New Mexico’s TVI and the Center for Working Families Provide Services and Supports to Help Students Succeed (Continued)
CWF: A Natural Outgrowth of TVI’s Innovative Approach
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Robin Brule, executive director of the TVI Foundation |
Renee’s hard work has not been lost on her children. Her daughter Marcella, 18, recently returned to school to earn a GED too, and now is enrolled in college classes. Her son Markey, still in middle school, sees a family education “track record” to uphold. Renee has encouraged her brother, Marcella’s boyfriend, and another close friend to enroll in school. “They followed me around during my bad times, and I’m glad they’re following me in my good times too. During the past semester, there were days when my whole family was here registering for classes.”
Although CWF is a fairly new concept, it was a natural fit for TVI, tapping into the school’s tradition of innovative approaches and targeted outreach. Robin Brule, the executive director of the TVI Foundation, points to the school’s connection with free tax preparation assistance and the earned income tax credit as the impetus for the still-evolving CWF. “Eight years ago, one of our instructors, Fred Gordon, saw an opportunity to strengthen the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) system,” says Robin. “The system depended on volunteers, and that made training and service an ongoing challenge. Fred decided to build the EITC and tax credits into the curriculum at TVI—students would be required to volunteer at free tax assistance sites as part of their coursework. The students would receive more than 20 hours of training and would earn college credit too. Seventy percent of New Mexico residents qualify for the EITC. Our large Native American population was particularly being targeted by exploitive practices, including high fees, rapid refund loans, and being issued spending cards instead of refunds.”
“The Casey Foundation was interested in the potential of the EITC and free tax assistance campaigns to help working families, and they provided funding to community colleges across New Mexico to replicate what TVI was doing. Now there are more than 50 locations across the state, and in tax year 2004, more than $26 million in federal, state and EITC refunds were returned to families through the Tax Help New Mexico programs—with students providing the service,” explains Robin. “TVI is the largest community college in New Mexico and the second largest higher education institution, after the University of New Mexico. But our students struggle with the barriers of poverty, problems accessing services and supports, and difficulty in meeting the basic skills requirements for higher education.”
Continue: Bundled Services and Supports Help Students Build Skills and Stay in School >>