Saturday marked our 1st annual tax clinic at Shared Harvest!
Okay, not quite. Shared Harvest has actually attempted to hold a tax clinic for the past 2 years, but both clinics just never quite made it off the ground. The first year a major snow storm foiled the plans, and the second year no one made an appointment, so no one showed up. But this year we were determined to change all of that--and we did.
Shared Harvest's PR person, Bob Long, put together two press releases for the Journal-News. I watched for them everyday for about two weeks, but I don't think they ever made it in the newspaper. Fortunately, Alex and I planned ahead and used other media to advertise our clinic.
We designed a tax clinic flier to post all over Butler County, which Tina forwarded to our partner agencies. The idea was that when clients came to the food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters for help, they could get connected to a free tax service as well. Then, on the edge of the first snow storm to blow through here a little over a week ago, Alex and I drove all over Hamilton, Fairfield, Trenton, and Middletown to hang the fliers in various community locations, such as libraries, post offices, grocery stores, YMCAs, and laundromats. The fliers included our phone number for people to schedule appointments, as well as a line about accepting walk-in clients. The only thing left to do was wait and see what would happen at the clinic.
In the days leading up to the clinic we had about 6 calls from people wanting their taxes done. We scheduled appointments for all of them with one of our 7 tax counselors on hand. Because the Corporation for National and Community Service adamantly discourages direct service among VISTAs, Alex and I didn't schedule any appointments for ourselves. Instead, we focused on managing the clinic. We were prepared to step in to serve an influx of walk-ins if needed, but our primary tasks were to check clients in and answer questions from the counselors.
We felt prepared but we weren't sure what to expect. Tina and the tax counselors gathered at Shared Harvest around 8:30-8:45a Saturday morning to set up for the day. Our clients began to arrive a little before nine, and we were off! Everything ran smoothly all day--we had no technological hiccups and all of the counselors seemed very comfortable assisting their clients in filing their taxes. Gloria, a SNAP Outreach worker here at Shared Harvest, helped a woman get more than $6000 back in her refund! In fact, all of our clients left with smiles on their faces; it seemed everyone was satisfied with the services we provided. As it turned out, we didn't have any walk-in clients, and one person didn't show up for his appointment, but we consider the clinic an overall success!
A BIG THANKS to Gloria, Kate, and Lisa (SNAP Outreach); Anita (Warren County Community Services); and Martha (OASHF) for volunteering their time to help us out this weekend. We couldn't have done it without you!
Monday, February 15, 2010
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Maybe the clinic isn't working out because of where it is? Maybe a mobile clinic over a couple of weeks?
ReplyDeleteWhat are the qualifications of the counselors? Are they paid? What are their benefits? What if the refund is denied by the government? Can they approach Shared Harvest? For example, the 6,000 costs instead of pays? Are you actually filing the taxes or is the customer mailing it in? Is your clinic certified with anyone? Since CNCS employees advertised for the customers are they libel for errors at their clinic? The 6,000?
Maybe a clinic where customers can file immediately?