News

STEP wraps up successful 2011 Tax Program

Tax Season 2011 (May 4, 2011) - Since 2005, STEP has provided free tax assistance to qualifying families and individuals in Franklin and Patrick Counties. This year, households earning $49,000 or less were eligible to have their taxes prepared and filed for free. Since the program’s inception, STEP has partnered with Ferrum College’s accounting students to help our clients file their taxes. The program is one of four programs offered under STEP’s Financial Services umbrella and is designed to help families access the Earned Income Tax Credit (if they are eligible) and keep the money they would have spent on tax preparation services. Clients are introduced to other programs STEP has to offer, including our financial literacy program, and homeownership program. (Pictured Right: Myra Thomas, STEP Financial Services, Joni Tables, Supportive Services Director, and Brenda Manning, Homeless Intervention Program)

Some of the results for 2011 season are:

Data	Results
Number of sites	2
Number of volunteers	30
Number of volunteer hours	525
Federal Returns Prepared	219
Total Refund Amount	$299,579
Average Refund Amount	$1,367.94
Tax preparation savings ($200 per client)	$43,800
Earned Income Tax Credit Eligible	79
Average Income of Tax Clients	$14,398.70

STEP is grateful to Ferrum College for their continued collaboration and to all of our volunteers for giving your time to our program. If you or anyone you know may be interested in volunteering for our 2012 tax program, please contact Myra Thomas at 540-483-5142 ext. 3018.

STEP Awarded $1.2 million Grant for Early Head Start Expansion

(December 15, 2009) - STEP has been awarded a $1.2 million grant to provide Early Head Start for Franklin and Patrick County. This grant will allow us to serve 80 infants, toddlers, and their families. Early Head Start will serve pregnant women and infants ages 6 weeks to 3 years. STEP will hire approximately 30 people as a result of this expansion. This program will serve our children 12 months per year.

STEP will have 28 available slots for Patrick County and 52 available slots for Franklin County. In Patrick County, we will be constructing a new Early Head Start classroom building on our property, behind our current building, at 4559 Wayside Road. That location will have two classrooms that will serve 16 children. We will also have a home base component that will serve 12 infants and toddlers and they will come to our Stuart classroom once per week for socialization.

STEP will begin remodeling 2 classrooms (16 children) at our Dent Street location in Rocky Mount this spring. We will also be looking for available space throughout Franklin County (perhaps in the Ferrum area and the Burnt Chimney or Boones Mill area) to hold additional classroom space. Franklin County will also have a home based component that will serve 12 infants and toddlers and they will come to our Dent Street classrooms for socialization.

We are so excited to expand our pre-school education offerings in Patrick and Franklin Counties. We look forward to our continued relationship with you all as we attempt to get Early Head Start operational by May 2010.