Your tax dollars:
I’ve been meaning for awhile to give our new readers some information that we have written about over the years, and, for longtime readers, this is an update.
We talk all the time about how non-profit refugee resettlement agencies are paid by the head, by the US State Department, to resettle refugees to your towns and cities.
However, that is only a drop in the bucket when it comes to the millions they get from you for every sort of grant under the sun!
One such program you have funded over the years is the Refugee Healthy Marriage Program.
We told you here in 2013 what we found in the 2009 Office of Refugee Resettlement Annual report to Congress.
I see there are still grants listed on page A-24 of the 2010 Annual Report and a description of how millions of your dollars are educating refugees on how to have healthy marriages beginning on page 21 of the report.
Incidentally, these annual reports are a treasure trove of information for those of you who are digging deeper around the country.
However…..
A huge expansion of the Healthy Marriage program occurred in 2010!
The new program is now called ‘Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood!’ You pay for it!
This is how the Dept. of Health and Human Services describes the program:
The Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood initiative is part of ACF’s strategy to improve the lives of children. ACF funded a local network of 121 organizations in 47 states to provide comprehensive healthy relationship and marriage education services, responsible parenting, and job and career advancement activities to advance economic stability and improve the overall well-being of children and their parents.
The Claims Resolution Act of 2010 (CRA) provided $75 million for Healthy Marriage grants and $75 million for Responsible Fatherhood grants. The grantees are conducting a range of activities including marriage education and enrichment programs specifically designed for existing couples, including married couples, engaged couples, and individuals interested in marriage. Responsible Fatherhood programs target all fathers, including non-custodial parents and fathers who have or will soon reenter their communities from incarceration.
The Healthy Marriage Program serves 60 grantees and 73,346 participants; the Responsible Fatherhood program serves 55 grantees and 14,894 participants; and the Fatherhood Ex-Prisoner Reentry Pilot Project serves 4 grantees and 945 participants.
Grants totaled nearly $60 million in one year alone!
I did find a list of grant recipients which includes some of our usual resettlement contractors here for 2011, but haven’t the time or patience to search for newer lists of who is receiving millions of tax dollars—just short of $60 million in this one year! Be sure to look down the whole list.
I wonder if these mostly non-profits are ever audited??? I doubt it.
Readers are always asking what can we do?
Well, here is one thing, find one of these grant recipients located near you and find out exactly what they are doing with hundreds of thousands of dollars per agency to ‘help the children.’
Become like the investigative journalists of old!
More tomorrow or later this week on other outrageous grants (culturally appropriate daycare, refugee matched savings accounts, refugee gardening projects, etc.).