TESS ‘Seniors Social’ Group Celebrates The Season
 Activities for the Seniors Social program hosted by the Takoma-East Silver Spring (TESS) Community Action Center have been greatly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to COVID-19, twenty or more seniors used to meet monthly at TESS for lunch, socializing, and learning about community resources and connections. In-person gatherings have since been focused on essentials, such as distributing food in the parking lot outside TESS. At the same time, the Long Branch Recreation Center is sheltering County residents who are experiencing homelessness during the pandemic. However, with partnerships and creativity, two recent in-person gatherings--a Thanksgiving lunch and a Holiday social--have given these seniors a lot to celebrate. Over twenty seniors participated in each event.
TESS staff member Maria Quiroga partnered with Mary Pelz of Long Branch Recreation Center, Hellen Dominguez of CASA, Pazit Aviv, manager of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Senior Villages, and the Jewish Council on Aging to coordinate the events. On November 24, the Thanksgiving lunch was held at the Margaret Schweinhaut Senior Center, in the Forest Glen area of Silver Spring. Named for the late Maryland state Senator Margaret C. Schweinhaut, who founded Maryland’s Commission on Aging, the Schweinhaut Senior Center opened in the 1970s as the state’s first senior center. On Saturday, December 18, the Christmas and New Year's lunch was held at Pine Ridge Apartments.
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Bus transportation for both events was arranged with the Jewish Council on Aging and the Montgomery County Recreation Department. Seniors met at TESS in Long Branch and received rides to and from Schweinhaut Senior Center and Pine Ridge Apartments.
Of the Thanksgiving lunch, TESS Manager Maureen Larenas-Rivas said the participants loved touring the Schweinhaut center and meeting new people, and most of all the delicious Thanksgiving meal. “Turkey and all!” Ms. Larenas-Rivas said, “Our Seniors truly enjoyed themselves and sharing a special moment. This is so very much needed for our Seniors in Long Branch. They were ecstatic and are looking forward to attending other activities.” For many participants, it was their first time to the Margaret Schweinhaut Senior Center. “One of them lives right around the corner, and told me that he was so impressed by the warm and welcoming feeling he got that he will start going there. Another told me that she was so happy to see so many different cultures represented, as well as the variety of activities offered.” Participants were also excited to receive Senior Recreation Access Cards, which they can use at any of the County’s recreation centers.
At the Christmas and New Year's lunch, the seniors enjoyed delicious culturally specific food, and snacks. Ms. Pazit Aviv led an exciting White Elephant gift exchange, and each senior took home a keepsake Polaroid photograph of themselves with holiday decorations.
Both events closed with music, including live piano music at the Schweinhaut senior center and dancing at Pine Ridge. Thank you to the many people who worked hard to organize these events for TESS seniors!
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With historic increases in the federal earned income and child tax credits, as well as Maryland's EITC and Montgomery County's Working Families Income Supplement, which matches the Maryland EITC, Montgomery County Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) partners met earlier this month with representatives from the County Executive's leadership team to share ideas about ways to maximize outreach and the take up of tax credits. Through the virtual session, which was coordinated by Sharon Strauss, Executive Director of the Community Action Agency, and facilitated by BB Otero, Special Assistant to the County Executive, and Sonia Mora, Assistant Chief Administrator Officer, the group also discussed barriers which make it more challenging to deliver free tax help due to COVID-19, including the recruitment, training and retention of volunteers, funding for VITA operations, and solutions to address space, and technology.
Robin McKinney, CEO of the CASH Campaign of Maryland, provided a summary of the multiple tax credits, while acknowledging the efforts of advocates working in partnership with legislators. Leah Goldfine provided a summary of the Community Action Agency's outreach. Updated information provided by partners, along with information about the Community Action Agency’s VITA program, is posted at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/CASHBACK . The agency is in the process of updating its multilingual fliers and the Ride On bus advertisement campaign, with outreach in seven languages.
The group intends to continue connecting to build ideas for the upcoming season to increase access among target populations, especially among newly eligible taxpayers (such as new parents and grandparents caring for grandchildren), people not legally required to file, and people who lack awareness of the expanded eligibility (such as single people and taxpayers filing with Individual Tax Identification Numbers, or ITINs). The participants are also interested in assuring access by sharpening outreach through key messaging and the media, as well as by engaging trusted partners to spread the word.
