Illinois College Access Network Mini-Conference on July 26. 2012

The Illinois College Access Network (IllinoisCAN) is hosting a mini-conference at North Park University.

If you have been to one of IllinoisCAN's quartely meetings, you know they do a great job.

This is a FREE event, but you need to sign up AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Monday, July 16 , is the deadline.

In addition to networking opportunities , you will have the choice of 9 workshops, which can be applicable to other aspects of your organization, in addition to access to college for your youth.


Here's the agenda for the mini-conference:

                                                                                  

                                             

2012 Illinois College Access

3^rd Annual Mini-Conference

Thursday, July 26, 2012

8:00 am to 2:00 pm

Click Here to RSVP by Monday, July 16, 2012

Track 1	Direct Service Provider Topics
Track 2	Executive/Managerial Topics
Track 3	Development/Fund Raising Topics

8:00 – 8:30	Registration and Best Practices Gallery (Auditorium Foyer)
8:30 – 8:50	Welcome and Opening Remarks (Auditorium)
9:00 – 10:00	Navigating The Transition to College	Mindfulness & Meditation for Leadership and Success	Donors Forum 101
10:15 – 11:15	Secrets of College Admissions	Maximizing Your Day: The Power of Effective  Time Management	Effective Networking Strategies
11:30 – 12:30	Effective Parent Engagement	The Art of Effective Public Speaking	Advancing Your Mission With Special Events
12:30 – 1:00	Best Practices Gallery The purpose of the gallery is to share materials and tools with fellow organizations to extend the reach, impact and success of the Illinois College Access Network’s membership. (Auditorium Foyer)
1:00 – 2:00	Lunch and Keynote Address (Auditorium)

Conference Agenda

8:00 – 8:30 am            Breakfast and Registration

8:30 – 8:50 am            Welcome and Opening Remarks

9:00 – 10:00 am          Session I

10:15 – 11:15 am        Session II

11:30 – 12:30 pm        Session III

12:30 - 1:00 pm          Best Practices Gallery

1:00 – 2:00 pm              Lunch and Keynote Address

Click Here to RSVP by Monday, July 16, 2012

North Park University * 3225 W Foster Avenue * Chicago, Illinois

JP Paulus is a CCDA workshop presenter!

The Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) recently approved Do-Gooder Consulting's JP Paulus as a workshop presenter for the CCDA's 2012 National Conference.

The workshop is entitled "Steps 2 College", and will help articulate the college-going process in four steps (the KnowHow2Go campaign's 4 Steps). The listing for all workshops is here.

The CCDA Conference is September 26-30 and will be held this year in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis Hilton and Convention Center).

If you are planning on coming to the workshop, please let us know with a comment here, or e-mail us at workshop@do-gooder.us

Please let us know what state you are in, so we can better tailor the information to fit your needs.

If you can't make it, or would like an expanded version of the workshop, please contact us at workshop@do-gooder.us or calling us at 872-222-8008 for details.

Look forward to seeing you at CCDA!

FREE College Changes Everything conference is July 12

The College Changes Everything Conference is coming soon, and it can change how YOU can help bring your youth to college (and graduate!).

This FREE conference is on Thursday, July 12. It starts at 8am and runs until 3:30pm, with free continental breakfast and lunch. The event takes place at the Tinley Park Convention Center.

According to the conference's web page:

Attend this one day conference that focuses on effective practices and showcases resources available to help with college access and increasing college completion. The conference brings together a diverse audience from across the state: college access practitioners; high school leaders, counselors and case managers; college and university leaders and administrators; and policymakers interested in higher education.

Sessions presented by state and national leaders will provide purposeful information and engage the audience in thoughtful discussions on the serious issues we face, such as:

• College and Career Readiness
• Retention Success
• Skill Sets for 21st Century Jobs
• Expanding Students Pursuit of STEM Fields
• Dual Credit and Dual Degree Programs
• Remediation Success
• Common Core Standards and College Access
• And more

The forum will include time for sharing best practices with peers to help participants walk away with plans for moving their access and completion efforts forward. Come ready to share and learn.

Registration has already started, and you should go ahead and click on this link to register. Last Year, registration closed weeks before the conference, so time is of the essence..

Click here for more information on the conference.

