboard. Right now, this topic is important for us at Impact Alabama because, in a little less than two months, that Christmas billboard will undoubtedly be replaced with a similarly winning sign advertising refund anticipation loans (RALs). In the first few weeks of the upcoming tax season, millions of taxpayers will choose to take out a loan against their anticipated tax refunds. In the 7-10 days it would have taken for their refunds to be directly deposited into their accounts, families will lose millions of dollars in fees and interest.

The suggestions for how to best turn families away from alternative financial institutions at Christmas time, tax time, or any random Tuesday are as varied and abundant as the reasons people walk through the doors of a Money Store in the first place. This can be daunting, challenging, or downright maddening for an overachiever who wants to have all the answers (our staff just happens to be full of these), but it is important to remember that every day at Impact Alabama we (young college graduates) are affecting the lives of thousands of Alabamians and, hopefully, moving them one step further away from a payday loan.

By providing free tax preparation through SaveFirst, we allow families to keep the hundreds of dollars each would have otherwise spent on preparation fees, and, by removing the temptation to take out a loan (RALs are obviously not a part of what we offer at our site), we help families avoid this potentially destructive debt. But, we do more than this. In every one of our initiatives, we aim to boost a child’s or a family’s chance of success. Whether we are working on spreadsheets at midnight or wrestling to get the Karl Kent return just right, whether we are driving to screenings at 5am or editing cases for hours on end, we play a small part in removing the necessity of these high-interest loans for families struggling to handle medical emergencies, to pay the bills, or to buy that pile of perfect presents this Christmas.

“I’m excited to be a part of this nationally unique initiative,” Greg McElroy said of the upcoming screening.  “FocusFirst has improved the sight of thousands of children in Alabama, and literally has saved the sight of dozens of kids who were on a path toward blindness before being reached by this effort.  Alabama should be very proud of this home grown success story.”

Stephen Black, the founder and president of Impact Alabama and the Director of the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, noted the importance of detecting children’s vision problems as early as possible, before they cause irreversible damage.  “All children deserve to start school with the best vision medically possible,” Black said.  “We are proud to have Greg and the Alabama Crimson Tide as a partner on this important day.”

FocusFirst provides a cost-effective direct response to the vision problems of children who live in urban and rural areas throughout the state. Under the supervision of Impact Alabama staff, undergraduate and graduate students ensure that children, ages six months to five years, in Head Starts and lower-income daycares are screened for vision problems, using high-tech photo optic scan cameras, and receive subsidized follow-up care.

Since beginning service in 2004, over 2,000 college students at more than twenty colleges and universities throughout Alabama have participated with FocusFirst.  These students have screened more than 100,000 children in all 67 counties across the state, with approximately 11% of the children failing the screenings and receiving subsidized follow-up care as necessary through Sight Savers America.

What do you do for Impact? What special teams and projects have you been working on?
This year, I am Impact Alabama’s SaveFirst Coordinator. So, I work on training our team, organizing volunteer recruitment and training, preparing our tax sites, and maintaining communication with the IRS and community partners. What we do throughout the year and during tax season is important for families and individuals across the state because we are able to save them hundreds of dollars in commercial preparation fees and help them leave our site with the biggest check they will receive all year. I also work with the Special Events team. In each of these roles, I love the daily opportunity I am given to work with and serve side-by-side with so many different people: community partners, college students, coworkers.

What did you do before Impact? What brought you to this job?
I grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee and attended Birmingham-Southern College. At Birmingham-Southern College, I was a Philosophy, Politics, Economics (PPE) major. In each of these disciplines, professors encouraged the application of the principles we studied to real-world situations, to problems facing Birmingham and Alabama. I joined Impact Alabama because they embraced reflective, innovative responses to systemic issues and because I wanted to continue working in the city and state in which I had become invested. I believed and now know that a year (or maybe two) with Impact Alabama would allow me to learn more about the challenges facing our state and to serve alongside those working to overcome them.

Our staff is particularly driven, creative, and energetic. What motivates you to do the work you do for Impact?
While growing up, I watched my parents use their time, talents, and money to help make the world a better, more stable place. They volunteered with a local bible study for kids, donated to their church and nonprofits, mentored and tutored children, researched and campaigned for political candidates, and even took care of a six-year-old Guatemalan boy who came to the United States to receive treatment for a life-threatening vascular malformation. Their example keeps me going and serves as a constant reminder of the importance of even the smallest contribution.

What is the most incredible or funniest thing that has ever happened to you while working for Impact?
I will never forget the excitement on the face of the woman who won our first $1,000 SaveNow WinLater prize. A group of Impact team members surprised her at work and got to spend time hearing about her plans for the prize. It was incredible to see her enthusiasm for our program and exciting to see the effects of SaveNow WinLater.

En route via boat to a FocusFirst vision screening in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, you shipwreck and are stranded on a desert island. You can bring one food; one figure from world history and/or one fictional character; one book; and an ipod with one song on it. What do you bring and why?
I doubt I could survive on a desert island, or anywhere, without chocolate frozen yogurt. Hopefully the island is big enough for three guests: George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and John F Kennedy. If I could invite contemporaries, that list would include Bill Clinton, Muhammad Yunus, and Nicholas Kristof. While there, I would like to read “Arguments for a Better World: Essays in Honor of Amartya Sen” because I have been meaning to finish it and listen to “That’s All” by Mel Torme because it was the song played during my first dance with my husband.

Impact staff members travel around the state to work on our various initiatives. What is your favorite place in Alabama that you’ve discovered through work with Impact? Why?
In a list of delicious restaurants, daycares decorated with cartoon characters, college campuses, gas stations (hopefully with yellow-capped Pepsis), and country churches, my favorite place is still the West End Library. I spent hours each week during tax season working in the conference room, and, after just a few days, it felt like home. While I enjoy traveling from city to city and exploring the state, I loved getting to know one community and to develop relationships with the residents and librarians.

It has been over six months since the tornado outbreak ravaged the state. While traveling for Impact, I have been able to witness the gradual rebuilding process that still continues. The structural damage is easy to see, but there is an aspect of recovery that is not so obvious. My screenings for FocusFirst have allowed me to interact with children all over the state. Part of that interaction consists of keeping the children calm when I have to turn off the lights to perform a screening. Many children are not bothered by the dark, but there are always a few who get upset. I expected to encounter this since many children are afraid of the dark. What I did not expect, was to find a connection between the fear and the devastating storms.

On several occasions, I have had teachers explain to me that a child has become terrified of the dark after living through the storms in April. This psychological effect never occurred to me as an explanation for why some children get so upset during screenings. However, it is easy to imagine how frightening it would be to watch your home, which up until then seemed like a safe place, be ripped apart while you are inside. That experience would be difficult for an adult to endure. For children who are too young to understand why it happened, the event would undoubtedly change the way they experience the world.

Unfortunately, I cannot take away that terrible experience, but I can be a small part of making them comfortable again with their surroundings. It is easy to get frustrated when a child does not want to participate in a screening, because I know how important it is for him or her. I know that if I am patient and let them see that there is nothing to be afraid of, they can begin to rebuild their courage just like the buildings that are slowly reappearing.

I hit the snooze button for the last time. It’s 4:48 am. The sun and the city still sleep under the twinkling night sky. I shove the covers off and slowly make my way across the cold floor to the kitchen to turn on the coffee pot. Logan will be here to pick me up in exactly 22 minutes. I need to hurry. I pull on jeans and a shirt–can’t wear anything that can’t get dirty today. It’s too early to eat breakfast, so I grab some fruit and nuts to go, pour my coffee and cream in my to-go mug, and run out the door.

For long trips like this, we take a rental car. It’s a 3-hour and 20-minute trip down to Silas, a tiny rural town in Choctaw County in the south of the state. I settle into the passenger seat while the British voices of the BBC News come to us through the car radio. We’ll alternate driving mid-way, but I’ll grab a few extra Zzz’s ‘til it’s my turn.

Logan and I arrive at Silas Head Start around 8:30, just in time to set up our vision screening equipment and start the screening at 9. There are 85 kids at Silas Head Start, and we will take a picture of the eyes of each and every child there. One of the Head Start workers leads us to a storage closet that is fortunately fairly roomy so we’ll be able to bring a lot of kids in at once. Logan sets up the camera rails and gets the camera ready while I cover the windows with black tarp. We have to make the room very dark so that the kids’ eyes will dilate. At such a young age (most kids are around 3 or 4), it only takes a few minutes for their eyes to dilate to the point where a photo of the retina can be analyzed by our partner, Vision Research Corporation, who provides the cameras we use and analyzes our photos.

Inevitably, not every kid is perfectly cooperative. There are some screamers and criers who absolutely refuse to let us take their picture; others we are able to calm down eventually. (Note: This is where wearing clothes that can get dirty is important–snot and slobber and other mysterious substances will surely wind up all over my clothes by the time I’m done.) There is one kid that we have to take four pictures of because he just keeps squirming and looking away; for another we have to take seven pictures because he closes his eyes every time the flash is about to go off! Quite a few kids are absent today, so it’s possible we’ll schedule a day to come back later and try to get those kids.

The challenge in providing vision care to all of Alabama’s children before school-age is a fairly simple one–it’s a matter of access. Almost all public school kids in Alabama get their vision screened at school. Unfortunately, many serious and potentially permanent vision problems develop while children are very young, before school-age. If they are not caught quickly, a cataract could permanently blind a child, and poor eyesight can slow that child’s development and essential early education. It is imperative to (no pun intended) keep an eye on children’s eye health year to year. The challenge is in how to reach those kids before they get to school. Many children attend preschool, daycare, or a Head Start program, but these centers are small and scattered widely throughout the state. With such a decentralization of children, who has the time to drive around every year to do this? Well, that’s where Logan and I and the 24 other AmeriCorps volunteers working for Impact come in. That’s why we drive around the state four days each week during the Fall months to daycares, preschools, and Head Starts to do screenings.

Many low income Alabama families do not have access to basic healthcare providers. So, FocusFirst is essential as that first line of defense to screen for potential problems. Then, for the 11% of kids (that’s 3,571 kids from the 32,174 we screened last year alone) who fail the screening, our other partner organization, Sight Savers America follows up and provides free or low-cost comprehensive vision care, including necessary glasses, surgeries, etc.

I think about all of this as we take one last photo, wave goodbye to the last group of 3-year olds, and pack up our equipment. I wonder how many of these kids need vision care. Sometimes it’s obvious and I can see it in their eyes, particularly kids who are developing amblyopia (lazy eye) or strabismus (cross eyes). With a group this size, about 8 of the kids will probably need follow-up care.

It’s 11:00 and time to make the drive home. We stop along the way to fill up on food and fuel, and drive straight to Vision Research Corporation, where we drop off the film rolls we used and the forms for each of the kids. Some of us AmeriCorps members at Impact will help with the processing that has to be done. Silas Head Start will receive the screening results within 4 to 6 weeks, and kids who need follow up will be contacted by Sight Savers America.

Next week I’m going to interview a woman in Florence, Alabama, whose son was screened by us last year and found to have congenital cataracts that he was born with. When I spoke with her on the phone, she told me that all six of her boys have been screened by us and have received glasses! I can’t wait to talk to her about her sons.

What do you do for Impact? What special teams and projects have you been working on?
In addition to the usual responsibilities of a Regional Coordinator, I also help with a lot of the office work behind the scenes. I serve on the Recruitment team, the Grants & Fundraising team and the Quality & Evaluation team. I enjoy the balance that I have at Impact. There are times when I am working with children and adults in various locations, but there are also times when I am in an office reviewing and researching grants, crunching numbers (my favorite!) and working on proposals. It’s nice to have a job that allows me to do what I enjoy and know (analyzing data), while also helping me to follow my passions (helping others).

What did you do before Impact? What brought you to this job?
I grew up in Millbrook, AL which is a small town 15 minutes north of Montgomery. I graduated from Stanhope Elmore High School and attended college at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. While at UAB, I studied Finance with a concentration in Corporate Financial Management. My background with finance has helped me with my position at Impact because it helps me to analyze data and certain statistics to write grants. It also helps with the SaveFirst initiative. I love making a difference in people’s lives.

Our staff is particularly driven, creative, and energetic. What motivates you to do the work you do for Impact?
Impact challenges me as a person to reach and help people that might otherwise not receive help throughout the state. Everyone has a right to live a happy, comfortable life. Catching vision problems in young children, helping hard-working parents receive their full amount of a tax return, and giving high school students the stepping stones they need to be successful in college and afterwards are the things that keep me passionate. I know that the people our staff members encounter throughout the year are having their lives made a little bit easier through our volunteers and initiatives.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
Hopefully, in five years I will have graduated from an MBA and health administration program. I would like to work in the healthcare industry. My ultimate goal is to begin developing hospital systems for rural areas that do not have immediate access to quality healthcare. Being from a rural area, I know the need for adequate health systems in rural, low-income areas.

En route via boat to a FocusFirst vision screening in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, you shipwreck and are stranded on a desert island. You can bring one food; one figure from world history and/or one fictional character; one book; and an ipod with one song on it. What do you bring and why?
Food: Chick-Fil-A Chicken Sandwich (I always crave this on Sundays when I know I can’t have it, so I figure I would crave this all the time on a desert island)

Person: I would choose the Wright brothers so that they could build us a plane and get us off of the island.

Book: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Song: Your Song by Elton John”

Impact staff members travel around the state to work on our various initiatives. What is your favorite place in Alabama that you’ve discovered through work with Impact? Why?
My favorite place that I’ve travelled to thus far has been Athens, AL. Being from central Alabama, I had never really travelled to the northern part of the state until working for Impact. I never realized how beautiful it was up there. Athens is such a wonderful little city with a beautiful town square housing boutiques, restaurants and offices. Yet, it still retains that small, southern charm that I love so much.

Imagine, if you will, that you are quietly sitting alone in your house or apartment as a storm billows outside. You have read the weather reports, and you have gone through the routine before—listening and watching the storms, hearing the tornado sirens outside, and hoping that, just like all those times before, you and your abode are safe. However, you hear an increasingly loud whine echo outside like the rumble of a train. In a moment of unconscious clarity, you bolt for the safest location you can think of, perhaps the bathroom or a small closet, and shut the door. Outside, you hear the deafening crack of wood and the clank of twisted metal. When the noises die down and you walk outside, what once was a normal living room has become the resting place for the debris of the entire neighborhood. Broken beams, branches, roofing, and insulation litter the floor. Your neighbors have not fared much better, as you see the insides of their homes through gaping holes in their walls. What do you do next? Your neighbors tell you that 911 has already been dialed and all that is left to do is wait for their arrival. In the meantime, you speak with neighbors that you have never before had the occasion to interact with. Regardless of how well you know them, the goals become clear: to assess what has happened and what is lost, and to make sure everyone else in the area is okay.

This very human reaction is part of the driving force that is CERT. Short for the Community Emergency Response Team, CERT members are regular citizens who have been trained by first responders to handle disaster situations until professional help arrives. In many cases, when the disaster area is large and severe, fire and medical services are unable to provide immediate relief for a variety of reasons, including blocked roads, failed communication channels, and the overwhelming need for their services. For many such disasters, it is the neighbors themselves who unite to help each other. In response to these efforts, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) supports CERT programs to ensure that when disaster strikes, these citizens are properly equipped to do the greatest good for their community.

Because CERT is such an important community service, Impact Alabama and other Americorps programs sends some of their volunteer service members to complete CERT basic training. For us—Kaitlin, Brendan, Alexandra, Em, Chris, Taz, and I—this meant spending three days with two firefighters named Horace and Mike as we covered the finer points of extinguishing (small) fires and triage procedures. With about twenty-five other volunteers from the Birmingham area, we reviewed chapters from our training manual and watched accompanying videos. Throughout training, we practiced techniques on ourselves and on the dummies available.

“With any victim you find, know your ABSs,” Horace stated, “Airway obstruction, breathing, and shock.” We would take turns in pairs reassuring Jeff, our beloved dummie with the missing leg, as we performed the procedure.

“What if you don’t happen to have a stretcher on hand?” Mike would say. “How are you going to carry the victim? I can show you how to do it with 2 two-by-fours and three t-shirts.” Dutifully, we would tromp outside, and Jeff would be carried around the lawn as we practiced.

“How many of you have actually used a fire extinguisher?” Horace asked. “We’ll go outside and practice. Keep your mouth closed because the stuff tastes nasty.”

Despite the practice drills, the academic atmosphere of traning sometimes made it hard to imagine the real-life scenarios of the material that was being taught. Throughout the first two days, our trainers talked about the “test” that would be our cumulative exercise for the training. Even though I had scribbled all over my manual with notes and eagerly completed the practice exercises, this final exam was a bit nerve-racking. What would it be? A tornado exercise? A flood? Would we be pretending that it was a sparse neighborhood or a crowded school building? In the video tutorials, the CERT members seemed to know each other in an easy, friendly manner, but during our training session, we hardly knew anyone outside of our own program. For better or for worse, I knew it would be interesting.

At noon on the third day, Horace took the entire class outside and announced, “There is been a large earthquake that has just hit this neighborhood. What will you do?”

We fell in step behind our commander, a software technician who had volunteered for the position, and we surveyed the scene. Cardboard bodies littered the lawn and were scattered around the side of the building. We separated into teams to complete our individual missions. Alexandra, Brendan, and I were assigned to Logistics. We made sure supplies such as fire extinguishers, blankets, and triage tape were properly supplied and documented, and I kept the commander in the loop of what we were doing. After a few minutes of confusion, we found a rhythm that made the disaster more manageable—just doing the next thing that needed to be done. We lost one CERT member to a “live” power line, and our triage procedures could have used more work, but all in all, we rescued about 20 cardboard lives that day, and it felt good to know we had learned a few things.

As good as it is to feel a bit better prepared, the big question in my mind during training (and no doubt for a few others) was whether or not CERT is actually an effective program. Is it wishful thinking to have a team of CERT members spontaneously meet together in a designated spot to provide their neighborhood with immediate disaster relief? What if you were the only one in your area, and there was no buddy to watch your back? How would you stay in contact with other CERT members during the interim? The other Impact members and I discussed these issues during our breaks, and the conclusion was mixed. We just didn’t know.

To lay the matter to rest, CERT does work—spectacularly. Just in June of this year alone, there have been seven reported incidents of CERT mobilization efforts across the country to provide relief in various disaster situations from fires, to tsunami threats, to power outages. In Seabrook, Texas, 19 CERT members used a phone tree system to mobilize and provide immediate relief to 90 people whose apartments were destroyed by fire. In Little Falls, New Jersey about 20 CERT members set up evacuation centers in the local civic center for victims of a flood that damaged hundreds of homes, roads and area shopping centers. Even for smaller local crises such as search and rescue for a disoriented elderly woman in Southern Marin, California, CERT members did their part to help.

As an example of a tornado disaster close to home, this is my backyard in
in February 2008. CERT did not exist in my neighborhood, but that did not
stop neighbors from lending each other a hand as we pulled people out of
the wreckage and treated each other’s injuries before the first responders arrived.
Closer to home, Jefferson County has its own CERT team with about 200 volunteers who have completed training since 2005. In Shelby County, about 160 volunteers have graduated basic training since 2005, and they have responded to 4 different emergencies that have cropped up since then. Each area has a contact person, local headquarters, and bi-annual training courses to keep volunteers up-to-date.

Though many people have never heard of CERT, it is a program that is offered in more than 45 states and has helped hundreds of people in disaster situations since the concept was first developed and implemented by the Los Angeles City Fire Department (LAFD) in 1985.

For more information about CERT and becoming a volunteer, visit the CERT website: http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/index.shtm

For information about CERT efforts around the country, visit the CERT in Action webpage: http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/certinaction/index.shtm

To learn more about CERT programs in place in your area, visit the Nearby CERT’s webpage: https://www.citizencorps.gov/cc/searchCert.do?submitByZip

Some of my favorite memories from my childhood are of road trips taken with my family. Long hours in the car with limited activities to occupy the time encouraged bonding unlike most other experiences. In the span of a few hours, sibling rivalry became sibling camaraderie as you begged your parents to switch the radio from NPR to actual music. The same joy of life on the road is true for our jobs with Impact. With many FocusFirst screenings and SpeakFirst tournaments occurring upwards of an hour outside Birmingham city limits, time on the road becomes a part of life and a valuable part of bonding with the Impact team.

The first few trips start tentatively. Being new to staff, you aren’t yet familiar with your travel companions’ particular quirks and preferences. Are they going to like your music? Maybe they’ll want to talk the whole way there. I’ve found that this barrier is quickly broken down. I’ll never forget the moment I was on a screening with a team member I did not know especially well, having spent much of my time with away from the majority of the Impact team for SpeakFirst practices. We were almost back to Birmingham when an older song came on 104.1 “The Beat.” I started humming along to myself, unsure of how much interest I should show in case my travel partner did not enjoy the song. However, to my surprise, my partner not only turned the radio up but also started singing along. We didn’t just share a screening that day, but jamming out to that song, we shared a moment. While this story may seem insignificant in the broad outlook of my time with Impact, its something that brought another team member and I closer together and only could have happened on the road. Traveling all over the state, the wide variety of conversations and laughs I’ve shared with my fellow Impact team members has been one of the most valuable components of this job.

I’ve also been able to bond with my SpeakFirst students through time spent in the car. I pick up four students every day from Ramsay High School and have traveled to Montgomery with the team in tow. The most interesting aspect is that I’m now on the other side of the spectrum as the one listening to NPR while being begged to change the radio to some actual music. Yet time in the car has brought my SpeakFirst kids and I closer this year. We’ve laughed over bad drivers, rolled the windows down on sunny autumn days, and of course, enjoyed listening to some really good songs.

As Regional Coordinators at Impact, we spend plenty of time on the road. During FocusFirst season, we travel throughout the state to conduct vision screenings. An average work week involves hundreds of miles of travel. This translates into hours and hours of driving time. All of that driving can be quite exhausting, but it is not as arduous as it may seem. In fact, it presents a unique opportunity. By traveling the highways and byways of Alabama, we’re able to explore new places and see interesting sights.

The Interstate Highway System is a modern marvel, and it makes travel quick and convenient. As you might expect, Impact coordinators use the interstate on a daily basis. However, we also spend much of our time on smaller highways and county roads. We journey through small towns and rural areas that are miles away from interstate traffic. Personally, I love driving through rural Alabama. The scenery is beautiful, and it looks even better in the morning sunlight. Little country churches and volunteer fire departments sit alongside the highway. On my tour of Alabama, I’ve seen no end of interesting roadside landmarks. Here, I’ll name just a few.

The Torch Cafe near Tuskegee, AL
-On U.S. Hwy 80, I discovered the old Torch Cafe near Tuskegee. The cafe is abandoned, but the vintage 1950s building is still standing.

-On AL Hwy 157, I always pass the Dutch Oven Bakery. The store is run by local Mennonites, and it sells some delicious baked goods.

-On AL Hwy 20, I had to stop at Dot’s Soul Food in Hillsboro. This little restaurant serves some of the best southern cooking you’ll find anywhere.

-On AL Hwy 79, I enjoyed stunning views of Lake Guntersville and drove through the beautiful mountains and valleys of Northeast Alabama.

At Impact, we often share stories of our adventures on the road. In the coming months, I hope some of these stories will make their way onto the blog. Above all, the Impact staff is here to serve the people of Alabama, but we also want to learn more about this state and all that it has to offer.

This fall marks my second year working for Impact Alabama. Last year when I served as a Regional Coordinator I conducted vision screenings across the state, ran a tax site in Tuscaloosa, and served as site coordinator for CollegeFirst at the University of Alabama. This year, my position as Media & Communications Coordinator (a.k.a. master story teller) has encouraged me to reflect on what effect and change Impact has had on low-income communities in Alabama, and in turn how that work has affected and changed me.

The list was not difficult to compose quickly, and in fact I think the title could be changed to “Ten things I accomplished in a year that I’m proud of, and that were on my to-do in life list anyway”:

1.  I am more patient. Have you ever been at the other end of a FocusFirst rail holding a child who is convinced that you are (as one of them put it to me last week) “going to poke holes in their face”, rather than simply photograph them? Have you ever held a baby who finds the window of the faceplate so appealing that they reach for it whenever you get them close enough for a picture? Have you ever itemized a mountain of receipts while six of your SaveFirst volunteers are waiting for a quality review? Well, then—you know the meaning of patience.

2.  I am more flexible. Whether it’s a last minute adjustment to the day’s schedule, or the shift to a completely different initiative, things are always changing at Impact. It keeps me on my toes and I’ve really learned to roll with the punches.

3.  I am following in the footsteps of highly successful people.(http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2006/05/the_early_bird_.html) –I get up early! Sometimes even when I don’t mean to.

4.  I think differently about people I meet and communities I visit. I’ve met and worked with so many different folks over the last year, and we’re more similar than we are different. I now feel more comfortable in places unlike those where I grew up, and with people I had not interacted with very often before my work with Impact. At tax sites you meet all kinds of people—widowers, single parents, young moms, truck drivers, students, professors, Wal-mart employees, the elderly, the disabled. During FocusFirst you spend many mornings working with two-year-olds and day care workers. Many of the people I’ve encountered during my work with Impact seem to come from very different places and lead very different lives, but I’ve found that we have plenty in common. My experiences with Impact put me more at ease with people, places, and situations that feel different or put me outside my comfort zone. As a senior in college, a dark room full of two-year-olds in rural Alabama was definitely not a comfortable place, nor one I had a lot of experience with!

5.  My parents call me for advice on their tax return. If you’d told me two years ago as a French major with a passion for photography that I’d be in this position, I would have laughed.

6.  I know what it means to build a project from the ground up. Impact’s small team environment leaves a lot of room for self-starters to take up a project—whether it’s improving one that already exists, or starting from square one. This year I’m making up my position as I go along, and it’s been incredible to set so many media-themed vehicles in motion. I can’t wait until some of our video projects are ready to share.

7.  I have a clearer picture of my dream job. It involves creative work with highly motivated people who enjoy collaboration, discussion, and thinking big.

8.  I love kids! Simon Says in the dark after a round of “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” is a legitimately fun activity.

9.  I can recommend a restaurant in Dothan, AL, that does not belong to a franchise. Those of you who have traveled to Dothan may realize what a feat this is. My favorite spot? River Nile in downtown Dothan for delicious soups, sandwiches, and baked goods.

10.  I understand how to work a phone call. Impact’s press, survey, recruitment, and scheduling calls have taught me the value of a productive phone call. Never have I been more productive, persuasive, and down right charming via telephone.

One of the best parts of working for Impact – aside from the obvious, providing needed services to people, of course – is the travel. Seeing different, colorful parts of Alabama. Eclectic, Alabama has a star-shaped sign welcoming you to the town, and on the back, as you leave, it says, “Be careful,” as in, “Be careful out there in the world.” Charming. Union Springs, Alabama informs its visitors that it is the only town in the United States that can honestly say, “Welcome to USA!” I’m not sure if their attitude towards this is pride or irony, but either way, it is delightful.

Almost every town I’ve been in has had some unique element keeping it from being labeled just another small town in Alabama, but without doubt the town that can assert most assuredly that, while small, it is not just another small town, is Monroeville. Monroeville is the childhood home of both Harper Lee and Truman Capote, the town upon which Maycomb in To Kill a Mockingbird is based, and Monroeville, rightly, is enthusiastically proud of its authors and its fame.

The old courthouse – the one from Harper Lee’s childhood – has been converted into a museum, honoring both Harper and Capote. The office of the lone curator doubles as an exhibit: it is a replica of a 1930’s lawyer’s office, implying, though it is never said aloud, that it is, perhaps, the office of Atticus Finch. The courtroom upstairs, the curator is quick to say, looks exactly like the courtroom in the movie with Gregory Peck, as the set was purposefully designed to mimic the actual Monroeville courtroom. The curator also proudly, and with a touch of humor, tells us that over 25,000 people visit Monroeville each year – more people than live in all of Monroe County.

The museum, tiny and underfunded, is nevertheless effective. I found myself, as I wandered the second floor of the courthouse, perusing each exhibit, reading every sign, wondering what it would have been like to grow up in a place like Monroeville – a place like Maycomb – trying to imagine Harper Lee’s childhood, what the town looked like then, without the modern cars and the modern buildings and the modern tourism industry. As I stood in the old-fashioned courtroom, complete with potbellied stoves, I imagined myself to be a spectator in the trial of Tom Robinson. And although that trial never happened there, never happened at all, still I felt that sense of awe reserved only for places where great, long ago historical events have occurred, and for just that brief moment, I felt myself part of something larger than myself, a movement, a cry for justice, that occurred long before I was born, in a place distant and far removed from where I grew up.

I majored in English at the University of Alabama, where I read and re-read many works of literature that I connected with on a deep personal level, but the last time I read To Kill a Mockingbird, I was in 10th grade in Pennsylvania, in a community where black-white tension wasn’t discussed, didn’t need to be discussed, didn’t exist (as there were no African Americans in my grade, and only one in the whole school). And while I had studied the Civil Rights Movement and I could tell you every manner of fact about the suppression of African Americans in the South, it wasn’t real to me. In the innocence of childhood, in a place, not without problems, but without the long history of the South, the Civil Rights Movement was as real to me as To Kill a Mockingbird – both were stories with little relation to my life.

Having attended school for the past four years in Alabama, having come to the shocking realization that complete, nonracial equality is something the United States has yet to master, I came to the Monroeville museum with a vastly different paradigm from the one with which I originally approached To Kill a Mockingbird. And yet, it was not until I was standing in that museum, reading and watching about life in Monroeville, about Harper Lee’s life and experiences, that I came to understand what millions have before me – the brilliance and the courage of a young woman who wished to cry out against the injustice she daily witnessed, and the power of To Kill a Mockingbird.

And as soon as I get to the library, you know what I’m going to be picking up? To Kill A Mockingbird.

Visit the Monroe County Heritage Museum’s website here.

Last week, a few lucky SpeakFirst students had the opportunity to attend the unveiling of the 2012 Alabama African American History Calendar, which celebrates and honors individuals from the state of Alabama who have made significant contributions to African American history. The unveiling took place at a gala event held at the Alys Stephens Center. The students started their evening by watching Alabama Public Television interview each of the calendar honorees for a film that will be used to teach Alabama middle and high school students about African American history. All of the interviews were inspirational and eye-opening, but a few brought the audience to tears.

One such interview was with Colonel Herbert Carter, one of the Tuskegee Airmen (the first African American military pilots in the United States). Colonel Carter recently celebrated his 93rd birthday, but at the gala he was as lively and entertaining as ever. He ended his interview with, “We in the 99th had an 11th commandment. It was: thou shalt not quit.” Colonel Carter lived through the Great Depression, segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement. Through all of these experiences, he never gave up, and he fought honorably for a country that considered him a second-class citizen. Eventually, Colonel Carter’s perseverance and determination led to a dramatic change in the United States Military.

After the interviews, gala attendees entered the auditorium for the honoree presentation. The 2012 honorees included the Gee’s Bend Quilters, UW Clemon, Percy Lavon Julian, Corretta Scott King, Wallace Rayfield, the Tuskegee Airmen, AG Gaston, Marva Collins, Jesse Owens, Michael Figures, WC Handy, and Odessa Woolfolk. It was amazing to see such influential people honored for their contributions to African American history. I know that the presentation inspired all of the students and reminded them that hard work and perseverance is everything you need to make a difference.

Following the presentation, the students received a 2012 calendar and the opportunity to have their calendars signed by all of the honorees. The students thoroughly enjoyed meeting the honorees and the other guests in attendance at the gala. I’d like to think that the evening inspired and motivated them to debate outstandingly at their forensics tournament the next day.

The best part of my job with Impact Alabama is that not only do I get to be a part of the story of Impact, but I also get the opportunity to share the story of Impact. Starting this year part of Impact’s goal is to connect people around the state and the country with the young college grads who are drawn to a year of service with Impact, and with the incredible kids, students, and families that we serve through our 4 signature initiatives.

My job is to go around the state and talk to the mom of the little boy who just found out he has a vision problem that could prevent him from learning to read. My job is to talk to the high school senior who quit his basketball team to focus on academics with the hopes of one day becoming an orthopedic surgeon. My job is to talk to the spunky high school sophomore from an under-served Birmingham school who competes on the same level as highly talented debaters across the Southeast. My job is to talk to the mother who provides for her two kids after having left an abusive marriage. And my job is to talk to young people just like David Rooney, featured in this video below, who found inspiration and motivation in the year of service he devoted to these and other folks across the state.

What you’ll see here and on our website are the interviews with these folks and video footage of them in their daily lives. You’ll get to know them in their schools, in their homes, in their workplaces. You’ll have the chance to listen, to connect, to share. I look forward to bringing you their stories.

What do you do for Impact? What special teams and projects have you been working on?

As a Regional Coordinator I get to travel throughout the state to administer free vision screenings to children through Impact’s FocusFirst initiative. I’m also studying to help families file tax their returns this coming spring, when our SaveFirst season kicks into gear. During the rest of the year I will have the opportunity to work with high school students, tutoring an AP subject with CollegeFirst and judging debate tournaments with SpeakFirst.

Additionally, I work with the social media, press, and fundraising teams. In these capacities I write press releases, coordinate media events, and edit this blog. Along with fellow blog editors Kaitlin and Em, I have the chance every week to interact with Impact staff members, to share stories, and to brainstorm ideas for ambitious creative projects that highlight Impact’s overarching narrative.

What did you do before Impact? What brought you to this job?

I graduated from LAMP High School in Montgomery, where I worked with NewSouth Books during summers. At the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, I majored in English and in Classics (with a focus on Latin language), and I earned minors in creative writing and in the Blount living-learning liberal arts program. I gained some great writing and editing experience working for the University of Alabama Press, the independent Slash Pine Press, the student newspaper The Crimson White, and the student literary publications DewPoint and Marr’s Field Journal. I also loved working for the college radio station WVUA as the host of an independent radio program, and for the Tuscaloosa County School System as an ESL tutor for Guatemalan middle school students.

After graduating, I felt motivated towards hands-on service experience, and I applied to Impact after hearing about it through teachers and students at UA.

Our staff is particularly driven, creative, and energetic. What motivates you to do the work you do for Impact?

