It's tax time!

I never thought I would say this, but...

I am IRS tax certified.

My team and I arrived to Boise, Idaho on January 15th. The town we are living in, Nampa, is right outside of Boise. We are staying in a small three bedroom house with eight of us...talk about ROUGH. We are working for the Community Action Partnership Association of Idaho (CAPAI) doing taxes for low income families. Our first work day in Boise was doing training about United Way instructed by Kelly and Joyce. United Way is a an organization that focuses on improving education, health, and financial independence. Kelly and Joyce also trained us on a recently new program through United Way called Bank On. Bank On is a program that helps unbanked and underbanked individuals by providing courses focusing on how to manage a budget and become financially stable. It is a cool program because after people complete five courses through Bank On, they can go to partnering banks and set up bank accounts without their financial history being an issue.

The cot I am sleeping on for the next two months

I wish I could say it was a fun experience, but our training to become IRS tax certified was far from that. We trained ourselves in our own cubicles for over a week. It was hard, especially not know much about taxes, plus it was just BORING. It certainly was not as fun as my chainsaw training. I guess the up side is having more knowledge about taxes, and now I can help people file their own.

Whenever we are not assisting people with taxes, we are passing out flyers to businesses and throughout neighborhoods about the free tax assistance we are providing. This is my favorite part of the project so far. I like it because I can be outside and get the chance to see beyond the walls of a cubicle. It is easier for me to educate people about the Bank On program and the tax assistance rather than sitting indoors and doing the actual tax assistance. I have already learned from this project that I do not belong in an office. I need to be outdoors!

I must admit that I am disappointed with Boise. I was told it is beautiful here. Turns out Boise is full of smog. Ya, S-M-O-G! I was incredibly disgusted the first few days here. Now I am just a little grossed out. I guess I am getting use to it. The good news is that it is starting to clear up, and on our way to and from work we can see the mountains that surround the city. The locals told us that January is the worst time for the "inversion", and that it clears up eventually. Aside from the nasty smog, downtown Boise is pretty cool. There are some fun bars and cute coffee shops.

The Recycle, Reduce, Reuse poster I made :/

Elena, Lauren, Jessi and me Super Bowl Sunday

This was never a project I imagined doing before coming to AmeriCorps. It certainly is not ideal for me, but I am going to make the best of it. I am still thankful to be a part of AmeriCorps NCCC and will be thankful for any new skills I learn, even if it involves sitting in a cubicle :S