Congressman Zach Wamp and The U.S. Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, Claude Allen, addressed Chattanooga's faith-based and community groups on Monday, February 3rd.

"The President has made it clear that faith-based organizations are a tremendous resource for our nation and that government should welcome and encourage their assistance," said Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services Claude A. Allen. "Communities know what works best in their own neighborhoods, and the government should complement those efforts."

"In Chattanooga we are exploring ways to access resources through the Compassion Capital Fund and meet real needs in people's lives where it matters most...in their community. In his State of the Union address, President Bush called this approach a 'wonder working power.' While our work is just beginning, I am encouraged to see the support for faith based solutions coming from the highest levels of government and free enterprise," said Congressman Zach Wamp.

The Maclellan Foundation partnered with the Institute for Youth Development (IYD) to involve Chattanooga and outlying area cities in President George W. Bush's Compassion Capital Fund.

The Compassion Capital Fund (CCF) is a $30 million fund that Congress appropriated to the Department of Health and Human Services to help address social issues in our country. This fund represents the first appropriated federal funds that are specifically targeted to assist faith-based and community groups. "This partnership will allow Chattanooga's faith-and community-based organizations to expand their efforts in meeting local needs. From our perspective, faith-based efforts have consistently yielded high-quality outcomes at efficient costs", says Hugh O. Maclellan, Jr., president of The Maclellan Foundation, Inc.

IYD was awarded a grant from the federal Department of Health and Human Services in competing for these federal grants. This goal will be achieved by conducting approximately 20 regional seminars per year for three years, providing information on appropriate grant opportunities, providing technical assistance in the preparation of grant applications, and conducting a federal style sub-grants competition for participants. Substantial cash awards will be given to the winners. IYD will award between 55 and 95 grants per year for three years with the average award amount being approximately 30 thousand.

"The IYD and its partners, the Maclellan Foundation and the Gerard Health foundation, are the best organizations to carry out this portion of the President's

 community-and faith-based initiative," said the IYD Director of the Compassion Capital Fund, Rev. John Roddy. "My twenty years of service with the federal government and my experience as a Christian minister tell me that this is an opportunity to improve social and educational services by finally including some of the most knowledgeable people and organizations doing charitable work, community-and faith-based groups."

The seminars are led by experienced grant writers and former federal competitive and formula grants program managers. After completing the seminar training, attendees will be "assigned" a representative within IYD to help them with preparing future federal grant proposals. The only criteria for attending are that the organization must serve an "at risk" population, and secondly, the organization cannot have received any competitive federal grants in the past.

 The ultimate goal is to build capacity within organizations to identify federal grant opportunities and to prepare highly competitive applications for federal assistance.