As the former president of the English honor society at UA, I maintain strong obligations to hot cups of tea, etc. However, even though conversations may begin by characterizing English studies as an introspective intellectual endeavor, they will inevitably lead to topics of preeminent social relevance – access to information, self-expression, education, economics, healthcare. What we talk about is no more important than how we talk about it, and as volunteers for Impact I believe we are actively and effectively helping to change the conversation about poverty in Alabama and in the world. Impact is a venue for recent grads like to me to be professional and purposeful – an advantage over many other entry-level positions.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Good question. A friend once told me that my goal should be to marry a rich woman and tinker on a boat or a car for the rest of my life. Barring this, in five years I may be studying for a humanities graduate degree; I may have a job teaching, writing, or publishing. I would love to work with radio, and I would love to stay with non-profits.

What is the most incredible or funniest thing that has ever happened to you while working for Impact?

Back in August I conducted a FocusFirst vision screening at a daycare center in Woodstock. It was an especially difficult screening since the walls in the only usable room didn’t reach all the way up to the ceiling, and I had to use a ladder to hang lots of black tarp to get the room as dark as I needed it. I returned to the daycare center about a month later to collect some paperwork, and a worker informed me that of the nine children I had screened in August, three of them were now getting glasses as a direct result of our program (whereas usually about one in 10 kids we screen are found with significant or possibly significant vision problems). That was an unexpected, fulfilling experience for me.

En route via boat to a FocusFirst vision screening in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, you shipwreck and are stranded on a desert island. You can bring one food; one figure from world history and/or one fictional character; one book; and an ipod with one song on it. What do you bring and why?

As anyone who has ever watched LOST will tell you, the island can probably travel through time and space, and I will therefore be able to enjoy limitless food, company, and music. Nevertheless…

I’ve been on a chicken salad sandwich tour of Alabama lately, so I’d probably bring a chicken salad sandwich, maybe from Stacey Drug Store in Foley, Café Louisa in Montgomery, The Continental Bakery in Birmingham, or Chloe’s Cup in Tuscaloosa.

I would bring FBI Agent Dale Cooper from the television show Twin Peaks. I admire his genuine commitment to people, his unorthodox way of thinking, and his affinity for pie and coffee. Plus he’d help me investigate ways to travel home.

For my book, I’d take Samuel Beckett’s Three Novels, which would take a lifetime on a desert island to fully appreciate anyway, and which has one of my favorite quotes about poverty: “Against the charitable gesture there is no defence, that I know of.” One of the main themes of the work is how language grants authority – for example, how words like charity authorize people to compartmentalize humanitarian motivations.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Bob Dylan lately, and I’m pretty sure I could listen to “Like a Rolling Stone” for the rest of my life on repeat and survive pretty happily.

Impact staff members travel around the state to work on our various initiatives. What is your favorite place in Alabama that you’ve discovered through work with Impact? Why?

I’ve been to a lot of great places already with Impact, so this is a tough question. In general, my favorite areas in Alabama are the historic downtown areas of smaller towns – I’m thinking about Andalusia, Fayette, Tuscumbia. I’ve also recently driven from Birmingham up to Scottsboro on Highway 79, which was beautiful, and I highly recommend it if you have an early fall morning with nowhere to be.

What do you do for Impact and what is your official job title? What special teams and projects have you been working on?
Officially, I’m a Regional Coordinator with Impact. This means that I travel around the state to conduct vision screenings at preschools and Head Starts for FocusFirst, and also work on Impact’s SaveFirst and CollegeFirst initiatives. I’m a member of the social media and press teams, and I am one of the editors of the staff blog. The latter is one of the most exciting parts of my job: I love to write, edit, and tell stories, and I also think that the anti-poverty work that Impact’s intelligent and passionate staff does is incredibly important. Editing the blog allows me to unite those interests and convey the personal, human side of this work to a broader audience, as I work with my fellow staff members to develop stories and turn them into compelling and interesting blog entries.

What did you do before Impact? Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school and what did you study? What brought you to this job?
I grew up in Lansing, Michigan, and attended Oberlin College in Ohio for my undergraduate degree. I officially majored in art history at Oberlin, but I also took a lot of courses in American studies and studio art. At Oberlin, I was very involved in the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association, where I did everything from helping to cook tasty meals from scratch for 80 hungry co-opers at lunch time (which is no small feat, I might mention!), to organizing with a group of fellow members to teach workshops on social justice topics in our co-ops. I also worked on several other community-based education projects, including work as a facilitator for storytelling workshops for adults with developmental disabilities, and as an intern at Reach Studio Art Center, a small, non-profit art studio in my hometown.

I care a great deal about working toward systemic social change, and both my formative experiences in Lansing and my time at Oberlin led me to pursue my current work with Impact. My hometown is a small, working class city, and the difficulties its residents face are similar to those facing many communities in Alabama. Though I’m from the Midwest, I have strong familial ties to the South and I feel an affinity for the histories of struggle and beauty that are adhered to this region. That’s part of what compelled me to come work for Impact; I love that this organization is composed primarily of young people working very hard to effect systemic, long-lasting change in a particular place, but who also endeavor to locate their work within a much larger framework.

Do you have any plans for after your year of service with Impact?
At some point, I’ll probably face the inevitable and enroll in a PhD program in visual studies or American studies. I actually had great plans to send in my graduate school applications this fall, but the further I get into this work for Impact, the more I realize that I’d like a little more time to think and let the things I’m passionate about ferment and grow outside of an academic context. My Oberlin education provided a lot of really useful theoretical lenses from which to approach the sort of practical, on-the-ground work that I’m doing now, but I find that I’m learning in all sorts of new and unexpected ways as a result of this job, and that makes me want to wait and see where all of it leads me. Still, I find myself weirdly excited by the prospect of writing a dissertation and I’ve been known to make bad jokes about critical theory, so grad school is probably in my future.

Career goals aside, I also fantasize about travelling the world, and eventually living on a farm in an old house with a big porch, a vegetable garden, some goats, and with lots of friends around to help with the chores that probably take up a lot more time in real life than I imagine they will in my fantasy.

What is the most incredible or funniest thing that has ever happened to you while working for Impact?

Behind the scenes of the Pepsi Refresh stop motion short
During the month of September, Impact participated in the Pepsi Refresh Challenge in order to fundraise for our CollegeFirst initiative. As part of our advertising efforts for that project, my friend and co-worker Glynnis Ritchie and I came up with the idea to create a stop motion animation short. Working on the short was hilarious and great: we crafted a tiny classroom set out of foam core, and used modeling clay and pipe cleaners to transform Pepsi cans and bottles into our cast of characters. During the filming process, Glynnis took photographs as I moved the Pepsi people around the set. I’m not really sure what magic Glynnis worked to edit the whole thing, but I’m pretty sure she’s a technical genius because I think the resulting short is nothing less than awesome. Getting to do this sort of creative (and, occasionally, really goofy) work is exactly what I love about doing this job. If you haven’t had a chance to watch the short yet, you can check it out here:

Impact Alabama Stop Motion for Pepsi Refresh! from Impact Alabama on Vimeo.

En route via boat to a Focus First vision screening in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, you shipwreck and are stranded on a desert island. You can bring one food; one figure from world history and/or one fictional character; one book; and an ipod with one song on it. What do you bring?

In terms of food, I’d definitely bring kale. It is certainly my favorite vegetable of all time, and possibly my favorite food ever. Though I love a good pie and would be ok with eating nothing but cheese grits for the rest of my life, kale wins out for its nutritional value (it is an excellent source of iron, among other things), and its versatility. It is delicious sautéed with garlic and a little bit of salt in some reserved bacon fat or olive oil; you can steam it; you can fold it into casseroles or even add it to channa masala. Also, if I brought an actual kale plant, I could start a little kale garden on the island and have a continuous food supply when my initial reserves ran out. I think my choice here is clear: kale trumps cheese grits for desert island eating.

As for a figure from world history, I’d bring Audre Lorde. She was a prolific Carribean-American poet, writer, and tireless queer and feminist activist. Lorde was raised in an immigrant family in Harlem in the 1960’s, and published numerous volumes of poetry and non-fiction works, including her biomythography, Zami. Her work was some of the first to challenge the racism and classism of the feminist movement in the 70’s, and she grounded her writing in the specifics of her life experiences while drawing connections to broader cultural processes. I first came across Lorde in a course at Oberlin, and her beautiful writing and fiercely critical approach to the world around her continues to inspire me. I would love to pick her brain under any circumstances, but especially over some freshly picked kale cooked on a wood fire.

I’m a total bibliophile, so this book question is hard. I know some basic bookbinding techniques and I’ve used a printing press before, so in order to avoid choosing I would type set and print two books and then bind them into one volume. Those two books are Francesca Lia Block’s Weetzie Bat and Eli Clare’s Exile and Pride. Weetzie Bat was my favorite book when I was fourteen; it’s a fantastical realist novel about a kind of punk rock girl and her best friends. They live in a house that looks like a sand castle in the Hollywood hills, have adventures, and take care of each other. They even have a pet rubber chicken! I continue to find Weetzie Bat to be a particularly reassuring and entertaining read, and Block’s writing is lovely and poetic. I’m not really sure how to describe Exile and Pride, but it is another of my favorites—a reassuring, heartening, and critical blend of memoir, non-fiction, and political analysis. I discover something new every time I re-read it, and I think that makes it necessary desert island material.

And finally, for my song, I was originally going to say that I’d bring the Basement Tapes cut of “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” by Bob Dylan, but then I decided that would be sort of cruel and ironic since I really wouldn’t be going anywhere on a desert island. Instead, I think I’ll bring “Just Like Honey” by the Jesus and Mary Chain because I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of listening to it and also I really like the hair of the dudes in this video:

Impact staff members travel around the state to work on our various initiatives. What is your favorite place in Alabama that you’ve discovered through work with Impact? Why?
Well, I really love driving on windy roads through the mountainous parts of northern Alabama for work, and I think the scenery is really incredible. It is all pine trees and red dirt and kudzu, and I can’t get enough of it.

However, the most interesting and funniest place that I’ve discovered as a result of work travel is the Boll Weevil Monument (pictured) in Enterprise, Alabama. According to Wikipedia,
“The Boll Weevil Monument is a prominent landmark and tribute erected by the citizens of Enterprise in 1919 to show their appreciation to an insect, the boll weevil, for its profound influence on the area’s agriculture and economy. Hailing the beetle as a ‘herald of prosperity,’ it stands as the world’s only monument built to honor an agricultural pest.”

The current boll weevil on top of the monument now is actually a replica of the original, which was stolen so many times that the town opted to replace it with a copy. I think the Boll Weevil Monument is completely strange and awesome; discovering things like it is one of the happy by-products of travelling to so many out-of-the-way places for work.

What do you do for Impact? What special teams and projects have you been working on?
I serve as a Regional Coordinator with Impact. I am a member of the grants and fundraising team and the social media team, where I act as one of the blog editors. We (the blog editors) are working to create a diverse and ongoing narrative of what working for Impact really entails, and to more clearly portray our relationships with those we serve and with those who support our endeavors.

What did you do before Impact? What brought you to this job?
I grew up in a small suburban town about 20 miles northeast of Birmingham. I attended Birmingham-Southern College and majored in Economics with a focus on Latin America. In the spring of my junior year I spent a semester in Peru studying indigenous peoples and globalization. While in Peru I completed an independent field research project on the economic effects of international tourism in a small, rural town in Arequipa called Yanque. My time with Impact began in the spring semester of my freshman year when I chose to take Dr. Rossmann’s Economics of Poverty course (this course is also what inspired me to study Economics)*. The course had a required service-learning element with Impact Alabama’s FocusFirst and SaveFirst initiatives, and I spent three out of four of my undergraduate years volunteering with Impact.

*Editor’s note: Regional Coordinator Brendan Griffin also took Dr. Rossmann’s The Economics of Poverty course at Birmingham-Southern, and discusses his experiences in the course in his recent blog post.

Our staff is particularly driven, creative, and energetic. What motivates you to do the work you do for Impact?
Because I have lived in Alabama my entire life I have often seen first-hand the effects of poverty on its residents. When I began to take on more in-depth studies of the causes of poverty through my studies in Economics I started to look for solutions to poverty as well. Volunteering with Impact gave me the opportunity to see how such potential solutions are successfully implemented, and I decided that I wanted to be involved in a greater part of the work that Impact does for the community.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
There are a variety of places I see myself in five years, and I have no idea which one will actually come to pass, but I’m looking forward to finding out. Part of me wants to pursue a PhD in Economics and International Development and travel the world studying different economies and how they all combine to form our global economy. I also have dreams of working up to a career in non-profit management within organizations that work to alleviate poverty. Although, as long as what I end up doing is interesting, I’m sure I’ll have tons of fun.

What is the most incredible or funniest thing that has ever happened to you while working for Impact?
Of course, working with children is always entertaining, but the most incredible part of my job at Impact so far has been discovering wonderful places all over the state. Driving to remote locations where the GPS doesn’t always work and cell signal becomes non-existent is guaranteed to be a fabulous adventure.

En route via boat to a FocusFirst vision screening in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, you shipwreck and are stranded on a desert island. You can bring one food; one figure from world history and/or one fictional character; one book; and an ipod with one song on it. What do you bring and why?
As far as the food goes, I would bring Peruvian tamales for sure. They’re delicious and I would go back and forth to Peru every day if I could just to eat a couple tamales (the alpaca in Peru is quite yummy as well).

My one book is a toss-up between The Hobbit and Pride, Prejudice and Zombies. They’re both fabulous and I never get tired of reading either of them.

Rupa and the April Fishes’ “Culpa de la Luna” is definitely a song I could listen to while stranded for an extended amount of time. It’s interesting, upbeat, and it makes me think (and not only because it takes me a while to process Spanish).

As far as the person who I’m forcing to be stranded with me, assuming that fictional characters from television are perfectly acceptable, I would probably go with Malcolm Reynolds from Joss Whedon’s Firefly. Who wouldn’t want to hang out with a witty space cowboy?

Impact staff members travel around the state to work on our various initiatives. What is your favorite place in Alabama that you’ve discovered through work with Impact? Why?
My favorite place I’ve discovered so far through my work with Impact is Monroeville. Exploring and learning the history of the home town of Harper Lee and Truman Capote was fascinating, and I came across the most wonderful coffee shop called Beehive Coffee & Books. There’s also a delicious restaurant called Radley’s that serves one of the top 100 foods in Alabama to try before you die, a BLT made with fried green tomatoes. It was absolutely delicious.

The question I encountered most often as a high school debater concerned my weekends. “Wait, so you’ll be debating all day Friday and Saturday?” was the frequent inquiry, accompanied with an astonished look. While most people are familiar with the concept of weekend sports tournaments, spending the better part of 48 hours in intense academic competition seems more arduous.

I’ll admit, debate tournaments can be a daunting arena for newcomers. The language, schedule, and even the social interactions at tournaments are particular to the world of debate, and certain protocol can only be learned with time and experience.

To get a glimpse into the world of debate tournaments, just look to the fashion and accessory choices of debaters. Over a hundred high school students in full business-wear regalia is an interesting sight, to say the least. While the standard for most debaters is a blue or black suit, I appreciate those who dare to bring back the Nancy Reagan-esque red or otherwise colorful suit. Style is an important component of debate, in which presentation can count as much as content.

Debate also requires a distinct set of accessories. Large briefcases, plastic tubs full of evidence, and multitudes of pens accompany debaters to their various debate rounds. Taking notes, or “flowing” a debate is the only way to adequately address all arguments covered, which means that the tools a debater uses to take notes are a matter of great importance. The choices of legal pad or plain paper, ballpoint or gel pen, are weighed almost as seriously as the different perspectives of the current debate topic.

Which brings me to the main point of tournaments—the language of debate. Debate is entirely about speaking. Thinking on one’s feet is not simply important, but absolutely essential. The ability to formulate and communicate arguments in almost the same breath is a skill every debater must possess. Debate rounds can become fiercely competitive and often verbally intense, with many complex arguments and sophisticated analyses. A “crossfire” (the period of a debate where speakers can ask each other questions) can be akin to a highly competitive tennis match, with arguments volleyed back and forth at an incredible rate.

Tournaments often last well into the night, with rounds conducted after 10 or 11 P.M. Debaters learn to run on pure adrenaline, to fight fatigue and exist on five hours of sleep, or less, during a tournament weekend. The late Friday night hours, combined with the energy that debate often produces, lead to many moments of hilarity that foster team camaraderie. That picture changes drastically on Saturday morning, with kids emerging from hotel rooms in suits and dress-wear in a zombie-like stupor before the sun has even risen. However, the nerves and focus required for the first round on Saturday morning are enough to jolt anyone out of a sleepy haze.

Some might ask, “Why spend so much time at tournaments?” The answer is in a love for debate. The experience of a tournament, while it may test one’s patience, physical stamina, and mental stability, can include some of the greatest times in the life of a high school student. Friendships are born out of the unique experience, and every moment teaches a lesson, either academic or otherwise. So, when faced with incredulous inquiries about if I will be spending my weekends with debate, I have answered and still answer confidently and happily, “Yes, yes I will.”

When I entered Birmingham-Southern College as an eighteen-year old freshman, I thought I had it all figured out. Like many bookish eighteen year olds, I thought I had a pretty good grasp on human knowledge—all of it. I thought that college was simply supposed to reaffirm that I possessed that knowledge. After just one semester at BSC, I realized that actually was not the case. The greatest lesson I learned that fall semester was the enormity of how much I did not know. Rather than becoming discouraged or disheartened, I felt that the best course of action was to embrace that fact and learn everything I could. This realization led me to enroll in a spring semester course, The Economics of Poverty, taught by Dr. Kathleen Rossmann. The course epitomized what I did not know: What was economics? What was poverty? I really had no idea what I was signing up for, and that curiosity allowed the course to affect me on a more deeply personal level than I initially could have imagined.

I grew up in a rural county in Alabama where nearly every school bears a Title 1 designation. This designation identifies schools with low income students, and provides special funding and services in an attempt to remedy the disparity between those schools and their wealthier counterparts. I knew that my home community was not rich, but I did not understand what it meant to talk about poverty. In The Economics of Poverty, I first began to think more seriously about the issues facing my home community. It was not a typical economics course in which the professor drew some curves on the chalkboard, lectured about the elasticity of the goods they represented, and then let the students go on their merry way. Instead, it contained a service learning element: students would volunteer with Impact Alabama, an anti-poverty non-profit based out of Birmingham.

Again, I scratched my head, faced with another novel concept. I had done service before. It is something in which most church groups take part, most high schools sponsor, and most high school students see as an important element to include on their college application. I believed that service at its best was something you did because it felt good—it was good to help to help other people, and therefore you should feel good for doing so. When you were done with your good deeds, you could go home and forget the troubles you worked to alleviate. I didn’t yet understand what role this sort of service might play in academic learning.

In contrast with that sort of approach to service, Impact’s initiatives engage student volunteers in intellectually stimulating service work while also addressing pressing community needs. FocusFirst provides free and low cost vision care to children in preschools and Head Starts across Alabama. SaveFirst provides accurate and free tax preparation services provided by a crew of enthusiastic volunteers, many of whom are students. In so doing, it provides low income families with a necessary alternative to private tax preparers who are often uncertified, inaccurately prepare returns, and engage in predatory lending practices. This means that those people who need it most can get the full tax refund amounts they are due.

Volunteering with SaveFirst and FocusFirst in the context of Dr. Rossmann’s course also had the benefit of breaking down “The BSC Bubble,” a term often utilized by members of the BSC community to describe the insular campus environment. While some students cherish the fact that the BSC campus allows for intense and isolated focus on their academic studies, others constantly strive to break out of the bubble and connect their studies to the concerns of the broader community in Birmingham and in Alabama. Dr. Rossmann’s course helped to achieve that goal by engaging students directly in service learning with Impact.

For me, volunteering with Focus First and Save First as a part of Dr. Rossmann’s course was a revelatory experience—I was able to examine the economics of poverty in an academic context while also doing something substantial to help people. Though I had grown up around poverty, it had not occurred to me that anything about it could be changed until I took Dr. Rossmann’s course. The needs addressed by Impact’s initiatives are blatantly obvious to those who take the time to look, but the sad fact is that they often go unmet in spite of their glaring presence.

In The Economics of Poverty, I was first made to look, and I was truly changed. I learned that there are ways to alleviate poverty in America. Volunteering with Impact demonstrated the practical side. After that semester in Dr. Rossmann’s course, I was hooked. I volunteered with Impact throughout my four years at BSC, and now here I am. I graduated in May and immediately started work full-time as a Regional Coordinator with Impact. This work is personal for me. Not only am I helping people get through their day, I am working to help them have a better life. In the process, I am learning a great deal about my community. I am no longer a student in Dr. Rossmann’s course and so it is not “service learning” in the strictest sense, but I still continue to serve and continue to learn.

Sept. 20, 2011

FocusFirst, an Impact Alabama student service initiative, conducted free vision screenings inChiltonCountyon Monday, Sept. 19. The screenings took place at E.M. Henry Head Start in Clanton, Jemison Head Start in Jemison and Maplesville Head Start in Maplesville at 9 a.m.

ImpactAlabamapartners with Sight Savers America, a nonprofit organization that provides free follow-up care for children who fail the screenings. Lane Gilmore, ImpactAlabamaregional coordinator, said 34,000 children are screened through FocusFirst in one year. “Approximately 11.5 percent of those kids are diagnosed with vision problems,” Gilmore said.

Founder and President Stephen Black started Impact in 2004.  It is a student learning service initiative that takes undergraduate and graduate students and puts them to work in miscellaneous fields in the community, Gilmore said.

Impact is comprised of the following four initiatives: FocusFirst, SpeakFirst, SaveFirst and CollegeFirst. “Those four initiatives are the primary things we do,” Gilmore said. “FocusFirst was the original initiative.”

FocusFirst currently serves children ages 6 months to 5 years in every county inAlabama. “Six months to 5 years is typically the limit as far as people we can test,” Gilmore said.  “They don’t have to know how to read to do the vision testing.”

On the other hand, poor vision and lack of early diagnosis and treatment could lead to children having trouble learning to read as well as long-term vision damage or loss.  FocusFirst uses advanced photo optic scan cameras.

“With every passing year, we expand,” Gilmore said.  “We do all Head Starts in the state and we also do daycares and child development centers.”

In the last seven years, more than 2,100 college students inAlabamahave screened more than 123,000 children in all 67 counties in the state.

Gilmore said that she and Helen Barnes screened 62 children at the Notasulga Head Start on Monday. “We always love Head Start screenings, but this one was truly one of the best we have ever been to,” Gilmore said.  “The staff was very helpful and the kids were great!”

For more information, contact Lane Gilmore at (205) 213-0492 or visit impactalabama.org.

This might be my last post on BlogFirst, as today is my last day of work at Impact, and so I’d just like to say that I’m happy that we wrote this blog, this scrapbook of the year. I look forward to rifling through these posts in a few years, rereading stories I’ve half-forgotten. The events that BlogFirst chronicles are, intentionally or not, among the most distinct and important experiences of the service year, and the gist of these posts is what I’ll take away from Impact.

Of course, the past year was not all vivid and great—like any other year, it included moments of driving-induced boredom, the anxiety of running late or of being lost, of snapping at people out of pure hanger (note: that was not a typo), of being peed on by toddlers, of being tired. I’ll save the critical theory fan club post for another time (English majors, remember The Rhetoric of Narrative?), but don’t we all want to leave these mundane memories behind in favor of a more meaningful summary? Certainly I’m not the only one who will remember this year as some variation on, “I traveled, sometimes in an HHR. I learned. I helped others.”

I’ve already begun composing in my head how I will explain my Impact year to the people I meet next. I’ll start off with the basics: I was an AmeriCorps volunteer at an anti-poverty nonprofit in Birmingham, my hometown. If they are interested, I will tell them that I worked on several major projects throughout the year, including vision screening and tax preparation initiatives. Only a few people will be interested in the whole story—that my co-workers were all very smart and dedicated, that working with them was perpetually inspiring, that Impact trained me to do new and difficult things very well, and that this new and small organization in Alabama holds the greatest annual fundraiser of all time. If they don’t believe me, I’ve got the blog for proof.

Thanks for an amazing year, team.

June 22, 2011

The nonprofit group ImpactAlabama is celebrating a record year, having performed more than 32,000 vision screens for state children during the recently ended school year.

The program, now in its seventh year, in 2010 set a goal of 30,000 vision screenings for the school year, said ImpactAlabamapresident Stephen Black, who is also director of UA’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility.

Black came up with the idea for statewide vision screenings in 2004, when he was looking for a way college students could affect health in Alabama.

But about one in 10 youngsters has some kind of vision problem, and many of those emerge in children as young as 2 – well before they know or can tell someone something’s wrong, he said.

In the first year, FocusFirst tested about 4,500 children at day cares around the state.

Since 2004, 120,983 children have had their vision screened under the program, according to FocusFirst records. Of those, 11 percent failed the test.

Today, there’s a team of 30 full-time employees, mostly recent college graduates, who oversee undergraduate and graduate students as they conduct screenings in Head Start and low-income daycare centers in every county in the state.

“We’ve been able to grow, but it’s hard to raise money,” Black said. “Fortunately we have a lean, but dedicated staff.”

They use a high-tech camera to take pictures of the children’s eyes in a dark room; those pictures can then be analyzed for irregularities. The subjects, who range in age from 6 months to 5 years, don’t need to be able to read an eye chart or have their eyes dilated.

About 1 percent have some kind of problem, including near-sightedness, far-sightedness or lazy eye, and are referred for subsidized follow-up care.

E-mail Gray at jgray@bhamnews.com

June 14, 2010

The sky is blue, the sun is bright and school is in session.

No, not a multiple choice question for which one doesn’t belong. But summer and studies are no longer mutually exclusive.

Impact Alabama, a not-for-profit organization, is sponsoring a tuition-free three-week course to help students prepare to take advanced placement classes in the fall or sustain the knowledge learned in just-completed AP classes.

The classes started June 7 at the University of Alabama in Huntsville with 30 students from Huntsville and Madison County. There are 90 more students taking the same courses in Birmingham.

The objective is to quickly expand it to lure more students away from the summer, at least temporarily.

“Hopefully, next year we will serve over 500 kids,” said Stephen Black, the president of Impact Alabama. The organization is partnering with the A+ College Ready program on the CollegeFirst classes.

With sponsorship funds from Boeing and the law firm of Maynard, Cooper and Gale as well as grant money, there is no cost to students.

But the benefits may well be priceless.

Glenn Baeske/The Huntsville Times

Sparkman High students Drema Jones, left, and L.J. Vining, third from left, keep their academic skills sharp at a CollegeFirst program with the help of University of Alabama in Huntsville tutors Thao Tran, second from left, and Daniel Brown.“Kids who take and pass just one AP exam from a course in high school are three times more likely to be successful in college,” Black said. “It’s the most immediate, concrete way to help ensure, as best you can, success in college.”

Melanie Dalton, an AP chemistry teacher at Sparkman High School who is also one of the summer program’s teachers, agreed.

“Statistically, that’s true,” she said. “If you take even one AP class, you tend to do better at university and complete your degree.”

The classes students are more focused on than summer vacation are chemistry, biology and calculus. And don’t forget that AP classes can translate into college credit.

“We’ve had students come in with as many as a whole semester’s worth of high school credits through AP,” said John Fix, the dean of the College of Science at UAH. “They are off to a flying start.”

The program also gives students a snapshot of the college experience by attending classes on campus and interacting with college students. In Huntsville, the 30 AP students work with 28 students from UAH and the University of Alabama.

“It’s also a time to mingle with college kids, which may sound like the softer side of the value of this,” said Tina Watts, who works in community relations for Boeing. “But you can’t overestimate the value of college students having concrete conversations with these students.”

But what about the students who could wistfully look out the window on a hot summer day? For two students, Drema Jones and L.J. Vining, it didn’t matter because they were more attentive to their chemistry lab.

“It’s a prep for AP chem because a lot of us need the extra practice and work to get ahead and do better in school,” said Vining, a rising junior at Sparkman.

And in this world that promotes getting ahead, these students are getting ahead.

“I think they should (take the class) if they want to improve their academic level,” said Jones, another rising junior from Sparkman. “And it’s also free.”

Hey, mixing economics with chemistry. All the better.

During the last month and a half, my co-workers and I have:

-organized fundraising events for 300+ guests in Alabama’s 4 largest cities
-taken the SpeakFirst debate team to the District and State tournaments
-wrapped up a successful tax season for hundreds of taxpayers statewide
-screened thousands of children in lower Alabama with student volunteers during Alternative Spring Break, and
-recruited college volunteers and high school students for our AP prep CollegeFirst initiative in June

Most recently, I’ve been busiest running a debate clinic for a Birmingham youth leadership program for young men called I Am My Brother’s Keeper (IAMBK). Founded by Donta Wilson, Alabama’s president of BB&T, the program provides mentoring and college preparation to eight area high school students. As SpeakFirst debate coaches, Houston and I were asked to provide the IAMBK group with intense debate training to improve their speaking, critical thinking, research, and writing skills.

The boys are debating the resolution, “Resolved: Cyberbullying should be a criminal offense,” which SpeakFirst debated in December. We began by going over the basic format of debate and then introduced them to the topic through discussion and research questions. The boys are now working with their partners to research and write their side of the case—affirmative or negative. Following some practice debate rounds, the IAMBK students will be ready to show off their new skills in a federal courtroom before friends, family, and judges. Impact team members will be there, too, cheering them on.

At Impact Alabama, there’s no “typical week.” It’s common to work with different community partners and staff members on a daily basis. Collaboration and flexibility are two of the most important qualities for an incoming Regional Coordinator.

The initiatives themselves, coupled with the diversity and talents of our staff, make for a singular experience. When you’re here, it’s evident that you’re part of something remarkable and something rare. At Impact Alabama, you’re in the place to be.

Fellow team member Ann Watford and I had the awesome opportunity to attend an Advanced Placement pep rally at a local high school in Jefferson County yesterday. This was a very special day for Minor High School; not only were they celebrating the achievements of their Advanced Placement students, but also honoring a fellow student who is featured in an ExxonMobile Ad campaign regarding advanced placement and college ready programs.

Check out the video here.

We had a wonderful time watching the students participate in the pep rally and really loved the way that Advanced Placement and the importance of higher education was being honored at this school. We were there to promote our initiative, CollegeFirst, but soon found out that we are already almost at capacity of the number of students from Minor High that our program can accommodate. This experience was truly a blessing.

Unfortunately, it is rare to go into a high school where all of the students are enthusiastic about college and the endless possibilities of higher education. That is far from the case at Minor High. These students are very excited about their futures, many of them carrying posters proclaiming their love for math and science programs.

I feel I can speak for Ann when I say that we left the program with a great amount of respect and admiration for the students, faculty, and staff of Minor High School. It was truly great to see students so engaged and excited to prepare for college. Just as many things have influenced my life this year; this experience will be one I will never forget.

Last week, Alabama beaches were full of college students seeking fun-in-the-sun. Tans were perfected, days began close to noon, and work was the last thing on anyone’s mind. However, there were four Alabama college students who spent their week in a much different way. These 4 students helped thousands of children in Baldwin, Clarke, Mobile, and Monroe counties by conducting free vision screenings in day cares and preschools.

For six years now, Impact Alabama has been hosting an Alternative Spring Break (ASB) for college students from all over the state. For an entire week, staff members take the volunteers on screenings all over South Alabama. Then, each evening the volunteers are able to tour Mobile and Baldwin counties, and reflect on the events of the day.

Many of the ASB volunteers participate because their schedules will not allow them to work with FocusFirst at any other time in the year since most of our screenings begin at 9am each morning. By working with staff members for an entire week, they are given the opportunity to screen as many children as they normally could screen in a whole semester.

Volunteers are invaluable to FocusFirst. We could not do such projects as Alternative Spring Break without the assistance of these students that volunteer their time. One of our ASB volunteers, Kavita, a pre-med student at UAB, discusses the week below:

Why did you participate in ASB this year?
Being a pre-med student, I have been wanting to volunteer with FocusFirst for a long time. But it never worked out because my classes always happened to be when screenings took place. ASB allowed me to get a good experience of FocusFirst without having to worry about having time to make it to a class.

Would you consider participating in ASB next year or in another type of Alternative Spring Break if given the opportunity?
Yes, I would love to go on another ASB because you get to meet a lot of new people with similar interests. Also, I really feel like I made a big impact because I volunteered for an entire week instead of just for a few hours here and there, which are what most of my other experiences have been.

What is the most important thing you have taken away from ASB?
It’s important to keep an open mind because you can’t always predict what something will be like. I would consider myself a very structured person, so ASB kept me on my toes and taught me to be more flexible. Especially since we had to interact with so many different day care centers and children.

What was your favorite part of the week?
No matter where everyone was during the day, we all met up at a restaurant for dinner each night. That was a fun bonding experience for me.
Alternative Spring Break was a huge success, and again, we are so appreciative of all of our volunteers. You never know how far one week of selflessness can go. Hopefully, our ASB volunteers found out.

Working in the FocusFirst scheduling office you occasionally get the chance to speak with preschool directors weeks after the screening ended. A few weeks ago I was making such phone calls because we were missing details on the children we screened. What I received from one of these calls was much more than the mailing address we needed.

The director on the phone told me how wonderful it was that we came and how a few of the children had already been to the doctor and gotten glasses. I replied, “That’s great! We’re so happy we could have helped.” But that was just the beginning of the good news she wanted to share with me. The director further explained that one little boy in particular had gone to the eye doctor and since he has been wearing his glasses the teachers had noticed significant behavioral improvements.

In the past Tommy was irritable, difficult to manage in the classroom, and did not play well with the other children. The director explained that since he has had his glasses his behavioral problems had vanished. Now Tommy was interacting well with the other children, following directions well, and overall was much more engaged and playful.

We agreed that the toddler likely had been experiencing headaches just as adults do when their vision impairments aren’t corrected. Headaches caused by vision impairments could have definitely left this toddler irritable. I thanked the director for sharing this information with me and am continually so grateful that she did. Learning that we helped a child not only see more clearly, but also aided in his behavioral development has given me an increased sense of purpose. Tommy may have been on the path to becoming labeled as the “bully” or the “problem student.” Such labels could have followed this toddler for years, contributing to educational and relational delays as well as self-esteem difficulties.

I would have never expected that a simple photo of a child’s eyes could lead to so many meaningful changes in his life. Knowing we have helped this one toddler gain more than glasses, but a new chance at friendships and the confidence that comes with success in the classroom has been a reminder to me of the many ways we intentionally and unintentionally Impact Alabama.

