RESULTS Campaigns Weekly Update February 16, 2021
Quote of the Week
“Income inequality would be narrowed with this wage raising effort along with the proposed increase in the Child Tax Credit in the current relief package. Made permanent these initiatives would cut child poverty in half and provide families with hope and a ladder out of poverty.”
– RESULTS Snohomish, WA volunteer Willie Dickerson in a February 10 letter to the editor in the Missoulian
Table of Contents
- Global Poverty Campaigns Update
- U.S. Poverty Campaigns Update
- RESULTS Announcements
- Upcoming Events
- Grassroots Resources
Global Poverty Campaigns Update
QUICK ACTION Write Congress on prioritizing global health and nutrition in the latest COVID-19 relief bill.
Got Fifteen Minutes? Schedule First 100 Days Campaign lobby meetings
Over the next two weeks Congress t will draft the next COVID-19 relief effort. Congress must respond to the global pandemic and mitigate the secondary impacts and economic shocks that deepen extreme poverty. It looks like the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees will have about $10 billion to work with for global COVID-19 relief. Your members of Congress can help decide how that money is spent. In your meetings ask your members of Congress to speak with Committee leadership and ask that they include $4 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and $2 billion for anti-hunger efforts with $500 million within that going to alleviate malnutrition. Decades of progress enabled by U.S. leadership are in jeopardy as COVID-19 presents an urgent threat to the fight against HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Moreover, before the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly one in four children was stunted due to lack of adequate nutrition. COVID-19 has made this worse, threatening to double hunger and malnutrition globally to 265 million people suffering from hunger and severe malnutrition.
Make these Global Fund and malnutrition funding requests of your members of Congress now. To help you get your meetings scheduled, read our “ask” sheet and use our draft meeting request letter and request laser talk, available on our Lobbying support page under “I want to request a lobby meeting.” You can also get support via our current Action Sheet. Want information you can use for follow-up after your virtual meeting? Take hold of our First 100 Days global campaigns “leave behind” sheet.
TAKE ACTION: Utilize our lobbying support materials to make your virtual lobby meeting requests. We’ve got the goal of meeting with 100 percent of the Senate and 75 percent of the House – we can do it! Coordinate with your group members on House meetings and with advocates across the state on Senate meetings. Get things moving for the 2021 First 100 Days Campaign. Join your fellow advocates in getting our online meeting map filled. The count is going up with at least 44 meetings reported so far!
Got Another Fifteen Minutes? Write a letter to the editor on an emergency COVID-19 response
Use the media to elevate our issues with your members of Congress. Write letters to the editor and engage your Action Network in writing
Half to two-thirds of AIDS, TB, and malaria programs report service disruptions. And in projections of the impact of COVID-19 on disruptions to health and nutrition services from early 2020, severe malnutrition is the single biggest driver of increased child deaths. An urgent humanitarian response to improve food security and malnutrition is needed to fight child deaths and severe malnutrition among children globally.
Use our online media action alert to write to your local media outlets. We must have House and Senate leadership as well as leadership of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing the message. We need $4 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to strengthen health systems and the fight against infectious diseases and no less than $2 billion for anti-hunger efforts (with $500 million within that going to alleviate malnutrition).
TAKE ACTION: Have you been published lately? Have you asked a fellow advocate to write lately? Use and share our online action alert. Write, asking your legislators to speak to House and Senate leadership as well as House Foreign Affairs Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee leadership about COVID-19 relief that includes $4 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and no less than $2 billion for anti-hunger efforts, including $500 million to address malnutrition.
QUICK NEWS ON GLOBAL POVERTY
Review the First 100 Days Global plenary recording. Get a timely update on the context for and impact of our global poverty campaigns. Hear a briefing from Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria as well as a view from the field by Dr. Namala Mkopi, pediatrician at Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzania.
Our COVID-19 relief work: a blog update. Check out our blog for the latest information on budget reconciliation, COVID-19 relief, our advocacy, and how they all fit together.
Join our first Monthly Issue Deep Dive on the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) on Thursday, February 18 at 8:30 pm ET. Register here. Consider reading the GPE Case for Investment beforehand.
