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About CARE Partnership

About CARE Partnership Community Asset Resource Enterprise Partnership is certified with the State of Arizona as a qualifying charitable organization for Arizona’s Tax credit.  Legislation specifies that eligible organizations spend at least 50% of their budget on basic needs to residents of Arizona. The Helping the Working Poor Fund was established by the Arizona State Legislature to provide services such as medical care, child care, food, clothing, shelter and basic needs for employed families struggling to make ends meet. To encourage charitable contributions specifically for this fund, the Arizona State Legislature allows most donors to take up to $200 off their taxes, based on the amount of the gift, in the form of a tax credit. As with any financial recommendations, contact a qualified tax advisor for expert advice on your specific tax situation.   A tax credit is applied as a reduction to your final tax bill. In this case, the tax credit comes right off the top of your state tax bill, lowering the amount of money that you must pay. For example, if you qualify and give $200 to a qualifying non-profit organization, you will pay $200 less in state taxes. A tax deduction, on the other hand, is an item that helps calculate what your final tax bill will be. In addition to the state tax credit, your gift to Helping the Working Poor can be taken as a deduction on your federal taxes.   Requirements:  You must itemize charitable contributions on your tax return. You must establish a baseline year for charitable contributions (1996 or later). The donation to Helping the Working Poor that exceeds charitable contributions in your baseline year is your tax credit. For example, if you itemized $100 to charity in your baseline year, you must give $100 to charity and then up to $200 to Helping the Working Poor. The amount you give above $100 is your tax credit. If you itemized charitable contributions on your federal tax return in 1996, this is your baseline year. If not, the year after 1996 that you itemized your deductions becomes your baseline year. If you do not itemize taxes on your federal return, you are not eligible for the tax credit. Once you establish a baseline year, it remains unchanged unless your tax filing status changes. Once an individual taxpayer has established a baseline year, the tax credit may be taken the following year and each year thereafter.   Assuming you have a state tax liability, the credit reduces it independently from any tax that you may have withheld during the course of the year. If you withheld an amount equal to or greater than your tax liability, the credit will increase your state tax refund accordingly.   You or your accountant complete a simple form, which is included with materials provided by the State of Arizona to all state tax filers, and send it along with your state tax return.

9 agencies receive grants for improving health care

Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 16, 2005 12:00 AM

When it comes to strengthening the health of a community, the standard approach is to focus on the problems and risks.

But a non-profit research group in Phoenix is moving to implement a new approach, what it calls "health in a new key." That strategy calls for building on existing strengths, encouraging resiliency.

As part of the approach, St. Luke's Health Initiatives is awarding $1.2 million in grants to nine Valley agencies that are seeking to improve the health and welfare of residents .
The grants are in addition to the $5 million each year that St. Luke's gives to a variety of groups for community grants, medical assistance and research projects in the state.
"The difference is the general approach," said Jane Pearson, the foundation's associate director. "The approach is not to have them (communities) talk about the things that are wrong with them. We want them to build on existing strengths and resources."
The "Health in a New Key" grants will be announced today at the foundation's luncheon, featuring former Arizona State University President Lattie Coor and a Northwestern University researcher who specializes in strength-based community development.
Looking to the good
"For us, especially when you go into communities of color or those with poor health outcomes, we tend to tell the communities everything that's bad about them: violence, lack of health outcomes, poor academic performance, child abuse cases, teen pregnancies," Pearson said. "Yet in spite of that, those communities have lots of strengths, so let's talk about what's good about this."
The lion's share of the extra funding will go to four community groups that were chosen from 76 other proposals for five-year, $50,000 grants. Mini-grants of $15,000 for one year are going to five other community groups.
One of the main recipients is the CARE Partnership, a non-profit group based in Mesa. It has "taken back its neighborhood by getting rid of the gangs or at least negotiating truces between gang members," Pearson said.
"They've gotten rid of the drug dealers, which is pretty remarkable," she said.
Other recipients are:

• Enlace por los Niños, which helps families negotiate adoptions and foster care in Hispanic communities to keep children in the neighborhoods in which they have grown up.
• Golden Gate Community Center, which has a new program called Promotoras de Bienestar or Promoters of Well-Being, to encourage community members to find resources that improve their overall well-being.
• Family Health Partnerships Maternal and Child Health, which is focusing on ways to improve the health of mothers and children.
Amazing opportunity
Bev Tittle Baker, president and chief executive of CARE Partnership, said she was surprised by the award and is optimistic about what it means for her group.

"Is this amazing or what?" she said. "We're so excited about this. We're using this for a leadership development and partnership mobilization. This is going to be huge."

Non-profit helps range of people
Jim Walsh
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 16, 2005 12:00 AM
Mesa's CARE Partnership is a true grass-roots operation, starting informally when founder Bev Tittle Baker helped a 12-year-old girl who was taking care of 12 children after their mother died.

The 9-year-old organization has expanded to after-school programs for at-risk children, citizenship and English classes, a pediatric clinic, prenatal and postpartum care, a food pantry and family planning in a low-income, central Mesa neighborhood.

The multidisciplinary program focuses not only on handouts but also on recipients volunteering to help each other. CARE will receive $50,000 a year for five years from St. Luke's Health

"If you look at their deficits, that's overwhelming," Tittle Baker said. "If you look at their strengths, you can start building upon that."

Volunteers even built the organization's offices, called the Opportunity Center.

Tittle Baker said she negotiated a truce between gangs. The result was a junior high after-school program, with college students acting as tutors.

In 2004, the organization served 4,043 uninsured pediatric patients, provided family health services to 234 low-income people, provided prenatal and postpartum care to 600 mothers and gave food boxes to 8,538 people. In addition, 435 adults attended job-skills workshops.

The St. Luke's grants are unique because communities decide what aid is needed most, Tittle Baker said.

"It will help in terms of services, but I think ultimately it will help develop a core of leaders," she said.