Once upon a humid July in 2010, FocusFirst vision screenings began,
Hotels and rental cars filled our days – including the occasional minivan.
Delicious lunches for $10 a day on the Impact credit card,
Trying local hot spots and being bold – letting down my “stomach’s” guard.
Abound on the highway, a different county every day,
Visiting urban and rural areas both near and far away.
Equipment in place, the kids “make big eyes”,
Wrappin’ up the details before speedy goodbyes.
Nearsightedness, farsightedness, and the dreaded cataracts,
All finding their way on our pictures, organized in methodical stacks.

Then we did a complete 180 and promptly switched gears,
SaveFirst rolled in, along with forms, TaxWise, and especially keen volunteers.
Mondays and Tuesdays are in Birmingham, Wednesdays in Decatur,
The rest of my time at the Huntsville site, with 50-60 hours clocked sooner or later.
Taxpayers come in with forms such as W-2s, 1099-Rs, and the occasional 1098-T,
They are wonderfully pleasant and relieved to avoid a tax preparation fee.
For our taxpayers, the tax site brings many opportunities and chances,
We hope for a high earned income credit that could improve a family’s finances.
Unlike some tax preparers, we shield from audits and RALs with exorbitant interest rates,
We knead and we pull within legal means, and do all we can to seal prosperous fates.

Soon enough, the tables will turn and we’ll start anew,
We’ll go back to vision screenings and in early June CollegeFirst will make its debut.
So we’ll say goodbye to FocusFirst and embrace the study scene,
While preparing high schoolers for AP classes and a rigorous study routine.
Math, chemistry, and biology through the warm summer days,
Practice questions and study techniques that will inspire and amaze.
Of course, this will be the last initiative and then onto a new chapter I will go,
Though I will never forget this hectic year and tremendous ways it has made me grow.
This year has been filled with chaos, challenges, and many twists and turns,
But I now adore Impact Alabama, vision screenings, and even tax returns!

SaveNow Win Later excites me because I love the creativity behind it. I am proud that we have been able to turn the idea of prize-linked savings into an initiative that has already proven successful. The $20,000 grand prize of SNWL has caused many a taxpayer to consider saving for the future, and I appreciate our unique method in encouraging this important value.

I recently came across another “unconventional” way to save when helping an old man at my tax site in Gadsden (for the sake of anonymity, I’ll refer to him as Mr. Williams).

In order to make ends meet during hard times, Mr. Williams had recently started doing lumber work on the side. His new job helped him get by, but he earned a large sum of non-employee compensation with no federal withholding. My heart sank when I had to explain his unexpected balance of nearly $1,500.

As I went through the various payment options, he was visibly distraught. He had no way to pay that large amount. He wanted to go home and think about an installment plan before making a decision and left the site with a wrinkled brow.

Mr. Williams returned to the site the following Saturday and confidently told me he was ready to pay his balance that afternoon. Surprised, I asked if he were certain that he could pay the full $1,500. He just smiled and said proudly, “I’ve decided to get rid of my quarters.”

Do you remember those trendy coin albums advertised on television circa 1999? They look like thin green books and open up to reveal rows of slots for the commemorative state quarters – one for each of the 50 states. Well, Mr. Williams had shelves of them. His quirky habit may have bordered on pure obsession, but he had a small fortune in foldable collectors’ books!

When he learned that he owed the IRS a hefty chunk of cash, Mr. Williams decided at long last to count his beloved coins. He returned to my site happy to report that he had enough to cover the $1,500 debt.

That’s a lot of quarters!!!

As I printed his federal voucher, Mr. Williams revealed his strong opinions about the designs on the state quarters. Alabama’s quarter naturally transcends all others with its portrait of Helen Keller and her name etched in Braille.

Our neighbor Mississippi is a distant second place with two lovely magnolia blossoms.

The bucking bronco on the Wyoming coin, however, is the ugliest design Mr. Williams has ever seen. As he continued to insist, “They didn’t give that darn horse any hair!”

Mr. Williams returned to my tax site a third time on the following Saturday to bring me a Wyoming quarter. Even after taking out the $1,500 to pay his taxes, he still had enough coins leftover to show off his collection to new friends.

Savings is important – no matter what creative form it takes!

Volunteerism: the principle of donating time and energy for the benefit of other people in the community as a social responsibility rather than for any financial reward.

We rely heavily on volunteers here at Impact Alabama. And, boy, do we have some awesome volunteers. Tax season has truly proven that to me (not that I ever doubted it in the first place). Words cannot express how amazed I am by the students who volunteer with Impact. These students often give up their Saturdays and numerous hours during the week to ensure that each of our initiatives are successful.

I have had the opportunity to work with students from Auburn University, The University of Alabama, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham Southern College and Huntingdon College during tax season. These students have all been amazing. Seriously, I do not know what we would do without the willingness of our volunteer base. These students could spend their free time many other ways, but they have chosen to complete tax returns for low-income families throughout the state or assist with vision screenings.

We often hear that our generation is perceived as lazy. I beg to differ. Our volunteers are anything but lazy. They are awesome and I cannot thank them enough.

To all Impact Alabama volunteers: you guys rock. Without you all, Impact would not have been able to complete thousands of tax returns and help taxpayers save hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax prep fees – as well as $30,000+ in personal savings with our Save Now Win Later initiative.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I started working for Impact right when I graduated from college, and I can’t imagine taking a different path. I came on staff to coordinate the SaveFirst initiative, and I was responsible for developing our tax training curriculum, conducting all training for participating students, managing students and tax sites and, along with Stephen, creating our initial community and campus partnerships. We’ve grown from two sites in 2007 to sixteen sites in 2011, and I’m very proud of our success and development. I originally planned to work for Impact for a year and then go to law school, but after my first tax season, I just couldn’t reconcile leaving this incredible program after learning so much in the first season. One year turned into two and then three, and then I bought a house and decided to make Impact my career. I became Executive Director in February, and I’m learning a lot about management, accounting, fund raising, and supervising an amazing staff of recent college graduates.

What’s the craziest experience you ever had at a tax site?

I don’t know about craziest, but the two things I liked most about managing tax sites were these: (1) meeting incredibly strong women who were single moms, raising kids on minimal incomes with no help from the kids’ fathers, and genuinely interested in learning about taxes and financial options available to them in order to allow their kids access to their fullest potential, and (2) teaching college students tax law, a skill that they are very nervous about learning, and watching them grow from apprehensive to confident and competent and understanding more fully what it’s like to live in poverty.

What’s it like working with Stephen Black?

Stephen is the most creative and hardest working man in Alabama. We have a tremendous partnership and love to sit and talk through ideas and challenges and new projects. He likes to move forward in big leaps and I love being in a job that is rewarding and challenging every single day and with a nonprofit that is addressing Alabama’s problems in a very significant way.

How many hours do you really work a week, and where do you get your super powers? You do so much for the team and we all want to know your secret!

Haha, it really depends on the season.  If I had any super powers, they would come from my godmother, who was my mentor and confidant for the first 20+ years of my life until she passed away. She still inspires me.

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

Running Impact Alabama in partnership with Stephen Black – at that point we’ll be the most successful, well-functioning nonprofit in Alabama (although I would argue that we’re a contender for that honor now)!

Tell us about your dream vacation! Budget and vacation time are unlimited.

I’ve done quite a bit of traveling in Europe, so right now I’m digging on South America. My current dream vacation would allow me to spend several weeks in a crash course in Spanish, and then combining countrysides and cities throughout the continent.

What do you find really exciting about Alabama today?

The development of Birmingham and the energy in the young professional community here. I am an active member in Rotaract, and being around those young leaders and talking about/dreaming about what Birmingham “would be” is really inspiring.

Tell us about your dog!

I adopted Gracie, a 3-year-old Weimaraner, last April, and she has been a truly great addition to my life! She is very loving and loyal and loves to curl up next to me. Sometimes she doesn’t realize her size – she has been known to climb on the back of the sofa like a cat so she can get closer to me or look out the window. She also is a shoe sneaker. If I can’t find a shoe, I know to look in Gracie’s bed because chances are she cuddled with it the night before.

What are some of the things you do outside of your time with Impact?

I love to play ultimate frisbee and am an active member in Rotaract and at First United Methodist Church in downtown Birmingham. I used to play the piano, and for Christmas I am getting a 1939 used Wurlitzer to try and re-learn that particular skill. Three personal goals: (1) write a book of poetry, (2) film a feature-length documentary, (3) learn to speak Spanish. As to the first, I’m on my way with three poems written (how many does a book need? 20? 25?). As to the second, I participated in Documenting Justice at The University of Alabama and filmed a short documentary on a high-poverty, high-performing elementary school in Montgomery, AL. But, I am taking suggestions for the feature-length. As to the third, well, I know how to pronounce words in Spanish but that’s about it. =)

What do you feel should be Impact’s next legislative initiative?

That’s a great question. The tax legislative initiative was one of the most fun times of my 4 1/2 years at Impact, and I think it made a big impact on the students involved as well as the movement for tax preparer reform. I am very interested in education reform, and would love to find a particular issue that is well-defined and could make an impact on Alabama’s children, especially those in failing schools.

December 15, 2010

HUNTSVILLE, AL– Huntsville-area families will soon have some serious incentive to pump up their savings.

Impact Alabama, a nonprofit dedicated to helping the poor, is using the lure of a $20,000U.S.savings bond to encourage families statewide to sock away money for the future.

Director Stephen Black said participants in the SaveNow WinLater program will earn one chance to win the grand prize for every $50 they invest in savings bonds during the upcoming tax season.

A random drawing to be held shortly after the April 15 tax deadline will determine the winner.

Black, grandson of legendary Alabama-born U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, said all participants will come out ahead by saving money that can help them avoid turning to high-interest payday lenders.

“There’s literally no downside to participating in this,” said Black, who announced the initiative during a Huntsville City Hallnews conference Tuesday morning.

Mayor Tommy Battle and Steve Kirkpatrick, president and CEO of theUnited Way of Madison County, also plugged the program as a no-risk way for families to create a nest egg.

“It’s a program that would benefit everybody,”Battle said.

Black said a similar “prize-linked savings” program inMichiganlast year resulted in 10,000 families – some that had never before had a savings account – socking away nearly $9 million.

While the Michigan effort encouraged participants to buy certificates of deposit from credit unions, SaveNow WinLater is the first to push investment inU.S.savings bonds. The bonds are widely available from most banks and credit unions; you can also purchase them by checking a form on your federal tax return.

Black said he hopes the program encourages lower-income families to invest part of their federal tax refund in savings bonds rather than spending it all. The average working family in Alabama receives $2,100 back from the federal government, he said.

SaveNow WinLater is open to families with children earning less than $50,000 a year, plus individuals and couples without kids making less than $25,000.

Black said the program grew out of Harvard economist Peter Tufano’s research on prize-linked savings. Tufano’s nonprofit agency was heavily involved inMichigan’s Save to Win initiative and is also a partner in the Alabama effort.

Black, who heads the University of Alabama’s Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, said he checked with Alabama Attorney General Troy King to make sure the program does not violate anti-gambling laws.

He said King suggested adding an element of skill to the contest, so the family that wins the grand prize drawing will have to study for and pass a 20-question financial literacy test.

TUSCALOOSA–University of Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy helped a vision screening program for children conduct its 100,000th screening.

Impact Alabama’s Focus First Initiative marked the milestone Wednesday at Tuscaloosa Head Start.

The Focus First Initiative uses college students to make sure children in Head Start programs and low income day-care centers state-wide are screened for vision problems.

McElroy assisted five children with their exams and said he’s proud to be part of a program having a positive impact on  Alabama.

Founder Stephen Black said about 11 percent of the children fail the screenings and receive subsidized follow-up care through Sight Savers America. He added that the goal is to make sureAlabamachildren start school with the best vision medically possible. 

– The Associated Press

by Hannah Wolfson

When the nonprofit group Impact Alabama started screening children’s eyes six years ago, its organizers were just looking for a way to make a difference.

On Wednesday, the day the group expected to perform its 100,000th vision check,University of Alabama  quarterback Greg McElroy was on hand to help screen children at a Head Start day care in Tuscaloosa.

“It’s a celebration of a completely nationally unique initiative,” said Impact Alabama president Stephen Black, who is also director of UA’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility.

Black came up with the idea for statewide vision screenings in 2004, when he was looking for a way college students could affect health in Alabama.

“It really was just good luck that I fell into this gap in coverage that every state suffers from, which is early childhood vision care,” Black said. “There’s not a state in the country that comprehensively provides vision screenings before public school.”

But about one in 10 youngsters has some kind of vision problem, and many of those emerge in children as young as 2 — well before they know or can tell someone something’s wrong, he said.

In the first year, FocusFirst tested about 4,500 children at day cares around the state. Today, there’s a team of 30 full-time employees, mostly recent college graduates, who oversee undergraduate and graduate students as they conduct screenings in Head Start and low-income day-care centers in every county in the state. Their goal is to screen 30,000 children this academic year.

They use a high-tech camera to take pictures of the children’s eyes in a dark room; those pictures can then be analyzed for irregularities. The subjects, who range in age from 6 months to 5 years, don’t need to be able to read an eye chart or have their eyes dilated.

About 11 percent have some kind of problem, including nearsightedness, farsightedness or lazy eye, and are referred for subsidized follow-up care. In the last two years, the team has found at least six children with cataracts, which can cause blindness if not caught early.

“It really has been remarkable,” Black said.

by Amanda Sams

Some people may have been surprised to find Crimson Tide quarterback Greg McElroy holding a grinning child on his lap the Wednesday morning before the Duke game. The athlete sat in a faded cinder block building on2nd Streetto administer a vision screening test for the 100,000th child to participate in ImpactAlabama’s FocusFirst Initiative.

“I found out about FocusFirst a few weeks ago, and this is actually my first experience working with them,” McElroy said. “I feel really blessed to be a part of such an important milestone.”

FocusFirst opened its doors seven years ago to provide vision screening for children 6 months to 5 years old who come from low-income families in the state’s rural and urban areas and would not otherwise have access to treatment.

“We mainly focus on kids who are younger than school age, because the early years are so crucial in learning to read letters and numbers,” said Stephen Black, director of the Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility and founder of ImpactAlabama. “Eleven percent of the children we screen are found to have vision problems.”

FocusFirst partners with the non-profit organization Sight Savers America, a group of optometrists and ophthalmologists who are willing to see low-income children for free in order to provide them with necessary treatment. FocusFirst screened 29,000 children in 2009 and hopes to screen 30,000 in the upcoming year, Black said.

A distinctive aspect of FocusFirst is that college students perform most of the screenings under the supervision of staff members.

“There are two sides to FocusFirst,” Black said. “We wanted to figure out a way to make a positive impact on the community and also get college students involved. Many students take for granted the ability to go see a doctor regularly.”

McElroy said he understands the significant role that good vision plays in everyday life, from reading a book to catching a football.

“I am very near sighted and almost legally blind,” McElroy said. “I understand how difficult it is to read when vision isn’t 100 percent. I thought it would be beneficial to take an hour out of my day to come help these kids.”

As the screening was performed, McElroy assisted five children, smiling and speaking encouraging words to them while their eyes were checked.

“Keep after your dreams, and work as hard as you possibly can,” McElroy said. “If you are willing to make the sacrifices necessary, then you should be able to accomplish anything you want to do.”

Sept. 15, 2010

The lights went out at a Head Start center inTuscaloosatoday, for the 100,000th vision screening of ImpactAlabama’s FocusFirst Initiative.

Stephen Black, director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at the University of Alabama and president of ImpactAlabama, said that the center has reached a milestone in its seventh year.

“This is a statewide, campus-based initiative that is housed at the University of Alabama, but we partner with other universities around the state,” Black said. “We train students to conduct high-tech vision screening of low-income 3- and 4-year-olds.”

On hand to help with the screening was Greg McElroy, quarterback for the Crimson Tide. “It’s obviously a great initiative and something I’m very proud to be a part of,” McElroy said. “With it having the impact that it does across the state, I think they figured it was very fitting to have a player from theUniversityofAlabamabe here and take part in the screening.”

According to an Impact Alabama press release, undergraduate and graduate students screen children from the ages of six months to five years old in Head Start centers and lower-income daycares. The students use high-tech photo optics scan cameras and each child can receive subsidized follow-up care if needed.

McElroy assisted five children, placing each one on his lap and helping them look through the viewfinder to do the screening. The children were Hilary Howard, 3, Ta’bius Furr, 5, Indonesia Langstaff, 3, Tristan Lucious, 4, and Keanthony Minor, 4.

While McElory lent a hand with the children, Lindsey Thomas, an employee at the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, encouraged the children to look at the light while the screening was taking place.

“We find year after year, center after center, more than 11 percent of these kids have vision problems, and they have no way to know it until we come here,” Black said. “We found six kids last year in addition to the 11 percent (statewide) that had cataracts in one eye, which will blind you permanently in a couple of years if it goes undetected.”

Karly Alexander, a graduate student at the University of Alabama majoring in speech pathology, came to the center to help with the screenings. “Each graduate (student) picks 2 to 3 times in the fall at the beginning of the school year,” she said. “(The screening) picks up students (with vision problems) that sometimes teachers might have missed. That student would have done poorly otherwise.”

Originally starting in 2004, FirstFocus has more than 2,000 college students at more than 20 colleges throughoutAlabamaparticipating in the program, according to a press release issued by the organization.

As of Wednesday morning, the students have screened more than 100,000 children in every county in Alabama.

“I think it’s very important that centers like this are establishing (an education) for kids at a very young age,” McElroy said. “I think everyone deserves an opportunity to get an education, and they understand the importance of trying to help kids learn how to read and things of that nature. “I think it’s a great initiative, and I’m just very proud and honored to be a part of it.

Impact Alabama’s Focus First Initiative marked the milestone Wednesday at Tuscaloosa Head Start.

The Focus First Initiative uses college students to make sure children in Head Start programs and low income day-care centers state-wide are screened for vision problems.

McElroy assisted five children with their exams and said he’s proud to be part of a program having a positive impact on  Alabama.

Founder Stephen Black said about 11 percent of the children fail the screenings and receive subsidized follow-up care through Sight Savers America. He added that the goal is to make sureAlabamachildren start school with the best vision medically possible. 

TUSCALOOSA,Alabama– University ofAlabamaquarterback Greg McElroy is helping a vision screening program for children conduct its 100,000th screening.

ImpactAlabama’s Focus First Initiative is marking the milestone Wednesday at Tuscaloosa Head Start.

The Focus First Initiative uses college students to make sure children in Head Start programs and low income day-care centers statewide are screened for vision problems.

Founder Stephen Black says about 11 percent of the children fail the screenings and receive subsidized follow-up care through Sight Savers America. He says the goal is to make sureAlabamachildren start school with the best vision medically possible.

IF SHE LOOKED close enough, Erin Hughen could see the small white dot in her young son’s right eye. It stood out against the black of Cayden Cox’s small pupil.Erinassumed it was nothing to worry about.

“My mother has a birthmark in her eye, so we just always passed it off as that,” she says. Besides, money was tight.Erinwas a single mother working as a full time office manager in a job that didn’t offer vision care. “It was the last thing on our minds,” she says.

In the fall of 2008, Cayden’s daycare in Moundville was one of several hundred preschools throughoutAlabamato participate in FocusFirst, a special program that provides free high-tech vision screenings to young children in urban and rural communities.Erinwas shocked to learn her two-and a half-year-old son had failed. The screening analysis by Vision Research Corporation revealed that Cayden had potentially significant problems in both eyes and would need to be seen by specialists.

During a free follow-up visit through Sight Savers America in which University of Alabama at Birmingham pediatric ophthalmologist Dr. Thomas Metz volunteers his time,Erinlearned that the little white dot in Cayden’s right eye was a cataract. The cataract caused his vision to become lopsided, creating a condition known as anisometropia.

For young children like Cayden, anisometropia can be a serious concern because it can lead to amblyopia, or impaired vision in one eye also known as “lazy eye.” In Cayden’s case, his left eye developed astigmatism. He was treated with special eye drops and given a pair of corrective eyeglasses donated by volunteer opticians from LensCrafters in Montgomery, Alabama.

Early diagnosis and treatment are vital for young children like Cayden. In many cases, vision problems diagnosed in children as young as two or three can be corrected, while the same problems in children just a few years older cannot because their visual pathways are already formed. Unfortunately, most children aren’t screened until they reach school.

The lack of preschool vision screening is a problem that affects all children, not just children living in poverty, says Stephen Black, president and founder of ImpactAlabama, a nonprofit organization that develops and implements substantive service-learning projects for college students. When children grow up with poor vision, they have a more difficult time learning than children without vision problems because they simply cannot see to learn.

“Not a single state in the country comprehensively screens children for vision problems before they enter elementary school because it’s too expensive to send trained staff to daycares all over the state,” Stephen explains. Thus, finding a solution to that problem became one of ImpactAlabama’s first initiatives, known as FocusFirst.

The mission of FocusFirst is to train college and graduate students to perform vision screenings. Those students then travel to daycares throughout the state and conduct screenings. Using student-volunteers is a win-win situation for the program. Not only does it provide a much needed service for the children, it also exposes the students to the realities of healthcare in poorer communities.

When FocusFirst launched in 2004, more than 4,500 children in 115 sites were screened. Last year the program reached nearly 30,000 children in 1,000 sites. To date, a total of 88,800 children from every county inAlabamahave been screened. Eleven percent – nearly 9,800 preschool children – failed their screening and were referred for follow-up care through Sight Savers America.

“I think it is incredibly gratifying and rewarding,” Stephen says of FocusFirst. But, he credits the program’s success to the Impact Alabama staff, a team of recent college graduates “willing to work full time for an entire year for only about $11,000.” Those graduates have recruited and trained more than 1,900 college students from more than 20 universities and colleges throughout the state to conduct vision screenings.

“That’s really the most remarkable part of the story and the key to replicating the model,”

Stephen says. “It’s the willingness of young people to contribute a huge amount of effort and time for very little money, all in order to make a difference in the ability of preschool children to see, to learn and to soar.”

For more information on ImpactAlabama, please visit www.impactalabama.org.

Regions is a proud supporter of ImpactAlabama.

July 4, 2010

Birmingham’s SpeakFirst citywide debate team members have raked in $2.5 million in college scholarship offers over the past three years.

They won local competitions against Mountain Brook, Homewood and Vestavia Hills high schools and they won a district championship to secure their place for the first time ever at the national high school debate championships.

Now, the team, comprising students from throughout the metro area, is looking for new recruits.

Stephen Black, founder and president of ImpactAlabama, said the main quality SpeakFirst looks for in freshman recruits is a desire to go to college.

“They don’t necessarily have to be a natural debater,” he said. “We’re looking for someone who has a commitment to go to college, will work hard and also who makes really good grades.”

The good grades, coupled with strong debate skills, help boost the student’s confidence and also gives the students an advantage in applying for college scholarships.

Jennifer Moore and Sydney Page, the team members who recently placed in the nation’s top 100 debaters at nationals, will both go to college this fall on scholarships.

Moore, who has been awarded a $226,000 scholarship toVanderbiltUniversity, joined SpeakFirst as a freshman at Ramsay High School. She was recommended by her middle school counselor and she had family ties to debate.

“I decided to join and see if it would be something I would enjoy,” said the 17-year-old who plans to become a lawyer.

Page, who joined the team her sophomore year at Ramsay, chose debate because she said she wanted to try new things. “I had never really participated in debate,” Page said. “After the first tournament, I really liked it, and I was pretty good at it for having just started.”

She will attend theUniversityofAlabama, studying history and computer technology and applications. She has scholarship offers totaling $91,000.

Preparation

To prepare for the national tournament, the two debaters practiced for four weeks, up to five hours each day. They researched their debate topic and wrote arguments about current trends in American political speech.

“It was a lot of work at the beginning, but once we got in the swing of things it evened out,” Moore said. “We realized the work was necessary to be prepared for a national competition. It taught us that the hard work we’ve put in so far will have to be amplified.”

Their preparation paid off.

The pair ranked among the top debate teams in the country and both are considering continuing some form of debate participation in college.

Black, who founded SpeakFirst in 2004, said while topics such as high school dropout rates and low achievement scores get lots of attention, there are good stories, like the success of students such as Moore and Page.

“This shows that there are kids out there who make good grades, play by the rules and join clubs,” he said. “This gives them the opportunity to compete at the highest level of academic programming.”

A total of 32 students have been involved with SpeakFirst since it started, Black said. All have gone to college, and all but one team member received scholarships, including all four of this year’s seniors.

Black said SpeakFirst is a good model for debate teams.

Page said SpeakFirst has helped her hone her research, writing and public speaking skills. “I am very rarely nervous to speak in public,” she said. “I think that confidence is going to be beneficial to me in college as well as adulthood.”

Moore said SpeakFirst prepares students for what they will face in college and the real world.

“SpeakFirst gives students confidence that they might not have otherwise gotten,” she said. “Not just through the friendships, but actually getting up in front of a room of people and giving a speech that you have been preparing for weeks. That’s the confidence students need to be successful in the real world.”

June 11, 2010

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— Ramsay High School students, Jennifer Moore and Sydney Page, are selected to represent Birmingham and the state of Alabama at the upcoming National Debate Championship in Kansas City.

Competing as a pair, SpeakFirst debaters Jennifer Moore and Sydney Page achieved key wins at area tournaments in January and February of 2010, bringing the team its first tournament wins in its six year history.

Along with other team members, that same pair of Ramsay High School seniors went on to achieve additional victories at a March Regional Tournament, victories that secured SpeakFirst’s place as one of only four teams from Alabama chosen to represent the state at the upcoming National Debate Championship to be held June 14th-June 18th in Kansas City.

SpeakFirst students, representing Birmingham City Schools, practice three hours a day, three days a week, and compete in monthly tournaments across the southeast. In securing their position at nationals, the SpeakFirst team competed against a wide range of schools across Alabama, including Mountain Brook, Homewood,Vestavia Hills, Altamont, St. James  School, Montgomery Academy, the Randolph School, and others.

June 10, 2010

Ninety high school students from Birmingham and Jefferson County Schools will have a leg up on the competition when they begin Advanced Placement classes in the fall.

The students this week began an intensive three-week tutorial on college-level calculus, biology and chemistry as part of a new program run by ImpactAlabama, a nonprofit organization that provides service opportunities for college students.

Students from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, theUniversityofAlabamaand Birmingham Southern College are teaching the classes, which include hands-on time at laboratories at UAB.

Program founder Stephen Black, who is director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at theUniversityofAlabama, said students who complete a single Advanced Placement class in high school are three times more likely to succeed in college, so the new CollegeFirst program is expected to have an immediate impact.

“If you give these kids a path to excellence, they’ll take it,” Black said.

The program, which is free to the high school students, is financed by a $50,000 grant from the Birmingham law firm Maynard, Cooper & Gale and by state and federal assistance.

Birmingham and Jefferson County Schools have greatly expanded their Advanced Placement class offerings over the past year or two, and teachers told ImpactAlabamaadministrators that many students weren’t prepared for the difficult curriculum, said Sarah Louise Smith, executive director of Impact Alabama.

Students’ progress in the classes will be monitored through the use of diagnostic tests, she said, and the expectation is that this fall the students will be much better prepared.

Tia Jenkins, a 16-year-old who will be a junior atWenonahHigh Schoolthis fall, said she jumped at the chance to take the chemistry program. She plans to go to college and major in business administration, and hopes to one day find herself running a bio-technology company.

“No,” she corrected, “I will be running it.”

Participating students were selected through A+ College Ready, a statewide initiative to improve success in AP classes.Alabamalags behind the nation when it comes to AP classes. Nationally, 15.2 percent of public school students from the high school class of 2008 passed an AP exam, compared with 6.8 percent inAlabama, according to ImpactAlabama.

HUNTSVILLE, AL– A select group of high school students from Huntsville City and Madison County Schools began CollegeFirst, a nationally unique summer enrichment program designed to better prepare students for the challenge of college-level Advanced Placement courses in math and science.

The joint partnership of Impact Alabama and A+ College Ready is sponsored by the law firm Maynard, Cooper & Gale. Nineteen ImpactAlabamastaff and 24 college students from

UAHuntsville and the University of Alabama will lead these high school sophomores and juniors through three weeks of rigorous curriculum, including advanced math lessons and biology and chemistry labs.

Students will improve their skills in critical thinking and writing to increase their chance for success during the school year. The college students are participating as part of a service-learning initiative sponsored by ImpactAlabama, a nonprofit working with college campuses statewide to develop and implement substantive service-learning courses for their students.

“Believing that all high-school students deserve an opportunity to succeed in rigorous, college-level experiences, this initiative provides successful college and graduate students as both tutors and mentors, helping increase the number of area students who will be ready, not only to attend college, but to excel in college,” said Stephen Black, president of Impact Alabama.

High school students were selected through A+ College Ready, a statewide initiative to dramatically increase AP success in math, science and English. Participating students are enrolled in AP courses in an A+ College Ready program school.

“We are delighted to partner with Impact Alabama to bring this summer enrichment program to our students,” said Mary Boehm, president of A+ College Ready. “These weeks of tutoring and mentoring will help students succeed not only in high school, but will ultimately help prepare them for success in college.”

Advanced Placement courses enable motivated students to take college-level courses taught by teachers in their local high schools. Through AP courses, talented and dedicated AP teachers help students develop and apply the skills, abilities and content knowledge they will need to succeed in college. Research has consistently shown that students passing AP exams are three times more likely to earn a college degree than students who do not pass.

While 15.2 percent of America’s public school graduating class of 2008 received a passing score on an AP exam, just 6.8 percent of Alabama’s public school graduating class of 2008 received a passing score on an AP exam (13.5 percent took at least one AP exam). For the 2008-09 year, A+ College Ready’s first 12 program schools posted an 83 percent increase in the number of AP exams passed in just one year.

The successful pilot has already grown to 43 schools around the state, and it is expected to impact more than 18,000 students by 2013.

Feb. 7, 2010

Senior citizens, disabled individuals and married couples filled a room Saturday, waiting patiently, not for a doctor, but for free tax assistance.

After almost an hour, Jeff Springer handed his financial papers to a SaveFirst volunteer.

“Having this for free means a whole lot,” said Springer, who receives disability. “Medical bills are so high and insurance is so high, wherever you can save helps. This does matter.”

Developed by Impact Alabama, the SaveFirst initiative offers no-cost tax services to households eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit.

The tax assistance serves a community need that has grown annually, said Laurie Lincoln, communications manager for the Community Action Partnership of North Alabama onCentral Parkway Southwest, site of SaveFirst services in Decatur.

Started in 2007, SaveFirst, an Internal Revenue Service-sanctioned operation, has expanded from a two-city operation to 16 sites in 13 cities.

Hundreds in fees

Organizers brought the program toDecaturin 2008 — a program Claire Fuller took advantage of.

“This is my third year having my taxes done here. I used to pay, but I can’t afford that anymore living on Social Security,” said the Decatur grandmother.

According to ImpactAlabamafounder Stephen Black, most households inAlabamapay at least $250 in tax service fees each year.

“For me that’s a lot of money,” Fuller said. “That’s food for a month and probably gas, too.”

In 2009, SaveFirst, statewide, generated $4.7 million in tax returns, saving low-income households $669,000 in service fees. Program officials expect to top those numbers this year.

“On Friday there were more appointments statewide then we have ever had in the history of SaveFirst,” said Ethan Suttle, a volunteer from The University of Alabama.

In Decatur, Lincoln predicts the program will serve approximately the same number of clients as last year, despite operating with a shortened season.

“Last year we went until April 15 and saw a little over 143 clients. This year we are going until Feb. 27,” she said.

As of Saturday, theDecaturlocation had filed taxes for 37 clients with another 40 scheduled, said Meghan Holmes, site coordinator for Impact Alabama.

Along with SaveFirst, Retired and Senior Volunteer Programs in Limestone and Morgan counties offer free tax assistance.

“The need is there. As the deadline nears, lines will start to form at the library to receive the RSVP help,”Lincoln said. “We are not competing with one another. We are complementing one another.”

Although residents are taking advantage of the service, many continue to pay for assistance. Black said about 82 percent of Decatur residents eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit will pay to access the benefit. Springer was part of the statistic last year.

“I used a tax service last year, and by the time I got home I basically had no return because of the fees and charges,” he said.

The ability to receive their returns instantly prompts some filers to hire professional tax preparers and apply for predatory loans. Suttle said SaveFirst offers direct deposit, speeding up the time clients can receive their returns. Typically returns arriving via direct deposit take seven to 10 days, Suttle said.

“The low income population we serve needs that money back quickly for groceries and medical bills,”Lincolnsaid. “One lady called who was checking on her return because she needed the money for food to feed her children.”

By Feb. 27, the last day SaveFirst will provide assistance,Lincolnexpects the approximately 40 college-age volunteers to file more than 140 claims.Lincolnsaid appointments are still available and a Spanish translator will be available Feb. 13 and Feb. 27.

“We are here to serve the community, and any way we can better serve we will,”Lincoln said.

Jan. 27, 2010

Working-class families now have the opportunity to get free, reliable help with filing their taxes thanks to Wallace Community Collegeand Impact Alabama.

Starting on Friday, students from Wallace Collegewill begin offering free income tax preparation services to working families.

“The students are taught basic tax law principles concerning filing status, dependents, and tax credits,” said Delmar Smith, Wallace director of business technologies. “They are also trained to use Taxwise, a tax preparation software that allows the students to quickly prepare accurate returns.”

The program’s aim is to help working families get the most out of tax benefits offered to them. According to ImpactAlabama, the Earned Income Tax Credit is the federal government’s largest and most successful antipoverty program for low-income working families. The EITC is meant to offset the burden of Social Security taxes on the working poor, and encourages work.

The EITC can result in a negative tax liability for some. This means that some taxpayers will get a full refund of any income taxes they paid into the system plus an additional payment when they file their taxes.

Often low-income working families hire tax preparers or take out tax refund anticipation loans to get access to their EITC money, which prevents them from getting the full amount they’re eligible for.

According to ImpactAlabama, about 73 percent ofDothan’s EITC recipients pay an average of $250 for tax preparation or refund anticipation loans.

Smith estimated that Wallace students would help about 100 families with their taxes.

January 27, 2010

Dana Hamilton loves everything to do with numbers. As a senior accounting major at theUniversity of North Alabama, that comes in handy, especially as a volunteer for ImpactAlabama’s Save First initiative. It’s a program that helps low income families with their annual tax returns.

Already, Save First has 16 offices statewide, with locations from Decatur to Dothan.

This year, the organization has opened an office at Weeden Elementary School in Florence, to offer the service to Shoals residents.

Greg Carnes, an accounting and business law professor at UNA, helped coordinate the student volunteers for the program. He said more than 50 students have participated in the training and taken the test for IRS tax preparations.

