WROC's annual Mother's Day Auction
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ACTION
ALERTS!
- WROC's annual Mother's Day Auction
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ECAP Update
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Senate Passed Family Leave Bill
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Poverty Action - Session Deadlines Nearing!
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TANFroses: Discrimination Against Women In The Responsible Fatherhood Program
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Legal Momentum’s Immigrant Women Program
JOBS:
Community Coalition for Environmental Justice (CCEJ)
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ACTION
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Mark your calendar! WROC's annual Mother's Day Auction
is Saturday, May 12th at the Knights of Columbus. Come celebrate the work that WROC members do. For more information, to donate or to reserve a seat, call 206/324-3063 or 877/330-3063. Follow the links at our Web site www.wroc.org
Jean
>>From WROC's tech: On May 12th WROC will celebrate an unforgettable evening of hilarious fun and laughter as we hold our 10th Annual Mother's Day Auction at the Knights Columbus Club.
This year we include an evening of lively humor and good-natured zingers as we roast and lambaste our distinguished Celebrity, Jean Colman by a WROC-star cast of Roasters! Stop by our Web site for information on how to join in on the fun! <<
ECAP Update
Over the next two weeks Democratic member of congress need to hear from the grassroots about the need to pass a federal budget that puts “First Things First;” we need to increase funding to human needs programs in the domestic discretionary budget!
In order to achieve this goal we need your help:
Federal Budget Call in Days: Most importantly we are organizing a series of call-in days activating the grassroots to call Congress for a federal budget that sets the right priorities. We will use the ECAP coalition’s online advocacy web pages, which are managed by AFSCME, and the AFSC’s toll-free number, in order to spread the word about the call-in days. The call-in days are organized by the following themes and message points:
· Thursday, March 15 – Children &
Youth
· Friday, March 16 – Workers
· Monday, March 19 – Education
· Tuesday, March 20 – Housing & Nutrition
We will provide links to the web pages for each
of these issue alerts, as well as a multi-issue alert that you can send
out to your networks to activate them around “their” call-in day.
These web pages will provide talking points, calling instructions, and
a feedback form so we can track our progress. Please alert your
networks and actively seek their participation in these call-in days.
We appreciate any additional outreach to other organizations that would
be interested in participating in any of these activities. If you have
any comments about the content of the web pages contact Chuck Westover
(CWes...@afscme.org).
Thanks!
Maude D. Bauschard
USAction/USAction Education Fund
mbaus...@usaction.org
www.usaction.org
1825 K Street NW, Suite 210
Washington, DC 20006
Main:202.263.4520
Personal: 202.263.4523
Fax: 202.263.4530
The Emergency Campaign for America's Priorities
asks that Congress put “First Things First” for the FY08 Budget:
* Provide $450 billion for domestic discretionary spending.
* Increase outdated benefit levels for Food Stamps, fund SCHIP at
levels adequate to cover all eligible children, restore funds cut from
child support enforcement, and strengthen the unemployment insurance
program.
* Reject new tax breaks for the wealthy and special interests, and
any changes in the tax system, such as an AMT “fix,” that do not make
the system more progressive and that do not, at a minimum, replace lost
tax revenue.
March 15, 2007
Dear Friends of Family Leave:
Senate Passed Family Leave Bill on March 14, 2007
with a Bipartisan Vote of 32 – 17
You did it! Thanks for your calls and emails. Now Let’s Move Family
Leave Insurance through the House Committees and onto the House Floor
for a final vote !
· Call or Email your Two Representatives and Urge them to
Support Family Leave Insurance.
· Call or Email your Senator and Thank her/him for Supporting
Family Leave Insurance (see the list of supporting Senators below)
Find your legislator’s email or phone number:
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/Default.aspx
Hearing for Family Leave Insurance Bill on Tuesday, March 20th at 1:30
House Commerce and Labor Committee to hear Family Leave Insurance Bill
John L O’Brien Building, Hearing Room C
Olympia, WA 98504-0600
Directions to the Capitol - http://www.leg.wa.gov/WorkingwithLeg/
* Come to the hearing. Everyone is welcome to attend. Please sign
in at the hearing as a supporter of SB 5659 Family Leave Insurance
* Call ahead and make appointments with your legislators or stop by
their offices and leave them a note asking them to Pass SB 5659 Family
Leave Insurance
Email a brief message: 2 or 3 lines or call the hotline 1-800-562-6000
· Pass SB 5659 Family Leave Insurance (See fact sheet attached)
* Share your family leave experiences or those of a loved one with
your Legislators. Talk about how this program would benefit you and
your family.
