Low- to moderate-income tax filers in 10 LISC New Communities Program neighborhoods and six other Chicago neighborhoods have begun taking advantage of free tax preparation services.
Most of the sites are connected with LISC's Centers for Working Families (CWF) or at schools participating in the new Integrated Services in Extended-Day Schools (ISS) program.
Center for Economic Progress volunteer Arvind Subramaniam helps prepare taxes for Amada Green at the Woodlawn Employment Center site.
Photo: Eric Young Smith
Run by the Center for Economic Progress, the 15-year-old tax preparation program, available to households with incomes under $40,000 and individuals under $15,000, generated more than $21.1 million in returns to nearly 15,000 taxpayers in 2007 and has brought in more than $200 million total since 1994.
In addition to the two new locations, the 2008 program offers new savings options and additional staff from CWFs, which blend financial coaching, public benefits counseling, tax preparation and employment services.
The ISS sites at Ames Middle School in Logan Square and Marquette School in Chicago Southwest are the two additions to the program for 2008, and they will be unlike the others in a few respects: they will be open only for a handful of dates, they are marketed only to parents of students in those schools, and they will be run by the Tax Assistance Project.
Tan explains those programs will start small rather than attempting to reach everyone. David McDowell, NCP organizer at the SouthWest Organizing Project, says he expects to accommodate approximately 180 families at the Marquette site.
Open Until Tax Day
The remaining sites opened January 26 and will operate until April 15 on a set schedule, slightly different for each, and all in the same locations as in 2007, except for South Chicago, now located at Olive Harvey College. 
Eager tax filers wait in line outside the Woodlawn site on the snowy morning of January 26, when free tax preparation season opened across NCP neighborhoods and elsewhere in Chicago.
Photo: Eric Young Smith
Other NCP neighborhoods include Pilsen, Auburn Gresham, the Quad Communities, Humboldt Park, West Haven, Woodlawn and North Lawndale. The remaining Chicago locations are in the Loop, Chinatown, Uptown, Back of the Yards, Rogers Park and West Garfield Park. (For a rundown of locations and times, please click here.)
Sites in the three other neighborhoods participating in the ISS program – Pilsen, Auburn Gresham, and the Quad Communities/Bronzeville – will make special outreach efforts to parents in the respective middle schools through flyers, brochures and phone calls, but the services will be provided at CWFs, not on site at the schools, and other community members will be welcome to them, as in the past. (For an opening-day account of Auburn Gresham's site, please click here.)
CWF Benefits
Last year, the financial coaches at CWFs extended the benefits of the tax prep sites by pulling credit scores and providing coaching, Tan says. This year, CWFs also will involve career
coaches, public benefits coaches and others as resource people at each site to facilitate people's experience, make sure they have the right documents, promote the CWF program and talk about the banking partners involved, he says.
"They're there to make sure the dots are connected," Tan says. "It's a much simpler role, but hopefully it will be much smoother."
"We're the glue that's putting it all together," says Livia Villareal of the Southwest Reach Center, the CWF in Chicago Southwest. "We're going to help with the flow, welcome everybody, tell them about our services."
Financial counselors will help with credit reports and answer questions, scheduling appointments as needed to follow up services or directing them to banking partners, she says.
Banking Partners
Relationships with banks at 16 sites led to 1,004 new accounts in 2007, about two-thirds checking and one-third savings, according to Mary Ruth Herbers, senior director of programs at CEP. 
The team of professionals at Centers for Working Families can do credit checks, offer public benefits counseling or financial coaching, or refer tax prep clients to banking partners to help them save.
Photo: Eric Young Smith
To further encourage saving, this year, sites in North Lawndale, South Chicago and the Loop are piloting the sale of U.S. Savings Bonds, she says.
"People want to have more limited access to their money," Herbers says. "They want to save, and they don't want it to be too convenient. Savings bonds have a lot of cache, even though the federal government doesn't promote them anymore."
In North Lawndale and South Chicago, CEP and partner Washington Mutual Bank are also offering other asset-building services, through a pilot project to determine what sales and marketing methods increase people's use of such services, Herbers says.
Recipients will have four options to place a portion of their tax refund: checking, savings, U.S. Savings Bonds, or a hybrid product called "Savings for Success," she says.