I’m pleased with the turnout because it exceeded my expectations,” Carnes said. “(Being involved in Save First) provides them with experience from the professional perspective of getting used to dealing with clients, people and solving problems. It also provides excellent community service to people in the Shoals who get tax returns done for free, and if they qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, getting that full refund.”

The initiative was developed based on extensive investigations by representatives by ImpactAlabamainto the tax filing practices of some tax preparers. In its third year, estimates from the organization show that 2,600 families in just 12Alabamacounties secured more than $4.7 million in tax refunds, saving them more than $670,000 in commercial tax preparation fees.

Lindsay Kennemer and her brother, Jim, helped establish the program at Weeden, hanging fliers around the neighborhood, sending information home in kids’ backpacks and creating phone trees to let families know the service is available.

“Tuesday marked our first day open because we had a few computer and Internet glitches,” Lindsay Kennemer said. “But we’ve already been able to help some people.”

Hamiltonwas among those to help the initial visitors to the Save First office.

“She was a student, like me, and a mother of two, also like me, so I understood what she needed,”Hamiltonsaid. “I know every situation is going to be different, but it was good to have that person as my first. I got some practice with that.”

Roswell Richardson, also a senior at UNA, said the experience with helping others prepare their taxes was one reason he wanted to participate.

“I also wanted to be able to give back,” he said. “This is so relevant to what we’re going to be doing in the real world.”

Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or michelle.eubanks@TimesDaily.com.

Jan. 19, 2010

Tax preparation fees in Alabama cost an average of $250, an amount many working-class families cannot spare and will not have to because of efforts of college students and retirees.

The volunteers with SaveFirst and the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program are providing free tax preparation services toNorth Alabama residents.

Staffed with college students, SaveFirst, an initiative of Impact Alabama, focuses on offering no-cost tax services to households eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit.

For residents who do not qualify to receive assistance from SaveFirst, the Athens-based Retired and Senior Volunteer Program also provides free tax preparation.

“We are basically looking to help the elderly and low income but will help anyone who walks in,” said Betty Ruth, the program’s director.

Prospective clients do not need to schedule an appointment at either of the program’s sites in Athens or Decatur.

SaveFirst, which started as a two-city operation in 2007 filing 311 returns, expanded to 12 cities last year processing 2,676 returns. In 2009, the initiative generated $4.7 million in tax returns, saving low-income households $669,000 in service fees.

Heavy demand

“The demand we are seeing far outweighs our ability to serve the communities,” said Stephen Black, Impact Alabama founder.

With the recent economic climate, organizers expect demand to increase, a trend both SaveFirst and the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program have seen in recent years.

“People who have been paying providers are coming to us because they do not know where else to go,” said Laurie Lincoln, communications manager for the Community Action Partnership of North Alabama. “They can possibly pay the $140 for a tax preparer but are hurting so bad they need to save that money.”

According to the National Society of Accountants, the tax service fee in Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi averaged $137 for a basic return. Black said most households in Alabama pay at least $250.

“Think about $250. To an average family that’s the equivalent to eating for more than a month,” Black said. “Think about how high the natural gas bill is going to be for the month after this cold weather.”

SaveFirst’s eligibility requirements include annual earnings of $49,000 or less for one- or two-parent households with children. Adults with no children who earn $20,000 or less are also eligible.

Students from The University of Alabama and The University of Alabama in Huntsville will begin processing returns Jan. 23.

Lincoln advised people who do not meet income eligibility but who have recently lost a job or had a drastic change in income to contact SaveFirst.

“SaveFirst wants to help people. That’s what they are here for. Before assuming you can not receive assistance they need to check with the organization,”Lincoln said.

Black predicted the initiative will serve more than 3,300 households inAlabama. But even as SaveFirst reaches more households, many local families still face mounting tax fees. Black said about 82 percent ofDecaturresidents eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit pay an average of $200 to access the benefit.

Many also apply for predatory refund anticipation loans on their refunds, Black said. The annual percentage rate of the loans can reach 800 percent.

The initiative impacts the clients as well as the volunteers. “There are 500 students who will be processing the tax returns,” Black said. “This gives them a glimpse into the lives of working families with little to no savings who are living pay check to pay check.”

Retirees help

Ruth advised residents with rental property and who own businesses to seek advice from a professional tax preparer.

After filing 2,000 returns in 2008 and 1,500 returns in 2009, Ruth expects the program’s 15 volunteers to file at least 1,000 returns.

“It is a conservative estimate, but it’s safe to say we will reach the 1,000 mark again,” she said. The Internal Revenue Service trains and certifies the volunteers.

Sidebar:

Tax refunds and fees

• 5,400 families inDecaturclaimed $12 million through the Earned Income Tax Credit in 2006. Tax preparation and refund anticipation loan expenses cost those households $1.2 million.

• More than 492,000Alabamafamilies claim about $1 billion through the Earned Income Tax Credit each year. Tax preparation and refund anticipation loan expenses cost those households $77 million.

• The Earned Income Tax Credit is a refundable tax credit for low- to moderate-income working families to offset the burden of payroll taxes.

Jan. 19, 2010

Impact Alabama wants to help low-income tax payers see more of their tax refunds. A simple commercial tax preparation can cost more than $200. If the taxpayer wants an immediate refund, that cost can climb even more. And that is if whoever is preparing your taxes is on the up-and-up.

Impact Alabama kicked off its 2010 filing season services Monday, and is hoping to increase the number of people that it helps each year.

Stephen Black, the group’s founder, said the annual free tax clinics help families avoid paying excessive fees just to get their own money back from the government.

Black said the tax volunteers are able to handle many more returns than they do each year.

The service is free to families with children and incomes of no more than $49,000. Individuals making less than $20,000 also are eligible.

Students from colleges across the state take training courses and volunteer to fill out the returns.

Other students who are more experienced act as supervisors, and finally staff members make sure everything is correct.

Those volunteers have training on every kind of return, Black said. That includes returns for first-time homebuyers and other complex returns.

Most returns will be eligible for e-filing, which also is free, Black said. When a return is filed electronically, the taxpayer can expect a refund in a little more than a week. That reduces the need for rapid refunds and similar products, he said.

A rapid refund actually is a loan with the tax refund serving as the collateral. The loans typically are for no more than two weeks, but still are costly. Black said the annual interest rate on such loans approaches 800 percent.

“It is one of the worst aspects of this industry,” he said of the loans.

Workers who qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit are a favorite target for these rapid refund programs, Black said. About 69 percent of people who can claim the credit, paid a professional tax service to do their taxes last year, and many of these were funneled into rapid refund programs, according to ImpactAlabama.

Black is hoping to steer as many of those taxpayers as possible to the free services inMontgomeryand in more than a dozen other cities inAlabama.

More than 100 school children inLeeCountyare being screened for eye problems this week, thanks to college students participating in FocusFirst, a project of Impact Alabama.

Since 2004, more than 1,700 students attending 22Alabamacolleges, universities and high schools have screened over 60,000 children inAlabamafor eye diseases and disorders as part of their affiliation with FocusFirst.

Impact is the state’s first nonprofit organization dedicated to developing and implementing substantive service-learning projects in coordination with select universities and junior colleges throughout the state.

Potential problems have been detected in some 11.9 percent of theAlabamachildren screened to date. All such children received or will receive fully subsidized follow-up care as necessary, coordinated by Sight Savers America.

FocusFirst provides a cost-effective response to the vision problems of underprivileged children who live in urban and rural poverty inAlabama. FocusFirst student volunteers travel to communities of need and conduct vision screenings for children, six months to five years of age, using state-of-the-art photo-screening technology.

Founder and president Stephen Black, a professor/attorney who has developed a Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at theUniversityofAlabama, began implementing Impact in the fall of 2004. Impact now has 23 full-time staff members working out of the nonprofit’s headquarters inBirminghamandTuscaloosa.

“We desperately need young people’s energies, perspectives and talents to make our communities and institutions work well,” Black stated. “I see the college years as an incredible opportunity to engage students in addressing human and community needs through structured service opportunities, while providing them with a sense of their ability as well as responsibility to affect structural change.”

Visit the Impact Web site at www.impactalabama.org.

May 21, 2009

If some storefront shop flubs your tax return next year, don’t blame the Alabama Senate.

Early in this year’s legislative session, state senators passed a bill, 25-0, that would help ensure Alabamians get competent and honest service when they pay someone to prepare their tax returns.

The legislation died because it couldn’t get a vote in the House of Representatives–because some windbag lawmakers threatened a filibuster. Blame them.

The opponents included Democrats and Republicans who were clearly under the sway of commercial tax preparers. “Eighty to 90 percent of the people who do this are providing a good service,” said state Rep. Craig Ford, D-Gadsden. “It puts them out of business.”

Which is baloney.

Those who provide good service had nothing to fear from this legislation, which would have established a state board to test and license those in the income tax business who aren’t otherwise regulated as, say, accountants or lawyers.

The people whose livelihoods might have been at risk–that is, people who could not pass the test or who have been benefiting from predatory practices– hardly merit the protection of our lawmakers.

The tax-preparer bill was the brainchild of ImpactAlabama, a nonprofit group that offers free tax services to low-income families. The group began pushing for the law after its volunteers went undercover and discovered widespread problems with errors, fraud and fees in the commercial tax-preparation industry.

The implications of their findings were frightening, especially for poorer Alabamians who overwhelmingly rely on unregulated, seasonal shops to prepare their tax returns. A big trouble spot was tax preparers’ handling of the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Had House members passed Impact Alabama’s bill, those tax preparers would be required to get tested before offering their services to the public, they’d be required to get updated training each year, and they’d be required, as well, to fully disclose the details about their lucrative, auxiliary services like refund-anticipation loans.

But, no.

Alabamians will go into next year’s tax season with the same protection they had this year. Which means, for the poorest and most vulnerable Alabamians, almost no protection at all. They have the House of Representatives to thank.

April 20, 2009

A bill to regulate the state’s tax preparer industry might have gotten a boost with the prosecution of five tax preparers and the indictment of a sixth on tax‐related fraud charges last week.

But even that might not be enough to dynamite the logjam in the House that could keep the bill from reaching the floor for full debate.

The Middle District Court of Alabama recently announced the prosecution of four Montgomery residents and a Millbrook woman, and the indictment of a fifth man from Montgomery for tax-related fraud, according to U.S. Attorney Leura G. Canary’s office.

One Montgomery man was convicted of 26 separate counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false federal income tax returns while operating a tax preparation business. According to Canary’s office, Tommy Jordan, 55, and his co-conspirators prepared hundreds of fraudulent tax returns, which generated more than $3 million in fraudulent refunds.

Stephen Black, president of ImpactAlabama, said the tax preparer regulation bill, which is based on similar legislation inOregon, might not have stopped people likeJordanfrom breaking the law.

“What the bill does is help change the culture of the industry in the state,” he said. “If we put these provisions in place in the state, it improves the culture of responsibility.”

Black said theU.S.attorney’s office doesn’t investigate or prosecute every complaint of fraud, but a state board that is designated to do that could if it were given the proper authority. Under the bill, individual tax preparers would have to obtain a license, pass an examination and be subject to an oversight board that would have the authority to investigate complaints and even shut an individual preparer’s doors if a preparer is found to be operating in a fraudulent manner.

J.C. Snowden, president of the National Independent Tax Preparer Association, said it was good that the U.S. Attorney’s Office was able to stop tax preparers who were operating fraudulently. He said he hopes they continue to do that kind of work, because fraudulent operators give the entire industry a bad name.

“We want to put those kind of people out of business,” he said.

Snowden said legitimate tax preparers support regulation, but not regulation that locks tax preparers out of the process of creating the rules that would govern their industry.

“The intent of the bill is great, but the language of the bill is discriminatory against the industry that it proposes to regulate,” he said.

Snowden said that the bill needs more time so that the state doesn’t waste time and money implementing it.

His organization opposes the bill for several reasons including the proposed make up of the oversight board and the board’s authority to stop a tax preparer from operating. The association also objects to the appointment of board members who might be exempt from the regulations that the bill would put in place.

“The board members shouldn’t be exempt from the rules and regulations they’ll be writing and administering,” according to the association’s Web site. “This act shouldn’t limit as many current business owners who’ve been legally operating under the guidelines and sanctions of the IRS.”

Impact Alabama and the National Independent Tax Preparers Association are the two strongest groups for and against the bill–though there are others that have joined the mix including a few legislators. But the continued fighting over the merits of the bill among those outside the legislative process have little to do with the problems the bill might be facing now.

The House has been virtually shut down because of the Legislative Black Caucus’  continued fight to bring back a bill that would remove the state portion of the sales tax on food, and the Republican House Caucus’ continued fight to get more of their bills on the House calendar. The Republican Caucus also is refusing to let any bills backed by Senate Democrats come up for debate because of a Senate Democrats continued filibuster of House Republican bills.

Speaker of the House Seth Hammett said he believes the tax preparer regulation bill is a good idea and he would like to see the House have an opportunity to debate it. But to his knowledge it is not on an upcoming calendar for the House to consider.

“There are some members who are for it and there are some against it,” he said of the bill. “I think it’s a good idea, but it’s a Senate bill with a Democratic sponsor.”

Hammett said the bill is in better shape than most to still be debated and passed if that is the desire of the body.

The bill was passed unanimously by the Senate in February.

As federal stimulus dollars begin to flow, one unlikely beneficiary is the $30 billion tax-preparation industry. Prep specialists from top dog H&R Block (HRB) on down are celebrating as the Apr. 15 deadline approaches. The fresh treat: billions of dollars in new and expanded tax credits for individuals and small companies.

The good news for tax preparers could turn into bad news for the IRS, however, as well as an early illustration of what might be many unintended consequences stemming from the stimulus.

Tax-prep pioneer John Hewitt calls the huge federal spending package “the H&R Block and Liberty Tax Stimulus Plan.” Twenty-seven years ago, Hewitt founded Jackson Hewitt Tax Service (JTX), the second-largest chain in the business. He-now runs No. 3 Liberty Tax Service.

Hewitt has instructed his staff to explore leasing additional stores being vacated by Starbucks and other victims of the recession. “I love it whenever [lawmakers] pass tax changes,” he says. “This one helps us because there are more tax changes that affect more people than any bill I’ve ever seen.”

The mood is less cheerful at the IRS. Officials there are girding for a wave of questionable credit claims and outright fraud. A major problem, explains Nina E. Olson, the IRS taxpayer advocate (or ombudsman), is that most tax preparers are unregulated. The vast majority aren’t licensed accountants or lawyers. Only three states—California,Maryland, andOregon—certify tax preparers. In an industry of more than 1 million service providers, the IRS imposes fewer than 300 penalties a year, most quite modest.

“There are too many areas of this country where you have to go through more work to be licensed as a beautician than to do someone’s taxes,” says Representative Xavier Becerra ofCalifornia. A senior Democrat on the House Ways & Means Committee, he plans to introduce legislation this year to require that all preparers register with the IRS.

Olson fears that preparers will exploit the stimulus initiative’s multibillion-dollar expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit, which last year transferred $47 billion to low-income families. The inspector general of the Treasury Dept. estimates that, even before the stimulus, the EITC was resulting in $10 billion to $13 billion a year in improper claims, many of which the agency contends are encouraged by unscrupulous preparers. While prep companies aren’t supposed to charge fees based on how much money they obtain from the IRS, in practice many set higher prices for customers seeking refunds.

The stimulus package also includes new or enlarged tax benefits for small businesses, first-time home buyers, certain parents and retirees, and people who improve the energy efficiency of their dwellings—all of which are susceptible to abuse in the hands of dishonest or incompetent tax preparers, says Olson. “Some of the provisions in the economic stimulus legislation will dwarf the EITC in terms of rate of fraud,” she predicts.

An estimated 60% of all tax returns are handled by paid preparers, up from 48% in 1990. The preparers have plenty to dig their teeth into: The stimulus legislation enacted in February provides for $154 billion in additional refundable tax credits to families and small businesses over the next three years. Using proprietary software, prep companies charge $200 to $450 for a basic return, with the fees often set toward the high end of the range if the taxpayer receives a credit-related refund. This creates a strong incentive to encourage customers to seek credits based on their income, number of children, willingness to insulate their homes, or a purchase of real estate.

Even when done properly, the tax-prep business can yield impressive profits. “We were charging people $300 to $400 for 10 minutes of work,” says Greg Gillihan, who ran a franchise inKansas Cityin 2007 for the fourth-largest chain, Dayton-based Instant Tax Service, which has 1,200 offices.  Industry executives say that only a tiny handful of prep offices engage in fraud.

“People trying to play by the rules are disadvantaged competitively and dismayed by some of what goes on,” says Robert A. Weinberger, H&R Block’s top lobbyist inWashington. John G. Ams, executive vice-president of the National Society of Accountants, agrees: “My members are tired of having to fix errors they find on someone else’s work product.” The group has pushed for self-regulation overseen by the IRS.

As for the industry’s rates, executives and their advocates point out that no one is forced to hire a preparer. “If you don’t like the price charged, go to somebody who does it cheaper,” says Mark Steber, Jackson Hewitt’s vice-president for tax resources. “It’s the free-market economy model.”

Unfortunately, the free market’s invisible hand sometimes has its thumb on the scale, to the detriment of the U.S. Treasury. In January, volunteers for ImpactAlabama, a nonprofit activist group, secretly recorded meetings with employees at 13 outlets in that state, including one Jackson Hewitt franchise. Transcripts provided to BusinessWeek show that the volunteers posed as taxpayers seeking EITC refunds for which they were not eligible. Most of the tax preparers appeared willing to file false returns.

UNDERCOVER WORK

On Jan. 12, an Impact Alabama volunteer visited a Jackson Hewitt outlet inMontgomery, the state’s capital. Situated in a strip mall between a liquor store and swimming pool supply business, the Jackson Hewitt office has a sign in the window stating: “Confused about changing tax laws? We’re not.”

According to the transcript, a Jackson Hewitt employee told the undercover volunteer that she qualified for the EITC based on her occasional custody of two children. In fact, the supposed taxpayer should not have received a refund under the EITC because, as the volunteer made clear, neither child lived with her for the six months out of the year that the law requires.

The Jackson Hewitt employee prepared documents seeking what appears to have been an invalid $5,639 refund and charged a fee of $402, according to Impact Alabama. The nonprofit never filed for the refund.

When a BusinessWeek reporter visited the Jackson Hewitt office in early March, employees declined to comment. The owner of the franchise, Charlie West, said in a subsequent interview that the fee charged was “higher than usual” because of the complexity of the return in question. He said initially that he would look into the EITC fraud allegation but then failed to respond to follow-up calls. (On Mar. 31, Liberty Tax’s John Hewitt confirmed he is exploring a possible acquisition of his former company, Jackson Hewitt.)

Impact Alabama’s research is part of a campaign by its founder, Stephen Foster Black, director of the University of Alabama’s Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, to persuade the state’s legislature to require licensing of all tax preparers. H&R Block has supported that effort. But 300 other individual tax-prep outlets and franchisees inAlabamaand elsewhere have started a group called the National Independent Tax Preparers Assn., based inMontgomery, to oppose the bill that Black supports. Similar standoffs have kept preparers from facing meaningful policing in a number of states.

J.C. Snowden, who heads the tax preparers’ association, says the Impact Alabama investigation was sneaky and unfair. He favors a fine on preparers of up to $100 per tax-return violation. The legislation supported by Black would impose fines of $500 to $2,500 per violation. “We’re firmly behind regulating this industry,” Snowden says. For now, though, his lobbying is slowing down any changes.

In Washington, the IRS can’t track complaints against tax preparers because the agency has no central database to store the information, according to a Feb. 24 report by the Treasury Dept.’s inspector general. A Dec. 31, 2008, IG report found that the IRS generally doesn’t follow up on hundreds of thousands of questionable EITC returns, as identified by its own computerized filters.

FALSE INFORMATION

Even when the IRS does step in, the results are often uncertain. In 2007 the agency became suspicious of an eight-store Instant Tax franchise inMissouri. The agency received information from a former employee that Instant Tax was selling bogus personal information about made-up family members so that clients could apply for EITC refunds, according to an April 2007 affidavit for a search warrant filed by an IRS agent in federal court inSpringfield,Mo.Another former employee complained to the IRS that the franchise owner, Kevin Edmonds, and his manager, Josh Lenz, were “taking advantage of mentally disabled and poor people” by adding false information “that resulted in fraudulent returns and fraudulent increases in earned income tax credit[s],” the affidavit said.

The IRS also found that the Instant Tax franchise was generating refunds on 99.3% of the returns it handled, according to the affidavit. “The entire business…is permeated [by] fraud,” the agent stated. The IRS searched the eight Instant Tax locations in October 2007, but it since has taken no further public action. An agency spokesman declined to comment.

Instant Tax issued a press release in August 2008 acknowledging that it had “allowed the franchisee [inMissouri] to expand too quickly” and had terminated its contract with the owner,Edmonds. But Instant Tax didn’t mention in the press release that it had sold twoFloridalocations to Lenz shortly after the October 2007 IRS raid. Edmonds, meanwhile, became an Instant Tax “area developer” inOklahoma, a job he holds today. Edmonds and his attorney declined to comment. Lenz didn’t return calls seeking comment.

Fesum Ogbazion, Instant Tax’s CEO, says that Edmonds sells franchises in his current role and doesn’t prepare any returns. The company is concerned about the IRS investigation, says Ogbazion, but still sold franchises to Lenz because the probe hasn’t led to any charges.

Elgin is a correspondent in BusinessWeek’sSilicon Valleybureau. Epstein is a correspondent in BusinessWeek’s Washington bureau. Grow is a correspondent in BusinessWeek’s Atlanta bureau.

By Markeshia Ricks

The House Boards and Commissions Committee voted 10-4 Wednesday to approve a bill that would regulate the individual tax preparer industry.

But both sides of the issue seem unsure of what could happen once the bill is in the hands of the full House.

State Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, a vocal opponent of the bill who vowed last week to kill the measure, attempted to make changes to the legislation using one mass amendment, but his colleagues on the committee objected.

State Rep. Greg Wren, R-Montgomery, was one of the committee members who objected toRogers’ amendment. He said he liked most changes thatRogerswould have made, but they should have been brought one by one.

Wren said he can not support the bill in its current form because he thinks it is flawed and needs more work, but if many of the changes Rogers proposed are adopted, along with a few of his own, he would support it.

Some ofRogers’ changes would have included allowing individual tax preparers who have prepared taxes for five years instead of seven to be grandfathered from certain provisions in the bill, and it would have appointed three individual tax preparers to the oversight board. Under the current version an individual tax preparer would be required to have prepared taxes for at least seven years – a compromise down from 15 years.

J.C. Snowden II, president of the National Independent Tax Preparers Association, said the make-up of the oversight board remains a sticking point for his members because under the current version of the bill individuals who are exempt from the law would serve on the board. NITPA members are also convinced that Impact Alabama, the organization that has pushed the legislation, could benefit if the legislation is passed. Impact Alabama President Stephen Black denies that his organization brought the bill for any possible gain. He said it was ironic that Rogers would be so adamantly opposed to the bill when his constituents are disproportionately affected by individual tax preparers who prey on low-income people.

“His friendships with lobbyists shouldn’t trump his responsibility to the people of his district,” Black said. “He should be a leader for his district especially in these difficult economic times.”

Rogers said if his amendment had been adopted he would have supported the bill, but because it wasn’t he remains against it.

He said in his opinion the legislation is not a real consumer protection bill because it doesn’t address issues such as predatory lending.

“This bill has no chance of making it out of the House,” he said. “This bill is dead on arrival.”

Coleman said there is support for the bill and that’s why it made it out of committee. “I think there is a little more work to be done … but it should be successful,” she said.

THE ISSUE: The state Senate passed a bill that would help ensure Alabamians get competent service when they pay someone to prepare their tax returns. The House should follow suit.

Too much of the time, it’s easy to gripe about gridlock in Alabama’s Senate, and how it stands in the way of good legislation and sometimes just the routine business of government.

But not this time. The Senate quickly and commendably passed legislation that would help guard Alabama taxpayers from a portion of the tax-preparation industry that is unregulated and sometimes unscrupulous. The Senate’s 25-0 vote on Thursday puts the ball in the House of Representatives’ court.

Let’s hope the House does the right thing and follows the Senate’s example. The measure offers much-needed protection for Alabamians, and especially less wealthy Alabamians who overwhelmingly rely on seasonal, storefront businesses to compute their income tax returns. It is being pushed by Impact Alabama, a nonprofit group that helps provide free tax preparation services to low-income families.

The group recently conducted an investigation that uncovered serious problems in the commercial tax-preparation industry. Returns prepared for 13 undercover taxpayers included errors and outright fiction, particularly in the area of the Earned Income Tax Credit. In addition, the charges for preparing returns were arbitrary, and the details about costly auxiliary products like refund-anticipation loans weren’t adequately explained.

The bill passed by the Senate would require the disclosure of all costs on those loans.  Moreover, the bill would create the Alabama Board of Individual Tax Preparers, which would test and license those in the income-tax business who aren’t otherwise regulated. The preparers falling under the new board would be required every year to pay an $80 fee and get updated training.

It’s a good idea, and it’s already being done in three states: Oregon, Maryland and California. Alabama should be next. Heck, in our view, a version of this bill should be in place in every state considering the advantages it offers taxpayers and governments. Sloppy and fraudulent tax returns are a burden on them, too.

That’s why the Alabama bill got input and backing from state Revenue Commissioner Tim Russell, and it’s surely part of the reason the Senate passed it with support from both parties and, indeed, without a single dissenting vote.   But the most compelling reason for the legislation is the protections it provides taxpayers.

As the measure moves to the House of Representatives, members in that body need to jump at the chance to provide taxpayers a different kind of relief – relief from incompetent and predatory tax services.

Last Modified: Saturday, February 14, 2009 at 8:09 p.m.

Legislators are aboard the Alabama Taxpayer Protection and Assistance Act.

The Senate last week passed the bill by Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery. The House version sponsored by Rep. Tammy Irons, D-Florence, is in a House committee.

The bill, if it becomes law, requires testing and licensing of commercial tax preparers to ensure a minimum level of competence.

“More than a million lower and middle income Alabamians put their trust, their legal liability for taxes and their financial health in the hands of unregulated paid preparers,” Irons said.

The bill is the product of theUniversityofAlabama’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility. Stephen Black heads the center that took on a project to recruit and train students to help prepare simple tax returns for free.

“This type of grassroots mobilization of students to achieve such a significant improvement in the lives of working Alabamians not only brings more attention to this important effort,” he said, “[but] it also inspires the students themselves to believe in the efficacy of collective action and to continue to work for structural changes to solve societal problems.”

Irons’ bill has nearly 50 House and Senate backers.

RUSSELL HUBBARD

News staff writer

Stephen Black is everywhere– agitating for legislation on tax preparation here, raising money for childhood health screening there, demanding a share of the state’s economic growth for the have-nots.

Black is the director of theUniversityofAlabama’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, an academic outpost inTuscaloosadevoted to developing citizenship and stewardship among students.

A lawyer by training, Black also is the director of ImpactAlabama, a nonprofit organization that recently conducted an undercover sting on paid tax preparers. The findings: the help was expensive, rife with errors, and pushy when it came to recommending advance refund loans. ImpactAlabamahas proposed legislation to regulate tax preparers, and has support in the both chambers.  Last year, ImpactAlabamaand Black won a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Award for its FocusFirst initiative, which uses trained volunteers to screen thousands of children for eye problems that are easily treated if caught early on.  Black comes from a family tradition of public service: the Hugo Black Federal Courthouse inBirminghamis named for his grandfather. Last week, Black shared his thoughts about a new generation of young people, their concept of career and business, and how corporate Alabama is faring in social aspects.

What is the mission of the Center for Social Ethics and Responsibility at the University of Alabama?  

We believe that theUniversityofAlabamahas a critical role to play in preparing students to serve as effective, engaged and ethical citizens. The center seeks to assist students in developing a distinctive definition of moral and civic maturity.

And Impact Alabama?

Impact Alabama is dedicated to service-learning projects in coordination with students from universities and colleges throughoutAlabama. We provide students the opportunity to address community needs while promoting learning and leadership development.

What are some examples?  

I think I am most proud of the results of our work with young people from across our state. Since 2004, we have trained thousands of student volunteers from over 20 colleges and universities across the state who have screened over 48,000 children for vision problems. We prepared tax returns for more than 4,000 working families. We provided a four-year debate team program for two dozen gifted students fromBirmingham’s public high schools.

Are we seeing a new spirit of citizenship in young people that maybe has been missing in America for some time?  

We have definitely seen a tremendous increase in volunteering and participation in community activities among young people. The challenge is to develop new strategies that can capitalize on volunteerism while addressing their disengagement from political and civic institutions. Young people’s engagement in the recent presidential campaign was an important step in that direction. We hope to see that trend develop inAlabamain the future.

How do you expect that spirit to manifest itself in the wider world as these people grow older and go to work in companies and government and in their own families?  

These same habits are carrying over into adult life with this generation. There are more young professional groups committed to improving our communities. More businesses and firms are supporting this trend in their younger employees.   It seems the nature of work and career has a different meaning for this generation of college graduates.

What do you think it means to them?  

This increasing sense of engagement and purpose in young people represents a profound new force in the economy and the future of our region. It’s about sharing a common ethic that values creativity, diversity and community. Our young people crave, more than ever, ways to be a part of something bigger then themselves.

What are we seeing in corporate America in terms of the same spirit and what should we be seeing from corporate America?  

I expect that more and more companies will be focusing on ethics and social responsibility. A lot of it is thanks to corporate scandals lingering in the headlines. There is a growing anxiety about balancing work, family and civic involvement, and I think the most successful business recruiters of the future will seek to raise the bar in regards to what role their companies have in improving communities.

Let’s talk about Alabama. What are the major social and economic issues facing this state that are on the top of your agenda?  

Over 40 percent ofAlabamastudents dropped out of high school before graduation in 2007, and we continue to have serious health-care disparities, including an inexcusably high infant-mortality rate. A continuing stream of public ethics violations make it increasingly difficult for Alabamians to believe in the possibility of progressive moral public action.

Sounds bleak.  

The story’s not over. Alabama has a distinctive sense of values. They are rooted in the church, the land and the community. No part ofAmericais so well furnished to embrace the Biblical commandment of “love thy neighbor.” This has to be our guiding principle compelling us forward.

We’ll wrap on a philosophical level: Do we owe each other anything, and if so, what?  

Absolutely. At the heart of responsible citizenship is a moral obligation to understand that every individual’s life has dignity and worth, and that every individual’s health, education, and potential is worth fighting for.

E‐mail: rhubbard@bhamnews.com

By BOB LOWRY

Times Staff Writer bob.lowry@htimes.com

Legislation aimed at predators; Hall pushes measure in House

MONTGOMERY –A bill that would require the registration and regulation of commercial tax preparers easily won approval Thursday from the Alabama Senate.

The bill, which passed on a 25-0 vote, is aimed at putting predatory tax preparers out of business, said Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, the Senate sponsor. Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, is sponsoring the bill in the House.

The legislation would require individual tax preparers to apply for an annually renewable license, fulfill a continuing education requirement and pass a basic proficiency exam approved by the Internal Revenue Service.

The legislation would also provide free tax preparation to low-income taxpayers. It would establish a seven-member state Board of Individual Tax Preparers to oversee tax preparers.

“I think this is a great consumer protection bill,” said Ross. “It allows us to assure that Alabamians are getting top-notch professional tax services no matter what their income level is.”

Ross said because some low-income taxpayers go to uneducated tax preparers, they often do not claim their earned income tax credit for children.

“We leave about $133 million on the table because people don’t know they can claim it,ʺ he said. “These individual tax preparers out there need to take this test to make a standard reporting to the IRS.”  Ross said it’s even more important now for families to claim the credit because of the nation’s recession. He said the $133 million figure was based on estimates from the state Revenue Department from the last tax year.

Under Ross’s bill, lawyers, IRS employees and those licensed by the Alabama Board of Accountancy or a board of accountancy in another state would be exempt from the law.

A licensing fee for a tax preparer would cost $80.

Commercial tax preparers inAlabamaare closer than they’ve ever been to having to meet specific standards.

The Alabama Senate unanimously passed a bill Thursday requiring commercial tax preparers to meet testing and licensing standards.

State Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, was the sponsor of the bill that passed the Senate during the fourth legislative day of 2009 session. He said it would be good for both tax preparers and consumers.

“This bill legitimizes the business for the taxpayers and the individual tax preparers,” he said.

The Alabama Taxpayer Protection and Assistance Act requires individual tax preparers to obtain a license that they would have to renew each year, and to take and pass an exam to demonstrate that they are proficient in tax knowledge. The bill also subjects tax preparers to a state oversight board.

Ross said while many commercial tax preparers operate lawfully, some do not. He said this bill would ensure that consumers will have their returns prepared by someone who is licensed and IRS-certified, whether it’s at Jackson Hewitt or a mom-and-pop operation.

“All individual tax preparers will need to make sure they meet the standards,” he said. “This bill treats everybody equally.”

The bill also has provisions that expand outreach efforts to educate people about the federal earned income tax credit (EITC), and allows a portion of the licensing fee collected to be used to provide free income tax assistance through nonprofit sites.

During floor debate on the bill Thursday, state Sen. Bobby Singleton, D-Greensboro, was one of the few senators who raised questions about the bill, although he had no objection to it.

He said that he wants to be sure that independent tax preparers were represented on the oversight board, and he hopes that the bill would be amended to that effect now that it is in the hands of the House. Ross said that he had no objection and would work with Singleton to draft an amendment.

Stephen Black, founder and president of ImpactAlabamaand the person who worked to bring about the legislation, said he was gratified to see the Senate act quickly and decisively in favor of working families. The Senate version of the bill will head to the House for its consideration. State Rep. Tammy Irons, D-Florence, is the sponsor of the House version of the bill.

Published: Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, February 9, 2009 at 11:27 p.m.

In three short years a handful of students at theUniversityofAlabamainvolved in ImpactAlabamahave gone from helping fewer than 100 low and moderate income families prepare their income tax forms for free to spreading their services to 12 campuses across Alabama and involving more than 400 students in the project.

And now, after an undercover operation worthy of 60 Minutes, the students have documented the lax and sometimes unethical practices of many commercial tax preparation agencies and have prepared legislation for the Alabama Legislature to consider. It would require tax preparers to have proper training and pass certification exams.