This event is sponsored by KnowHow2GoIllinois and organized by

• Lt. Governor’s Office
• Illinois Student Assistance Commission
• Illinois Board of Higher Education
• Illinois Community College Board
• Illinois State Board of Education
• Women Employed
• Illinois College Access Network
• Federation of Independent Illinois Colleges and Universities

If you are not able to go to the conference, or would like personalized coaching for your staff, Do-Gooder Consulting can help provide it. We specialize in helping youth ministries integrate this information with their theological framework. Contact us at college@do-gooder.us for more information.

Reload Chicago coming March 24, 2012 - with Soong Chan Rah!

See the end of the post for Do-Gooder Consulting's take on the Reload conference.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The date has been set! Reload Chicago 2012 will be held on Saturday, March 24th. We are also excited to announce our morning speaker will be Soong-Chan Rah....you don't want to miss it!

What: Reload Chicago
When: Saturday, March 24, 2012
Where: North Park University
Who: Any Christian working with youth: youth pastor, volunteer, student
How Much: $25 (Saturday only) ($40 for 2 Day Justice Summit along with Reload)
For more information, see the Reload Chicago 2012 page or contact Ailson Burkhardt at cyms@northpark.edu or 773-224-1000

The morning speaker for Reload  is Professor Soong-Chan Rah.  Rev. Dr.  Rah is a leader in racial reconciliation  and is Milton B. Engebretson Associate Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL and the author of The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity (IVP Books, 2009).

Pastor Harvey Carey closes out Reload.



Stay tuned for more information on early registration discounts.
Mark your calendars now!

For those who don't know, Reload has been going on for several years. It is a 1 day conference for Urban Youth workers, set in cities throughout the US and Canada.  It is sponsored nationally by the Urban Youth Workers Institute. Locally in Chicago, North Park University's Center for Youth Ministry Studies has been at teh forefront of Reload.


If you have been touched by the KingdomWorks/CompassionWorks conferences that were annual events in Philadelphia and other cities in the 1990's, then you will appreciate Reload


.
I have perosnally been blessed by it.


Note,this year's Reload is in collaboration with North Park University's North Park Justice Summit happening on Friday. Many Reload attendees will also participate in the Summit. One of the featured speakers for the summit is Dr. Cornel West.


I encourage you all to attend.

Get your taxes - and FAFSA - done for FREE

There are 2 organizations offering tax and FAFSA assistance in the city of Chicago: The Center for Economic Progress and Ladder Up.


The Center for Economic Progress is offering to do taxes for free for families with less than a $50,000 income ($25,000 for individuals).


There are 6 locations throughout the city of Chicago., and many more in the Chicagoland area.


If you haven't done the FAFSA, or want to update it with new tax information,  CEP is a great place to do it!


Even if you feel like you didn't have an income, it would be wise to make a visit and find out for sure.(Those on unemployment MUST still fill out taxes!)

Thanks to Stephen Thurston II of New Covenant Missionary Baptist Church for the above graphic

The Ladder Up organization  is offering to do taxes for free for families with less than a $45,000 income ($20,000 for individuals). They have separate locations for taxes (through their TAP = Tax Assistance Program)  and for FAFSA help, through their LIFT program. Ladder Up has partnered with experts from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission in the past, and is a great resource for families to fill out the FAFSA.

Remember what we said about the FAFSA and our  warning about the FAFSA: do it as soon as possible. If you can do your taxes now, then you can do the FAFSA at the same time (with Center for Economic Progress). If you aren't ready to do your taxes, then at least do the FAFSA! 

Do-Gooder Consulting also provides an affordable year-long consulting service for your organization that includes 3 seminars (The Financial Aid Process – for families; The College Going Process – for youth workers; FAFSA workshop – for families).

Contact us at college@do-gooder.us or call us at 872-222-8008 for details on the free and paid services. We look forward to hearing from you. Find out more about us at www.do-gooder.us  

College Financial Aid starts with the FAFSA

The gateway to much college financial aid is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, popularly known as the FAFSA.   You  need to have a finished FAFSA and be accepted to a university in order to get the financial aid package.

You can apply, starting today (January 1st).

Simply go to the government's offiical FAFSA web site at FAFSA.gov

Even if you usually don't trust the government, you can trust a .gov website


There are other websites that have FAFSA in them, but you should be wary of them.  FAFSA(dot)com does what it says it does. But you should ask yourself -- why pay for filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid?