SB 5659 Family Leave Insurance
SB 5659 was amended in the Senate. (See fact sheet attached)
It provides for up to 5 weeks of leave for the birth or placement of a new child, care of a seriously ill family member (child, spouse, domestic partner, or parent), but no longer covers worker’s own serious illness. Benefits would be $250 per week, financed by a premium of 2 cents per hour worked paid by workers - about $40 per year for a full time worker, or $3.50 per month (pro-rated for part-time workers).
Supporting Senators –Thank you to Senators Benton, Berkey, Brown, Eide, Fairley, Franklin, Fraser, Hargrove, Hatfield, Hobbs, Jacobsen, Kastama, Kauffman, Keiser, Kilmer, Kline, Kohl-Welles, Marr, McAuliffe, Murray, Oemig, Poulsen, Prentice, Pridemore, Rasmussen, Regala, Roach, Rockefeller, Shin, Spanel, Tom, and Weinstein.URGENT: HELP BATTERED IMMIGRANT WOMEN ACCESS PUBLIC BENEFITS!
Poverty Action - Session Deadlines Nearing!
Tuesday, March 20th the House of Representatives will release their proposed budget. If you are supporting an issue that requires funding (like HB 2256 Asset-Building), lawmakers need to hear from you right now about including this funding in the budget. The Senate budget is expected to be released on or around March 23rd.
Wednesday, March 30th is the last day for bills to be passed out of their appropriate policy committee in the opposite house (this means that bills were passed with a majority vote in the house of origin - House or Senate - and have now moved to the opposite house to go through the same process).
VICTORY for Children’s Health!
In a huge victory for children all across Washington, the Governor signed Senate Bill 5093 on Tuesday, March 13th during a celebration in the State Reception Room. This historic legislation ensures comprehensive, affordable health coverage for every child in Washington. This incredible achievement was a direct result of all of the calls and emails that our lawmakers received saying that children's healthcare was a priority for Washington. Great work Poverty Action activists for making this possible!
VICTORY: HB 2256 (Asset-Building) passes the House!
HB 2256 is a family prosperity act to increase financial security, savings and investment for people with lower incomes so they can reach self-sufficiency. The bill has been scheduled for a hearing on Wednesday, March 21st by the Senate Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee. Poverty Action volunteers have been working hard to generate calls on this issue. We have made cell phone calls in target districts as well as asked our members in key areas to call the legislative hotline. These calls and your action made this happen, but we still need to keep the pressure on!
Urge your lawmakers to pass and fund HB 2256! Attend the hearing and sign-in to support HB 2256. The hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, March 21st at 3:30pm in the John A Cherberg Bldg, Hearing Rm 2.
Call your lawmakers TODAY at 1-800-562-6000 or send a message to your Representatives and urge them to “pass and fund HB 2256 with $4.5 million to foster opportunities for people with lower incomes to leave poverty.”
TAKE ACTION: Welfare Grant Increase
Washington State’s income support benefit levels are too low to cover the cost of living. People on General Assistance Unemployable (GAU), who are unable to work due to a mental illness or physical disability, receive a meager $339 from the state. For a low-income family of 3 on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) the grant is $546 a month. TANF and GAU grants have not been increased since 1993. It’s time that the legislature increase grant amounts so that everyone can meet their needs. Call your lawmakers TODAY at 1-800-562-6000 and urge them to “ensure that everyone is able to meet their basic needs by increasing both TANF and GAU grants by 5% for each year of the 2007-09 biennium”.
TAKE ACTION: Opportunity Grants
HB 1096 passed the House unanimously and is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Higher Education Committee on Monday, March 19th. HB 1096 creates an Opportunity Grant program to provide financial assistance to help low income students go back to school. This legislation will ensure that all low-income people can receive a post-secondary education.
Poverty Action volunteers have generated cell phone calls in target districts as well as asked our members in key areas to call the legislative. Help us keep the pressure on our representatives! Attend the hearing and sign-in to support HB 1096. The bill will be heard by the Senate Higher Education Committee on Monday, March 19th at 1:30pm in the John A Cherberg Bldg, Hearing Rm 3. Call your Lawmakers TODAY at 1-800-562-6000 and urge them to “support opportunities for people with lower incomes to receive a post-secondary education by passing and funding HB 1096.”
ISSUE UPDATE: Predatory Payday Lending
"Despite much sound and fury, it appears legislators will do nothing this year to crack down on controversial payday lenders" (from today's Tacoma News Tribune). Wednesday, March 14th, was the deadline for bills to move out of their house of origin, where they were first introduced. The Senate did nothing this session on payday lending, with no bills proposed or leadership taken to protect working families in our state. In the House of Representatives, none of the payday bills made it out in time. Poverty Action and the Communities Against Payday Predators (CAPP) coalition see these weaker House bills dying as an opportunity to push for substantive action next year.
