I work for a non-profit. The stimulus is HUGE for us.

[Cant trust em]

We are currently applying for three different pots of money that the stimulus is for.

1. Capital dollars to complete a shovel ready social service facility focused on low-income families.
2. Bringing broadband access to the facility and create a 5 mile radius wi-fi zone that our clients can log into to access a regional service directory.
3. Non-profit capacity building funds to provide systems and program development for non-profits to function more efficiently.

With funding from private sources in rapid decline, a lot of community serving agencies are facing eliminating services and closing their doors. The stimulus money is going to help us increase our scope in an underserved community.

[scheming daemons]

1. My wife works for a company that is a contractor for rail companies.... it's big for her too

[Lerkfish]

2. I"m happy for that... however, people like me are still unemployed.

your programs should be funded, INDEPENDENT of stimulus, and stimulus packages should be used to shore up the failing middle class.


I think using stimulus funds for programs like you mention is waylaying funds for the wrong purpose.

[Cant trust em]

3. Who do you think is going to build the facility?

Or lay down the broadband lines?

I'm not sure what you personally do for a living, but these projects are going to create a lot of jobs. Construction alone is around 70. We need to meet about the broadband project.

[Lerkfish]

5. good point. But those jobs are going to be contracting, temporary positions

in other words, they are not career creating.

I'm not knocking it completely, I think its a good thing, but I do think it should be understood this is a workaround for actually funding things that should be funded anyways.

[MNDemNY]

9. You need to get into this century.

There will be very few "permanent " jobs, any where. 20-30 years with the same employer will be a very rare thing, from now on. Those days are gone for good.

[Lerkfish]

11. oh, I"m fully aware, like I said, I'm unemployed.

[JayMusgrove]

27. So what jobs could you do tomorrow, while you are "unemployed"?

Only the jobs that are not available? Only the jobs you cannot stoop so low as to do?

We don't need more bankers, more insurance salesmen, more moralists, more belly-ache'rs

You have any skills and energy we need tomorrow morning at 7 AM?

[Lerkfish]

28. I find your post unnecessarily offensive.

take your insults elsewhere. I'm applying for EVERY job I can find. I'm over 50 and not in very good shape.

even so, I'm applying for EVERYTHING> there isn't a lot of work that doesn't require skills i don't have or youth I also don't have.


feel better?

[JayMusgrove]

26. Perhaps you could name a job or two other than your own desire

that would be a "career" position.

90% of Americans do NOT work in the job they started out in. Only those who subject themselves to the corporate ladder, bow to whatever they have to bow to, in order to get "ahead" are the "career" job holders. The rest of us re-invent ourselves every few years...or go broke.

You have jobs in mind that the Stimulus Package should guarantee for you as a "career"?

This year we need laborers, construction, internet, school builders, researchers, next year we will need the rest of you, unless you can be what we need today. It's called a "market" economy.

[Lerkfish]

29. completely missed my point: temporary jobs is not the problem

stopping outsourcing is a more realistic tack to take

[truedelphi]

33. To me, Lerkfish, the simpler method of

Re-vitalizing the economy would have been to decide how much money was to be offered as a stimulus.

Divide that sum by the number of adults in the USA.

Apportion off that amount to each state, times the numbers of adults in each state.

That way, the forty seven states that are facing hard times would not have to lay off teachers, social workers, police personnel, project managers, fire fighters, nurses, etc. The remaining three states would have some gravy in their budget to do with as they want.

The way it is now, with so much of this money being for construction, I fear we are in a real bind.

Is a fifty two year old teacher going to pick up a sledge hammer and go work on a road somewhere? (I guess they can be a waiter or waitress at a restaurant near the project, though.)

[MNDemNY]

6. WRONG. All 3 of those are job creating programs.

It would be nice to fund such things without stim $ but corporate and private donations to not for profits has decreased sharply in the last 18-24 months. Without this stim $ MANY not for profits would close, adding further to the unemployment.Stim$ is not only to create jobs, but also to SAVE jobs. Good luck with your job hunt.

[Lerkfish]

7. permanent jobs? don't get me wrong, I'm happy for the funds being used this way

my only point is that it isn't a stimulus package type thing.