U.S. Poverty Campaigns Update
QUICK ACTION Tell Congress to pass more COVID relief
Got Fifteen Minutes? Congress on recess; work for lobby meetings
Our First 100 Days Campaign is designed to make sure the new Congress puts bold, meaningful anti-poverty policies at the top of its agenda. RESULTS volunteers have already done 44 lobby meetings this year talking about housing, tax credits, and the global response to the pandemic. With Congress on recess this week, it is time to step up our efforts.
The most recent U.S. Census Household Pulse data shows that in the last week of January, 11.3 million American adults were not current on rent or mortgage payments, or had slight or no confidence that their household can pay next month’s rent or mortgage on time. In addition, it shows that 42 percent of adults living with children said their households found it somewhat or very difficult to pay their regular household bills the previous week (read more about the data from our friends at CHN).
To help, RESULTS is urging Congress to include $30 billion in emergency rental and utility assistance, targeted to those most at-risk of eviction, in the new COVID relief bill. To help workers and families make ends meet, we also support an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for younger workers and others not raising children in the home and an expansion of the full Child Tax Credit to all low-income families with benefits distributed monthly.
The COVID bill currently moving through the House includes these provisions. We need to keep it that way. The House and Senate will be debating and voting on COVID relief when in late February and early March. In lobby meetings this month, urge your members of Congress to support the above provisions and oppose any changes or amendments in the House or Senate that would weaken them.
TAKE ACTION: Take fifteen minutes to request virtual lobby meeting with your Senate and House offices, preferably this week while they are on recess. Use the current Action Sheet and new sample meeting request to contact schedulers now (you can find scheduler names on our Legislator Lookup page). Read our First 100 Days request sheet and share our updated housing and tax lobby “leave behinds” with congressional offices. Also, be sure to ask schedulers if your members of Congress are holding any virtual town halls this month. If so, plan to attend and use our updated EPIC Laser Talks to ask a question. Once you get a meeting or town hall scheduled, please contact RESULTS staff to help you prepare.
Got Fifteen Minutes? Generate media to support your lobby meetings
As you meet with members of Congress and their staff, magnify your voice on the issues by getting letters to the editor published on the issues you will lobby on. Letters to the editor not only educate others about the issues and put public pressure on lawmakers to act, they are a great way to show lawmakers the political influence you have in your community. This is particularly true in media where you mention lawmakers by name. Remind members of Congress of your political cache by getting media published and then sharing it with them and their staff.
TAKE ACTION: Take fifteen minutes to submit your own letter to the editor urging your members of Congress to support housing and low-income tax provisions in the new COVID relief bill. Use our letter to the editor alert as a starting point for your own powerful letter. Be sure to personalize the letter and mention your members of Congress by name when calling them to action. Once published, report your media and leverage it by sharing it in your lobby meetings, with congressional staff, and on social media.
QUICK NEWS ON U.S. POVERTY
Sen. Brown to prioritize housing in key committee. New Chair of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced last month that housing and eviction protections will be one of his top priorities in 2021. Sen. Brown will share more about his priorities on our next RESULTS National Webinar, Saturday, March 6. Register today!
Join 2/17 webinar on racial wealth divide. The Federal Reserve of St. Louis is hosting a webinar on “Bold Responses to the Racial Wealth Gap” tomorrow, February 17 at 2:00 pm ET. They will overview the current racial wealth divide in America and discuss proposals to address it including reparations and “baby bonds”. Register here.
RESULTS Announcements
Join education issue brief this week. Join our first monthly issue brief on Thursday, February 18 at 8:30 pm ET to get more in-depth information about our upcoming global education campaign. Register today. Registration ends an hour prior to the webinar.
Reflections on Black History Month. For the month of February, we will share a series of reflections from some of our staff and volunteers in the Black community. We are excited for their participation and to hear why advocacy is important to them.
First 100 Days Campaign Kickoff resources and survey. Did you miss the First 100 Days Kickoff on February 6? Review the recordings and slides online. Did you attend? Give us your feedback! The survey closes February 20.
