U.S. Poverty Weekly Update January 17, 2017
U.S. Poverty Campaigns
Weekly Update | January 17, 2017
“[The press and the people] need to step up and expose the dangers of losing this safety net and its importance to the lives of children, families and the elderly.”
– RESULTS Santa Fe volunteer Robert Lurcott in a January 12 letter to the editor in the Taos News
- Got Two Minutes? Confirm Your Group Planning (or Follow-up) Meeting (January Action)
- Got Ten Minutes? Use the Inauguration to Generate Media about Protecting the Safety Net
- Got Twenty Minutes? Let Us Know How Planning and Scheduling Meetings Are Going (January Action)
- Quick News
- Upcoming Events
Quick Media Action: Tell Congress to Protect the Safety Net
| Take Action! |
Got Two Minutes? Confirm Your Group Planning (or Follow-up) Meeting (January Action)
This month is all about making sure the First 100 Days of 2017 are ones that Congress will remember. RESULT S has an ambitious goal of 100 percent participation in our First 100 Days Campaign. That means every RESULTS group and Free Agent will meet with their members of Congress or staff within the first 100 days of 2017. Our annual group planning process will help you (and us all) reach that goal. The first step is meeting to do your planning.
TAKE ACTION: Take two minutes to confirm your group planning meeting for this month. If you did not meet last Saturday to plan, or if you did but did not finish, make sure everyone in your group knows when you will meet in January to finish planning. The January Action has a guide to help you with your planning. We cannot emphasize enough the importance of planning in reaching your goals – it is one of the reasons RESULTS volunteers have been so successful over the years. All the materials you need can be found on our RESULTS First 100 Days page or our Group Resources page. If you have questions about planning, please contact Jos Linn ([email protected]).
And if you did complete your planning this past weekend, congratulations! Now go to the Got Twenty Minutes section.
Got Ten Minutes? Use the Inauguration to Generate Media about Protecting the Safety Net
On Friday, President Obama’s term will end and Donald Trump will be sworn in as President. One of the first agenda items Mr. Trump has demanded from Congress is a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, thus putting the health care of tens of millions of Americans at risk. As guest speaker Gideon Bragin of Sen. Sherrod Brown’s office told on last Saturday’s National Grassroots Webinar, grassroots pressure is essential in stopping dangerous changes to the safety net. As congressional leaders work to repeal the ACA, they are also considering radical changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which could undermine these programs’ effectiveness and force millions more deeper into poverty.
Last week’s votes to move forward on ACA repeal and Friday’s Inauguration will garner a lot of press coverage this week. Use these stories as hooks to get letters to the editor published telling readers that the moment Donald Trump takes the oath of office should not be Congress’ signal to break their oath to promote the general welfare of the American people. The first 100 days of a new presidential administration should not be focused on undoing decades of progress in reducing poverty in America.
TAKE ACTION: Take ten minutes to keep up your great media work in 2017 (15 media published piece already!) by sending a letter to the editor telling Congress to protect programs that lift and keep people out of poverty. Customize our online media alert using stories of the ACA repeal process or the Inauguration as a hook. Tell Congress to protect program such as SNAP and Medicaid, and to not replace the ACA without a strong alternative in place. If you need help with your letters, contact Jos Linn at [email protected].
Got Twenty Minutes? Let Us Know How Planning and Scheduling Meetings Are Going (January Action)
Once you’ve completed your First 100 Days Campaign planning, let us know what exciting things you have in store by submitting your plan online. We have a new online submission form that only takes a few minutes to complete at: www.tinyurl.com/First100Plan. The sooner we get your plans, the sooner we can support you in reaching your First 100 Days goals.
In addition, if you have not started requesting your lobby meetings for the First 100 Days, please send them in as soon as possible. As Gideon Bragin, senior policy aide for Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told us on last Saturday’s National Webinar, the key to protecting important safety net programs and moving the anti-poverty agenda forward is meeting with members of Congress in their home states and districts. He said this important work cannot be done without a strong push from grassroots activists at the local level. Therefore, please get your meeting requests in now.
