RESULTS Campaigns Weekly Update April 21, 2020

Quote of the Week

“We must prevent heartache and economic disruption from settling on our doorsteps, and we can do so best by keeping it from festering in any doorway in any country.”

– RESULTS Albuquerque volunteer Sandy Duckert in an April 14 letter to the editor in the Albuquerque Journal

RESULTS Coronavirus Resources

Our coronavirus pandemic page is a great resource for you with information on conducting virtual meetings, advocating online, generating media, what’s happening on coronavirus and poverty in Congress, and more. Visit the page regularly to get the latest news on our work during the outbreak.

Table of Contents

• Global Poverty Campaigns Update
• U.S. Poverty Campaigns Update
• RESULTS Announcements
• Upcoming Events
• Grassroots Resources

Global Poverty Campaigns Update

QUICK ACTION Ask your representative to support the Global Fund

Got Ten Minutes? Call Your representative about $1 billion for the Global Fund

The Global Fund is providing fast, flexible funding to countries to support the direct response to COVID-19 and to shore up existing health programs. We cannot hit pause on the fight against the pandemics of HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria while we fight COVID-19. Congress is debating its next COVID-19 response bill now. Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Martha Roby (R-AL) are leading a bipartisan letter to House leadership in support of an emergency allocation of $1 billion to the Global Fund to support its urgent, life-saving work. Please ask your representative to sign the Lee-Roby letter in support of $1 billion for the Global Fund.

TAKE ACTION: Call your representative and ask him/her to sign the Lee-Roby letter in support of a $1 billion emergency allocation for the Global Fund. The letter can be found on our website. The letter has been extended to close on Wednesday, April 22.

Use this alert to take action today. Lives can’t wait.

Got Fifteen Minutes? Ask your senator to sign onto a tuberculosis Dear Colleague letter

We currently have a tuberculosis-focused sign-on/Dear Colleague letter open in the Senate, but just for a few more days. This bipartisan letter, led by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Todd Young (R-IN), asks appropriators for robust funding for the bilateral tuberculosis program at USAID. It closes Thursday, April 23. Would you ask your senator(s) to sign onto this important and influential letter?

TAKE ACTION: Ask your senator(s) to sign onto the Senate TB Dear Colleague letter as we seek to shore up tuberculosis funding. Check to see if your senator(s) have signed and then make your request. Taking a few minutes now could save lives.

QUICK NEWS ON GLOBAL POVERTY

COVID-19 pandemic underscores importance of strong global health systems. As Congress develops a “Phase 4” legislative package during the pandemic, we are urging the prioritization of marginalized communities:

1. Supporting low-income countries and communities to respond to COVID-19, building on the progress we’ve made in global health.
2. Ensuring other health programs that address diseases of poverty are not undermined by the COVID-19 response.
3. Addressing the non-health impacts of the pandemic, particularly access to quality education and other areas that disproportionately affect the poor.

Scroll to our April 7, 5 pm ET blogpost to read more. To take the message to legislators via virtual meetings and the media, utilize our April action sheet.

Write a Letter to the Editor on Strong Health Systems. We are living through a challenging time, and we must sound the call – marginalized communities can’t bear the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic. Have you gotten published lately? This is the ideal time to write about strengthening healthcare systems. You may feel that your voice can’t make an impact, but that’s not true – it’s voices like yours that make all the difference. Use our online alert to write a letter to the editor today. Read more on our blog about how to get started and how to write well in this critical moment. Strong, resilient health systems around the world become even more important – and even more endangered – in a crisis. We must lift up this issue to our communities and leadership. (When you get published, please report your success at www.tinyurl.com/RESULTSMedia.)

U.S. Poverty Campaigns Update

QUICK ACTION Generate media on housing and SNAP

Got Five Minutes? Join SNAP Day of Action tomorrow by e-mailing Congress

Building on your great work meeting virtually with members of Congress about housing and hunger this month, join RESULTS and other hunger advocates tomorrow, April 22, for a National Day of Action on SNAP. We are urging Congress and the Trump Administration to increase SNAP (formerly Food Stamps) benefits in the next large COVID-19 relief package (“Phase 4”). SNAP was left out of the last bill and Congress will pass a smaller bill for small businesses this week, but again with no SNAP boost. The Phase 4 bill is expected to come up when members of Congress return to Washington in May. Help make sure an increase in SNAP benefits is part of that bill.