RESULTS St. Louis hosting housing event Thursday. RESULTS St. Louis is hosting an online event to discuss the intersection of education and housing. Come ready to discuss and share solutions to the idea of how we can come together as educators, community members, and organizations to work together to grow and protect our communities. The event is this Thursday, February 18 at 8:00 pm ET. To participate, register at: http://bit.ly/2MafZxo.
Join discussion on The Color of Law. The RESULTS Anti-Oppression Working Group is hosting a new book discussion on The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein. Please join us to talk about this informative and profound work and that can help better inform your housing advocacy. The discussion is Tuesday, March 2 at 9:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends an hour prior to the webinar.
Register for the March webinar with Sen. Sherrod Brown. Our next RESULTS National Webinar will be Saturday, March 6 at 1:00 pm ET. It will feature Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). He will be the only guest speaker, so everyone should join right at the start of the webinar. You must register to attend. If you registered for the January webinar, you’re all set. Please register today if you haven’t already. (Registrations will be checked up to an hour prior to the webinar.)
RESULTS 2021 International Conference registration is live! The 2021 RESULTS International Conference will be held June 12-13, 2021, and like last year, it will be held virtually, followed by a virtual Advocacy Week. Register today! (register by May 1 to participate in Advocacy Week.)
RESULTS Madison hosting hunger event in March. RESULTS Madison is hosting a virtual forum to discuss why food insecurity exists, its effects, and how we can help combat it. Speaking at the forum will be R. N. Fox, RESULTS Expert on Poverty; Francesa Hong, Wisconsin State Representative and restaurant owner; Helen Osborn-Senatus, The River Food Pantry Project Manager; LaShima Grosskopf, FoodShare Outreach Specialist at Second Harvest; and De’Kendra Stamps, FoodShare Outreach Program Director. The event is Monday, March 8 at 8:00 pm ET. Register today!
Learn how to support new advocates. Want tips on making sure your advocates feel welcome, enrolling them in shared leadership, and mentoring them in their advocacy? Come on along to our Supporting New Advocates to Grow webinar! We’ll be talking about best practices and great tips to help newer advocates thrive. The webinar is Thursday, March 11 at 8:30 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends an hour prior to the webinar.
RESULTS is hiring. RESULTS is seeking highly motivated individuals to fill various positions on our team. If you are interested, please check out the job postings online.
Please complete your group roadmaps. If you have not completed your 2021 Group Roadmaps, please do so as soon as possible. If you need assistance, contact Jos Linn.
Upcoming Events
Congressional schedule. Both chambers are on recess this week. Submit your remote meeting requests today.
Thursday, February 18: Issue Brief Webinar on Global Education, 8:30 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends an hour prior to the webinar.
Monday, February 22: First 100 Days Office Hour, 4:00 pm ET. Bring your policy questions for your First 100 Days Campaign lobby visits. Join at tinyurl.com/2y6pqtcf, passcode 2030.
Tuesday, March 2: Book Discussion – The Color of Law, 9:00 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends an hour prior to the webinar.
Saturday, March 6: National Grassroots Webinar, 1:00 pm ET. Guest speaker: Sen. Sherrod Brown. Register today.
Thursday, March 11: Supporting New Advocates to Grow Webinar, 8:30 pm ET. Register today. Registration ends an hour prior to the webinar.
Saturday June 12 and Sunday, June 13: 2021 RESULTS International Conference. Registration is open. Please register by May 1 to participate in Advocacy Week following the conference.
Grassroots Resources
Learn about the RESULTS Experts on Poverty.
To update volunteer info (e.g., subscribe to the Weekly Update or action alerts, add new advocate information, update an existing advocate’s information or preferences), use our Volunteer Information Form.
Find actions and volunteer resources on our Current Volunteers page, including our anti-oppression resources.
Remember to please report your recent advocacy successes in lobby meetings, media, and outreach activities.
If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for the RESULTS/REF Board, please e-mail Lindsay Saunders at [email protected]. View Board minutes and Annual Reports.
RESULTS Staff directory.