TAKE ACTION: Take twenty minutes to let us know how your First 100 Days planning and actions are going. Take these steps to quickly and easily send the information we need to support you in your First 100 Days goals.
- Finish and submit your First 100 Days Group Plan to: www.tinyurl.com/First100Plan. Please send it to us by January 31.
- Submit your face-to-face meeting requests. If you’re not sure what to say, use our lobby meeting request form to help you: http://capwiz.com/results/issues/alert/?alertid=7268106&MC_plugin=2201. You can find scheduler names and contact information on our Elected Officials page.
- As you get your congressional meetings or town halls scheduled, please enter the meeting info into our First 100 Days Meeting Tracker: http://tinyurl.com/100daysmeetings.
- Contact Meredith Dodson ([email protected]) to set up a lobby prep call to get ready for your lobby meetings.
- After you meeting, please tell us what happened by filling out the RESULTS Lobby Report Form: www.tinyurl.com/RESLRF.
Note: To hear more about what Gideon said regarding Congress’ new priorities, listen to the recording of the National Grassroots Webinar on the RESULTS website. Due to technical difficulties with our website, we are still not able to post the Webinar slides and summary. We apologize and are diligently working to resolve this issue. In the meantime, if you would like a copy of the slides and summary, please e-mail Jos Linn ([email protected]).
Quick News
Congress Moves Ahead with ACA Repeal. Last week, both the House and Senate passed legislation to start the repeal of the Affordable Care Act without a strong alternative as a replacement. This was a procedural vote – not the actual repeal – to move the process forward; an actual repeal vote is likely to come in the next few weeks. Estimates are that repeal of the ACA would cause 30 million people to lose their health insurance. There is still time to make your voice heard. If you have not called yet, use our action alert on the RESULTS Blog.to call your representative and senators urging them to oppose repeal without a strong replacement in place.
Welcome New Regional Coordinators. We are thrilled to announce that our U.S. Poverty team has added to new Regional Coordinators to help with supporting our local RESULTS groups in their advocacy work. Debbie Baskin of RESULTS Salt Lake City and Sara Buckingham, formerly of RESULTS Baltimore and now a Free Agents in Vermont, will lead weekly group leader calls and use their expertise and experience to support various groups in their RESULTS work. We are fortunate and grateful for their willingness to share their talents with us. Welcome, Debbie and Sara!
Join First 100 Days Training Calls This Week. RESULTS has a slew of training calls over the next month designed to help you make your First 100 Days Campaign a success. This week, you can join calls on how to use the First 100 Days to find and work with allies in your local communities (Wednesday at 9:00 pm ET) as well as how to research information about your members of Congress (Thursday at 9:00 pm ET). Find access numbers to these and other webinar in our Upcoming Events section and see the full list of training calls on our Events Calendar.
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 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#.
Training Call: Building the Advocacy Pyramid in our Communities (Grasstops, Core Advocates, Action Network), Wednesday, January 18, 9:00 pm ET. Login online: http://fuze.me/34116894; or via phone: (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID 34116894#.
Training Call: Researching Members of Congress for Deeper Relationships, Thursday, January 19, 9:00 pm ET. Login online: http://fuze.me/34116874; or via phone: (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID 34116874#.
Inauguration Day, Friday, January 20. All RESULTS offices closed.
RESULTS Introductory Call, Friday, January 27 at 1:00 pm ET. If you want to learn more about RESULTS, register for an Intro Call on the RESULTS website.
Training Call: Creating Champions in Congress, Thursday, January 26, 9:00 pm ET. Login online: http://fuze.me/34116890; or via phone (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID 34116890#.
Training Call: Leading with Action: Mapping and Engaging Community Groups Powerfully with RESULTS Tools, Wednesday, February 1, 9:00 pm ET. Login online: http://fuze.me/34116910; or via phone at (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID 34116910#.
Training Call: Telling Our Stories of Self, Us, and Now to Engage Others, Tuesday, February 7, 9:00 pm ET. Login online: http://fuze.me/34116930; or via phone (201) 479-4595, Meeting ID 34116930#.
RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Webinar, Saturday, February 11 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.
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.