[MNDemNY]

10. How is it not?

[avaistheone1]

13. I agree the stimulus funds are more like a bandaid. They don't produce any permanent industries or

permanent jobs. After the 2, 3, 4 years of the stimulus then what? Another stimulus?

I think we should end the free trade and offshorimg of jobs out of this country too.
We are not going creating enough good paying long term jobs. Unless someting is done very differently I think that it is going to bite this economy and Obama in the butt.

[Cant trust em]

15. Yes. The stimulus partially solves short term problems.

It will not solve the problems that the economy has been shifting towards for the last 30+ years.

[avaistheone1]

22. Unless the issues of free trade and off-shoring US jobs are addressed

with policies, laws, and programs I don't think our economy is going to turn around.

Good bye middle class. Bye. Bye.

[alcibiades_mystery]

32. By your definition virtually ALL infrastructure projects would produce only "temporary" work

It's a ludicrous position. Wow, you mean laying down broadband and construction depend on new contracts?

[Cant trust em]

8. Fundraising has been tough.

A lot of people are talking to us and we have good programs and connections.

We're still getting funding, but not at the level that we normally do. We're better positioned than a lot of non-profits, but it's not easy right now.

[FrenchieCat]

4. My daughter was awarded a 5 year fellowship that gives her the opportunity

to get her PHD at WASHU!

[Cant trust em]

12. Congratulations! What is she going to study? nt

[FrenchieCat]

14. Nutrition and its affects on long term health, including eating disorders....

[Cha]

16. That's great, Frenchie!

That's long term investment.

[Tarheel_Dem]

31. Let me add my congrats as well. You must be so proud. (nt)

:applause:

[Cha]

17. Happy for you, Can't Trust 'em!

I work for a non pro-profit org, too..but, the business we're in has not been affected by the economy, thankully.

[conscious evolution]

18. I am with a non profit

What kind of grants are you getting and from where?
We have had or 501c3 status for a few months and we sure could use some funding.

[Cant trust em]

19. HUD is our primary federal funder.

The couple that I mentioned are from HHS. One is CDBG funding that was allocated to San Francisco.

Check out grants.gov.

[conscious evolution]

23. Been to grant.gov

So far I have not found anything that we meet application criteria for.Most grants that are available for what we are needing are for either large corporations and other such entities or for studies.
I did just recently discover a site called Foundations .org that helps match groups with donors.Will be checking them out more in depth next week.

[JayMusgrove]

20. Nice thread! Good positive stuff here. And congrats to

your non-profit, your city, and your beneficiaries from these $.

And to Frenchie cat's daughter, too, for that long term investment.

[Cant trust em]

21. I try to stay positive in my OPs

There are enough doom and gloom people around here.

[izzybeans]

24. potentially for us,

should our challenge grant applications pan out.

[Oregone]

25. Thats good news--Its not zero-sum. However, it still is simply too small for the current conditions

[Tarheel_Dem]

30. Wow! 8 Unrec's on a positive thread like this? My suspicions have been

confirmed. We're infested.

edit to add: Congrats on your new source of funding. I, too, work for a non-profit (health organization), but we've managed to escape the threat of job loss, and we're even expanding.

[ibegurpard]

34. Will this lead to job creation?

either at your organization or as a result of your organization's work? If so, then great.
The stimulus' main thrust is supposed to be job creation.

[Cant trust em]

35. All of these projects create jobs to varying degrees.

Some are construction/temporary like much of the rest of the stimulus. Some are ongoing programmatic.

[Cal Carpenter]

36. Unfortunately it comes with all the fed bureaucracy nightmare demands

We got funding for job programs in my county for at-risk teens and young adults. Too bad they need to show a real birth certificate and social security card to sign up. How the fuck is some homeless teen supposed to get those types of things with 2 weeks notice?

Frankly, from what I've seen/heard, it's being implemented terribly. Almost seems set up to fail. I'm sure some other programs are running more smoothly. I hope so anyway.

[Cant trust em]

37. The programs we're applying for are pretty well designed.

The income requirements are up to the recipients to provide and there weren't any demands on SSNs.

These things vary from agency to agency.