Free Computer Classes at Gateway Community College

Free computer classes for beginners will start Friday, Sept. 1, at the Long Wharf campus of Gateway Community College. Classes meet once a week for 2 hours through Oct. 20. Register at Gateway, in the reception area. http://www.gwctc.commnet.edu.

AIDS Project New Haven Reaches Out

AIDS Project New Haven invites the community to participate in several outreach initiatives:

• Provide your personal story regarding how STDs or HIV have affected you, to be shared ON A STRICTLY ANONYMOUS BASIS with your peers.
• S.I.S.T.A. Project for African American heterosexual women 18-49 to get together to discuss dating, relationships, healthy sexual practices, etc. Food, fun, transportation, more.
• Community Promise Project to develop and reach out with peer advocates working to prevent STD/HIV problems in all ethnic/racial segments of our community.

Details at 624-0947 x232.

CT HR Reports Newsletter (8/06) reports...

Avg. employer costs for employee compensation was $26.86 hr. in March 2006. Wages/salaries averaged $18.82 (70.1%) while benefits averaged $8.04 (29.9%). Legally required benefits (Soc. Sec., Medicare, unemployment insurance, workers' comp) averaged $2.16 hr. (8% of total compensation). Employer hourly costs for life, health & disability insurance benefits averaged $2.18 (8.1%); paid leave benefits averaged $1.88 (7%); retirement & savings benefits averaged $1.15 (4.3%). Report includes a break-down of costs for private industry.

Pay increases for most salaried workers will average only 3.5% this year and stay at that level through 2007. Median salary structure adjustments were under 3% for the fifth year in a row. (source: Conference Board)

New Haven had over-the-year job losses.

(Ct HR Reports Newsletter is contained in the What To Do About Personnel Problems in CT binder, in the Business Dept., Main Branch Library)

Recommended Website for Fundraisers

Lots of free, useful information including samples, checklists, book recommendations, reports, advisories available at www.simonejoyaux.com. Her most recent Fundraiser's Newsy Letter includes the following infobits:

• Nonprofit leaders overestimate supporters' interest in public-policy debates, while underestimating how much supporters disdain certain fundraising techniques, such as telemarketing, which they associate with "Big Business." (source: Report Says Charities Don't Understand Donors Well, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Nov. 10, 2005)
• Baby-boomer donors may be more apt to leave you their money than their parents are. See www.allianzlife.com/PressCenter/LegaciesStudy.aspx.
• "There is an incredible reservoir of expertise in prospective 60/70-somethings, but we're missing pathways to make reentry as easy as it should be." Source: Boomer Bonanza, from www.afpnet.org/publications/advancing_philanthropy and Nonprofits Need To Engage Boomers Looking for Meaning, from www.pnnonline.org.
• Ignore gender stereotypes when soliciting donations online--more women than men are online (percentages are close but women make up larger part of the population) Source: Differences in How Women and Men Use the Internet, www.pnnonline.org

Nominations due Sept. 15 for NY TImes Librarian Awards

Librarians with MLS degrees who are currently working in a public library may be nominated for the 2006 NY Times Librarian award. The purpose of the Award is to recognize those librarians whose exemplary performance and outstanding community service have made their libraries friendlier and more accessible institutions. Nomination forms are available at all New Haven Public Library branches, or at nytimes-community.com. Details: (212) 556-4520.

Foundation Center Fall 2006 Grantseeker Training Courses

The Foundation Center offers a variety of classes that help develop strategic skills in fundraising and nonprofit management, using an interactive approach with small group exercises and topical discussion. Details: http://fconline.fdncenter.org/pnd/10003886.

Applications Currently Accepted for Bilingual Child Development Associate Training Program

Casa Otonal will offer orientation session on Sept. 12, 14, and 16 for its Bilingual Child Development Associate Training Program. This nationally recognized credential for child care workers and providers meets the requirements for employment as a paraprofessional in public schools through the Leave No Child Behind Federal law. Details: casaotonal@aol.com or call 773-8910 , 773-8911 or 773-1847 x 15.

Spanish Homebuyer Education

First-time homebuyers assistance is available from Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven through English-language and some Spanish language workshops. Topics include Money Smart, Anti-Predatory Lending, Landlord and Tenant Do's and Don'ts, credit restoration and foreclosure prevention/intervention, and Reverse Mortgage and Home Equity Conversion Mortgage counseling.

Orientations are held Mondays 6-8pm at 333 Sherman Ave. Call Neighborhood Housing Services of New Haven's HomeOwnership Center for details: 562-0598 or 777-6925.

Upcoming Spanish-language sessions : Sept. 18, Oct. 23, Nov. 20, and Dec. 18.

Empower New Haven HomePower Initiative

Information sessions about ENH's My HomePower Initiative, which provides downpayment and closing cost assistance to eligible buyers, will be held on the following dates:

Sept. 9, 10-noon at New Haven Public Library, 133 Elm Street

Sept. 12, 5:30-7 pm at John S. Martinez School, 100 James Street
Sept. 13, 5:30-7 pm at Gateway Community College,60 Sargent Drive

RSVP by Sept. 1 to 776-2777 or eunicebonilla@empowernewhaven.org.

Immigration Issues & Compliance

CBIA (CT Business & Industry Association) will offer a seminar in Hartford on Friday, Sept. 22, 8-11:30am, clarifying recent developments in immigration rules and regulations that affect businesses. www.cbia.com or (860) 244-1900. Cost is $75 (member companies)/$99 (not).

