Building Economic Futures for Americans with Disabilities
Real Economic Impact Tour
Boston, Massachusetts
Contact Information:
If you, your business, or organization are interested in becoming a part of the Disability Initiative Workgroup, please contact Mimi Turchinetz, City of Boston, at Mimi.Turchinetz.jcs@cityofboston.gov.
If you are already a member of the Disability Initiative Workgroup and have questions regarding the IRS participation, then please contact Tax Specialist Matilde Tamburrini at Matilde.Tamburrini@irs.gov.
Disability Initiative Workgroup Members
Goodwill
Main Street Goodwill has been engaged in the local EITC Coalition for the past three years and agreed to chair a disability subgroup during the 2006 filing season. During 2006, Goodwill concentrated their efforts on two areas: educational workshops for their employees with disability and general outreach to their clients with disabilities. In terms of educational workshops, Goodwill did a series of lunch and learn sessions on the interaction of EITC receipt with public benefits. In terms of outreach, Goodwill included EITC and coalition information to all clients with disabilities that were served either by their employment services or were customers of their retail location. In 2007, Goodwill will consider opening a free tax preparation location in their retail location on Main Street that would be open to the general public.
Independent Living
First Street Independent Living Center became an active partner for the first time in response to the community meeting to introduce the Disability Initiative in our community. The Executive Director was so engaged that she agreed to host a “closed” free tax preparation site in 2006 and they completed 43 returns in their first year. Executive Director is considering opening her site more widely next year, and potentially partnering with other disability organizations to use their site.
United Way
United Way of the South is the overall lead for the EITC Coalition. They fully supported the efforts to include the Disability Initiative in 2006 and actively recruited local disability organizations to join the efforts. United Way sent out the invitations to the initial community meeting and personally contacted a number of its grantees that work with persons with disabilities to become engaged.
Veteran’s Administration Hospital
An active participant in the Disability Subgroup was the VA Hospital. They were active in outreach to their clients and are working with the EITC Coalition to see if they could receive a “mobile site” visit to do free tax preparation for their clients in 2007 on a regular basis. VA Hospital agreed to operate a free-tax-preparation site on premises for this filing season.