Even with significant public outcry for reform, major newspapers supporting our position and a strong coalition of organizations and community leaders calling for change, the Legislature chose to allow payday lenders to continue to have special privileges to exploit working families. This lack of action by the Legislature means that hundreds of thousands of families will spiral deeper into debt and fall prey to payday lenders. We all must step up our efforts to keep the pressure on our representatives and demand action.
TANFroses: Discrimination Against Women In The Responsible Fatherhood Program
Legal Momentum Urges HHS General Counsel To Prevent and Investigate Discrimination Against Women In The Responsible Fatherhood Program
Legal Momentum has written the HHS General Counsel urging immediate action to prevent discrimination against women under a recent HHS grant to the National Fatherhood Initiative, the organization formerly directed by Dr. Wade Horn, the HHS Assistant Secretary who is in charge of the program under which this grant was made. Our letter also urges an immediate investigation of whether other grantees are discriminating against women, as information on the HHS web site suggests a widespread policy of sex discrimination among the approximately 100 other grantees under this new HHS-administered Responsible Fatherhood program.
The letter is available athttp://www.legalmomentum.org/legalmomentum/files/LegalMomentumLetter32007.pdf
Legal Momentum’s Immigrant Women Program
This Saturday, March 17th, lawmakers are heading back to their districts to hear from the people they represent about what is important. We urge you to attend your local town hall meeting (check out the town hall schedule on our website) and ask your representatives, “when will you take action to rein in 391% interest rates on payday loans and protect Washington families from predatory lenders?” Please also make sure to thank your lawmaker if they were one of the 27 co-sponsors of HB 1020, which would have capped interest rates at 36%. This bill was blocked from getting a public hearing by Rep. Kirby (D29 - Tacoma), who chairs the committee considering these bills.
As the Tacoma News Tribune stated in an editorial on Tuesday, “Reasonable, responsible regulation of payday lenders is possible — and necessary if the Legislature is to protect consumers from predatory lenders. It should be near the top of lawmakers’ to-do list for next year.” Please keep raising this issue with lawmakers, attend your local Town Hall meetings, and stay connected with this fight by joining the CAPP email alert list.
For more information on the Communities Against Payday Predators (CAPP) campaign,visit www.noloansharks.org or contact Maya Baxter at 206-604-6232.
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We have the rare opportunity to help pass legislative changes that will allow battered immigrant women get the direct access to public benefits they need to live safe and healthy lives. However, in order to do so WE NEED YOUR STORIES NOW! The welfare and immigration laws of 1996 prevent most immigrants from accessing benefits for five years. This means victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking are unable to get the benefits they desperately need to get back on their feet.
Please send us stories describing immigrant victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking you know or have worked with who cannot access public benefits and what effect this has had on their lives. Examples may include:
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Battered immigrant women and their children returning to an abusive environment due to a lack of financial resources, shelter, food, and health care;
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Sexual assault victims not receiving proper medical treatment after an assault;
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Trafficking victims forced into continued servitude having no other alternative to obtain basic necessities.
Please use the attached guide to write your stories. If you have any questions, contact Pamela Lilleston at Legal Momentum’s Immigrant Women Program at plill...@legalmomentum.org.
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JOBS
For FULL job information please visit our Job Web Space at http://wroc.org/home/jobs.html
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Community Coalition for Environmental Justice (CCEJ)
is seeking candidates for the following positions:1) Administrative Co-Director
2) Program Co-Director
The mission of CCEJ is to achieve environmental and economic justice in low income communities and communities of color. Our overall goal is to level unequal distributions of power created by racism and other oppressions by bringing informed community voices to the table. We do this through community organizing campaigns, projects, outreach and education. We have a highly dedicated Board of Directors, talented staff and numerous volunteers who manage the day-to-day operations of the organization. For more information, visit our website at www.ccej.org.
The Program Co-Director and the Administrative Co-Director will share the Executive responsibility for the daily operation of CCEJ. Both positions will be part-time at 30 hours per week. Please see the attached summaries of the Co-Director job announcements. For more detailed information about the job descriptions, go to www.ccej.org.
Applicants are asked to e-mail a cover letter, resume, responses to application questions, and three references by April 15th, 2007 to CCEJ...@gmail.com. However, applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
Any questions regarding these Co-director Positions should be directed to CCEJ...@gmail.com.
Sincerely,
The CCEJ Hiring Committee
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