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Constituent Corner
· New Head Start Grants

I am pleased to again announce United States Department of Health and Human Services funding for CEFS Economic Opportunity Corporation (http://www.advant.com/cefs/), which is based in Effingham and Mt. Vernon City Schools. The schools will receive $640,660 for Head Start services and CEFS will receive $1,442,237 for Head Start services in its region.

As I have said many times, I know that children need to begin developing their learning skills at an early age, skills that are necessary in order to obtain a quality education. Head Start (http://www2.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/hsb/) is a program that provides a boost to pre-school age children in order to ensure a bright future for our youth.

This funding covers full-year programs for part-day students, handicapped students, and training and technical assistance.

· New Grants Available for Emergency Shelters

I am happy to announce new funding has been awarded to Madison County from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (www.hud.gov/local) to improve the quality and number of emergency homeless shelters.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is awarding $136,185 to the County. I am pleased to help bring this funding to Madison County. It is timely as winter fast approaches and the need grows.

· Centralia Lands Another Firefighter Grant

For the second time in three months, there is good news to the Centralia Fire Department. The department is to receive further federal funding through the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) http://www.usfa.fema.gov/fire-service/grants/.

The most recent grant, for $42,165, will be used for Operations and Firefighter Safety. It may be spent on training, wellness and fitness, firefighting equipment, personal protective equipment, and modifications to fire stations and facilities. The money comes from the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program administered by the DHS Office for Domestic Preparedness in cooperation with the United States Fire Administration.

We continue to see local fire departments benefit from this program. We are seeing a big payoff from the seminars our office has held for fire districts to make sure that they file quality applications in order to improve their success in obtaining a grant.

Centralia also received a $9,376 Fire Prevention and Safety grant in September. That part of the program reserves the highest priority for projects focusing on the prevention of fire-related injuries to children.

Anticipated Action on the House Floor Next Week

· Congress will be in session beginning on Tuesday of next week and we will be working on getting through our Appropriations bills. For more information on the status of FY2005 Appropriations please visit http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app05.html.

· Want to know more? Keep an eye on http://thomas.loc.gov/. This site provides up-to-date information on House legislative schedules.

Did You Know?

· Library of Congress Releases New Book of Veterans Stories

As a member of the Army Reserves, I always enjoy talking to our veterans both back in the district and in D.C. I am excited about reading the new book released by the Library of Congress, Voices of War. This book relates war through the eyes of 60 veterans and civilians caught up in the momentous conflicts of the 20th century. To read some of these veteran’s stories and see video clips please visit http://www.loc.gov/folklife/vets/stories/.

Thank you for the interest in my newsletter! Remember to tell your friends about it as well--they can sign up on my web page at http://www.house.gov/shimkus.

Sincerely,

Congressman John Shimkus

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