U.S. Poverty Weekly Update January 10, 2017
U.S. Poverty Campaigns
Weekly Update | January 10, 2017
“Now more than ever, we need to focus on making things better for hardworking Americans. Doing the work of Christmas is the way forward. Dismantling our safety net is not.”
– RESULTS Des Moines volunteer Judy Zobel in a January 3 letter to the editor in the Des Moines Register
- Got Two Minutes? Prepare for Group Planning after the U.S. Poverty National Webinar this Saturday at 12:30 pm ET
- Got Ten Minutes? Complete Your Individual Planning Form before Your Group Planning
- Got Twenty Minutes? Submit (or Follow Up on) Your Face-to-Face Requests
- Quick News
- Upcoming Events
Quick Media Action: Tell Congress to Protect the Safety Net!
| Take Action! |
Got Two Minutes? Prepare for Group Planning after the U.S. Poverty National Webinar this Saturday at 12:30 pm ET
Join us for the RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Webinar this Saturday, January 14 at 12:30 pm ET. With the New Year comes a new presidential administration and new Congress, sadly moving full steam ahead on some very controversial measures, including repealing the Affordable Care Act. It is imperative that they hear from you – their constituents – on protecting programs that alleviate poverty in America. To do this, RESULTS has launched its First 100 Days Campaign to get every RESULTS group and Free Agent in front of their members of Congress in the first one hundred days of 2017 to talk about these issues.
On our first National Grassroots Webinar of the year, our focus will be planning for your First 100 Days Campaign. Instead of planning for the whole year, you’ll plan for the first one hundred days (roughly through April). We are pleased to have Gideon Bragin, the tax aide for Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) on the webinar to talk about the challenges and opportunities we face this year. We’ll also review our 2017 U.S. Poverty Campaigns and briefly overview the First 100 Days planning process. We’ll end the call early (after about 40 minutes) to give you and your group time to do your planning. Ideally, most groups will do their planning this Saturday after the webinar; if not, schedule to complete it before the end of this month. You can find Group Planning resources at the bottom of the First 100 Days page on the RESULTS website (see more below on preparing for Group Planning).
TAKE ACTION: Take two minutes to remind your local RESULTS group about the RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Grassroots Webinar call this Saturday, January 14 at 12:30 pm ET. Coordinate with your group where you will meet for the call. The webinar is done through Fuze meeting. To join online, login at http://fuze.me/32255914 or dial in by phone at (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID: 32255914#. Plan to log in or call in no later than 12:25 pm ET.
Plan to do your First 100 Days Group Planning after the webinar on Saturday when your group is together. If you cannot do it Saturday, don’t leave the webinar without having a date to do planning sometime this month. The January Action has tips to help you with your planning and have the Group Planning resources available with you in Saturday:
- First 100 Days Group Plahttps://results.org/wp-content/uploads/2017_RESULTS_First_100_Days_Group_Plan_Summary.docn Summary (online version: www.tinyurl.com/First100Plan)
- First 100 Days Group Planning Guide
- Completed 2017 Individual Planning Form for each group member
If you have questions about planning or using Fuze, please contact Jos Linn at [email protected]. We will have the January 2017 National Grassroots Webinar slides available later this week.
Got Ten Minutes? Complete Your Individual Planning Form before Group Planning (January Action)
As we use this weekend’s National Grassroots Webinar to focus on your First 100 Days Campaign planning, help make the process go smoothly by completing the 2017 Individual Planning Form. This gives you the chance to articulate your personal goals for the campaign and then share them with your group during Group Planning this month.
RESULTS’ annual group planning process is one of the main reasons RESULTS volunteers have been so successful over the years in building the political will to end poverty. By identifying your goals ahead of time, you make them easier to achieve. And by targeting the first one hundred days in this year’s planning (we’ll do more planning for the rest of the year later this spring), you will be able to be even more focused in your efforts.
TAKE ACTION: Take ten minutes to complete your 2017 Individual Planning Form. Each group member should fill out this form and bring it to your group planning this month (ideally after Saturday’s National Grassroots Webinar). For more information about First 100 Days planning, see the January Action. If your group is doing planning this Saturday but you cannot attend, please send your completed Individual Planning Form to your group leader before Saturday so he/she can include your goals in your group’s plan. Note: for U.S. Poverty Free Agents, we’ll do Planning on our January 17 calls.
Got Twenty Minutes? Submit (or Follow Up on) Your Face-to-Face Requests
RESULTS First 100 Days Campaign is all about making a difference; to influence the new Congress as it begins work in 2017. First and foremost, we want to make sure they do no harm to Americans living in poverty by cutting, restructuring, and otherwise damaging anti-poverty programs (e.g. SNAP). We also want to find areas of common ground, where we can build relationships with lawmakers and their staff to advance the cause of ending poverty in America (e.g. expanding the EITC).