Connecticut’s First Home Movie Day!

On Saturday, Aug. 12, local archivists, librarians, filmmakers and film enthusiasts will enjoy and share information about home movies, those wonderfully idiosyncratic slices of the past that often inform personal, community, and cultural history. As filmmaker John Waters says, "There’s no such thing as a bad home movie…Home Movie Day is an orgy of self-discovery, a chance for family memories to suddenly become show business. If you’ve got one, whip it out and show it now."

Connecticut’s very first Home Movie Day is free and open to public and will be held in New Haven at Yale's Whitney Humanities Center. Film and video assessment, preservation tips and prizes will be provided throughout the day. Film drop-off time is 10am-noon; home movie screening is noon-4pm (including local filmmaker, Robbin Barstow's 1956 production, Disneyland Dream); screening of James Ivory’s Autobiography of a Princess, 5-6pm.

8mm, Super 8, 16mm, VHS video and DVD formats are accepted. Participants are urged to introduce and even narrate their movies. Please contact organizers in advance to drop-off film for inspection and projection preparation or arrive at 10am on the 12th. Details: www.homemovieday.com/newhaven or 430-4157.

News From the Mayor

Six of the Mayor's Youth Initiative Open Schools, currently offering free programming for about 200 kids per day, will be extended year-round.

CTRIBAT (Connecticut Alternate Retreat) will receive $5000 from the Mayor's Youth Initiative to fund retreats in August for 40 boys aged 14-17. The retreats will teach children to develop their verbal and literacy skills, to set and keep goals, to adopt proper diet and exercise, and to model appropriate behaviors.

The Youth @ Work Initiative has hired over 900 youths, an increase of 400 over last year.

The City's gun hotline is available around the clock for reports concerning gun violence in New Haven neighborhoods: call 946-8244.

The Green Map details New Haven's parks, waterways, and hiking routes and can be downloaded at www.cityofnewhaven.com. Printed copies are available from New Haven Urban Resources Initiative (432-6570) or call City Plan at 946-7814.

How to Recycle Computers

Only about 6% of US computers are recycled each year. Don't let your old computer add to the mounting piles of e-waste in landfills.
1. If your computer still works and is less than five years old, donate it. An EPA list of national organizations that will reuse your old computer may be found at www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/ recycle/ecycling/donate.htm#donation.
2. If your computer is older or has had problems, recycle it at a local recycling organization (check the yellow pages or the CT EPA at http://dep.state.ct.us/wst/recycle/computel.htm). Manufacturers with current e-cycling programs include Apple, Canon, Dell, Epson, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Lexmark, Panasonic, Sony, and Toshiba. (Avoid e-cycling programs that send computers to SE Asia--handling of toxic chemicals is poor.)
3. Erase the hard drive with software known as "shredders" that will perform multiple swipes, or ask your computer recycling center how many times it will erase your data.
Full story at http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0731/p13s02-stct.html

News To Me...

On Sunday nights on Channel 26 at 9 pm, Empower New Haven produces a show featuring the GNH Chamber of Commerce's Business Assistance Center and other business initiatives that they helped start and nurture. They also produce cable shows on Friday night ( Empowered Voices), Sat. night (Community Power), Sunday afternoon ( the Tom Ficklin show) and Monday night (People Power). More information: Thomas Ficklin, 776-2777, x209

Agency on Aging of S. Central CT Seeks New Board Members

AASCC , a regional elderly services organization with a $35 million budget and diverse staff of 150, is hoping to recruit new members for its Board of Directors. Members should expect to serve a 3-year term, attend monthly meetings in New Haven, and participate on a Board Committee. Minority individuals, residents of the Lower Naugatuck Valley and individuals with financial expertise are particularly encouraged to contact Neysa Guerino at (203) 785-8533. www.agencyonaging-scc.org.

Free Directory outlines Drug & Alcohol Abuse Treatment Facilities throughout the US and Territories

SAMHSA's National Directory of Drug & Alcohol Abuse Treatment Programs 2006 includes location and service details of almost 11,000 treatment facilities throughout the US, Puerto Rico and some US territories. Order a free copy by calling ( 800) 729-6686 (the library has ordered copies for each branch). You can download information on facilities, directions, contact info, etc. from SAMSHA's online Substance Abuse Treatment Facility Locator Service at http://findtreatment.samhsa.gov.

Bad Practices in Foundation Giving?

There’s a new twist to the story about Health and Human Services Sec'y Mike Leavitt and his family’s charitable foundation (which) is a special kind of foundation that bi-partisan forces in Congress are trying to restrict. It can offer huge tax deductions, while loaning money back to donors, and giving little away. National Public Radio has discovered another Leavitt foundation practice that also raises eyebrows. Starting in 2003, the Dixie and Anne Leavitt Foundation began passing on the Leavitt family’s charitable donations to another charity, the Southern Utah Foundation. This was money designated for a housing scholarship program at Southern Utah University... The program also received funds directly from Leavitt Land and Investment. Together, the Leavitt company and the Leavitt Foundation put $578,500 in the housing scholarship program. And the Leavitts got all that money back. The needy students were placed in housing units owned by Cedar Development Co., another Leavitt family business...

This means that the Leavitt entities contributed more than a half-million dollars, received tax deductions for that amount, and then got the money back.

Full story at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5590281