The legislation has already been introduced in the current legislative session by a bipartisan group of House and Senate members and has the support of Alabama Revenue Commission Tim Russell and the Alabama Society of Certified Public Accountants, which would also like to see all people who prepare tax returns for other people tested and qualified.

This year ImpactAlabama, founded by Stephen Black, the director of the UA Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, expects to help prepare returns for more than 4,000 families with children, most of whom qualify for Earned Income Tax Credit program because they make less than $42,000 a year. The student program has, in fact, become the largest provider inAlabamafor such families of limited resources.

Those are also the families most preyed upon by the kind of seasonal, fly-by- night commercial tax preparation services that become ubiquitous this time of year. The average tax refund for such families is around $2,300 and in their undercover work, in which students posed as members of families eligible for the EITC, the sleuths of Impact Alabama found many instances of poorly-trained tax preparers charging as much as $400 for filling out simple forms in less than half an hour and then offering “instant loans” at exorbitant rates based on expected returns.

Even more disturbingly, students involved in the investigation found tax preparers in six Alabama cities and at 13 businesses making numerous mistakes in their work and in many cases even willing to commit fraud by claiming dependents for an alleged divorced family member who did not have legal custody of those dependents.

“In some of these places they take people off the street, give them a crash course of about 30 minutes and sit them at a desk as a tax preparer,” Alex Flachsbart, a UA senior and part of the project, said last week. “They are people who have never taken an accounting course in their life, and they are sent out there to find as big a refund and charge as much as they can.”

Students participating in ImpactAlabamaget course credit for their work, but more importantly, they advance the core goal of the UA ethics center: to send better citizens out in the world.

Published: Monday, February 9, 2009 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, February 8, 2009 at 11:44 p.m.

TUSCALOOSA| In only its third year, ImpactAlabamawill help 4,000 people and families file their 2008 tax returns for free.

A student initiative founded at theUniversityofAlabamaincludes a program to help people of low and moderate income prepare their income taxes, and has spread to 12 campuses across the state with some 400 students aiding in tax filings.

Now, the core group at the university has taken another step. They prepared legislation introduced in the 2009 session of the Alabama Legislature that would require testing and licensing of commercial tax preparers.

The bipartisan bill, introduced in the House and Senate by both Democrats and Republicans, came after some of the students did a under cover work that found many commercial tax preparation services, some of them seasonal operations, charging too much and possibly even preparing false forms.

Students, posing as members of low income families, went to 13 commercial tax preparation services in six Alabama cities and found all of them made multiple mistakes on the tax forms they prepared and charged as much as $400 for filling out simple forms that can take less than half an hour to fill.

“In some of these places they take people off the street, give them a crash course of about 30 minutes and sit them at a desk as a tax preparer,” Alex Flachsbarg, a 20-year-old UA senior, said last week. “They are people who have never taken an accounting course in their life, and they are sent out there to find as big a refund and charge as much as they can.”

Kendra Key, a 20-year-old junior, said that “CPAs, lawyers and other professionals who do this kind of work have degrees, training and are certified. “But that’s not the case when you go to file your taxes at some of these places that specialize in tax returns only.”

The proposed legislation would exempt accountants, attorneys who prepare taxes and any tax preparers who have passed an IRS test, she added.

Impact Alabama is one of the initiatives of Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility at the UA. Founded by director Stephen Black, ImpactAlabamais a nonprofit organization that gets student involved in social issues.

“We have a direct relationship with the IRS and are certified by them as a volunteer program,” Black said. “We have agents review all the forms we prepare for filing and have actually become the biggest Earned Income Tax Credit tax preparation initiative in the state.

“Those who qualify for the EITC are families with children making less than $42,000 a year,” he said. “This whole seasonal industry is targeted at those families, which get an average of about $2,300 back on their taxes, and the people these businesses hire to work for them are given very little training and are never tested on their abilities.

“These firms make their money by overcharging and by high interest they charge on ‘instant loans’ they give the families when the forms are prepared.”

Those are some of the reasons that not only is Alabama Revenue Commissioner Tim Russell supporting the legislation the students have prepared, but so is Jeannine Birmingham, president of the Alabama Society of Certified Public Accountants, who does not want to see her profession tarnished by disreputable businesses.

Sponsoring the legislation in the Alabama Senate are Senate Minority Leader Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, and Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, while in the House an identical bill has been introduced by Democratic Reps. Tammy Irons of Florence and Laura Hall of Huntsville and Republican Sen. Cam Ward of Alabaster.

Black said the undercover operation was modeled after similar ones inNew YorkandOregonand thatAlabamais one of 47 states that requires no training or certification for tax preparers.

In its first year of operation the tax preparation initiative helped 95 people and families file their taxes, last year the number grew to around 1,400 and this year it will be around 4,000 Black said.

Reach Tommy Stevenson at tommy.stevenson@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0194.

by STEPHEN FOSTER BLACK

As we move into a new tax-filing season, in the midst of the most severe recession in three generations, the Earned Income Tax Credit has never been more critical to the working people of our state. Considered to be the single most important federal anti-poverty program in the nation, the EITC is a refundable tax credit for working families with low to moderate incomes, representing a $1 billion annual investment to 491,000Alabamafamilies and the communities in which they live and work.

Lifting nearly 5 million Americans, including almost 3 million children, above the poverty line each year, the EITC gives working parents the ability to better support their families. In 2006, the average total refund forAlabamataxpayers claiming the EITC was $3,200. Often, the largest check a lower-income, working family will see all year, this money helps families cover expenses like housing, utilities, food and child care–making it easier for working Alabamians to keep working.

Unfortunately, despite the obvious benefit of the EITC, an estimated 20 percent to 25 percent of eligible Alabama families and individuals do not claim the credit, leaving approximately 11 percent of the money ($134 million) on the table.

Money diverted:

The impact of the EITC is also dramatically undermined because money that was intended for working families is diverted to commercial tax preparers and refund lenders. Encouraged by clever television ads, and often unaware they are simply speeding up the refund process by as little as five days, many consumers are convinced to take out a refund anticipation loan– a one-week loan secured by and repaid directly from the proceeds of a consumer’s tax refund, offered at exorbitantly high interest rates, ranging from about 50 percent to more than 800 percent. Millions of working families pay $200 to $400 each in fees, essentially borrowing their own money for five to seven days at extremely high interest rates.

In total, more than 75 percent of EITC recipients in Alabama pay a commercial preparer to complete their taxes, losing more than $78 million annually to tax preparation and refund anticipation loan costs– a figure that places us 49th worst in the nation. That extra $78 million could have gone a long way in helping lower-income families secure health insurance, pay down debt or put food on the table.

Those preparing taxes include many highly trained pros, such as certified public accountants and enrolled agents, who face considerable professional regulation. But it also includes thousands of other commercial preparers acrossAlabamareferred to as unenrolled agents, who target lower-income families with their services and products.

There are currently no educational qualifications, no training standards and no licensing requirements that must be met to become a paid tax preparer inAlabama. Anyone who can rent a storefront or pass out flyers from their home can set up shop as a paid tax preparer.

Although there are many competent and knowledgeable paid preparers who operate with integrity, a recent undercover review conducted by the nonprofit organization Impact Alabama uncovered evidence of significant fraud and negligence. All 13 returns that were prepared across the state contained negligent mistakes, and 11 (85 percent) of the 13 contained misstatements and omissions considered to have been willful or fraudulent. Many commercial tax preparation companies across our state exploit and defraud low-income taxpayers with poor disclosures, exorbitant fees and intentional miscalculations.

Over the past six months,UniversityofAlabamastudents working with the UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility conducted research and helped draft needed reforms. A coalition of college students from more than 10 campuses statewide was organized to raise awareness and gain support from the Legislature and governor to pass these needed reforms. More than 5,000 student letters supporting this legislation have been written to legislators across the state.

Under the leadership of state Sen. Quinton Ross, Rep. Tammy Irons and a bipartisan coalition of legislators, the Alabama Taxpayer Protection and Assistance Act will be filed in both chambers of the Legislature this week.

The act would require individual tax preparers to pass a proficiency exam, obtain a license and fulfill a continuing education requirement (excluding CPAs, enrolled agents and lawyers already required to obtain licenses). It would also use a portion of the licensing fees to expand informational outreach efforts to individuals eligible for the EITC and provide grant support to IRS-certified free Volunteer Income Tax Assistance nonprofit sites throughout state.  To be a hairdresser, an individual must have certain training and obtain a license to do business inAlabama. Shouldn’t we expectAlabama’s tax preparers to have a basic level of competency and be accountable for their work?

Grass-roots effort:

This type of grass-roots mobilization of students (including more than 400 students preparing free tax returns for 4,000 families throughout the state) not only brings more attention to this important issue, but it also inspires the students themselves to believe in the value of collective action and to continue to work for structural changes to solve societal problems.

In these difficult economic times, awash in well-earned cynicism toward “business as usual” in Montgomery, this is an effort we should all embrace. Our future depends on being able to look into the eyes of our most talented young people, and say, honestly: Your state needs your vision and energy, and public legislative action still can be noble and just.

Stephen Foster Black is the director of the University of Alabama Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility and president/founder of ImpactAlabama. E-mail: stephen.black@ua.edu.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

THE ISSUE: A nonprofit organization’s work highlights the need for regulation and training of those in the business of preparing tax returns.

Impact Alabama made an impact last week with the results of its timely undercover investigation of the state’s tax-preparation industry.

The nonprofit group sent 13 volunteers as customers to both small preparers and big chains such as H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service. All of the resulting tax returns contained errors, and 11 were fraudulent, said Stephen Black, executive director of Impact Alabama.

The most significant problem involved the Earned Income Tax Credit, a credit to lower-income taxpayers with children in their homes. Black said 11 tax preparers wrongly claimed the credit for undercover customers who clearly didn’t qualify for it.

If the returns actually had been filed, the taxpayers could have been liable for an inflated refund and the real custodial parents would have trouble collecting the amount due them.

That wasn’t the only problem documented in the visits: Some of the more troubling findings involved unclear information about the cost of the services provided as well as such auxiliary products like refund anticipation loans.

Impact Alabama reported simple tax returns with no itemization that cost $400 or more, and advanced refund deals charging annual interest topping 800 percent.

“The undercover review revealed that many commercial tax-preparation companies confuse and abuse their customers with poor disclosures, high fees and costly miscalculations,” Black said.

His group is working with state lawmakers to develop a way to better protect those taxpayers. He proposes a law that would require tax preparers to be licensed and tested by the state of Alabama unless they are accountants, tax lawyers or others already operating under professional licenses and regulations.

Similar laws are already in place in California, Maryland and Oregon. Alabama lawmakers from both parties support our state joining the parade.

About 60 percent of Alabamians use a hired hand to prepare their tax returns, and among the 492,000 lower-income residents who receive the Earned Income Tax Credit, the number is even higher–about 75 percent. Many of these returns are being prepared by seasonal workers who have precious little training and work for companies with an incentive to gouge their customers.

Impact Alabama says the state’s poorer families lose $77 million a year because of refund-anticipation loans and fees paid to commercial income-tax preparers.

That’s money diverted from the whole purpose of the tax credits, which is to help give those families a little lift out of poverty, and it’s money that might otherwise be providing a boost toAlabama’s economy. Moreover, fraudulent or erroneous returns are an extra burden on tax agencies.

As Black points out, you can’t cut hair for a living inAlabamawithout demonstrating to the state that you have a certain level of knowledge and skill. But you can prepare tax returns without the state so much as asking you one question about your qualifications.

That’s not right.

Impact Alabama is a group that pushes for fairness for working-class families, and it has trained college students statewide to prepare simple tax returns for free, under the supervision of professionals.

The state ofAlabamashould do its part, too, to ensure lower’income Alabamians get a fair shake– that their tax returns aren’t riddled with costly errors or outright lies.

RUSSELL HUBBARD

News staff writer

Alabama legislators said Thursday they plan to introduce a bill that would license and regulate professional tax preparers.

Alabama Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, said he plans to sponsor such a bill when the legislature meets again in February. The bill would require tax preparers to pass a test, register with a regulatory board, and suffer penalties for noncompliance.

“There is money being left on the table because some tax preparers aren’t up to par,”  Ross said at a press conference Thursday at the Jefferson County Courthouse. “Some minimum standards of proficiency have to be established.”

Also in attendance and supporting the bill Thursday were Alabama Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills; Alabama Sen. Linda Coleman, D-Birmingham; and Alabama Rep. Merika Coleman, D-Birmingham.

The legislative push comes a few days after ImpactAlabama, a nonprofit group that advocates the welfare of working-class people, said an undercover operation showed 100 percent error rates amongAlabamatax preparation services. Problems included hard-selling the most expensive refund options and misapplying tax credits for families with children.

Stephen Black, leader of ImpactAlabamaand director of theUniversityofAlabama’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, said 75 percent of Alabamians use professional tax services.

His group hired 13 tax preparers big and small to file IRS returns in recent weeks. All 13 contained errors, and 11 misapplied the earned income tax credit for parents living apart. The services offered it to whichever parent showed up first. The law says the credit can only be claimed by the parent who has custody of a child for the majority of the year.

Black also said professional tax preparers overcharge for simple returns with no itemization, often charging $400 for 30 minutes of easy calculation. Often, the work was accompanied by offers of an immediate high interest refund anticipation loan, Black said. The bill under consideration would require tax pros to also tell taxpayers they can file electronically for free and get a full refund in about a week.

The proposed tax-preparation licensing bill wouldn’t apply to tax attorneys, certified public accountants or others operating under existing professional regulations, Black said.

E-mail: rhubbard@bhamnews.com

Updated: Jan 30, 2009 10:03 AM

BIRMINGHAM, AL., Senator Quinton Ross (D -Montgomery), Senator JaboWaggoner (R-Jefferson), Representative Tammy Irons (D-Lauderdale), Rep Cam Ward (R-Shelby) and a bipartisan coalition of Alabama legislators announced the introduction of the Alabama Taxpayer Protection and Assistance Act, which will provide for testing and licensing of commercial tax preparers in the state to help ensure they are competent and ethical. The announcement of the legislation comes one week after ImpactAlabamareleased the findings of a statewide investigation which uncovered widespread fraud and negligence in the industry.

“More than a million lower and middle income Alabamians put their trust, their legal liability for taxes, and their financial health in the hands of unregulated paid preparers,” stated Representative Tammy Irons. “The people ofAlabamadeserve to know that they will be receiving a basic level of competence and honesty.”

“Many commercial tax preparation companies exploit low-income taxpayers with poor disclosures, exorbitant fees and fraudulent miscalculations,” stated Senator Ross. “To be a hairdresser inAlabama, an individual must have certain training and obtain a license to do business. Shouldn’t we expectAlabama’s tax preparers to have a basic level of competency and be accountable for their work?”

“Although there are many well-trained and ethical tax preparers, there are others whose incompetence hurts the entire tax preparation industry by confusing customers with misleading refund estimates and costly mistakes– leaving no recourse for taxpayers,” stated Senator Jabo Waggoner (R-Jefferson), a co-sponsor of the Bill.

The Alabama Taxpayer Protection and Assistance Act:

-Provides for the oversight of the commercial tax preparation industry through a state board (excluding Certified Public Accountants, Enrolled Agents, and lawyers already required to obtain licenses);

-Requires individual tax preparers to apply for an annually renewable license, fulfill a continuing education requirement, and pass a proficiency exam;

-Expands informational outreach efforts to individuals eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit;

-Utilizes portion of licensing fees to provide grant support to IRS-certified free Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) nonprofit sites throughout state;

The coalition of legislators are joined in this effort by college and university students from across the state who have been an integral part of raising awareness of the current problems in this industry, creating the legislation and building support for its passage.

Over the last six months,UniversityofAlabamastudents working with the University of Alabama’s Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility conducted research and helped draft the needed reforms. In addition, college students from more than ten campuses statewide have worked tirelessly to raise awareness and gain support from the Legislature and Governor. This group of students is responsible for over 5,000 student letters supporting this legislation which have been sent to legislators across the state.

“This type of grassroots mobilization of students to achieve such a significant improvement in the lives of working Alabamians not only brings more attention to this important effort, it also inspires the students themselves to believe in the efficacy of collective action and to continue to work for structural changes to solve societal problems,” said Stephen Black, who heads the University of Alabama Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility and is the founder and president of Impact Alabama.

The legislation will be filed in both chambers of the Alabama State Legislature next week.

BACKGROUND

Need For Legislative Reform:

Since its inception in 1975, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has been championed by both Republicans and Democrats, becoming the single most important federal anti-poverty program in the nation. A refundable tax credit for workers with low to moderate incomes, the EITC represents a $1 billion annual investment in 492,000Alabamafamilies and the communities in which they live and work.

In 2004, the average total refund forAlabamataxpayers claiming the EITC was $3,200. Often the largest check a lower-income, working family will see all year, this money helps families cover expenses like housing, utilities, food and child care– making it easier for working Alabamians to keep working.

Unfortunately, despite the obvious benefit of the EITC, an estimated 20-25% of eligible families and individuals do not claim the credit, and an estimated $133 million in EITC dollars are “left on the table” by households who are eligible for the credit but do not claim it.

The impact of the EITC is also dramatically undermined because money that was intended for working families is diverted to commercial tax preparers and refund lenders. More than 75% of EITC recipients in Alabama pay a commercial preparer to complete their tax returns, losing more than $77 million annually to tax preparation and refund anticipation loan costs– a figure which places us 49^th in the nation. That extra $77 million could have gone a long way in helping lower-income families secure health insurance, pay down debts or put food on the table.

Legislation Provides Needed Reforms:

Alabama’s Tax Preparers Should Have a Basic Level of Competency and be Accountable for Their Work:

Although certified public accountants, enrolled agents and tax attorneys must receive substantive training and meet stringent standards of certification, there are currently no educational qualifications, no training standards, and no licensing requirements that must be met to become a paid tax preparer inAlabama. Anyone who can rent a storefront or pass out flyers from their home can set up shop as a tax preparer. Although there are many competent and knowledgeable paid preparers who operate with integrity, there are others who are inadequately trained and more interested in pushing products that inflate their profits (e.g., refund anticipation loans, investment schemes) than in serving the best interests of their clients. More than one million working families put their trust, their legal liability for taxes, and their financial health in the hands of unregulated paid preparers.

Education and Testing Requirements Result in More Accurate Returns and More Revenue for Alabama’s Schools:

The benefits of establishing registration, education, and testing requirements for all paid preparers before they can prepare tax returns is confirmed by the results demonstrated in Oregon– a state with requirements similar to those in the Alabama Taxpayer Protection and Assistance Act.  According to a 2008 GAO analysis, Oregon returns were more likely to be accurate compared to the rest of the country.  In dollar terms, the average Oregon return required approximately $250 less of a change in tax liability than the average return in the rest of the country.  This equates to over $390 million more in federal income taxes paid inOregonthan would have been paid if the returns were as accurate as similar returns in the rest of the country.

In a recent undercover operation conducted by ImpactAlabamastaff, evidence of significant fraud and negligence among professional tax-return preparers was uncovered.  All thirteen returns that were prepared contained negligent mistakes, and eleven (85%) of the thirteen contained misstatements and omissions considered to have been willful or fraudulent. Education and testing requirements forAlabamatax preparers will result in less fraud and tax cheating and more revenue for our schools.

Increasing EITC Participation Will Provide a Tremendous Economic Benefit to Working Families and to the State of Alabama:

More than 492,000 working families inAlabamaannually claim the EITC, representing a $1 billion investment for our state.  However, an estimated $134 million in EITC dollars are “left on the table” by households who are eligible for the credit but do not claim it.

Many low-income households are eligible for the EITC and other tax credits, but are unaware of their existence and thus do not apply for the annual refunds. If a greater number of eligible families claims the EITC inAlabama, the potential economic benefit toAlabamacould reach $189 million due to increased spending and output in the retail, services, utilities and other economic sectors. An additional $6.6 million in tax revenues could also be collected.

Providing Greater Access to Free Tax Preparation Services Will Put More Money in the Pockets of Alabama’s Working Families:

Many families who do not have the resources or knowledge to file their own taxes instead rely on costly commercial tax preparers.  Additionally, many consumers are convinced to take out a Refund Anticipation Loan (RAL)—a predatory one-to-two week loan secured by and repaid directly from the proceeds of a consumer’s tax refund, offered at exorbitantly high interest rates, ranging from about 50% to over 800% APR.

75% ofAlabama’s EITC recipients pay commercial tax preparers just to access this benefit, a figure that places us 49th in the nation. Approximately $77 million is diverted from the EITC to the commercial tax preparation industry annually through tax preparation fees and refund anticipation loan costs.

Nonprofit efforts, certified by the IRS, provide free tax preparation assistance to working families statewide.  In 2008, these Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and Tax Counseling for the Elderly sites prepared returns for more than 5,000 EITC-eligible families inAlabama.  However, many areas still have no free tax preparation alternatives and most EITC‐eligible families are unaware of the existence of free tax preparation sites.

By BOB LOWRY

Times Staff Writer bob.lowry@htimes.com

Oversight bill to call for licensing, low-income help

MONTGOMERY –With help from aUniversityofAlabamacenter and college students from across the state, Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, will co-sponsor a bill to regulate “fly-by-night” commercial tax preparers.

The announcement of the legislation was made Thursday on the steps of the state Capitol by Stephen Black, director of UA’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility.

The bill, which has bipartisan support, will be sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Quinton Ross Jr., D-Montgomery. It also has the support of state Revenue Commissioner Tim Russell.

The legislation would require individual tax preparers to apply for an annually renewable license, fulfill a continuing education requirement and pass a proficiency exam approved by the Internal Revenue Service. The legislation would also provide free tax preparation to low-income taxpayers.

Ross compared commercial income preparers to cosmetologists, adding, “Why not have the same type of oversight over the industry that prepares taxes, which affects the entire economy of Alabama?”

Hall, who sponsors a Volunteer Income Tax Assistance center inHuntsville, said the VITA center uses computers to get tax returns to customers within seven days.  But she said other commercial tax preparation centers inHuntsvillecharge $400 to get a customer a refund immediately through a credit card.

“The thing we try to educate those individuals coming in is, think about what you are paying,” she said. “What can you buy with $400? You can probably buy a dishwasher, if you needed one, your children’s clothes.

“We try to get them to think about how that money would benefit them if they just waited for those seven days.”

Black said one of the projects of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility is ImpactAlabama, a student service organization that worked with the IRS to train college students to prepare tax returns for low-income, working families for free. Hundreds of students from 10Alabamacolleges and universities participated in the project.

“We heard a lot of anecdotal stories about commercial tax preparers making serious mistakes, and even things more serious like even willful problems,” he said.

Out of 13 cases in an undercover operation with the students, there were 11 cases of willful fraud by some tax preparers using predatory practices, Black said.

“Partly as a result of this investigation, we have built a bit of a coalition of legislators, a good number of Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “We should put forward a bill that will provide for the first time in the history ofAlabamasome form of an oversight over this commercial tax preparation industry.”

January 30, 2009

MONTGOMERY— Someone can open a commercial tax preparation business inAlabamawithout any training or licensing.

Now a bipartisan group of legislators wants to change that, and they have the help of the state’s top tax collector.

A group of Democratic and Republican legislators announced Thursday they are drafting legislation to require testing and licensing of commercial tax preparers. The bill would not affect taxpayers who fill out their own tax returns.

Alabamais one of 47 states that do not regulate commercial tax preparers.

Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, said he’s seen too many examples of “fly-by-night tax preparation places” charging enormous fees to unsuspecting customers.

“There really is a problem in Alabama,” said state Revenue Commissioner Tim Russell. Russell said he is providing advice to the legislators as they prepare the bill for the legislative session starting Tuesday.

The push for the legislation started with ImpactAlabama, a nonprofit group that trains college students to prepare tax returns for free for low-income families. The students pass a test provided by the Internal Revenue Service before working on tax returns.

The proposed legislation would exempt accountants, lawyers who prepare taxes, and any tax preparers who have passed an IRS test. The legislators said that’s because accountants and lawyers are already in regulated professions, and the other tax preparers have demonstrated basic competency.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Someone can open a commercial tax preparation business inAlabamawithout any training or licensing.

Now a bipartisan group of legislators wants to change that, and they have the help of the state’s top tax collector.

A group of Democratic and Republican legislators announced Thursday they are drafting legislation to require testing and licensing of commercial tax preparers. The bill would not affect taxpayers who fill out their own tax returns.

Alabama is one of 47 states that do not regulate commercial tax preparers.

Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, said he’s seen too many examples of “fly-by-night tax preparation places” charging enormous fees to unsuspecting customers.

“There really is a problem inAlabama,” said state Revenue Commissioner Tim Russell, who joined legislators at a news conference. Russell said he is providing advice to the legislators as they prepare the bill for the legislative session starting Tuesday.

In the Senate, Ross is working on the bill with Senate Minority Leader Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills. Those pushing it in the House include Democratic Reps. Tammy Irons of Florence and Laura Hall of Huntsville and Republican Rep.CamWard of Alabaster.

The push for the legislation started with ImpactAlabama, a nonprofit group that trains college students to prepare tax returns for free for low-income families. The students pass a test provided by the Internal Revenue Service before working on tax returns.

The proposed legislation would exempt accountants, lawyers who prepare taxes, and any tax preparers who have passed an IRS test. The legislators said that’s because accountants and lawyers are already in regulated professions, and the other tax preparers have demonstrated basic competency.

Jeannine Birmingham, president of the Alabama Society of Certified Public Accountants, said Thursday her group supports the legislators’ efforts.

The Associated Press

January 23, 2009

A group that helps low-income Alabama residents sent undercover staff with recording devices to 13 commercial tax preparers across the state and says it found problems at each of them.

“The undercover review revealed that many commercial tax preparation companies confuse and abuse their customers with poor disclosures, high fees and costly miscalculations,” Stephen Black, president of Impact Alabama, said Thursday.

Impact Alabama is a student service organization that works with the Internal Revenue Service to train college students to prepare tax returns for low-income, working families for free. More than 350 students are doing that at 16 locations across the state this tax season.

Impact Alabama decided to duplicate studies that government agencies and the National Law Centerhave done in recent years, where people posing as taxpayers went to commercial tax preparation offices to get tax returns done.

Like those earlier studies, Black’s group found lots of problems even though the taxpayers had simple returns with nothing itemized.

In each scenario, ImpactAlabamastaff members used their W-2 tax forms and described themselves as parents with one or two children who lived with them less than six months of the year. For parents to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, they must have a child more than half the year.

Eleven of the 13 tax preparers claimed the credit on the tax returns.

That does more than cheat the government, Black said. It can cause the other parent, who is rightfully entitled to the credit, to have a tax return held up for months until they can verify the children’s residence, he said. Then the parent who wrongly filed can be penalized, he said.

Ten preparers did not report outside income, eight didn’t report interest income, and 12 allowed the taxpayer to claim “head of household” status without being qualified for it.

Black said the taxpayers should not have qualified for a refund, but each tax preparer figured a refund, with amounts ranging from $65 to $6,247.

The offices visited ranged from independent storefront operations to national chains.

At an H&R Block office onGreen Springs AvenueinBirminghamand a Jackson Hewitt office inMontgomery, the preparers claimed the Earned Income Tax Credit and the head of household status. The H&R Block return called for a refund of $4,842, and the Jackson Hewitt refund was for $5,639, according to recorded transcriptions and tax returns released by Impact Alabama.

At Jackson Hewitt’s national headquarters, spokeswoman Kristen Sharkey said the company is reviewing the documents released by ImpactAlabama, but the company “is committed to providing accurate, quality tax preparation and the highest level of customer service.”

Nancy Mays, communications director for H&R Block, said the company has a “zero tolerance policy” for intentional misstatements or errors by tax preparers.

“We have already begun to investigate the situation and will take swift and decisive action,” she said.

The cost of the tax preparation services ranged from $80 to $402. The amounts varied within the same company. An H&R Block in westernBirminghamcharged $191, but the H&R Block onGreen Springs AvenueinBirminghamcharged $351, Black said.

January 23, 2009

An Alabama nonprofit organization that advocates the welfare of working-class families said Thursday that some commercial tax preparers are cheating their customers and the government.

ImpactAlabamasent 13 volunteers to tax preparation services in the state in recent weeks, and 11 of the returns were fraudulent and all contained errors, executive director Stephen Black said during a press conference at the Smithfield Branch of the Birmingham Public Library. The tax services were provided by both small seasonal firms and large national ones, Black said.

The main problem was the earned income tax credit as it applies to divorced parents who share custody of children, Black said. It awards a $5,000 tax credit to families with children and less than $42,000 in joint household income.

Tax preparation isn’t a licensed occupation in Alabama, and is treated as such in only three states. Impact Alabama said Thursday it has been working with state legislators, some of whom plan to introduce legislation that would regulate, license and test tax preparers. It wouldn’t cover tax attorneys, accountants or others already under the umbrella of another professional organization.

“There need to be at least some minimal standards of proficiency,” Black said.

The earned income tax credit that was the most common source of error in the test returns solicited by ImpactAlabamais supposed to go to whichever parent has child custody for the majority of the year. Tax preparers, Black said, routinely give it out to whoever applies first, anxious to boost the refund and charge a higher fee. “This is an unfair and predatory industry,” Black said.

Black said the errors were made at both tax preparers that are open for only a few months a year, and at year-round outlets such as H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt Tax Service.

Jackson Hewitt said in a statement that it is committed to providing accurate tax returns and that it is investigating ImpactAlabama’s allegations. H&R Block said it has a “zero tolerance” policy for errors and is also investigating.

Simple tax returns with no itemization took only 40 minutes but often cost $400 or more, Black said. They were often accompanied by offers of advance payment on refunds. Those advances are actually loans bearing an annual interest rate that can top 800 percent, Black said.

Impact Alabama has trained college students statewide to prepare simple tax returns for free, Black said, supervised by experienced professionals. The nonprofit group recruits college students to volunteer for economic, education and health development programs.

A recent initiative secured a $125,000 grant to perform early screening for childhood eye disease. Black is the director of theUniversityofAlabama Initiativefor Ethics and Social Responsibility, a college-sponsored center dedicated to social welfare and citizenship issues.

Impact Alabama found these problems in an undercover survey of tax preparation firms in Alabama:

-Abuse of earned income tax credit.

-Tax preparer didn’t sign return, making a prospective audit trail problematic.

-Self-employment income shown incorrectly.

-Interest income shown incorrectly.

-Free electronic filing with IRS refund in about a week never mentioned to filer.

01/23/2009

An undercover study of 13 un-enrolled seasonal tax preparers in the state, including one in Anniston, showed what one group calls “significant fraud and negligence.”

The investigation, conducted Jan. 8 to 15 by ImpactAlabama, a Birmingham-based nonprofit, found that none of the 13 businesses correctly prepared filings.

There are a variety of trained professional tax preparers in the state including tax lawyers, certified public accountants and enrolled agents who have passed an IRS test. Most require a good bit of education to achieve or are regulated by the state. There are also an increasing number of un-enrolled commercial preparers, said Impact Alabama President Stephen Black.

There are no minimum proficiency standards or certification requirements to become a tax preparer in the state.

Un-enrolled preparers range from those who work for national companies that require employees to take training classes to local car dealerships that offer free tax preparation in exchange for using the refund as a down payment on a car.

“I was shocked, even by the national chains we went into,” said Black. “There is a huge profit incentive for this industry to prepare returns incorrectly,” he said.

The cost of the tax preparation services ranged from $80 to $402. Black said it is a problem that there is no clear-cut amount for a given return. “They are very vague about fees. At the end many pull out a number and clearly charge more the bigger the refund is,” he said.

ImpactAlabamaduplicated studies conducted by government agencies and the National Law Center in recent years.

Staff members brought their W-2 tax forms and posed as taxpayers in one of two different scenarios seeking tax preparation at the businesses. Prior to the study, they consulted with Birmingham-based CPA Steve Hendricks, a partner at Culotta, Scroggins, Hendricks & Gillespie, P.C. to find out what an appropriate filing would be.

Black said the group found significant problems with the relatively simple filings. While the preparers often allowed taxpayers to take home significant refunds, the incorrect filings would have made taxpayers vulnerable to fines and penalties during later audits, he said.

Black said neither of the study’s scenarios should have made the taxpayer qualify for a refund, but all 13 preparers yielded a refund, with amounts ranging from $65 to $6,247.

The Anniston location of Columbus Finance Company and Income Tax Service onSouth Quintard Avenueincorrectly figured a $6,247 refund when in reality the taxpayer owed the government $112, according to the study.

Preparers there also failed to report self-employed and interest income. Additionally a $2,110 earned income tax credit was incorrectly applied.

Efforts to reach the owners of Columbus Finance Company for comment Thursday were unsuccessful.

In each scenario the student members described themselves as parents with one or two children who lived with them less than six months of the year. For parents to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit, the child must stay with them for more than half the year. Eleven of the 13 tax preparers claimed the credit on the tax returns.

“This damages people. They are not just cheating the IRS but parents and children too,” Black said. It can cause the other parent, who is rightfully entitled to the credit, to have a tax return held up for months until he or she can verify the children’s residence, he said. Then the parent who wrongly filed can be penalized, Black said.

Ten of the 13 preparers did not report outside income, eight didn’t report interest income, and 12 allowed the taxpayer to claim “head of household” status without being qualified for it.

Black said his organization is working with legislators on a bill that would provide oversight for the industry.

At Jackson Hewitt’s national headquarters, spokeswoman Kristen Sharkey said the company is reviewing the documents released by Impact Alabama, but the company “is committed to providing accurate, quality tax preparation and the highest level of customer service.”

Nancy Mays, communications director for H&R Block, said the company has a “zero tolerance policy” for intentional misstatements or errors by tax preparers.

“We have already begun to investigate the situation and will take swift and decisive action,” she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

By STEVE DOYLE

Times Staff Writer steve.doyle@htimes.com

Impact chief calls preparers, errors shocking, willful

A nonprofit group had its employees go undercover this month to proveAlabama’s tax preparation industry needs government oversight.

But Impact Alabama President Stephen Foster Black said even he was surprised how much unscrupulous behavior they found. He said 11 of 13 businesses, including two inHuntsville, cheated by claiming the federal Earned Income Tax Credit for customers who did not qualify.

Several offices also told customers not to report $1,700 in outside income from baby-sitting and lawn care jobs, Black said.

“I was shocked to find they made not just negligent mistakes, but fraudulent, willful mistakes,” he said during a news conference Thursday outside the Madison County Courthouse. “Had we actually filed the returns, it would have been a federal and state criminal act by the preparers.”