Meeting with lawmakers is the best way to do this. Sitting down face-to-face and talking to them about these issues, attending town halls and asking them questions, meeting with their staff to provide them stories and data are how you will make the difference we need. Without it, you’re working with one hand tied behind your back. We face an unknown future in this new year but instead of waiting to see what happens, put your energy into the one thing you do control – using your voice for good.
TAKE ACTION: Take twenty minutes to submit face-to-face meeting requests for all of the members of Congress you and your RESULTS group covers. Use and personalize our online lobby meeting request form and send it to their schedulers. If you’ve already submitted meetings requests, please follow up with their schedulers to check on the status of your request. You can find scheduler names and contact information on our Elected Officials page. If you need help with your meeting requests, please contact Jos Linn at [email protected].
Once you get a lobby meeting scheduled, please enter the details in our First 100 Days Meeting Tracker and contact Meredith Dodson ([email protected]) to prepare for your meeting.
Quick News
Take Action to Protect Health Care for Millions. Earlier today, RESULTS sent out an action alert urging you to call your members of Congress about opposing repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Repeal of the ACA will potentially force millions back into the ranks of uninsured, including many low-income Americans who have gotten coverage under the ACA’s Medicaid expansion. If you have not called yet, call now using our action alert on the RESULTS Blog. After you've called your senators to #ProtectOurCare, can amplify the message in local media using our letter-to-the-editor tool (before and after upcoming votes) to hold policymakers accountable.
Join Tonight’s CFPB Conference Call with Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Over the years, Republicans in Congress have desired to eliminate or hamper the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill to help protect consumers from fraud and other shady practices by financial institutions. For example, lately the CFPB has worked to curb predatory lending companies from taking advantage of low-income borrowers (these “payday” loans are a contributing factor to the racial wealth gap). However, with the election off Donald Trump as President, congressional leaders might get their wish. Advocates for protecting the CFPB are rallying to push back at these attempts. Tonight, January 10 at 8:30 pm ET, they will hold a conference call with the CFPB architect, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), to rally people to take action to protect the CFPB. You can register for the call here.
Read TalkPoverty Blog Post from RESULTS Expert on Poverty. RESULTS Expert on Poverty Asia Bijan Thompson has a powerful new blog post on the TalkPoverty blog about her experiences with hunger. Check it out at: https://talkpoverty.org/2017/01/06/meet-new-orleans-group-fighting-stop-deportations/.
Join First RESULTS Intro Call of the Year Tomorrow Night. If you know someone looking to do something meaningful after this year’s election, invite them to join one of our RESULTS Introductory Calls. This is a great way to learn about our work and get involved. Our next Intro Call is tomorrow night, January 11 at 9:00 pm ET. People can register for an Intro Call on the RESULTS website.
RESULTS Free Agents Meet Next Tuesday. Our U.S. Poverty Free Agents will meet for their monthly support calls next Tuesday, January 17 at 1:00 pm and 8:00 pm ET. If you live in an area with no active RESULTS U.S. Poverty group, join these monthly calls to celebrate recent successes and get coaching on taking action. To participate, login in at http://fuze.me/32256018 or dial by phone at (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID: 32256018#.
Upcoming Events
Go to the RESULTS Events Calendar to see a full list of RESULTS events. Also, find a list of the RESULTS U.S. Poverty staff with contact information on the RESULTS website.
Upcoming staff vacations: Meredith Dodson, January 14-22; Jos Linn, February 15-20.
RESULTS Introductory Call, Monday, Wednesday, January 11 at 9:00 pm ET. If you want to learn more about RESULTS, register for an Intro Call on the RESULTS website.
RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Webinar, Saturday, January 14 at 12:30 pm ET. Participate at http://fuze.me/32255914 or (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID: 32255914#. Listen to previous webinars on our National Webinars page.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday, Monday, January 16. All RESULTS offices closed.
RESULTS U.S. Poverty Free Agents Calls, Tuesday, January 17 at 1:00 pm and 8:00 pm ET. To participate, login in at http://fuze.me/32256018 or dial by phone at (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID: 32256018#.
Inauguration Day, Friday, January 20. All RESULTS offices closed.
RESULTS International Conference, Saturday, July 22 – Tuesday, July 25, 2017. Washington Court Hotel, Washington, DC. Registration is now open!
If you have a question, comment or suggestion for the RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund Board, please e-mail them to RESULTS Grassroots Board Member Vanessa Garcia at [email protected]. You can view the most recently published minutes from Board meetings on the RESULTS website, as well as download RESULTS’ most recent Annual Report.