For decades, the Community Action Board has advocated to expand tax credits and access to free tax help as the most effective strategy to reduce poverty, especially among families with children, with Board members who received the EITC and other tax credits sharing examples of how they contributed to their family's economic and educational well-being and health.
Our VITA partners attending the EITC Roundtable included:
Sonia Mora, Montgomery County Assistant Chief Administrative Officer
BB Otero, Special Assistant to the Montgomery County Executive
Pablo Blank, CASA
Teresa Hinze, Community Tax Aid
Tawana Lofton, City of Gaithersburg
Robin McKinney, CASH Campaign of Maryland
Kathleen Stobie, Montgomery County Volunteer Center, RSVP/AARP
Chiali Tsai, Tzu Chi VITA
Joy Wang, Chinese Culture and Community Service Center VITA
Ben K. Wikner, Cross Community Church Equity Center, and
Lillie M. Williams, Senior SRTC, IRS Stakeholder Partnerships, Education & Communication (SPEC).
Montgomery County Community Action Agency staff attending the Roundtable included Taunya Johnson, VITA Program Specialist; Eduardo Mendes, VITA Program Specialist; Leah Goldfine, Liaison to the Board; and Sharon Strauss, Executive Director.
 The holidays of November and December can be especially stressful for low-income families. For over thirty years, the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Holiday Giving Project has provided referred, low-income families with an opportunity to choose a gift for each family member from among donated toys; technology accessories that are popular with older children, such as earphones; and gift cards. Participant lists come from DHHS programs and community-based providers, and waitlists are not uncommon, particularly since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In November, staff from the Takoma-East Silver Spring (TESS) Community Action Center referred seventy-two families to the DHHS Holiday Giving program, and sixty-nine families for Thanksgiving food baskets.
The Colesville Council of Community Congregations (C-4) Clothes Closet, served 453 families, giving toys to 792 children, 12 years old and under on December 10, 11 and 12. C-4 had a make-up day December 16, when they were expecting to serve 20 more families. The program relies on C-4 members, civic groups, and private individuals to donate toys and money all year to make this a success. In June, C-4 provided 800 backpacks filled with necessary supplies for each grade in Montgomery County Schools to applicants. C-4 also distributes canned food donations year-round to East County families in need.
The Caribbean Help Center in Silver Spring serves low-income County residents who are speakers of French-Creole or French. The Caribbean Help Center provides food for families in need each month, particularly the staples for Haitian families’ kitchens such as rice and beans. From July to October overall, fewer Caribbean Help Center clients received donated food, distributing 720 lbs. of food to 41 households in July and 340 lbs. of food to 16 households in October. Yet, as in past years, the Caribbean Help Center distributed extra donated food for Thanksgiving this November, serving 59 households with 960 lbs. of food—more families and pounds of food distributed than in November 2020.
For many years, the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington has partnered with St. Constantine & Helen Orthodox Church of Darnestown to provide Thanksgiving baskets to families who have children in the YMCA’s Benchmarks program, which is based at Silver Creek Middle School. The donated non-perishable goods for Thanksgiving, which YMCA staff bagged and distributed to twenty Benchmarks students and their families. Parents had the option of scheduling to pick up their food gifts either at Silver Creek Middle School during program hours, or at Coffield Recreation Center in the Rosemary Hills neighborhood of Silver Spring. Benchmarks families also received gift cards for Giant Foods and Safeway.
KindWorks was founded to meet pressing community needs and build community by mobilizing individuals in volunteer service. Each month, KindWorks has regular opportunities to volunteer, such as providing meals for County residents in shelter, as well as opportunities special to the season. Among the many projects undertaken in November, 264 KindWorks volunteers created food boxes and bags of produce, and helped distribute food to 1,500 families (6,000 individuals) served through the UpCounty Consolidation Hub and Here2Help. The KindWorks homemade soup program engaged forty-one volunteers to make 329.5 quarts of soup in their homes, which was distributed to 660 people by Gaithersburg CARES at Seneca Creek Community Church, Here2Help, and the UpCounty Consolidation Hub. Thirty-four KindWorks volunteers made 60 single-serving casseroles and banana bread for 60 residents of Hillside Senior Apartments in Gaithersburg.
Thank you to all in our community who make the November and December holidays easier to celebrate with their contributions to food and meal distribution and holiday giving programs.
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