Black said he hopes the experiment persuadesAlabamalawmakers to regulate paid tax preparers. He is pushing a bill that would require them to be licensed by the state, pass a proficiency exam and attend classes to stay abreast of tax code changes. State Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, has signed on as a co-sponsor.

Alabama licenses hairdressers, manicurists and liquor stores, “but then you get to the person who’s preparing a family’s most important document, and there’s nothing,”  Black said.

Most of the businesses visited by Impact Alabama workers charged “exorbitant” fees of up to $405 to prepare a simple, nonitemized tax return, Black said, and pushed rapid refunds for an additional cost. Same- or next-day refunds are high-interest bank loans repaid with the proceeds from a customer’s tax refund, he said.

Impact Alabama, tied to the  University of Alabama’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, had employees pose as single parents with weekend custody of their children. To be eligible for an Earned Income Tax Credit, a parent must have custody at least six months out of the year. Even though the Impact Alabama workers clearly explained that they had less than halftime custody, Black said, a majority of preparers allowed them to claim the credit.

“This is not just defrauding the federal government and taxpayers—it’s hurting the rightful parent,” he said.

One of the cases happened at an H&R Block office inBirmingham. In a statement e-mailed to The Times, the company said it has a “zero tolerance policy for intentional misstatements by our personnel, and we will not hesitate to terminate any employee whose behavior does not comport with this standard.

“We will follow up on this incident involving one of our employees, and we appreciate Impact Alabama bringing this occurrence to our attention.”

Kansas City-based H&R Block said its 120,000 tax preparers average 450 hours of tax training.

“We try to equip our tax preparers as well as humanly possible to understand the tax code and all its rules, and to apply it accurately since we stand behind every return we prepare,” the company said.

Commercial preparers have an incentive to falsify tax credits and underreport income because their fees are often tied to the size of a customer’s refund, Black said.

“There’s such a huge profit motive … that they’re willing to act badly,” said Black, whose grandfather was the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black.

The undercover probe targeted tax preparation offices in Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa, Anniston and Opelika.

By STEVE DOYLE

Times Staff Writer steve.doyle@htimes.com

Some poor people take costly loans; help can be free

A grandson of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black is taking on tax preparation firms that he says prey onAlabama’s poorest residents.

Stephen Foster Black, who heads theUniversityofAlabama’s Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, is pushing a bill that would require paid tax preparers to be licensed by the state and pass a proficiency exam.Alabamawould become just the fourth state to regulate the tax-preparation industry, joining Oregon, Maryland and California.

“To be a hairdresser in Alabama, an individual must complete certain training and obtain a license to do business,” Black told The Times’ editorial board Wednesday. “We should also expect Alabama’s tax preparers to have a basic level of competency and be accountable for their work.”

Seventy-six percent of Alabama families eligible for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit hire tax preparers to help them qualify for the program, Black said, even though free help is widely available.

The Earned Income Tax Credit is a federal antipoverty program to support working families with children earning less than $42,000 a year. While the average tax credit is about $2,300, many families take home far less after paying someone to fill out their tax returns and opting for a costly “refund anticipation loan,” Black said.

The 492,000 Alabamians who claim the credit collectively spend about $77 million a year on tax preparation fees and rapid refunds. Same- or next-day refunds offered by H&R Block and other commercial preparers are basically high-interest loans repaid with the proceeds from a customer’s tax refund, Black said.

A spokesman for Kansas City-based H&R Block did not return calls Thursday seeking comment.

Black said low-income families don’t have to shell out big bucks for tax preparation. A nonprofit group he founded, ImpactAlabama, is training college students to fill out income tax forms for free.

The program starts Tuesday atHuntsville’sUnited Wayoffice,701 Andrew Jackson Way. Students from theUniversityofAlabamainHuntsvilleand other colleges will work in pairs to prepare tax forms following IRS guidelines; each return is double-checked by an Impact Alabama supervisor before being filed.

The 1,400 Alabamians who used the free service last year saved more than $290,000 in tax preparation fees, and Black hopes to triple the savings this year.

He is less certain about the fate of the “Alabama Taxpayer Protection and Assistance Act.” The bill would create a state board to oversee paid tax preparers, who would have to pass a proficiency exam and attend classes to stay abreast of tax code changes.

Oregon has a similar law, and Black said the U.S. Government Accountability Office has deemed tax returns from there to be among the nation’s most accurate.

The same agency, in an April 2006 study, found mistakes on 89 percent of tax returns filed by paid preparers, he said.

State Rep. Tammy Irons, D-Florence, and state Sen. Quinton Ross Jr., D-Montgomery, have agreed to sponsor the bill. It also has the backing of Alabama Arise, an advocacy group for the poor.

While Black said he knows it’s a “terrible budget year” to ask for a new program, he said college students who believe in the idea plan to travel to the capital “in waves” to push for its passage.

“Politically, I don’t know, I think it’s a dice roll,” he said. “It would be a coup to get something like this passed the first year.”

Published: Monday, January 19, 2009 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, January 18, 2009 at 9:25 p.m.

An estimated $133 million in earned income tax credit dollars went undistributed toAlabamafamilies who could use it most in 2008, according to the founder of ImpactAlabama: A Student Service Initiative.

By the numbers

The Brookings Institution, an independent policy and research institute based in Washington, D.C., compiled these estimates of earned income tax credit money that goes unreturned to eligible taxpayers in legislative districts in Colbert, Franklin and Lauderdale counties.

- House, District 1 (Rep. Tammy Irons): $1,062,413

- House, District 2 (Rep. Mike Curtis): $783,656

- House, District 3 (Rep. Marcel Black): $1,108,402

- House, District 18 (Rep. Johnny Mack Morrow): $1,094,333

Total: $4,048,804

Impact Alabama

Impact Alabama: A Student Initiative, which involves college students at several campuses in the state, is proposing a legislative bill requiring tax preparers to meet certain licensing and education standards.

The following are the components of the bill:

-Provide for the oversight of the commercial tax preparation industry through a state board.

-Require individual tax preparers to apply for an annually renewable license, fulfill a continuing education requirement and pass a proficiency exam.

-Expand informational outreach efforts to individuals eligible for the earned income tax credit.

-Use a portion of licensing fees to provide grant support to IRS-certified Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and nonprofit sites throughout the state.

-Require refund anticipation loan facilitators to provide written disclosures to clients when preparing refund anticipation loans.

Source: Impact Alabama: A Student Initiative

“It’s negligent, reckless and fraud,” said Stephen Black, who formed the student group that involves students from colleges and universities statewide. “The tax preparers who are doing this are defrauding the federal government and cheating these families out of this tax credit,” he added.

Black’s group has helped write legislation– the Alabama Taxpayer Protection and Assistance Act– that, if passed, could change the way taxes are prepared for low- to moderate-income families across the state.

The bill would require tax preparers to be certified and licensed as well as be involved in continued training. Black said the legislation, if passed, would help taxpayers who are eligible to receive earned income tax credit. The tax credit reduces personal tax liability, which would provide larger income tax return dollars for families.

Tammy Irons, D-Florence, is sponsoring the bill in the House. Quentin Ross, D-Montgomery, has agreed to sponsor the bill in the Senate. Irons said she plans to file the bill by the Feb. 2 opening of the legislative session.

In addition to requiring tax preparers to be licensed, the legislation would also require people who prepare taxes to disclose information about interest rates on refund anticipation loans. Some tax preparation companies offer a loan on the amount an individual is expected to receive from the federal government.

“The main reason I took on this bill is the issue of the number of low- to moderate-income families going to these individuals who don’t tell them they are getting a loan,” she said. “They are enticing these consumers to take out a loan against their income tax refund and once that’s in, they not only have to pay back the loan, they have to pay back the loan with as much as 800 percent interest. That’s just ridiculous this would be happening to Alabama citizens.”

Black has tackled other statewide initiatives. His group also started FocusFirst, which was established in 2004 as a cost-effective means to treat vision problems for school-age children who live in rural and urban parts ofAlabama. As with FocusFirst, Black is working with college students to research the tax preparation issue and get the message out about the legislation and how it can benefit taxpayers.

Kendra Key, a student at the University of Alabama and a volunteer with the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, a nonprofit organization working with Impact Alabama, said she’s seen this kind of predatory tax preparation take place first-hand.

“I volunteered as a tax preparer, and I know that it takes 30 minutes to do the work on these simple forms,” she said. “But these people are getting charged between $200 and $400 just to get the preparation done.”

Black said predatory practices are not limited to storefront operations run by individuals. Studies done by the General Accounting Office and the Internal Revenue Service revealed that national tax preparation agencies have also failed to inform clients of the earned income tax credit due to them.

“A preparer’s fee is often based on the amount of the return, so they don’t always say anything about the (earned income tax) credit, so they can jack up their price,” Black said. “Too often, the returns are filed with mistakes, and that causes these individuals to have to go through an audit, and, when that happens, the preparers are long gone, leaving the people who can least afford it to clean up the mess.”

Shirley Pigg, owner of Alabama Tax Service Inc., inFlorence, said she would be pleased to see the legislation passed. “It would be a great thing because it would weed out some of the bad tax preparers,” she said. “It’s my responsibility to tell clients what they can and can’t do. It’s my responsibility to tell them that, if they claim a dependent, the child has to live in the home at least six months a year. If they get audited, they have to prove this.”

Having the money back in the hands of consumers could also be a benefit to the struggling state and national economy, Irons said. “It would allow the individual to spend their (additional) return at retail outlets and at small businesses, which would keep those businesses running.”

Even if the bill passes, however, it won’t be effective until the 2010 tax season, giving the state and tax preparers an opportunity to get licensed and fulfill new requirements.

Already, California, Maryland and Oregon have passed similar legislation. InMaryland, there was opposition by lobbyists hired by the tax preparation industry who said the components of the bill were unfair. Irons said she doesn’t anticipate a negative response, but, until the bill is filed, it’s too soon to tell.

Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or michelle.eubanks@TimesDaily.com.

David Prather

A bill to license tax preparers in Alabama makes sense

Stephen Foster Black is a Southern do-gooder, and how could he not be with a name that hearkens to the region’s premiere songwriter and lineage that includes grandfather Hugo Black, one of the most famous and important U.S. Supreme Court justices?

Black leads theUniversityofAlabama’s Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, whose mission statement is evident in its title. It tries to do good work. And its latest effort– which features two distinct but interrelated facets– remains true to its goal.

Black and his associates have examined the tax-preparation industry and found it wanting.

For one thing, tax preparers may or may not be qualified to assist clients. There’s no standard, no required training, no licensing. Black wants that to change.

Also, almost half a million Alabamians qualify for an antipoverty program called the Earned Income Tax Credit. Too many of them don’t know about or understand the program. Too many of those who do use the program wind up paying commercial tax preparers when they could get help for free. And too many who use those preparers are talked into taking out “refund anticipation loans” that are expensive and of marginal help in getting refunds quicker.

As to the issue of qualifications for tax preparers, Black notes that those seasonal workers may get minimum instruction on what to do with more emphasis placed on how to market additional, costlier services.

He thinks it makes little sense for the state to license, say, hairdressers but not tax preparers, particularly in light of the findings of a U.S. Government Accountability Office study in 2006. That study showed that 86 percent of tax returns filed inOregonby commercial tax preparers were in error.  That led Oregon to pass a law that set up a state board to oversee paid tax preparers, who had to pass a proficiency test and attend continuing education classes to be licensed.

Black and his colleagues are working with legislators to sponsor a similar bill for Alabama.

He also wants to get the message to folks in meager circumstances that they have an alternative to dealing with commercial tax preparers.

Impact Alabama, a nonprofit group Black founded, helps working families, with children, who earn less than $42,000 a year get free help preparing their taxes. The tax credit refunds amount, on average, to some $2,300.  Here, University of Alabama in Huntsville students, who have been trained, work in teams of two to offer free help to eligible families.

And by not paying for the “refund anticipation loans,” the taxpayers don’t incur that cost and have to wait only about a week longer to get their money.

(The free tax help begins Tuesday at Huntsville’s United Way office, 701 Andrew Jackson Way. For an appointment, call 1-888-99-TAX-AL.)

Progressive move

Eligible families obviously would be making a smart decision to seek ImpactAlabama’s help.   And legislators would be making a good public policy decision to embrace and approve the bill Black and his associates will propose for the new session that begins next month.

Lobbyists for the tax-preparation industry are sure to fight the proposal, but can potential clients really afford to risk putting their tax returns in the hands of preparers whose competence and allegiance to them is uncertain?

Black’s bill, which would see Alabama join three other states that have approved this progressive move, is in the best interest of consumers. It merits support.

By David Prather, for the editorial board. E-mail: david.prather@htimes.com

Times Montgomery Bureau

Published: Friday, January 16, 2009 at 8:39 p.m.

Last Modified: Friday, January 16, 2009 at 8:44 p.m.

MONTGOMERY— Free income tax help for low-income working families will be available starting next week in 10 cities including Gadsden.

College students who have been IRS-certified will help low-income working families file for the Earned Income Tax Credit, according to Impact Alabama, a student-service program at the University of Alabama.

Supervised students will provide free tax preparation for working families with children making less than $42,000 a year and families with no children making less than $20,000.

Tax preparers will be in Gadsden from Jan. 24 to April 15 at the old Health Department building at the Etowah County Courthouse.

The hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays.

Preparers also will serve Auburn, Bessemer, two locations in Birmingham, Dothan, Huntsville, Marion, Montgomery, Tuscaloosa and Tuskegee.

Impact Alabama said low-income families typically pay up to $200 to get tax help to file for the EITC.

“They also often take out predatory refund anticipation loans on their expected refund at annual percentage rates of up to 800 percent, further eroding the benefits of the EITC,” Impact Alabama said.

Impact Alabama said the average EITC refund is $3,200. Impact Alabama said families claim up to $1 billion in the federal EITC, but have to spend $77 million for tax preparation or refund anticipation loans. Impact Alabama is a project of the University of Alabama Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility.

Its director, Stephen Black, said college graduate school and law students from 10 campuses helped working families claim $2.4 million in refunds.

“Last year we served 1,400 families with taxes, and we hope to serve 4,000 (this year),” Black said.

By BRIAN LYMAN

Capital Bureau

MONTGOMERY— Tax preparers would be required to have state licenses under a bill being drawn up for the legislative session beginning in February.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Tammy Irons, D-Florence, and state Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery, would establish a board to regulate commercial tax preparation and require annual registration by those charging money to complete tax forms.

The state already licenses certified public accountants and lawyers; the bill focuses on seasonal tax preparers, who are not regulated.

“To do hair inAlabamayou have to get a license,” said Stephen Black, director of Impact Alabama, an organization which places University of Alabama students in social service projects, including voluntary tax assistance. “(To do) the most important document families sign all year? Nothing.”

Supporters of the bill say the industry often hurts low-income families by not claiming refunds due to them through the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, or EITC. Low-income families may also be vulnerable to predatory lending practices targeted at rebates.

Impact Alabama estimates that 75 percent of families that qualified for the EITC in 2005 went to a commercial tax preparer, costing them about $78 million, with an average fee of $250 per return.

“There are individuals who do a good job on tax preparation, but sometimes you get in situations where some fly-by-night tax preparers have nothing in mind but leaving taxpayers holding the bag,” Ross said.

Impact Alabama runs a program called SaveFirst, which trains students to provide free tax preparation for low-income families. Black said that the group hopes to work with more than 4,000 families this year.

“It sort of occurred to me that 4,000 families was a great effort, but there are 491,000 families in Alabama,” he said. Four thousand families “is less than 1 percent,” he added.

The bill had not been filed as of Tuesday, but a draft version was making the rounds. It would also charge annual fees to tax preparers with the proceeds supporting volunteer tax preparation programs.

Jeannine Birmingham, president and chief executive officer of the Alabama Society of Certified Public Accountants, said Tuesday her group was reviewing a draft of the bill.

“It is a very common occurrence that we hear about what we refer to as seasonal tax preparers and fraudulent work they do,” she said. “These people are not certified public accountants.”

Attempts to reach H & R Block and Jackson Hewitt, which hire seasonal tax preparers, were unsuccessful Tuesday.

Currently, three states —California, Oregon and Maryland— require tax preparers to be licensed. InOregon, tax preparers must complete 80 hours of classes, pass a test and pay an $80 annual licensing fee.

A federal Government Accountability Office report released in August found thatOregon’s 2001 tax returns were about $250 more accurate per filing than the national average, though the GAO could not determine if this was due mainly to the licensing requirements.

Staff Writer

January 11, 2009

MONTGOMERY — The scenario is one that will occur thousands of times in the next few weeks as taxpayers prepare to file income tax returns.

A cash-strapped parent will step into a business that advertises rapid delivery of income tax refunds and will sign paperwork giving the firm permission to file his tax forms.

The taxpayer walks out with an early refund or else gets refund money in a matter of hours, not weeks.

“They are told their options are to file a paper tax return and wait weeks for the refund or to take out a refund anticipation loan that gets them the refund sooner,” said Stephen Black. He is director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at The University of Alabama.

Black said taxpayers often do not understand that when they sign paperwork to get early refunds, they also take out a loan allowing them to get the money early.   “The interest may run as high as 700 to 800 percent,” he said.

Taxpayers also may not know they can file returns directly with the Internal Revenue Service and usually receive refunds within a few days, he said.

Creating standards

Black wants legislation in 2009 to require certification, oversight and minimum qualifications for businesses that prepare individual tax returns.  Alabamadoes not regulate tax preparation businesses.

The bill would exempt attorneys, certified public accountants and others in professions that already set such standards, Black said.

Legislators who agreed to sponsor the bill are Rep. Tammy Irons, D-Florence, and Sen. Quinton Ross, D-Montgomery.

Co-sponsors are Rep. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, and Sen. Steve French, R-Birmingham.

Black said his interest in the legislation stemmed from research he did in setting up SaveFirst, a grant program that provides free tax return preparation and consultation.

SaveFirst trains college and law-school students in how to prepare simple tax returns and provides them with information on applying for earned-income tax credit.

The students and their supervisors hold tax preparation clinics in different cities during tax season.

Students from Calhoun Community CollegeandAthensStateUniversityare involved in the SaveFirst clinics that begin Jan. 21 inDecatur, Black said.

SaveFirst targets Alabama taxpayers whose income level qualifies them for the federal earned-income tax credit.

More can benefit

The credit helps reduce taxes for families with incomes under $41,000 per year or individuals with incomes under $20,000 per year. But they must apply to receive the credit.

Black said about 75 percent of the 491,000 Alabamians who qualify for the earned-income tax credit pay a commercial preparer $200 to $300 to do a simple tax return.

He said the preparation fee is high for people with little income and a lack of understanding about the different ways they can file for tax refunds.  The state’s percentage of low-income people using rapid refund services is the second highest in the country, Black said.

Alabamians qualify for a total of more than $1 billion per year in earned‐income tax credits, but about 11 percent, or 49,000, of eligible Alabamians do not apply for the tax credit, Black said.

He said many are single mothers with three or more children.

“They think it does not apply to them because the government uses as examples people who have one or two children,” he said.

Protecting the public

Ross called the bill good consumer protection.

“People don’t realize when they get these done in these rapid refund places that they are taking out a loan,” Ross said.

Ross called the bill’s licensing and oversight provisions a way to legitimize credentials of those who operate tax preparation businesses as well as a way to protect consumers.

This is the second year for SaveFirst, Black said.   MostUniversityofAlabamastudents take a course that includes volunteering as a component.

Unique business model

Black said while his Impact foundation employs 12 full-time staff members, it operates on a shoestring staff budget.

“All but two of them have salaries of $10,000 per year, but they are recent graduates who want to have a time of service before they go into the regular work force,” he said.

He called it a “wonderful business model that combines volunteering with student service.”

In 2008, 250 students helped 1,400 families with tax preparation, he said.  The goal for 2009 is 4,000 families.

“Even if we meet goal, it is only 1 percent of the eligible families,” Black said. “We want to do a lot more.”

Tax prep help starts in Decatur

SaveFirst, aUniversityofAlabamagrant program, will offer free income tax preparation and advice for people in theDecaturarea who qualify for the earned-income tax credit. Students from the university andCalhounCommunity Collegewill staff the tax preparation clinic.

The clinics begin Jan. 21. Hours will be 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesdays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays through Feb. 28.

The location is Community Action Partnership of North Alabama,1909 Central Parkway S.W.

Interested taxpayers must have an appointment.

Eligible taxpayers are from families with children that earn less than $42,000 per year and individuals with income below $20,000 per year.

Schedule an appointment by calling 888-998-2925.

December 14, 2008

When you listen to the language of Stephen Black, when you see how he presents himself, when you feel the confidence he exudes, you are quite sure you’re in the presence of a prince of high finance or a master trial lawyer.

Not so. Instead, that image is only a façade of opulence or the pursuit of it, as thin as his newly purchased suit. What sets this man on fire is not the money he could make for himself, but the possibility of generating a different kind of currency for the common good-Alabama’s human capital.

It is through his work as the director of the Center of Ethics and Social Responsibility at the University of Alabama and as president and founder of ImpactAlabama, a student-service initiative, that he has intercepted the rock stars ofAlabama’s youth. Many have been on their way to points west and north, but Black’s kept them in the state, making use of their talents.

These platforms enable him to exercise his talent for organizing, implementing and wielding the tools of his brainy workers for the greater good. That good stretches from one end of this state to the other in everything from anti-poverty initiatives to capacity-building programs.

The Center and ImpactAlabama, he says, “Represent higher education’s role in the ethical development of our younger generation. It takes seriously the idea that there are moral obligations that go along with the privilege of receiving a higher education.”

Some of the best resume-holders in this state, as well as Ivy Leaguers who call Alabama home, have chosen to give Black at least a year of their time. They promptly set out on such missions as screening kids for eye diseases and assisting lower-income workers with tax preparation, for $10,000 a year.

You might call it VISTA Alabama, for it is designed to make a difference in the lives of the people the programs touch. But what Black is aiming for is to make a wholesale difference by impacting the young people who work with him.

The effective charity he generates abounds and was most recently manifested in a $125,000 award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation he received for a program called FocusFirst. Through it, he and his staff have managed to screen thousands of Alabama children for eye diseases before they enter into school.

The numbers, Black says, tell the story. Some half-a-million children go blind in one eye every year, although more than 90 percent can be cured if only the ailment is caught early enough. The trouble, he says, is that it is not cost-effective for any state to screen kids before they enter school. That is where Black’s team comes into the picture.

Again, what he does and what his volunteers do is bigger than that rewarding work in vision care.

Behind the man

In his small, non-descript office in aBirminghamhigh-rise is Tuscaloosa native Sarah Louise Smith, a graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts. When she finished her degree in political economy, she was interested in non-profit work and doing something that would give back to the community.

“I was looking to work in Massachusetts or in Washington, D.C.,” she said. “I had thought about Alabama, but hadn’t seriously considered it until I met Stephen.”

Black convinced her to return to her home state and put her considerable skills to use here. Today she is the administrative director of Impact Alabama.

Black, 38, keeps an office at the Birmingham law firm of Maynard, Cooper and Gale and is on faculty at theUniversityofAlabama, but he spends most of his time at neither place.

“I drive over 50,000 miles a year and I work about 100 hours a week,” he said with detectable embarrassment over coffee at a Birmingham food court. (Not the kind of hours, he readily admits, that leads to an exciting life for a bachelor.)

But the travel and the hours are necessary, he explains, since “I have to travel to meet people, to explain what we are trying to do, and I work all the time.”

During a recent week, he was inBirminghamon Monday,Tuscaloosaon Tuesday,Mobileon Wednesday, Montgomery on Thursday and back in Birminghamon Friday. He met with state legislators and power brokers, church leaders, university presidents and community leaders.

He makes a point of saying that most of this is possible because of the encouragement from University of Alabama President Robert Wittand his philosophy of sharing all resources as long as it is good for the state. “I am lucky,” Black says, “to have a boss who can see the big picture.”

The big picture seems two-fold: To build networks where he can plant his workers and volunteers who can help the state improve, and convince the powers that be to make the needed changes. For example, he is pushing hard for Montgomery lawmakers to consider a bill that would bring about more regulation of the accounting industry.

“My volunteers have to get certified by the IRS to prepare a tax return,” he said. “Accountants have to be certified. But anyone can just open up a shop and prepare a tax return and not be required to get certified. That has to change.”

Drive to help others

That’s one of his major projects, an effort to educate the roughly 490,000 families inAlabamathat file for the Earned Income Tax Credit each year. That’s easily the largest anti-poverty program in the state, he argues. The EITC is a tax credit for low-income working families that was put in place by Congress to offset Social Security taxes. The IRS explains that “when the EITC exceeds the amount of taxes owed, it results in a tax refund to those who claim and qualify for the credit.”

Black has not always been of Alabama, though his roots are about as deep and significant as anyone’s. Though you rarely hear it from him, Black is the grandson of former Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black and the nephew of Montgomery civil rights activist Virginia Durr.

He grew up in Albuquerque, attended the University of Pennsylvania for undergraduate school and laterColumbiaand Yale law schools before striking out forAlabama.

He explains his travels this way: “Having grown up in a family in which I heard countless stories of my grandfather’s involvement in public life inAlabama, and having visited my aunt and learning of her courageous fight for a more just society, I always wanted to return home to my family’s state and try to make a difference.”

Former Anniston Star reporter and Mobile native Letitia Campbell, now a Ph.D. student in religion at Emory University, knows Black from a seminar on morality in 2006.

“I’m not at all surprised that Stephen came back to Alabama,”Campbellsaid. “And it isn’t surprising to me that he has found himself in a position to shape the broader society. What he’s doing at the Center reflects the republican vision of a university of building for the common good. He is preparing citizens to be part of democratic life. I really feel that this is the kind of thing that drives him.”

Different way of thinking

But changing the state and the landscape forAlabama’s working families is not an easy task, especially considering the entrenched special-interest groups that work to keep things the way they are. Black, though, is not one to think small or shirk from a challenge.

Part of that is because he is no stranger to the rough arena of state politics. He narrowly lost a race for state Treasurer in 2002 and served in the administration of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. He knows the bad of state government, but also the good that is possible.

In that big-think kind of way, he lays out the strategy of societal rescue exercised by Mayor Cory Booker ofNewark,N.J., a classmate of his at Yale. In something that might be called a public/philanthropic partnership, Booker has convinced some of the nation’s biggest foundations to back his effort to turn that state’s largest city from a place of hopelessness into a place of success.

“In a way, the mayor has become the charity,” Black said. “The foundations are putting their money on him because they truly believe he can turn it around.”

Referring to the former corruption-ridden mayor ofNewark, Black said, “There is no way anyone would have ever gotten behind Sharpe James. But they know Cory Booker can make things happen and is willing to make things happen.”

What he’s getting at is that a pubic-philanthropic partnership operated from the stage of public office under the right circumstances, with the right kind of progressive leadership can impact individuals and a society in a huge way.

Does that mean another go for public office is in Black’s future? He’s not saying. But one thing seems certain: If he ever does go into public office, he would be a textbook example of a servant of the state.

by Jim Cook

A college student service initiative estimates that thousands of low income Alabama children have vision problems that go undetected, leading to problems at school.

On Tuesday, a few of those children got help. FocusFirst held a free vision screening program at the Alfred Saliba Family  Services Center’s Main Street location in Dothan, giving eye exams to 44 kids in the Early Head Start and Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters programs.

Parents will soon receive the results of their children’s eye exams, and FocusFirst will help them obtain free or low-cost eye care if needed.

Sherri Williams, a spokesperson for the Alfred Saliba Family Services Center, said most vision problems manifest when children are between the ages of 6 and 8, and catching them and correcting them is important to their future success.

“It is important to detect vision problems early as undetected vision problems can lead to difficulty with learning to read, slow social development and in some cases even permanent blindness,” she said.

FocusFirst is part of ImpactAlabama, a student service initiative started by Stephen Black, grandson of the renowned Supreme Court Justice and Alabama native Hugo Black, in 2004. Since then, nearly 1,000 college students have screened more than 35,000 kids in 67 counties throughout Alabama. More than 12 percent of the children had vision problems and received follow-up care.

Early Head Start serves children from birth through age 3, pregnant women, and their families, helping to provide healthy development in low income children.

Editorial

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which has provided hundreds of millions of dollars to improve health care over the past 40 years, made an excellent choice in selecting Stephen Black as one of 10 winners of its Community Health Leader Award.

Black heads the University of Alabama’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, which is involved in many innovative programs within the UA community and in the state at large.

It was one of those outreach programs, FocusFirst, which Black started in 2004 to bring eye care to rural and poor areas, that garnered him and his program recognition from the Princeton, N.J.-based foundation and $125,000 to enlarge the scope of the program.

Black said he started the program with two missions in mind — to screen children before they entered public school for vision problems and to get college students to take their social responsibilities seriously.

In the 2004-05 school year FocusFirst screened 4,600 children at day-care centers, Head

Start classrooms and schools for eye disease and other vision problems. Last year the program, which also arranges for children to receive free surgery and free glasses where there is a need, reached 13,500 children and Black is hoping that as many as 16,000 children in every county inAlabamacan take advantage of the program this year.

“The greatest thing about the award is it will let us hire staff and screen more children,” a modest Black said when his program was nationally recognized.

In announcing the award to FocusFirst, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation noted that Black is the grandson of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, one of the most distinguished Alabamians and a man who fought relentlessly for the ideas on which this country was founded.

In other words, one could say Stephen Black comes by his own social responsibility naturally.

Editorial

Stephen Black is having an impact on Alabama. He created Impact Alabama, a nonprofit group that uses student service-learning programs to help others.

The nonprofit’s programs are: FocusFirst, which trains college students from campuses across the state to do vision screenings for thousands of children across Alabama; SaveFirst, which uses college students to prepare taxes for Alabama families, helping them to millions of dollars in refunds and saving hundreds of thousands in tax preparation; and SpeakFirst, a debate program for Birmingham high school students whose first class earned more than $500,000 in college scholarships.

The efforts of Black, the director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at theUniversityofAlabama, have not gone unnoticed. FocusFirst caught the eye of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which last week chose Black and nine others from among more than 800 nominees nationwide to receive the Community Health Leaders Award. Black said he will plow most of the $125,000 award into expanding the FocusFirst program.

“I think the capacity for an organization based on the compassion and dedication of college students and young college graduates is limitless,” he said.

That is a vision worth celebrating. Congratulations to Black.

By Adam Jones, Staff Writer

TUSCALOOSA| Stephen Black, head of theUniversityofAlabama’s Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, has won $125,000 to further his mission to screen preschool children for vision problems.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation selected Black as one of 10 winners of its 2008 Community Health Leaders Award. The winners were selected from among 800 nominees.

“I thought the work we’ve done was deserving, but I was still surprised,” Black said. “The greatest thing about the award is it will let us hire staff and screen more children.”

Black started FocusFirst in 2004, before he came to UA, with a two-fold mission in mind: One, to screen children before they entered public school for vision problems, and, two, to get college students to do the work as a lesson in social responsibility.

Through partnerships with colleges, which often fold the project into courses on service learning, FocusFirst went from screening 4,600 children in the 2004-05 school year to 13,500 last year. This school year, Black hopes to screen 16,000.

Campus groups often go to Head Start programs and lower-income areas to screen children, but they will go to any public, private or church-run day care and preschool program that time and money will allow, said Black.

Since Black came to the university in 2005, more UA students have joined the effort. Three times a week, a team of students drives throughout the Black Belt region to screen children, he said.

Students set up shop in a room with a special camera that can spot potential problems such as nearsightedness, cataracts and lazy eye. The camera, designed by NASA for use in orbiting telescopes, catches eye problems by making the eyes act as a kind of mirror.

A child’s face rests on a headrest at the end of a straight rod attached to the camera. Perfectly aligned with the lens, the eyes reflect the flash. If the child’s entire eye reflects the light, appearing as red, then the eye is probably normal. Variations likely indicate a problem.

Black’s group has 16 cameras, each with a back-up, around the state. The group has a partnership with Vision Research Corp., which owns the cameras, to train students in using the equipment and proper screening methods.

The company contracts with the state to screen public school children, but Black said vision problems need to be detected even earlier. It’s simply not cost-efficient for a company to use paid staff to go into preschools and day cares to screen. But a non-profit using volunteer college students can do the work cheaply.

“We do a better job of providing vision care to preschool children than any state in the country,” said Black, who is the grandson of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. “It’s an entirely new model.”

That model caught the eye of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which honored Black and nine others at the Community Health Leaders Award banquet Wednesday inSan Diego.

FocusFirst has trained and supervised 1,000 students from more than 20 college and university campuses statewide.

Reach Adam Jones at adam.jones@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0230.

By Michelle Rupe Eubanks, Florence Times Daily Staff Writer

An Alabama native and founder of Impact: An Alabama Student Service Initiative is one of 10 Americans who has received the Community Health Leaders Award for 2008. Stephen Black received the award for his role in establishing the FocusFirst initiative in 2004 as part of the Impact organization.

The program has involved University of North Alabamastudents in past projects and Black said he wants to include them again in future initiatives. The Community Health Leaders Award honors people who take action in their local communities.

FocusFirst is designed to provide a cost-effective means to treat vision problems before school age for children who live in urban and rural parts ofAlabama.  Black brought the idea to the Shoals in 2005 when he trained students from UNA to take part in the project.

“It’s also a business model, and that’s another reason I believe it won the award,” Black said.

No state currently provides vision care before public school age because you usually can’t get to this population in big numbers, and, when you do, it’s expensive.

Black, grandson of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, partners with universities because many college students have never been to a Head Start program in ruralAlabama, so it becomes an “eye” opening experience, both literally and figuratively.

FocusFirst has been dormant at UNA for the past two years, but Black and Tammy Jacques, director of student engagement at the school, said the program could be back on campus as soon as spring.

“Students get hands-on experience when they go out into the community and are part of something that’s more than just a one-time process,” Jacques said. “It’s also a

User-friendly and flexible program because it allows them to volunteer when it suits their schedules and still have an impact and make a difference in these children’s lives.”

Since FocusFirst began in 2004, volunteers have screened more than 40,000 children in all 67 counties in Alabama. About 5,000 of those children failed the screenings and were subsequently referred to Sight Savers of Alabama for follow-up care.

Since then, 1,608 children have been screened in Colbert, Franklin, Lauderdale, and Lawrence counties, with 12.3 percent failing the screenings and receiving follow-up care.

Black said Impact has begun other initiatives, including one to help people prepare their tax returns.

“That’s already grown, and we hope to have it in the Shoals next year,” he said.

Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or michelle.eubanks@TimesDaily.com.

By Hannah Wolfson, News staff writer

Stephen Black, a Birmingham lawyer and director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at the University of Alabama, has won a $125,000 award for creating FocusFirst, a statewide vision screening program for poor children.

Black is one of 10 people to receive the nationwide Community Health Leaders Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which received more than 800 nominations.   He received the award Wednesday.

Black said that $20,000 of the money goes to him, and the remaining $105,000 will be used to expand the FocusFirst program.

FocusFirst trains college students from across the state to conduct vision screenings for preschool-aged children in low-income rural and urban areas.

Since the program started in 2004, the group has screened more than 40,000 children in all of Alabama’s 67 counties. Of those, 5,000 failed the screenings and were referred for follow-up care.

“Stephen’s success in delivering high-quality vision care services to low-income families in our community represents a tremendous contribution to our state, and serves as a shining example of servant leadership for others to follow,” Torrey Smitherman, executive director of the EyeSight Foundation of Alabama, said in a news release.

Black said using college students is the key to the project’s success. So far, 1,000 students from 20 schools have participated.

“I think the capacity for an organization based on the compassion and dedication of college students and young college graduates is limitless,” he said Wednesday. “I hope this award helps us become a national example of what college students are doing.”

Black is working on expanding outside Alabama with a new program in Philadelphia, where students from the University of Pennsylvania, his alma mater, have screened 400 children.

His nonprofit organization, ImpactAlabama, also runs initiatives that provide free tax preparation for low-income residents and runs a debate program for the Birmingham schools.

E-mail: hwolfson@bhamnews.com

By STEVE DOYLE

Times Staff Writer steve.doyle@htimes.com

Screening effort ‘rewarding work,’ says Stephen Black.

As grandson of the legendary Alabama-born U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, Stephen Black was destined to do something important.

TheBirminghamresident has just been named one of 10 national recipients of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s prestigious Community Health Leaders Award. He’ll be in Huntsville today for a news conference announcing the prize.

Black, 38, is being honored for founding FocusFirst, a program that trains Alabama college students to conduct free vision screenings for poor children.

He said he chose to make the award announcement at the University of Alabama in Huntsville because UAH students have been involved with the program since its beginning in 2004.

“They were one of our first partners,” he said by phone Wednesday. “Also, the technology in the (vision screening) cameras is a NASA technology that comes from Huntsville.”

According to a news release, FocusFirst has checked the eyesight of more than 40,000 preschoolers in every corner of the state. About 5,000 failed the screenings and were referred to a group called Sight Savers of Alabama for follow-up care.

Black said it’s essential to catch vision problems early. Kids who don’t get help for bad eyesight often develop reading problems, he said.

“Vision care for poor children is a national failure,” he said. “No state does a good job with it until they get to public school.”

Black grew up in New Mexico and graduated from Yale University’s law school. He is now director of the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at the University of  Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

His grandfather, Hugo Black, was born in Clay County and became one of the nation’s most respected Supreme Court justices. He was part of the court’s groundbreaking 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which struck down racial segregation in public schools.  Hugo Black died in 1971 when Stephen Black was still a baby.

Black said FocusFirst has trained more than 1,000 college students to conduct vision screenings at day care centers and Head Start programs acrossAlabama. The students carry high-tech optical scanners with them.

The program has relied on student vision screeners from 20 different campuses, including UAH, Athens State University and Calhoun Community College.

“We’ve found young people to be just completely committed to improving their state,” Black said. “My job is to provide them a platform to do that in as high a level as possible.”

“It sounds corny, but the reason I wanted to come back toAlabamais to make a difference. This is by far the most rewarding work of my career.”

The Community Health Leaders Award is much more than a trophy: It comes with $125,000 that Black said will be used to expand the program to reach more children.

FocusFirst is the signature project of ImpactAlabama, a nonprofit organization dedicated to service-learning projects for college students. The students typically receive class credit for their work as vision screeners.

Published October 16, 2008

Children in daycare centers around Jackson Countyreceived an eye screening from FocusFirst this week.

In Scottsboro, Tiny Tots Day Care,CalvaryBaptistChurchand First Baptist Learning Center received screenings. In the county, Woodville Baptist Church day care, Rudders Chapel Baptist Church day care, Mountain View Church of God day care and First United Methodist Stevenson day care took part in the vision exams by student volunteers with FocusFirst.

Children ages six months to five years were screened using state-of-the-art photo-screening technology. The program provides a cost-effective direct response to the vision problems of children who live in rural areas.

The children are taken into a room where the vision screening equipment is set up. The room is dark except for a few red lights.

“We turn all the lights off except the few red ones so that the children’s eyes can dilate,” said Alana Dickie, a member of FocusFirst who was performing the vision screenings atFirst Baptist Learning Center.

The screening only takes a few seconds. The child is put in front a black box and a picture is taken of their eyes.

Potential problems have been detected in over 12 percent ofAlabamachildren screened since 2004.

Children who have a potential problem will receive follow up care as necessary, under the supervision and coordination of Sight Savers of America.

Student volunteers with FocusFirst travel to communities to perform vision screenings for the children.

“We desperately need young people’s energies, perspectives, and talents to make our communities and institutions work well,” said Stephen Black, founder and president of FocusFirst.

“I see the college years as an incredible opportunity to engage students in addressing human and community needs through structured service opportunities, while providing them with a sense of their ability as well as responsibility to affect structural change.”

A state nonprofit organization will conduct vision screenings Monday at elementary schools and Head Start locations inMorganCounty.

Based on a contribution from The Decatur Daily, college students working with FocusFirst staff have screened about 360 children at 16 daycare centers and Head Starts in Morgan County over the past year. On Monday, FocusFirst staff plan to screen an additional 375 children inMorganCounty.

Since 2004, more than 950 students attending 17 Alabama colleges, universities and high schools have screened more than 35,000 children for eye diseases and disorders as part of their affiliation with FocusFirst.

A potential problem has been detected in about 12.4 percent of the Alabama children screened. All such children received or will receive fully subsidized follow-up care under the supervision and coordination of Sight Savers of Alabama.

Student volunteers travel to communities of need and conduct vision screenings for children 6 months to 5 years old using photo screening technology.

By Thomas Spencer

A small army of college students this week launched the SaveFirst initiative, a free service to help low-income residents file their taxes and claim the earned income tax credit.

Paying out $43 billion annually, the EITC is the government’s largest anti-poverty program, returning taxes paid and, in some cases, supplementing the earned income of low-income workers.

However, the IRS estimates that between 20 percent and 25 percent of those eligible don’t claim the credit.

Additionally, in Alabama, 75 percent of those claiming the credit use paid preparers to fill out the paperwork. In some cases, those preparers charge large fees and high rates of interest on short-term loans from the anticipated refund.

Stephen Black, whose organization Impact Alabama created SaveFirst, said the initiative aims to increase the percentage of Alabamians taking advantage of the EITC and to provide a free alternative to commercial preparers. College students, many of whom receive college credit for their service, are trained to help prepare returns.

Frank Leonard stopped by the Smithfield Library Tuesday, and in less than an hour had his refund prepared and filed electronically. Leonard, who has worked electric maintenance at hotels, found he was entitled to a $500 refund through the credit.

In the past, Leonard has relied on a friend to prepare his taxes and always found himself paying. “I really appreciate you young people coming down and helping us,” Leonard said to the Birmingham-Southern students who had helped him through his return.

Black said increasing the number of people claiming the EITC doesn’t costAlabamaany money, and it’s a direct and simple way to increase assistance to working families.

“Without any new legislation or tax laws to pass, it will result in a dramatic increase in the returning of tax dollars to the working families to whom they are owed,” Black said.

According to a study by the Brookings Institute, about 75 percent ofBirmingham’s EITC recipients pay an average of $200 each simply to access the benefit. Among major U.S. cities, only Memphis has a higher percentage of applications going through paid preparers.

These paid preparers often offer “rapid refunds,” which are loans based on the expected refund at annual percentage rates of as much as 800 percent.

According to Black, about 35,000 families in the city ofBirminghamclaimed an estimated $75 million through the federal EITC in 2004. However, they lost $5 million to commercial tax preparers through fees and refund anticipation loan costs.

Sarah Louise Smith, coordinator of SaveFirst, said that if a filer has a checking account, a refund can be direct-deposited within seven days.

In its second year of operation, SaveFirst has trained 300 volunteers, college students from a dozen campuses statewide, including Birmingham-Southern, the University ofAlabama  at Birmingham, Cumberland School of Law and the University of Alabama. Some receive course credit for the training and volunteer time.

The volunteers will be staffing two sites in Birmingham: Smithfield Public Library and New Hope Community Development Federal Credit Union.

The service is available to working families making less than $40,000 a year with children in the home or $20,000 a year without children in the home. The maximum refund for a family with more than one child is $4,700.

The EITC check is often the largest check a lower-income working family will see all year, Black said.

The money helps families cover expenses such as housing, utilities, food and child care, making it easier for working Alabamians to keep working, he said.

Appointments may be scheduled at 877-578-8778, with daytime, evening and weekend hours available. Filers need to bring identification and Social Security card, forms with documentation of all income received, documentation of child care paid and information such as receipts for charitable contributions and other deductions.

E-mail: tspencer@bhamnews.com

Every year, about 65 percent ofAuburn’s low-income residents pay an average of $200 apiece to commercial tax preparers to take advantage of the Earned Income Tax Credit when they file federal income taxes.

That may change this year, thanks to the launch of a new program called SaveFirst that will provide free income tax preparation services to those families.

The local program is a collaboration among the city ofAuburn, Regions Bank, Auburn University and Impact Alabama.

“They usually have just a W-2, and their taxes can be done by a college student with a little bit of training,” says Stephen Black, who founded ImpactAlabamafour years ago. SaveFirst is one of three service-learning projects involving educational institutions throughout the state.

The EITC is the federal government’s largest and most successful antipoverty program for low-income working families, Black said. But the benefit to those same families is eroded when they take out predatory refund anticipation loans with interest rates of up to 800 percent, he noted.

About 3,000 families in the city ofAuburnclaimed an estimated $5 million through the federal EITC in 2004, he said, but the same families lost $350,000 to commercial tax preparers through preparation fees and refund anticipation loans.

In fact, statewide more than 481,000Alabamafamilies claimed an estimated $1 billion through the federal EITC, but spent $72 million on tax preparation and refund anticipation loan costs.

Black said Alabama ranks 49^th in the nation in terms of the percentage of families paying commercial preparers and taking out refund anticipation loans.

That’s why Impact Alabama two years ago started its SaveFirst program in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. This year, the program has been expanded to seven cities, including Auburn.

The goal of the SaveFirst initiative is to train college and graduate students to offer free tax preparation services and other services to low-income families.

Students from the class of political science professor Steven Brown will be providing the service as a required part of their course work.

“They learn about the EITC, and about hat it means to be a working family with children making $25,000 a year,” Black said. “We actually had to turn down a couple of other professors. Because this is the first year, we won’t be able to advertise extensively enough to have enough people to keep more students busy.”.

The service will be provided free between Jan. 23 and Feb. 23 at the Boykin Community Center at 400 Boykin St. in Auburn.

Working families making less than $40,000 a year with children in the home are eligible for the service, as are working families making less than $20,000 a year if there are no children in the home.

Impact Alabama is training some 275 college, graduate and law students from 11 campuses across the state to provide the free tax preparation as well as financial literacy information and other information to working families.

Daytime, evening and weekend hours are available. For an appointment, call (877) 578-8778 toll-free.

By Stephen Black

As we move into a new tax filing season, America continues to be the richest, most powerful nation on earth. Unfortunately, America also continues to be a nation in which 13 million children live in poverty. Surprising to some, the majority of these children live in families who work hard and play by the rules.

Since its inception in 1975, the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) has been championed by both Republicans and Democrats, becoming the single most important federal antipoverty program in the nation. A refundable tax credit for workers with low to moderate incomes, the EITC represents a $40 billion annual investment in children, families and the communities in which they live and work.

Lifting nearly 5 million individuals, including almost 3 million children, above the poverty line each year, the EITC gives working parents the ability to better support their families. In 2004, the average total refund forAlabamataxpayers claiming the EITC was $3,200. Often the largest check a lower-income, working family will see all year, this money helps families cover expenses like housing, utilities, food and child care – making it easier for working Alabamians to keep working.

Unfortunately, despite the obvious benefit of the EITC, an estimated 15 percent of eligible families and individuals do not claim the credit. These workers are missing out on thousands of dollars that could help them pay for critical needs. The impact of the EITC is also dramatically undermined because money that was intended for working families is diverted to commercial tax preparers and refund lenders.

Encouraged by clever television ads, and often unaware that they are simply speeding up the refund process by as little as one week, many consumers are convinced to take out a refund anticipation loan- a predatory one-to-two week loan secured by and repaid directly from the proceeds of a consumer’s tax refund, offered at exorbitantly high interest rates, ranging from an annual rate of about 50 percent to over 800 percent. Millions of working families pay $200-$250 each in fees, essentially borrowing their own money for seven days at extremely high interest rates. In total, commercial tax preparation and loan fees annually strip nearly $2.9 billion in fees from the EITC paid to working families.

In Alabama, more than 481,000 families annually claim an estimated $1 billion through the federal EITC. However, with more than 75 percent of EITC recipients in Alabama paying a  commercial preparer to complete their taxes, Alabama families lose more than $72 million annually to tax preparation and refund anticipation loan costs – a figure which places us at 49th in the nation. That extra $72 million could have made a tremendous contribution to helping lower-income families secure health insurance, pay down debts or put food on the table.

Solution

Not surprisingly, a 2005 Brookings Institution report confirmed that communities instituting broad outreach and public awareness campaigns have successfully convinced a larger number of low-income taxpayers that refund anticipation loans are a terrible deal, and that better options exist for quickly accessing refund dollars.

One of these options is to use IRS-certified, volunteer tax preparation sites. In responding to the overwhelming need for an alternative to costly tax preparation options in Alabama, SaveFirst, an initiative of Impact Alabama, trains college, graduate, and law students to provide free tax preparation services and opportunities for savings and economic improvement to low-income, working families.

In only its second year of operation, more than 300 trained college, graduate and law students from 11 campuses across the state began preparing tax returns for working families at community-based sites in seven cities on Jan. 22. More than 50 students from the University of Alabama are working at sites in Tuscaloosa.

The value of student participation in this effort is not just related to the incredible service provided toAlabama’s working families. SaveFirst also cultivates a willingness and desire in students to take responsibility for the well-being and progress of the larger community  – empowering them to critically think about the structural causes of the need for their service and take leadership roles to develop innovative solutions to them.

We can be proud of our state’s colleges and universities collaborating to serve a united purpose greater than the local interests of any one institution and playing a greater role in preparing students to serve as engaged and ethical citizens. Predatory lending isn’t just a legal issue for lower income families to face; it is a moral issue for all citizens to face.

To find a free tax preparation site near you, or to join our cause, call 1-877-578-8778.

Attorney Stephen Foster Black is director of the UA Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility. He is founder and president of ImpactAlabama: A Student Service Initiative and board member of the Alabama Poverty Project. Reach him by e-mail at Stephen.black@ua.edu.

By John Peck

UAH students to offer workers free preparation help

An estimated 2,400 low-income families inHuntsvillecould be an average of $2,100 richer this year by taking advantage of a federal income tax credit – but they may not know they’re eligible.

Free tax preparation help is available that will register eligible families for the tax break, the federal government’s largest antipoverty program for low-income working families.

Students from the school of business at the University of Alabama in Huntsville are teaming up with United Wayand AARP to promote the tax credit and help local families prepare their tax forms.

“This is what I would call a symphony of collaboration, what public/private partnerships should be about,” said Stephen Black, president of ImpactAlabama, a nonprofit organization that helps the needy. “Fifteen percent of earned tax credit families are unaware they qualify for the credit.

“That’s millions of dollars being left on the table in Washington that’s due the taxpayers in this area.”

The tax credit generally applies to working families making less than $40,000 a year with kids in the home, or $20,000 with no kids, this tax season. The income limits are up from $33,692 and $11,230 respectively from the 2004 tax filing season.

The tax break is called the earned income tax credit, and some 14,000 families inHuntsvilleare already claiming it to the tune of $28 million. Officials estimated another 2,470Huntsvillefamilies qualify but don’t know it, leaving as much as $5 million in IRS coffers.

Each year, more than 481,000 families in Alabama claim an estimated $1 billion through the tax credit.

However, those same families forfeit $72 million to tax preparation and refund anticipation loan costs. The advanced loans levy interest charges of up to 800 percent annually. Officials hope the free tax help will deter some of the advanced loan activity and also make more families aware of the tax credit.

UAH President Dr. David Williams said the university welcomes the chance to partner with Impact Alabama.

“A very important part of a university’s education is being part of a community and understanding that education doesn’t just take place in the classroom,” Williams said. “This opportunity to let our students learn and practice what they learn in the classroom is just marvelous. Everybody benefits.”

Steve Kirkpatrick with the United Way of Madison County said the free tax help is in keeping withUnited Way’s mission if it reduces dependence on social services.

Impact Alabama is offering the free tax help under an initiative called $aveFirst. Black said some 275 college graduate and law students from 11 campuses (including UAH) are being trained to provide the free tax preparation service in seven cities.

Understandably, many low-income people rush their income and withholding statement, the W-2 form, to the nearest tax preparation firm that advertises instant refunds.

They need the money, but they can save a bundle if they participate in SaveFirst, a program that helps them, for free, determine if they are eligible for an earned income tax credit.

For instance, if you have children and make less than $39,000 annually, you may have a check coming to you as part of the nation’s largest anti-poverty program. Adults without children and who make less than $12,000 may also be due money back.

The Daily, Decatur City Schools, the Community Action Partnership of Alabama and Parents and Children Together are sponsoring the program here to assist people in filing for the credit.

If you know someone who might benefit from an earned income tax credit, and you want them to avoid paying for help, call 1-877-578-8778 to schedule an appointment.

Remember: The program is designed to alert people that they may be eligible for money and to provide free form preparation, which is a savings of between $200 and $250.

The program is a good deal for participants because it allows recipients to keep all of the money.

By Robyn Bradley Litchfield

With help from Impact Alabama’s SaveFirst Initiative, Montgomery’s lower-income residents will wind up with more money from their 2007 tax returns.

In 2007, the initiative provided free income tax preparation services to more than 300 lower-income families inBirminghamandTuscaloosa. This year, the program is expanding and will includeMontgomeryand six other cities across the state.

The organization will train about 275 college, graduate and law students from 11 campuses acrossAlabama. These volunteers will prepare taxes for working families making less than $40,000 a year with children in the home or $20,000 a year without children in the home.

The service is aimed at assisting families eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The EITC is the federal government’s largest and most successful anti-poverty program for low-income, working families, but about 70 percent of Montgomery’s EITC recipients pay an average of $200 just to access the benefit, Impact Alabama founder Stephen Black said.

“Two hundred dollars is a huge chunk if you only make $20,000 to $40,000 a year,” said Black, whose organization is based in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa.

Black went on to say that Alabama ranks 49th in the nation in terms of the percentage of families paying commercial preparers and taking out “refund anticipation loans,” or “rapid refunds,” at percentage rates of up to 800 percent, further eroding the benefits of the EITC.

About 29,000 families in Montgomery claimed an estimated $73 million through the EITC in 2004, but these same families lost $4 million to commercial tax preparers through preparation fees and “rapid refunds,” he said.

InMontgomery, the free tax preparation program will be set up in the Jubilee Community Center on South Goldthwaite Streetlater this month through early February.

In addition to working on taxes, volunteers also will provide financial literacy information and opportunities for economic improvement to working families.

For more about ImpactAlabama’s SaveFirst Initiative and to get involved, email Black at stephen.black@ua.edu.

By Tom Scarritt

Competitive debaters are rarely surprised.

They research their topics carefully, and they anticipate the arguments their opponents are likely to make. They know what to expect, and they prepare for it.

It is unlikely, though, that members ofBirmingham’s SpeakFirst debate team were prepared for the great surprise they received Wednesday. That is when the high school students learned that the University of Alabama and UAB pledged to provide full scholarships for all students who complete three years with the SpeakFirst program.

That was great news for the hard-working students and their parents. It also was a strong affirmation that the universities are reaching out to the right kinds of students and encouraging the right values.

These are students who will succeed in college if given the opportunity, and now they will have that chance.

At a time when the headlines are dominated by theHooverschool system’s extraordinary efforts to help football players meet the minimum requirements to be eligible for college, the SpeakFirst program is actually preparing students to flourish in college.

The debate program and the enrichment efforts that go along with it are giving Birmingham students some of the same advantages that students have in the top suburban school systems, such as Hoover at its best.

Birminghamlawyer Stephen Black started the SpeakFirst program after reading a newspaper article about the impact of debate on high school students. “They interviewed admissions people at Ivy League schools who said competitive, successful debate in high school has replaced SGA president as the most coveted quality in a college applicant,” Black told The News’ Kathy Kemp last year.

Debate is not just a gold star on a college applicant’s resume. It can be a real predictor of success.

The skills debaters learn are skills that help them in college and in life. They learn to do research, distill their findings into cogent arguments and present those arguments in public. “It’s absolutely the most academic and educational thing I’ve seen for kids, bar none,”Mountain Brook High School debate coach Jeff Roberts said earlier this year.

The SpeakFirst students also learn the value of hard work, practicing three days a week for three hours at a time. College students, debate coaches andBirminghamlawyers help train the team.

While getting disadvantaged students into college is an important step, it is not enough. As Black noted in an essay about SpeakFirst for The News, college enrollment has soared over the past 25 years, but the proportion of students receiving degrees has remained flat.

“Many students from low-income families receive an inadequate secondary education and simply aren’t prepared to succeed in college,” he wrote.

Along with their intensive debate training, SpeakFirst students take part in standardized test preparation, college visits and other educational field trips, as well as structured summer internships.

SpeakFirst is clearly a success. Its team members compete with the very best high school debaters, and now doors are opening for them at the college level. But the team includes only 20 students. Our challenge as a community is to find ways to give many more students the preparation they need for college.

Tom Scarritt is editor of The News. E-mail: tscarritt@bhamnews.com.

There’s a sad reality about the efforts to improve struggling school systems like Birmingham’s. Most of the attention is focused on improving third-grade reading skills or bringing up eighth-grade math scores or trying to help students pass the high school exit exam.

Yet, just as in wealthier, high-performing suburban school systems, there also are strong, hardworking, goals-oriented students in even the most stressed schools. These are students who make A’s in challenging courses, but who may never have the same opportunities as their peers in other school systems.

That’s why programs like the SpeakFirst debate team in Birmingham city schools are so important.

The 20 students involved in SpeakFirst are as dedicated as students anywhere. They have to be to succeed in the demanding debate program founded four years ago by Birmingham lawyer Stephen Foster Black.

These students also learn there are rewards for that dedication. This week, the University of Alabama and UAB announced they would provide full tuition and fees scholarships to every student who completes three years with SpeakFirst. The universities are to be commended, but they know the scholarships they’re promising will also help them get the students they are trying so hard to recruit.

A quality debate team is a good ticket to college. Research shows that a high-quality debate program is one of the most significant contributors to student achievement, and that’s particularly true for disadvantaged children. Participants must commit to three hours of practice, three days a week, along with extra debate research and weekend trips to debate tournaments.

But SpeakFirst isn’t just about arguing for points in public. The program also offers students standardized test preparation help, personalized study plans, college planning, academic development to keep them focused on their college goals, visits to college campuses across the Southeast, summer internships, cultural experiences and more.

For now, however, all need not apply. Only four freshmen are accepted into the program each year. This school year – and this was before the scholarships were announced – about 60 students tried for those four slots. With guaranteed college scholarships on the line, SpeakFirst is sure to become even more competitive.

Let’s hope it’s so competitive the program expands across the area or even throughout the state, to help more high-achieving students, or that others with a public service spirit like Black see the potential of these determined teens and work to create other opportunities.

By Hannah Wolfson

When Temani Beck, a senior at Ramsay High School, signed up for the SpeakFirst debate team four years ago, she hoped it would help her get into college.

Now it will also pay for it.

The University of Alabama and UAB pledged Wednesday to provide full scholarships to all students who complete three years with SpeakFirst, a nonprofit program that targets minority teens.

“I can’t believe it,” Miannica Lowe, a sophomore atRamsayHigh School, said after calling her father in tears with the news. As one of five children, she had no idea how she could afford college. “I had never been out ofBirminghambefore I was on this team, and then I went to North Carolina, I got an internship at a law firm, and now this.”

The debate team draws students – currently eight seniors, four juniors, four sophomores, and four freshmen – from Birmingham public schools, although a few who have moved out of the system also participate.

The announcement came as a surprise to the students, who let out screams, hugged each other and cried. Before the big announcement, they learned they will also receive free laptops computers from Jim Kennemer of Vision Resources and have been promised executive-level internships byBirmingham’s Division of Youth Services.

“It’s crazy, because when we started the program we didn’t think it was going to be this big,” said Beck who already has applied to UA and UAB.

“I’m floating on clouds,” said Crystalline Jones, a senior at Hewitt-Trussville High School who has been accepted at UA and wants to be a pre-med student, “I couldn’t stand up I was shaking so hard.”

“I’m over the moon. This is awesome,” said Yelonda Jones, Crystalline’s mother. “We’ve been stressing to them, if you do well, God will provide.”

The students have worked hard for the honor. Each participant commits to three hours of practice a day, three days a week, plus travel to competitions on weekends and extra time researching their presentations. They compete against suburban and private school forensics teams locally and around the region.

“I really do believe that the time commitment and the academic commitment these students have made to be in this program is absolutely an indication of the commitment they can make when they get to college,” said DeeDee Barnes Bruns, vice president for enrollment at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Each scholarship, which includes tuition and fees, is worth about $30,000 over four years.

Stephen Black, who founded SpeakFirst four years ago as part of the IMPACT Alabama organization, said the goal of the program was ultimately to get the students higher education. But it was also designed to help urban students develop their communication skills, break down stereotypes, and boost their self-esteem.

Black said there are no immediate plans to expand the program inBirmingham, although he has discussed founding a SpeakFirst inMontgomery.

By Lisa Mathis

Keanna Newby wanted to know if her son, Nehemiah, was one of the 11 percent of children who have been diagnosed with eye problems since a statewide vision screening project began in 2004.

“I wear glasses; my mom and father wear glasses,” Newby said.

Although Nehemiah has displayed no obvious eye problems, she wanted to be on the safe side. So she brought Nehemiah to Alfred Saliba Family Services Early Head Start on Wednesday for a free eye screening by FocusFirst, a project created to promote early detection and treatment of eye disorders.

“I take care of my vision and I want to take care of my children’s,” Newby said.

FocusFirst sends student volunteers to various communities inAlabamato conduct vision screenings of children ages 2 to 5. And the children need not read the bottom line of an alphabet chart. A photorefractive camera records the image of the eyes.

Sky Stewart, a volunteer, explained how the camera works. “When all light is reflected back, the eyes are good,” he said. “If there’s a cloudy spot, something’s wrong.”

It is this process that helped them diagnose a 6-month-old infant with cataracts.  “It is a very quick procedure,” Stewart said. “It isn’t invasive or intense.” And it is very important to catch vision problems early.

“We’re happy they are here,” said Minnie Vickers, center director of Headland Head Start. Although the children have had at least one eye exam before, Vickers said this one is more important.

“They had their eyes checked during the physical when they enrolled in head start,” she said. “But it is good to have this screening because they didn’t understand the first one.”

Also, the physical included many different screenings, whereas this exam was able to concentrate on vision only. “Problems can be detected at an early stage, before the children get too behind,” Vickers said.

FocusFirst is a project that was created from Impact, a nonprofit organization that develops and implements service-learning projects using volunteers from universities throughout the state.

The project founder, Stephen Black, said the exams are productive on two levels – vision health and volunteerism.

“We desperately need young people’s energies, perspectives and talents to make our communities and institutions work well.” Black said. “I see the college years as an incredible opportunity to engage students in addressing human and community needs.”

The group conducted 8,400 examinations last year and Black predicts more than 10,000 will take place this year.

By Jamon Smith, Staff Writer

TUSCALOOSA- With the return of tax season, many people hope to get a larger refund by cutting out tax preparation businesses and turning to do-it-yourself programs, such as TurboTax.

But not everyone has the opportunity or the know-how to prepare taxes, and unfortunately, those are the folks commercial tax preparation firms, check-cashing operations and payday loan businesses target and seek to exploit, said Sarah Louise Smith of Impact Alabama, a nonprofit student service organization.

That’s why ImpactAlabamahas teamed with theUniversityofAlabamato offer free income tax preparation and financial information to low-income families in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. Called SaveFirst, the program has trained UA students to provide the services.

“The SaveFirst initiative is an alternative way of providing [tax preparation services] to people in a low income bracket so they don’t have to pay commercial preparers who typically target people in the low income bracket and charge $200 to $300 for a basic tax return,” said Smith, the coordinator of SaveFirst.

Smith said the income bracket for individuals eligible for the service is a maximum of $40,000 a year for people with children living at home and $20,000 for those without children.

“Mayor [Walt] Maddox has been very helpful in helping us push this initiative,” Smith said. “He declared Jan. 16 to be SaveFirst Day in Tuscaloosa.”

Besides helping people with tax preparation, Smith said SaveFirst also helps college students earn “real world credit.”

“We’ve trained 80 University of Alabama college, graduate and law students to prepare the taxes,” Smith said. “The last of them just finished their IRS certification test this weekend, so they’re all officially certified to do this, and [Monday] they’ll be ready to get started.”

Smith said SaveFirst, which is part of ImpactAlabama, has also partnered with the Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility at UA and is teaching a class at the Capstone. “This is really a unique opportunity for students on campus to really contribute to the community and provide a great opportunity to help a population that’s taken advantage of,” Smith said.

By Stephen Black

About four years ago, I learned some disturbing news about our area’s brightest and most talented young people. I began hearing stories ofBirminghamhigh school students who maintain excellent grades, but because of a limited vocabulary and underdeveloped critical reasoning skills, they do so poorly on standardized tests that they are either rejected by our region’s best colleges, or fail to succeed if accepted.

To help address this, I collaborated with the Birmingham City School System, area colleges and numerous area businesses to start SpeakFirst. Our program is designed to enrich the academic experience of motivated students fromBirmingham’s public high schools through participation on an all-star debate team. The debate training provided by SpeakFirst develops students’ critical thinking, writing, research and public speaking skills. Tutoring, college admissions guidance, standardized test prep and summer internships are also provided.

The reasons for starting such an initiative have become clear to everyone involved as we move into our third year of operation. Temani Beck is one of those reasons. Temani is a 16-year-old junior attending Ramsay High School. She is one of seven foster children being raised by a single mother.

Temani is gifted, driven and has worked very hard on her debating skills since she was a freshman. If you would like to argue with her about the importation of prescription drugs or the relationship between church and state, be prepared, she is getting really good.

Another reason SpeakFirst was started has to do with a story too few people know – the story of affirmative action in our nation’s higher education system. In recent years,  the end of racial preferences in admissions at some major universities around the country has elicited an outcry from many liberals, raising predictions that once-diverse campuses would become nearly all-white communities of privilege and exclusivity. Using trained college volunteers to conduct the screenings helps fill a gap between agencies like Sight Savers and the children who need their help, Black said.

Taking center stage in the drama was the state ofCaliforniawhich, in 1996, passed Proposition 209 amending their state constitution to prohibit the consideration of race in college admissions. Prior to 1996,California’s so-called affirmative action policy was warm and fuzzy, but also effortless and cost-free: “come to a football game, tour our campus, buy a t-shirt, and we will drop the bar low enough for you to get in. We get credit for valuing diversity and inclusion and you get a college education.  Everyone wins, right?” Wrong.

As it turns out, there is more to the story. Although college enrollment has soared during the past quarter century, the proportion of college students completing degrees of any kind has remained flat.  How could this be? Many students from low-income families receive an inadequate secondary education and simply aren’t prepared to succeed in college. In fact, low-income students are six times less likely to graduate with a bachelor’s degree than high-income students.

Not surprisingly, in the first year following the removal of racial preferences from theUniversityofCalifornia Systemadmissions, minority enrollment dropped 50%. But then the UC System tried something novel – they dramatically increased their efforts to improve the academic preparation of students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds inCalifornia’s K-12 schools – expanding the pool of qualified minority students prepared to succeed in college. The UC System’s initiatives include partnerships between UC colleges and individual schools, strengthening curricula and establishing summer academic enrichment programs.

So what happens when you couple high standards with outreach, innovation and hard work? Five years after passage of Prop 209, the percentage of minority students admitted toCaliforniacolleges has rebounded to pre-1996 percentages – and most importantly – graduation rates have increased as well. Ending racial preferences forced the UC System to acknowledge that true affirmative action requires an obligation to act affirmatively  – affirmative action as a verb rather than a self-congratulatory sound-bite.

Racial preferences in higher education are a cop-out. When we become buried in our own myths about race, we put off the far harder work of ending the intellectual isolation of poor children.

Focusing outreach on economically disadvantaged communities inevitably promotes racial diversity in higher education since African Americans are disproportionately concentrated in low resource areas.

Academic partnerships such as SpeakFirst, in which individuals from institutions of higher education provide assistance to K-12 students, are a welcome development, but assisting only a relatively small number betrays the larger calling on our community.  Outreach to our poorest-performing schools must become a stated priority of the leadership of our institutions of higher learning (both administration and faculty), reinforced by leadership from our city and support from our business community.  Only by making such outreach a priority, will we provide the necessary nourishment to support initiatives like SpeakFirst on a larger scale.

I invite you to visit one of our debate practices and meet Temani. She will continue to practice debate for three hours a day, three days a week for the next year. On her own merit, she will get a full scholarship to the college of her choice, and she will graduate with honors four years later. She believes it. I believe it.

By Sarah Bruryn Jones

Inside a pitch-black room, about 15 preschoolers at University Place Elementary Schoolsat patiently waiting to have their picture taken.

The only light visible in the room was the flickering of red dots on the camera.

“Show me your surprise eyes,” said Skye Stewart, operating the camera. “Sit real still and show me your big eyes.” A bright white flash went off, temporarily illuminating the child being photographed. “Good,” Stewart said.

The specialized camera takes photos of the children’s eyes. Stewart is the Tuscaloosa coordinator for the FocusFirst program, a program of the non-profit Impact Alabama.

Impact works with higher education institutions, includingUniversityofAlabama, and surrounding communities on social justice projects throughout the state.