Note: private financial aid, such as through scholarships, usually need a separae application, other than the FAFSA. So while the FAFSA is the start, it certainly isn't the end . See future blogs for more information.


Do-Gooder Consulting can help your youth ministry or organization navigate the complexities of financial aid. Contact us today for more information.

Hold a FAFSA event after church this year -with help from us!

(See the end of this article for a FREE offer from Do-Gooder Consulting. Click here to go to Do-Gooder Consulting's website.)

This year, New Year’s day falls on a Sunday.  That may seem like a slow day at church, but we here at Do-Gooder Consulting want to challenge you to make it an outreach opportunity that can really benefit urban youth (and many others).

January 1^st is the first day to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (more popularly known as the FAFSA). The FAFSA is the primary application for college student aid from not only the federal government, but also state governments and other financial aid sources.

While everyone would like to go home on New Year’s Day (it’s a legal holiday!), it would actually be a perfect time to fill out the FAFSA.

You have to remember that financial aid is like pizza at a party – those who are there when the boxes open up get their choice of slices, and can return any extra food they don’t need. Those who wait while doing “important” things or think that their serving will be there for them when they need it will soon find out that they’ll be lucky if they get anchovies and crust.

And the pizza is getting taken earlier and earlier each year. For example, the state of Illinois has the MAP grant, which gives students up to $4,720 a year in grants.  Traditionally, the deadline has been in mid August, when many colleges begin classes.  But that has changed over the years, such that in 2011, the MAP grant ran out March 26, nearly a month before taxes were due.

Things are much different then when we might have filled out the FAFSA, back in the day.  It was all paper back then, and they recommended that you filled out your taxes first. But as we see with the MAP grant example, that’s not practical anymore.

But it’s also something not to worry about, as things have changed for the better through technology. The FAFSA on the web, available at www.FAFSA.gov (note: this is NOT a .com; be wary of any site that wants you to pay to fill out the FREE Application for Federal Student Aid) helps students get at the head of the line for financial aid (as long as they have already applied –and have been accepted) to colleges where they are seeking aid.

Families who fill out the estimated FAFSA on January 1^st will still have to update that information once they have completed 2011 taxes. But if the taxes were filed electronically (as they are in more and more homes through online programs, as well as services such as H&R Block), there is a new IRS Retrieval tool which will make updating the FAFSA much easier than in years past.

While the optimum candidate for filling out a FAFSA is of course a high school senior, there are two important groups of people to consider as well: returning college students, and adults who may only be considering going back to college.

With returning students, this should be a no-brainer. By filling out the FAFSA this early, they may find themselves eligible for grants and work study they missed out on last year because they waited to fill out the FAFSA or get accepted to college. And since they are home for Christmas break, you have no excuse to not wake them up by lunchtime and have them fill out the FAFSA.

With adults – they may not have considered going back to college. But by filling out the FAFSA, they open up an opportunity.  Even if they haven’t been accepted yet, this will be an opportunity to get information on colleges, and open up possibilities that may have been written off in the past.

At worst, the family will waste between ½ hour to 1 ½ hours of time. At best, the family qualifies for thousands of dollars in aid.

While you might want to enjoy a day off (whether that Sunday and/or the next Monday, when many businesses are closed and parents have time available), you can do an incredible amount of good and gain thousands of dollars in aid by making a small time sacrifice.

To help struggling Chicago area ministries and nonprofits, Do-Gooder Consulting will provide free facilitation for the FAFSA after church on January 1^st, as well as on Monday, January 2^nd. Contact us for details (such as what is needed to host the session, opportunities for other ministries to share with you).

Do-Gooder Consulting also provides an affordable year-long consulting service that includes 3 seminars (The Financial Aid Process – for families; The College Going Process – for youth workers; FAFSA workshop – for families).

Contact us at college@do-gooder.us or call us at 872-222-8008 for details on the free and paid services. We look forward to hearing from you. Find out more about us at www.do-gooder.us

And you can look forward to future blog posts in the near future on subjects such as “What is the FAFSA?”, “What’s the difference between grants and scholarships?” and other relevant college-going subjects. See you next time!