TAKE ACTION: Take five minutes tomorrow, April 22, to e-mail your representatives and senators urging them to include SNAP in the Phase 4 COVID-19 bill. Here is a message to tailor and send (ideally, coordinate with fellow RESULTS advocates so that someone is communicating directly with the Agriculture aide in your Senate and House offices):

With 22 million people now unemployed, we’ve seen families line up for miles in order to pick up food. Families need help and they need it now. SNAP, formerly food stamps, is our primary defense against hunger and plays a critical role in feeding children while schools are closed. Not only does it keep families fed, increasing SNAP benefits will provide a needed financial boost to our struggling economy. In the next COVID-19 bill, please work with Congressional leaders to include a 15 percent increase in the SNAP maximum benefit, increase the minimum SNAP benefit to $30; and suspend all administrative rules that would terminate or cut SNAP benefits. 

Got Fifteen Minutes?  Keep up your strong housing push

Thank you to all of you who have been requesting meetings with members of Congress to talk about housing and hunger in the next COVID-19 response bill. One thing is for sure – COVID-19 has not diminished your commitment to advocating for the end of poverty. In April alone, RESULTS volunteers have had 13 lobby meetings, and more are being scheduled each week.

Your advocacy is needed now more than ever. Millions of American renters have another rent payment due at the start of May, a payment many of them are unable to make. Without assistance, they face debt, eviction, and possibly homelessness. RESULTS and our allies are demanding that Congress appropriate at least $100 billion in emergency rental assistance in the next large “Phase 4” COVID-19 bill (Congress is expected to pass a bill this week (“Phase 3.5”) but it narrowly focused on small business and hospitals). This will help rental cost-burdened households housed during this crisis.

TAKE ACTION: Take fifteen minutes to check with schedulers on the status of your virtual lobby meeting requests. If you have yet to make a request, please do so now. Congress will only be home for another two weeks. We are seeking $100 billion in emergency rental assistance, a national moratorium on evictions, and a 15 percent increase in the maximum SNAP benefit. The April 2020 U.S. Poverty Action and our Lobbying page have tips and resources to help you, including updated housing and SNAP leave behinds. Once you get a meeting, please contact RESULTS staff to help you get ready. After your meeting, please complete the RESULTS Lobby Report Form to let us know what happened.

QUICK NEWS ON U.S. POVERTY

Keep generating housing/SNAP media. Submit your letter to the editor today urging Congress to prioritize housing and hunger in the next COVID-19 bill. Use our online LTE action to get started (and let us know when you get published). Also, amplify that media by sharing tomorrow during a #SNAPMatters Day of Action Twitterstorm this Wednesday from 3:00-4:00 p.m. EDT. Learn more about the Day of Action via FRAC and see Feeding America’s #SNAPMatters Digital Toolkit.

Check out new state housing scorecard. The Eviction Lab has a new COVID-19 housing policy scorecard for each state. See how your state is doing and share that information in your letters to the editor and upcoming lobby meetings.

Sign your RESULTS group onto millionaire’s surtax letter. Tax fairness groups are urging local organizations to sign onto a letter in support of a 10 percent surtax on millionaires. Sign your local RESULTS group onto the letter today. The deadline is April 30.

RESULTS Announcements

Join letter to the editor training tomorrow.  RESULTS is hosting an encore presentation of a Letter to the Editor training webinar this month to help volunteers working to generate media on our U.S. and global poverty priorities. Join to learn the basics of writing letters and getting them published. The training is Wednesday, April 22 at 1:00 pm ET. Join at https://results.zoom.us/j/390106571 or dial by phone at (929) 436-2866 or (669) 900-6833, meeting ID 390 106 571.

Join Thursday webinar on our global poverty response to COVID-19. RESULTS Vice President for Policy and Advocacy John Fawcett is hosting a webinar to review the global poverty emergency supplemental requests RESULTS is making for the “Phase 4” COVID response bill. What’s our strategy? What will our actions be? Come along to learn and prepare to act. The webinar is this Thursday, April 23 at 8:30 pm ET. To join, log in at https://results.zoom.us/j/390106571 or dial by phone at (929) 436-2866 or (669) 900-6833, meeting ID 390 106 571.