FocusFirst has set a goal of checking every low-income, underprivileged child between 15 months and 5 years old inAlabamafor potential eye and vision problems.

Lack of early eye exams is not just a problem among low-income children. According to the American Optometric Association, 14 percent of children younger than 6 are likely to have had an eye and vision examination. In other words, most parents wait until their children are enrolled in school.

Studies have shown, and experts agree, that the earlier a child’s eye or vision problem is caught, the better the chances are for preventing long-term problems.

FocusFirst is not the only program emphasizing early detection of eye problems in children. The American Public Health Association encourages regular eye examinations at the ages of 6 months, 2 years, and 4 years, and urges pediatricians to recommend that all children receive eye examinations at these intervals.

The American Optometric Association has made a recent push to encourage parents to get children screened even younger. Through the AOA’s InfantSEE program, optometrists provide free screenings to children between 6 months and 1 year old.

The program is in its second year. A search of the database of participating doctors at infantsee.org, showed five participate in Tuscaloosa.

FocusFirst costs about $80,000 annually and is entering its third year. In the first two years, the program screened more than 12,000 students, and vision problems were detected in about 11 percent of the children. Cost for the program is kept down because college student volunteers are trained to help administer tests.

“The bottom line is children in public schools when older are screened inAlabama,” said Stephen Black, president and founder of ImpactAlabama. “Everyone agrees it’s much more valuable to screen children before they start school, before they’ve fallen behind in reading, have behavioral issues or develop more serious [vision] problems.”

Lynn Hamonds, a Birmingham optometrist on the national committee developing the InfantSEE program, said the main goal of InfantSEE is to catch children with amblyopia, or lazy eye, early.

“What we know, based on research, is early intervention produces the best outcomes,” Hamonds said, adding that AOA would like early eye exams to be part of the regular well-baby checkups.

In children with lazy eye, one eye develops more than the other meaning vision in the weaker eye is reduced, because the brain and the eye are not working together properly. The eye looks normal, but it is not being used normally, because the brain is favoring the other eye.

The condition affects approximately 2 to 3 percent of children. Unless it is successfully treated in early childhood, amblyopia usually persists into adulthood, and is the most common cause of singleeye visual impairment among children and young and middle-aged adults. If left untreated, it can result in blindness in the lazy eye.

While lazy eye is the leading concern, the InfantSEE progam does a complete exam, looking for other eye-related problems.

FocusFirst, while not a complete exam, is used to detect irregularities. Experts at Vision Research Corp. analyze the photographs of the eyes for potential disorders, including ambylopia. When a problem is detected, follow-up care is provided through Sight Savers of Alabama, another non-profit organization that provides complete vision care for economically disadvantaged children.

By Antoinette Konz

Amanda Smith sat quietly as she listened and learned how she might be able to help detect certain eye disorders in preschoolers that may cause them trouble down the road. Smith, 14, a freshman atMontgomery’s Booker T. Washington Magnet High School, is among a group of about 30 students who were trained Monday morning on how to use a photo-optic scan camera that will screen for a handful of vision disorders. In two weeks, they will travel to several Head Start locations and begin screening children. “I’m really excited,” she said. “I think it will be fun. It gives us a chance to get out of class and help out the little kids.”

The students at BTW are the only high school students in the state who have been asked to participate in the vision screening program through FocusFirst, an initiative under Impact Alabama, a nonprofit organization based in Birmingham.

“They usually have college students do the screenings,” said Carole Yeaman, the law magnet teacher at BTW. “But two years ago, the students met Stephen Black (the president and founder of ImpactAlabama) and he was so impressed that he asked if they would be interested in helping out.”

Some of the disorders the students will be screening for include myopia (nearsightedness), hyperopia (farsightedness), amblyopia (lazy eye) and cataracts.

A group of students helped conduct the screenings in the spring and were asked to help again, Yeaman said.

“That same group and a group of my Law I students will be doing the screenings this time,” she said. “We are really happy that we are able to help out again.” Neeta Kirpalani and Rachel McWhorter, coordinators with FocusFirst, visited BTW on Monday and showed students how to set up the camera device as well as how to focus and change out the film.

“Our goal is to provide a cost-effective, direct response to the vision problems of underprivileged children who live throughoutAlabama,” Kirpalani said. “We want to ensure that they enter the school system with the best vision possible and that they have had their eyes screened properly.”

It’s estimated that only 21 percent of preschool children receive proper vision screenings, she said.

Kirpalani said between last November and May, more than 200 trained student volunteers screened more than 4,400 children in 24 counties.

About 13.5 percent, or about 600, of the children failed the FocusFirst screening, and all of them are  receiving free follow-up care, including a 3-year-old girl who underwent cataract surgery in June, she said.

“The cataracts were detected by FocusFirst volunteers from Jacksonville State University during a screening in Calhoun County,” Kirpalani said. Blaise Staub, a BTW junior, and Elishea Trammell, a sophomore, enjoyed performing the screenings last spring and will help do them in a few weeks.

“It was kind of hard at times because the kids are so little and it’s dark in the room,” Trammell said. “Some moved around a lot and some cried because they were scared.” “It’s really rewarding when you gain their trust and they give you a big hug afterwards,” Staub said.

ONLINE EXTRA

Eye disorders

Some of the eye disorders students fromMontgomery’s Booker T. Washington Magnet High School will be screening for at area Head Start locations beginning Nov. 29:

Amblyopia  — Also known as lazy eye. It occurs when one eye is not used enough for the visual system in the brain to develop properly. The brain ignores the images from the weak eye and uses only those from the stronger eye, leading to poor vision. Amblyopia usually affects only one eye but may occur in both eyes. Children can develop amblyopia between birth and about age seven. A child with amblyopia may not even realize that he or she is using only one eye. Ignoring the image from the weak eye is an unconscious response over which the child has no control.

Myopia — Nearsightedness. People who are nearsighted have what is called a refractive error. This means that the light rays bend incorrectly into the eye to transmit images to the brain. In people with myopia, the eyeball is too long or the cornea has too much curvature, so the light entering the eye is not focused correctly. Light rays of images focus in front of the retina, the light-sensitive part of the eye, rather than directly on the retina, causing blurred vision.

Hyperopia — Farsightedness. It occurs when light entering the eye focuses behind the retina, instead of directly on it. An abnormally flat cornea or short eye can cause the light to enter the eye this way.

Astigmatism — Astigmatism is characterized by an irregular curvature of the cornea. This type of disorder is also known as a refractive error. Astigmatism occurs in nearly everybody to some degree. For significant curvature, treatment is required.

By Ginny Phillips

It’s a Saturday, but the halls of Vestavia Hills High Schools warm with students, a little bleary-eyed from an early start, but otherwise looking polished and starched. Twenty-five debate teams from schools around the state — includingMountain BrookandAltamont— have descended on the school for the first statewide tournament of the season on September 24.

In a French classroom plastered with maps and posters and foreign inspiration, two pairs of students face each other. They’re debating whether college athletes should be given stipends. The two students on the Montgomery Academy team wear navy blazers and khaki slacks — one looks like Tom Cruise from the Risky Business days.

Robyn Stiff, a ninth  grader at Ramsay, and LaVentrice Peeples, a 10th grader at Carver, are competing for SpeakFirst, a team of students from the Birmingham City Schools. Their high heels might boost them a couple of inches over five feet.

The young women are solid at laying out a “pro” case flush with figures and persuasive quotes. But during the Q&A crossfire rounds, they are jaw-droppingly sharp, with an edge that slices smooth and easy.

One Montgomery Academy student asks Stiff is she doesn’t agree that for many athletes their purpose in college is to move on to professional sports.

“Maybe,” she says, “but the main purpose of college is — and should be — to receive an education. That’s why they’re called student athletes and not athlete students.”

She doesn’t look at her notes before asking, “Do you have any research to support your statement that all colleges are making millions of dollars in profit off athletics?”

He didn’t.

When it’s time for Peeples to rebut, the judge asks if she’d like to use any of the team’s cumulative two minutes of preparation time. “Oh no, I don’t need it,” she says, already out of her desk. She does have research: Only 6 percent of Division 1 schools make a profit from athletics.

Tom Cruise reiterates that most colleges are indeed making money.

“Can you give me a percentage?” asks Peeples.

No.

She cocks her head, letting her notebook fall to her side. “Well, then how can you say ‘most’ if you don’t have a percentage?”

There’s the silence of major points being scored.

***

The week before the Vestavia tournament, there was no silence at Architecture Works during debate practice. Surrounded by three-ring binders stuffed with evidence and legal pads full of notes, the eleven SpeakFirst students faced off across the tables, arguing pro and con over the stipend question.

SpeakFirst is one initiative of the nonprofit organization Impact. Two years ago, Founder and President Stephen Black began envisioning the “all-star” debate team as a way to target gifted students in Birmingham’s public high schools, offering them extra academic training to prepare them for competitive colleges and careers.

It’s not just about debate. At the time, Black was thinking about the outcome more than the method.

“I had no sense of debate,” he said. “Debate is just the answer to this question: If you take really talented, motivated students from an under-funded educational system and you have them in extracurricular time, what is the best use of their time in preparing them to perform well in colleges of their choice?”

Research backed up organized team debate as the answer, pointing to improved speaking ability, writing, research skills, and critical thinking.

If the research made the point, these kids are proving it.

The first students started SpeakFirst in fall 2004, and a second batch followed this fall. During the 2004-2005 academic year, each one put in more than 600 hours into the program, including 90 debate practices. The students are at Architecture Works three days a week from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., plus every other Saturday. Then there are the monthly tournaments. It’s a lot of time, a lot of early mornings, and a lot of missed television for any high schooler.

They’re there because they enjoy it. And they’re there because they get it.

“It feels right,” said ninth grader LaMar Copeland. “It makes me feel professional.”

“It put me on the playing field,” said Crystalline Jones, a sophomore at Hewitt Trussville. “It made my research papers stronger, my writing stronger. In history class I can talk back, increased my vocabulary and expanded my horizons. Public speaking is nothing — nobody’s a stranger to me.”

“It’s worth it because it’s going to help you in the long run,” Brandon Brown said. “It’s helped with essays and reaching conclusions, and I think more analytically now. It’s teaches you to think ahead to why something happens.”

Brown was at Tarrant last year — now he’s a tenth grader at Indian Springs on a $60,000 scholarship.

Black approached Indian Springs about the idea that SpeakFirst students might be a good fit for scholarships, and the school was enthusiastic about creating a relationship that would lead to future students.

“If I never would’ve done SpeakFirst, I never would’ve gotten to Indian Springs,” Brown said. “All the time I spent researching, debating, going to tournaments, spending my weekends, it was worth it.”

Of course, they do all love to argue.

“I like the fact that I get to argue with people and not get in trouble for it,” said Justin McCorvey, a ninth grader at Jefferson County I.B. He wants to be a criminal defense attorney.

“If I get in trouble with my mama, I want to rebut what she says,” Peeples said. “And she’s like, ‘You cannot debate me because I’m older and I know more than you know. And I’m like, ‘Mama, I’m on a debate team.’”

They find their debate time very different from school.

“Usually in class we don’t talk a lot,” Peeples said. “We do our work and go over it, and that’s it. We have dictionaries, but we don’t use dictionaries. SpeakFirst makes you use dictionaries. They make you speak.”

“They come into this moving past words they don’t know,” Black said. “It doesn’t stop them, it happens so frequently. Sometimes most of the words in a resolution are ones they don’t know.

Like whether offshoring is favorable to American economic development. They had no idea what offshoring was. They had no idea what economic development was. By the end of that month they were winning rounds against suburban kids.”

Vocabulary ends up being a huge issue. There’s a gap there, from the start, between the lexicon the kids at Altamont or Montgomery Academy have learned to throw around over the last 14 or 15 years and the verbal foundation students bring to SpeakFirst. And there’s a race to close that gap.

“This has made me comfortable expressing myself — it helps me to find the right words,” Stiff said.

She means that literally. She’s using the dictionary outside of practice, keeping track of words she’s unsure of at school.

“I go home and look it up and make sure I’m correct with the meaning,” she said.

“So you have your own dictionary at home?” she’s asked.

“A big one,” she answered.

Stating her case in front of tournament judges or bent over her Algebra homework, Stiff is pokerfaced and serene, more poised than any 14-year-old has a right to be. It is easy to see her at 30, briefcase and cell phone in hand, tailored business suit immaculate, heels clicking down marble hallways.

“Someone could walk in and say she doesn’t need this,” Black said.  “Well, she would do fine without this program, but this program will help her do exceptionally. Fine is not enough for Robyn.

She’s not fine — she’s exceptional, and she deserves to have opportunities that are exceptional.”

The ultimate goal, of course, is to leave these students well-prepared for colleges and careers. And that goal has shaped SpeakFirst into a debate team with some unique perks.

When students began struggling in math class, Black decided this debate team would have an intensive math component. Now one-third of practice time is spent working with a 30-year math instructor.

Last summer, students got a feel for professional life with internships in law, medicine, journalism, and architecture. They visited five college campuses last year, including a trip to North Carolina. They met with admissions staff to hear exactly what they need to do now to get where they want to be.

***

Gathered around a conference table at Architecture Works, two young women have crashed the highly official interview of a third. Things quickly veer off course to chatting about high school, college, George Bush, downtown Birmingham. No piles of evidence in front of them. They don’t need sources. If The View were recast with beautiful teenagers with attitude, it would go something like this. (Note: Ratings would skyrocket.)

Their answers are rapid-fire and often simultaneous. What do we need to do to make schools better?

Three voices at once: “More good teachers.” How do we get them? “Pay them more.”

Crystalline Jones, with her expressive face and a take-over-the-room charm that makes you want to vote for her whether she’s running for anything or not, talks long and emphatically about the need to revitalize downtown. “They need to appeal to the young people coming out of college,” she says, “They’ve got money they can put in, they’ve got intelligence, they’ve got talent, they want to come back … but they don’t have an opportunity to do that.”

These are 15-year-olds.

So how do we make a real difference in Birmingham?

“Give me an office.” That was Peeples.

Jones mentions when people say to her that they don’t like “those people,” but reassure her that “you’re not like them.” She talks about the society that helped make “those people.”

“It’s created a system,” she says. “If you’d told me when I was in elementary at Hemphill that I was going to college, I wouldn’t have believed you. It’s a whole system where the options are welfare, selling drugs to make money, joining a gang because that’s the only family you’ve got because your Mama’s working three jobs, and your dad’s not there.”

“It sets you up to fail,” says Peeples.

Jones doesn’t break her flow. “And nobody would tell you ‘no’ except for people like Stephen Black. Who’ll come in and tell you ‘no’ and level the playing field.”

***

There is a confidence about these teenagers, a comfort in their own skin. They talk about debating in front of a judge, sitting in on depositions, going to city council meetings, which colleges might offer the best scholarships.

It’s hard to believe that confidence wasn’t there a year ago.

“When I first started, I was real shy,” Peeples said. “I didn’t want to stand up and talk in front of people, I didn’t want to debate, but now I’m so open-minded I’ll talk to anybody. You don’t even have to say anything, I’ll just talk to myself.”

“I used to be really, really shy when it came to meeting new people,” said Zita Orji, a 10th grader at Ramsay. “I wouldn’t say anything, I would sit there. Debate brought out my personality. I can go meet somebody now, and I wouldn’t feel awkward at all.”

It’s that sense of themselves, the still-shifting awareness of what they can do that Black finds to be the most dramatic difference between the students he first recruited and the ones looking back at him now.

“They all develop this powerful sense of their own ability to do something really well,” he said.

“They’re competing with wealthier suburban kids in an academic setting, interacting with people in all kinds of professions, visiting colleges so they see it tangibly in front of them and it’s not just some far off dream.”

They clearly don’t see it as a dream.

“I’m waiting to explore more colleges,” Peeples said. “Because I want to go to Duke, but I want to find out about Harvard, Princeton, and Yale also.”

She’s been around a lot of lawyers since starting SpeakFirst, and the exposure’s made her question her goal of becoming a doctor. For now, she’s learning more about the legal profession.   Regardless, as a hobby, she wants to be a fashion designer. On the side.

“I didn’t know I could think like this or write like this,” said Whitney Jones, a 10th grader at Clay.

Knowing that she can has only complicated her thoughts on a career. She used to think of being an obstetrician, then she considered law.  Now she’s leaning toward owning her own business.

“I like publishing, and I like to write,” she said. She’s working on two fiction stories and has a notebook of poetry at home. “I want a degree in liberal arts and business management so that whatever I choose I can go into it. I don’t want one career — I want like five.”

Crystalline Jones had thought she wanted to be an OB-GYN, but after her internship this summer at Brookwood Medical Center, she’s thinking more about anesthesiology.

“It takes like 12 years of school, but after debate, I can handle school,” she said. “I’ve debated in front of Judge U. W. Clemon, had a conversation with Don Siegelman — the experience debate has given me goes beyond education. It put me where I needed to be.”

The program itself is all about where these kids need to be. Where they should be.

“Without this, they’re not going to get in trouble,” Black said. “They’ll get good grades, they’ll win awards. But they won’t be prepared to do very well in college. And there’s a sense that that’s just the way these kinds of kids are. The exceptional ones will be okay, but you’re not going to think to yourself, ‘That kid could be my lawyer one day.’ You think she’ll make it through her school and go toJeffState.

“How do you know she didn’t deserve to go to Duke?  I’m not interested in the best kids doing okay. I’m interested in them realizing their potential.”

***

In the 11 debate tournaments during the last academic year, SpeakFirst had never placed in the top five during a tournament. The Vestavia tournament, with its 25 teams, lasted from 8 a.m. until after 5 p.m. By the awards ceremony, the four SpeakFirst teams, including Stiff and Peeples, have gone through four debates each.

When the top ten teams were called out, the usual suspects are there — Altamont,MontgomeryAcademy, Vestavia. But at No. 5  — a SpeakFirst team, Chelsi Stancil and Maya Posey. After a moment of stunned silence, the SpeakFirst table goes wild. They keep chattering and hugging as the rest of the names are called out, giddy from the shock of an award.  Then the second jolt comes. At No. 1 — at the top of the entire debate tournament — Robyn Stiff and LaVentrice Peeples.

Tom Cruise did not place.

By Penelope McClenny

A program developed by professor and part-time lawyer Stephen Black is linking young children who need eye exams to college students who need community service experience.

On Friday, nearly 600 students at five Head Start centers inMobile County were screened for vision problems byUniversity of South Alabama students who have undergone specialized training to conduct the tests under a program called FocusFirst.

“Young people do have this powerful sense of wanting to be a part of some powerful project,” said Black.

FocusFirst is a part of Impact, a program Black began developing in the fall of 2004 to provide service opportunities for students inAlabama’s universities, junior colleges and technical schools. Last year, college students screened 4,400 children, including a 3-year-old Calhoun County girl who eventually underwent surgery to correct a cataract problem unveiled by the test.

Screenings are usually scheduled for Head Start and daycare centers that serve children in lower-income areas, Black said, because they are least likely to get the vision care they need.

Using specialized cameras, the volunteers instruct a student to look at a certain point, then take a photograph of the child’s eyes. The images are then reviewed by an optometrist who can determine whether the child has a vision impairment that needs correcting. Uninsured students who need glasses, surgery or any other type of vision therapy are able to receive fully subsidized care through a program called Sight Savers of Alabama, Black said.

Using trained college volunteers to conduct the screenings helps fill a gap between agencies like Sight Savers and the children who need their help, Black said.

“I was surprised at how competently (the student volunteers) are doing it,” he said. “It takes a pretty good amount of concentration to get the details right.”

Each of the 43 USA students involved in the program are graduate students in the occupational therapy program, said Donna Wooster, an assistant professor and coordinator of FocusFirst for the university.

Friday’s screenings were the first for theUSAgroup, whose members had each received about three hours training to operate the cameras used to take photos of a child’s eyes.

“We’re hoping that we can help the kids and detect any problems before it gets really serious, and do some interventions,” student Huong Dao said.

In the next few weeks, the graduate students will travel to more Head Start and daycare centers in Mobile and Baldwin counties to perform screenings.

“I can’t believe they’ve never done this before because it seems so simple and so important,” graduate student Lisa Parnell said as she handed out star-shaped stickers to children as they exited the exam room.

Although dental, speech and some comprehension exams are offered at the center, most of the children had never had eye screenings, but almost every parent consented to have their child undergo the test, Director Gloria Jones said. Four-year-old Tamarcus Wilkerson could hardly sit still in his chair while waiting for his turn, especially after one of theUSAstudents assured him no needles would be involved.

“It was fun! It’s going to be fun!” Amaiya West told him as she headed back to her classroom.

The screenings fulfill a two-fold purpose of giving both pre-kindergarten and college students skills they can use throughout life.

For the Head Start students, finding vision problems early will give them better chances of succeeding school.

“That’s sort of the tragedy of waiting for the screenings that are done comprehensively (when) they are older. The vast majority of those kids get labeled dumb or slow or learning impaired. Vision is the last thing they look at,” Black said.

For the college students, the experience offers a taste of volunteerism.

“I think the whole concept of trying to promote students to volunteer … is really what this is all about, (to) become part of their lifestyle, that they’ll always want to volunteer and give back and promote that in their families in the future,” Wooster said.

By Bob Johnson

The Associated Press

MOSSES  – Chiquetta Raby was worried about her son’s vision. She had gotten a notice from his school that 9-year-old Jalen was having trouble seeing the blackboard and might need glasses.

A single mother, Raby had no idea how she could afford an eye exam and possibly glasses, but she knew she had to do something.

“He’s an A student, and I don’t want his vision to be a problem for him in school,” Raby said this week as her soon received a vision screening at the Mount Moriah Baptist Church Christian Academy in Mosses in rural Lowndes County.

Seventeen children, mostly preschoolers, received the free screening Wednesday as part of a program to check the vision of children from low-income families. The eye exams have become part of Gov. Bob Riley’s Black Belt Action Commission, an initiative to improve the quality of life in mostly poor, rural areas of west and centralAlabama, many with majority black populations.

The vision screenings are being provided in a region that includes counties with no hospital and no emergency health care after 5p.m.

Jeff Haddox, president and founder of the nonprofit agency Sight Savers of Alabama, said children who fail the screenings are referred to his organization which works with a network of eye care professionals to provide free eye exam, glasses and other services, including surgery, if needed.

The exams themselves are performed by another nonprofit group, FocusFirst, which uses high-tech camera equipment to take pictures of the children’s eyes. Those pictures are then analyzed by Vision Care Corp., which can determine if a child is nearsighted, farsighted or has lazy eye or cataracts or other conditions.

The executive director of FocusFirst, Lucy Jones, said in the past yea volunteers, mostly college students, have screened 4,486 children and found 605, or 13.5 percent, who needed follow-up care.

“We learn through sight. If the children can’t see, they can’t learn,” said Narah Cano, executive director of the Ark of Love, a nonprofit organization that operates various programs in Lowndes County, including day care.

One of the day care teachers, 21-year-old Kimberly Grant of Mosses, said children and their parents often don’t realize that they can’t see properly.

The screening involved the lights being turned off in a room and the children putting their chins on a device that held their heads still while the photos of their eyes were taken. Some little ones, like 15-month-old Alesha Coleman, sat in a teacher’s lap while FocusFirst volunteers Josh Pane, Brandon Law and Rachel McWhorter encouraged the toddlers to look at a red light on the camera.

By Bob Johnson

The Associated Press

MOSSES  – Chiquetta Raby was worried about her son’s vision. She had gotten a notice from his school that 9-year-old Jalen was having trouble seeing the blackboard and might need glasses.

A single mother, Raby had no idea how she could afford an eye exam and possibly glasses, but she knew she had to do something.

“He’s an A student, and I don’t want his vision to be a problem for him in school,” Raby said this week as her soon received a vision screening at the Mount Moriah Baptist Church Christian Academy in Mosses in rural Lowndes County.

Seventeen children, mostly preschoolers, received the free screening Wednesday as part of a program to check the vision of children from low-income families. The eye exams have become part of Gov. Bob Riley’s Black Belt Action Commission, an initiative to improve the quality of life in mostly poor, rural areas of west and centralAlabama, many with majority black populations.

The vision screenings are being provided in a region that includes counties with no hospital and no emergency health care after 5p.m.

Jeff Haddox, president and founder of the nonprofit agency Sight Savers of Alabama, said children who fail the screenings are referred to his organization which works with a network of eye care professionals to provide free eye exam, glasses and other services, including surgery, if needed.

The exams themselves are performed by another nonprofit group, FocusFirst, which uses high-tech camera equipment to take pictures of the children’s eyes. Those pictures are then analyzed by Vision Care Corp., which can determine if a child is nearsighted, farsighted or has lazy eye or cataracts or other conditions.

The executive director of FocusFirst, Lucy Jones, said in the past yea volunteers, mostly college students, have screened 4,486 children and found 605, or 13.5 percent, who needed follow-up care.

“We learn through sight. If the children can’t see, they can’t learn,” said Narah Cano, executive director of the Ark of Love, a nonprofit organization that operates various programs in Lowndes County, including day care.

One of the day care teachers, 21-year-old Kimberly Grant of Mosses, said children and their parents often don’t realize that they can’t see properly.

The screening involved the lights being turned off in a room and the children putting their chins on a device that held their heads still while the photos of their eyes were taken. Some little ones, like 15-month-old Alesha Coleman, sat in a teacher’s lap while FocusFirst volunteers Josh Pane, Brandon Law and Rachel McWhorter encouraged the toddlers to look at a red light on the camera.

By Russ Corey

Stephen Black wants to teach young people that volunteerism is more than a one-day affair. The program he created seems to be doing just that. Black, the grandson of the late U.S. District Judge Hugo Black, is the founder of “Impact: An Alabama Student Service Initiative.”

Impact is the first statewide nonprofit organization in Alabama dedicated to developing service-learning projects with select universities, junior colleges and technical schools in the state, according to the organization’s Web site.

One such project that has been well received on college campuses is the public health initiative, FocusFirst. The mission of FocusFirst is to provide a cost-effective direct response to vision problems of underprivileged children living in urban and rural poverty.

Black said that nationwide, when children’s eyes are screened, about 10 percent are found to have problems. The rate is even higher, about 17 percent, in poor areas, Black said.

To address the problem, Black conceived FocusFirst, which trains college students to go into poor areas and conduct screening.

Students participate in a four-hour training session and are taught to use a state-of-the-art portable digital photo-refraction imaging system. The system can transmit images of the children’s eyes directly to experts who analyze them for irregularities.

“The images are pretty amazing,” Black said.

So far, Black has five universities participating in FocusFirst, including the University of North Alabama.

In fact, a group of UNA students was the first to receive training. Of the 86 students trained so far, nine of them are from UNA, Black said.

About 1,200 children statewide have been screened for vision problems. Black said 235 of them were screened in Head Start programs in theFlorencearea, with another 130 scheduled for screenings over the next two weeks. Black said he hopes to have another 20-25 UNA students participating in the program following a second training session that will take place within the next three weeks.

“The bigger part is pointing out the difference between justice and charity for young people,” Black said. “Young people are very good at charitable volunteerism, but young people right now haven’t really connected civil obligation to citizenship or what I call justice.”

Black said states do a good job screening children in the school systems, but it’s better to screen children when they’re 2 to 4 years old.

Joining UNA in the program is the University of Alabama, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Athens State University, Birmingham Southern and the University of West Alabama. This semester Black said he will try to establish programs at Samford University, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Alabama A&M University, Jacksonville State University, Huntington College in Montgomery and Auburn University Montgomery.

Tammy Jacques, UNA associate director of Student Life for Organizations and Activities, said three students decided to adopt FocusFirst as their project. Kattie Fletcher, Christy Sherrill and LeeAnna Harris attended a women’s leadership seminar at the Leading Edge Institute.

“One responsibility was they had to write a grant and get grant money and actually implement some type of program on their campus,” Jacques said.

The three women selected FocusFirst and recruited other students. The nine students received their training in the fall. Jacques said the group received $900 in grant money that will be used to pay for the imaging system, which Black said costs about $3,500.

“We’re still looking at ways to raise money,” Jacques said.

Fletcher said the screening they’ve done has been in pre-schools and Head Start programs. Some eye problems, she said, can be corrected 100 percent if they are caught early enough.

On Wednesday, a team from UNA screened 23 children at the Little Angel Day School inFlorence, FocusFirst volunteer Josh Payne said. Payne the UNA team and two groups from Athens State University screened 65 children Wednesday.

Fletcher said most of their participation has come from fraternities and sororities. The women, now juniors, expect the program to continue after they graduate.

“Hopefully, the next group of girls who go to Leading Edge Institute will pick it up,” Fletcher said.

By Madison Young

We may not have a catchy name like “generation x,” but our generation has made some of the most revolutionary social changes in history. Stephen Black, aBirminghamattorney andUniversityofAlabamain Birmingham Honors adjunct professor, noted the extreme paradox about those of us who grew up in the eighties and nineties in his visit to the Honors Forum class on January 20th.

Apparently, numerous studies have shown that this generation (people between the ages of 15 and 25) is the best in regards to volunteerism that theUnited Stateshas ever seen. This fact has continued to prove its validity in the past eight years with increasing levels of young participants in community service activities. On the other hand, Mr. Black stated what many young people may already know to be true. As far as “structural change” is concerned, that is attempting to make a difference on a large scale such as state or national government, this generation is the worst. Mr. Black was able to substantiate this argument with the example of children’s health insurance. “TheUnited Statesis the wealthiest country in the world and there are nine million children without health insurance,” said Black. It goes pretty much without saying that most responses would be in the area of “That is awful and changes should be made, but I cannot really do anything.”

One theory Black described could be the reason for this is widespread lack of motivation. Essentially, suburbanization has changed the natural human notion of obligation-what is expected of a person as a member of the human race? This ideal entails a series of consequences eventually leading up to a focus on charity over justice. First, people generally learn about things like doing the right thing from family. In the South especially, this concept of good is derived from religion. In the past few decades, as people in search of better schools and safer environments moved to suburbs, churches have followed. Most churches rely on donations from the congregation to remain functional. Building a new church, most likely bigger than the previous one, on most likely more expensive property causes churches to compete for membership. As the idea of justice can often be controversial, churches promote charity in sermons instead. “Charity does not challenge anyone,” said Black. Therefore, somewhat of an evolutionary process could be responsible for the kind of universal feeling of large scale weakness.

The whole point behind his explanation of this trend was to force students to think about possible opportunities to affect an issue so major. In doing research regarding children’s health concerns, Stephen Black found the issue of eye care. Although vision testing is mandatory in schools, many major problems could be reduced to minor ones if discovered earlier. Unfortunately, testing takes place in schools to reduce costs for the companies that perform them. At ages three and four, children may be in day care programs but it is difficult to find such a high concentration in one area. It would be much too expensive and time-consuming for the companies to go around and test possibly only 10 children at one time. Mr. Black chose amblyopia or lazy eye as a prime example. When diagnosed at age six, it possible to repair vision to approximately 65% of the full ability using an eye patch for around six months. However at age three, an eye patch is only required for about a week and fully repairs vision.

Stephen Black then introduced the major idea of the entire talk, UAH student involvement in this issue. An eye scanning camera would be purchased by the school for students to use. Three hour training sessions will be held to teach students the appropriate manner to operate the equipment. From there, students can go out aroundHuntsville, possibly to various daycare centers, and test children for any kind of optical trouble. These results will be sent to an organization that specializes in vision treatment of needy children. While this project does have a community service and charity sense about it, students will be taking part in battling national structural issues. A difference can be made by UAH students.

A training session for students is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, February 12 from 9:00 am until 12:00 pm. More information is available at www.impactalabama.org.

Dr. Jerry Mebane, Director of the Honors Program, and Ms. Delois Smith, Vice President for Student Affairs, also have information regarding the project.

By Adam Jones

TUSCALOOSA| Gwendolyn Sutton didn’t get her eyes checked until she was in the eighth grade. By then, it was too late to save her sight. Now, decades later, Sutton is legally blind.

“My family was rather poor, and we couldn’t afford to have my eyes tested,” she said. “I don’t think anybody knew it was as bad as it was, because when you can’t see well, you don’t know what you can’t see.”

Sutton had to retire from teaching eight years ago and now runs a day care at Christian Community Church Learning Center.

On Monday, she let a group of college students come and screen children’s eyes in hopes of affording them what she didn’t have.

“The earlier you test children, the more able they are to have a normal life,” Sutton said.

Impact, a nonprofit group launched this year, held the eye screenings for most of the 52 children in the day care and will do six more screenings this week in Tuscaloosa County.

Six students from the University of Alabama and an Impact staff member set up shop in a room with a special camera that can spot potential problems such as nearsightedness or lazy eye.

The camera, designed by NASA for use in orbiting telescopes, catches eye problems by making the eyes a kind of mirror.

A child’s face is put on a headrest at the end of a straight rod attached to the camera. Perfectly aligned with the lens, the eyes reflect the flash.

If the child’s whole eye reflects the light, appearing as red, then the eye is probably normal. Variations likely indicate a problem. The flash in nearsighted eyes, for example, reflects at the bottom of the eye. A lazy eye, or amblyopia, barely reflects.

“It’s an opportunity to prevent something with just five seconds of work,” UA student Trey Hayes said.

Once screened, the pictures are sent to Vision Research, the company that lets Impact borrow the camera. Technicians there determine which children should visit an optometrist.

Since most of the screenings are performed in day cares and Head Start programs serving underprivileged children, Impact links families with Sight Savers of Alabama, a nonprofit that pays for eye care to disadvantaged children, said Josh Payne, an Impact staff member.

However, the screenings aren’t the goal of Impact, Payne said.Started by Stephen Black, the grandson of Hugo Black, the organization seeks to involve college students in programs that teach social justice and offer results to the communities, Payne said.

This year, Payne, who graduated from UA in May, and others went to nine college campuses in Alabama to recruit students, and so far have held screenings in the Florence area.

The group sought motivated students by speaking to honors programs and student governments, he said.

“They are the college-educated inAlabama, and we want them to give back and understand the importance of systematic change,” Payne said.

Some of the 35 UA students who went through a day-long training are getting course credit, but Andrew Freeman said he didn’t do it for credit.

“It’s a project where you can see results,” he said.

The students had their hands full with the daunting task of getting preschoolers to stay calm in a dark room and look into a camera they can’t see.

“You don’t know what to expect of the kids,” said UA student Jennifer Hood. “It’s a learning process.”

You can be a part of the story through a year of service with Impact Alabama.