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The Office of Community Services (OCS) is a division of the US Executive Branch under the
The Office of Community Services (OCS) is a division of the US Executive Branch under the Administration for Children and Families
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is a division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). It is headed by the assistant secretary of health and human services for children and families. It has a $49 bill ...
within the Department of Health and Human Services
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the US federal government created to protect the health of the US people and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...
. It is the direct successor of the Office of Economic Opportunity
The Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) was the agency responsible for administering most of the War on Poverty programs created as part of United States president Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society legislative agenda. It was established in 1964 a ...
, an independent agency created in 1964.
OCS administers six programs which provide funding for community development and poverty alleviation for private and public agencies:
* The Assets for Independence program, which provides matching contributions to Individual Development Accounts
An individual development account (IDA) is an asset building tool designed to enable low-income families to save towards a targeted amount usually used for building assets in the form of home ownership, post-secondary education and small business ...
for those eligible for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF ) is a federal assistance program of the United States. It began on July 1, 1997, and succeeded the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, providing cash assistance to indigent Ame ...
program. The program was funded at $18.9 for the 2016 fiscal year. Participants in the program's first year saw a median increase in saving of $657, a drop in experiences of economic hardship by 34%, and a 39% drop in the use of payday loans
A payday loan (also called a payday advance, salary loan, payroll loan, small dollar loan, short term, or cash advance loan) is a short-term unsecured loan, often characterized by high interest rates. These loans are typically designed to cover ...
.
* The Community Economic Development Program, which provides funding for non-profits with the principal goal of supporting low-income housing
Subsidized housing is a subsidy aimed towards alleviating housing costs and expenses for impoverished people with low to moderate incomes. In the United States, subsidized housing is often called "affordable housing". Forms of subsidies include d ...
or community economic development Community economic development (CED) is a field of study that actively elicits community involvement when working with government and private sectors to build strong communities, industries, and markets. It includes collaborative and participatory ...
. The program was funded at $19.75 million for the 2017 fiscal year. This program includes separate funding as part of the Healthy Food Financing Initiative, a partnership between the Department of Health and Human Services, the Treasury Department, and the Department of Agriculture
An agriculture ministry (also called an agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...
to increase access healthy food.
* The Community Services Block Grant, which was created in 1981 in a consolidation of over 200 government programs, and provides funding directly to states to distribute. The program was funded at $715 million in the 2016 fiscal year.
* The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which "provides grants to states to fund fuel payment assistance and home energy efficiency improvements for low-income households." The program was funded at $3.39 billion in the 2016 fiscal year.
* The Rural Community Development Program which provides funding for water management
Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. These resources can be either freshwater from natural sources, or water produced artificia ...
and wastewater treatment
Wastewater treatment is a process which removes and eliminates contaminants from wastewater. It thus converts it into an effluent that can be returned to the water cycle. Once back in the water cycle, the effluent creates an acceptable impact on ...
. The program was funded at $7.45 million in the 2016 fiscal year.
* The Social Services Block Grant, used to support a wide range of activities. , the most highly supported of which were child care
Child care, also known as day care, is the care and supervision of one or more children, typically ranging from three months to 18 years old. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(ren), childcare typica ...
, foster care
Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home ( residential child care community or treatment centre), or private home of a state- certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent", or with a family mem ...
, and services for the disabled
Service and supports for people with disabilities are those government or other institutional services and supports specifically provided to enable people who have disabilities to participate in society and community life. Some such services and su ...
. The grant is authorized by Title XX of the Social Security Act
The Social Security Act of 1935 is a law enacted by the 74th United States Congress and signed into law by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 14, 1935. The law created the Social Security (United States), Social Security program as ...
, and funding is allocated according to population. The program was funded at $1.6 billion for the 2016 fiscal year.
See also
*Poverty in the United States
In the United States, poverty has both social and political implications. Based on Measuring poverty, poverty measures used by the Census Bureau (which exclude non-cash factors such as food stamps or medical care or public housing), America h ...
* Poverty reduction
Poverty reduction, poverty relief, or poverty alleviation is a set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently lift people out of poverty. Measures, like those promoted by Henry George in his economics classi ...
References
External links
* Administration for Children and Families programs {{US-gov-stub