Join Anti-Oppression Best Practices discussion on Monday. Join RESULTS volunteers and staff as they continue their discussion on how best to address instances of oppression in our lives and work. Started as a discussion of the book White Fragility, the group is now looking to put what they’ve learned to work in the world. If you have experiences about experiencing or responding to oppressive behavior, please join this online discussion next Monday, April 27 at 9:00 pm ET. Join at: https://results.zoom.us/j/807783478 or dial (669) 900-6833 or (929) 436-2866, meeting ID 807 783 478.

Extra days for Bob Dickerson Award nominations. Nominate a fellow advocate for this year’s Bob Dickerson Grassroots Leadership Award (learn more about Bob here). The deadline for nominations has been extended to April 30.

RESULTS Grassroots Board Member elections. Ever thought of serving on the RESULTS board? Two Grassroots Board Member positions will be open this year. Please submit your nominee(s) by May 2 to Jesse Marsden at [email protected]. Questions? Contact Willie Dickerson at [email protected].

RESULTS quarterly meeting with Grassroots Board Members. On Thursday, May 14 at 9:00 pm ET, come share your thoughts, concerns, and ideas about RESULTS with your RESULTS Grassroots Board Members. Join at https://results.zoom.us./j/427521404. Or dial (929) 436-2866 or (669) 900-6833, meeting ID 427521404.

RESULTS Fellowship. The RESULTS Organizing and Advocacy Fellowship (formerly known as REAL Change) is a hands-on advocacy training program for people 20–30 years old. During the year-long program, fellows learn how to work with the media, their communities, and policymakers to create change. Learn more and apply today. Applications are open until September 30. The new class will start in December.

Upcoming Events

Congressional recesses. Congress is on recess for the month of April. Submit your remote meeting requests today.

Tuesday, April 21: U.S. Poverty Free Agents Webinars, 1:00 pm and 8:00 pm ET. Join at: https://results.zoom.us/j/324294681 or dial by phone at (929) 436-2866 or (669) 900-6833, meeting ID 324 294 681.

Wednesday, April 22: Letter to the Editor Training Webinar, 1:00 pm ET. Join at: https://results.zoom.us/j/390106571 or dial by phone at (929) 436-2866 or (669) 900-6833, meeting ID 390 106 571.

Thursday, April 23: COVID-19 and Our Next Global Poverty Response Webinar, 8:30 pm ET. Join at: https://results.zoom.us/j/390106571 or dial by phone at (929) 436-2866 or (669) 900-6833, meeting ID 390 106 571.

Monday, April 27: Addressing Oppression Best Practices discussion, 9:00 pm ET. Join at: https://results.zoom.us/j/807783478 or dial (669) 900-6833 or (929) 436-2866, meeting ID 807 783 478.

Wednesday, April 29: New Advocate Orientation, 8:30 pm ET. Sign up online.

Saturday, May 2: RESULTS United Webinar, 1:00 pm ET. Join at: https://results.zoom.us/j/994444828. You can also join by phone at (669) 900-6833 or (929) 436-2866, meeting ID 994 444 828.

Tuesday, May 12: Book Discussion, The Righteous Mind, 9:00 pm ET. Join via Zoom online or dial (669) 900-6833 US or (646) 876-9923, meeting ID 655 036 085, password: 641539. Focusing on pp. 150-218.

Thursday, May 14: RESULTS Quarterly Meeting with Grassroots Board Members, 9 pm ET. Come share your thoughts and ideas with your RESULTS Grassroots Board Members. Join at: https://results.zoom.us./j/427521404. Or dial (929) 436-2866 or (669) 900-6833, meeting ID 427 521 404.

Monday, May 18: Global Free Agents Webinars, 1:00 pm ET and 8:00 pm ET. Join a great conversation via https://results.zoom.us/j/464361707 or, by phone, dial (669) 900-6833 or (929) 436-2866, meeting ID 464 361 707.

June 20-21: RESULTS Virtual International Conference. Read more here.

Grassroots Resources

Learn about the RESULTS Experts on Poverty.

Do you have a new person in your RESULTS group or info to update? Use our Volunteer Information Form to add them.

Find actions and volunteer resources on our Current Volunteers page.

Please let us know about your recent grassroots successes for lobby meetings, media, and outreach.

If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for the RESULTS/REF Board, please e-mail Steven McGee at [email protected]. View Board minutes and Annual Reports.

RESULTS Staff directory.