RESULTS Weekly Update April 9, 2024

Quote of the Week

“Often, just a little bit of help could keep us from falling into homelessness, joblessness, or worse.”

– RESULTS Las Vegas volunteer and Expert on Poverty Ashley Dines in an April 3 op-ed in Other Words

Table of Contents

• Lobby meetings are your gateway to transformational advocacy
• We need your help with important actions this week
• Quick News on U.S. and Global Poverty
• Announcements
• Upcoming Events
• Grassroots Resources

Lobby meetings are your gateway to transformational advocacy

Your lobby work this spring continues to impress. As seen on our Community of Change meetings tracker, you’ve had 83 meetings since February with 71 different offices. And counting unreported meetings, you may be closer to 100. Thank you! These meetings are critical to advancing our work to reduce child poverty, improve maternal and child health, eliminate preventable disease, and expand access to basic nutrition.

But your lobbying is not just about changing federal policy on poverty. It is also about changing you. As RESULTS founder Sam Daley-Harris discussed in the April National Webinar, our goal at RESULTS is to foster transformational advocacy. That means by learning how to do things you never thought you could do, like meeting face-to-face with a member of Congress, you are transformed. The act of creating change changes you.

This kind of advocacy is needed right now. Last week, the Congressional Management Foundation released results from a survey of congressional staff showing that many staff are concerned about partisanship in Congress, polarizing political rhetoric, and the need for accountability. Your RESULTS advocacy can be a salve to these ills. By seeking common ground on practical solutions to poverty, you model and strengthen how our system should work. So, when you book your next lobby meeting, know that you are doing more than advocating for the end of poverty. You are, as Sam would say, reclaiming our democracy.

TAKE ACTION: Submit your next spate of lobby meetings requests. Our goal is to meet with all 350 offices RESULTS covers this spring. Which offices that your group covers have you not met with in 2024? Those should be your next requests. Use our 2024 lobby meeting request letter to contact your House and Senate offices today. Find the latest lobby materials on our issues on the Community of Change campaign page. If you are not getting responses from offices, please reach out to RESULTS staff for coaching and support. Also, when you do book a lobby meeting, please contact RESULTS staff member Katie Fleischer to set up a lobby prep call to get your ready.

We need your help with important actions this week

Congress is back in Washington this week and many of the issues we care about are front and center. If you don’t have lobby meetings scheduled this week, please contact congressional offices about these time-sensitive actions to advance our U.S. and global poverty priorities.

Make noise on the Child Tax Credit (Senate only): We are in a full court press on the CTC. Senate Majority Leader Schumer must schedule a vote on H.R. 7024, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act., which expands the Child Tax Credit for children experiencing poverty. We know this bill has enough bipartisan support to get 51 votes in the Senate. However, do we have the 60 votes needed to get to a final vote? We don’t know. But we’re at the point where delay means defeat. The Senate has dilly-dallied with this bill for over two months with no progress. It’s time for lawmakers to go on the record where they stand. Children and families deserve a vote.

Please call your senators at least two times this week and with a variation of this message:

Hello, my name is ____________. I am a constituent from ____________ and a RESULTS volunteer. I am calling about H.R. 7024, a bipartisan tax bill that expands the Child Tax Credit for 16 million children and provides much needed relief to American families. The Senate has had this bill for two months with no action. Families deserve a vote. I urge Sen. ____________ to speak out in support of H.R. 7024 and to insist the Senate vote on this bill now. Will you please give the Senator that message?

Share this message with others and urge them to call as well. And follow up your call by submitting a letter to the editor now in support of H.R. 7024.

More time to get senators on the World Bank letter (Senate only): We learned today that the deadline for Sen. Booker’s letter to the new World Bank president has been extended to Friday, April 12. That gives you a few more days to urge your senators to sign this important letter urging the World Bank to prioritize low-income countries when allocating resources. We are looking to get as many senators as possible to sign by Friday. Please contact Senate foreign policy aides today urging their boss to sign the letter. For more information, read our World Bank letter blog post.

Make your appropriations requests (House and Senate): We don’t want to run out of time. Ask your representative(s) and senators now to include our global poverty funding requests in their submissions to the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee of Appropriations. (Please fill out each congressional member’s appropriations form if asked.) Additionally, there are five total “Dear Colleague” letters available (with more coming) for representatives and senators to sign in support of our funding requests. To track available letters and find resources to get your legislators to sign, please check out our blog. These letters make a difference in the appropriations process. Let’s ask for those signatures!

Quick News on U.S. and Global Poverty

Read new op-ed from RESULTS EOP Ashley Dines. Ashely Dines, RESULTS volunteer from Las Vegas and also an Expert on Poverty, has a new op-ed sharing her struggles to afford housing with the high cost of rent. She uses her experience to advocate for expansion of the Child Tax Credit and enactment of a renter tax credit. Read her powerful op-ed published in Other Words.

You’re invited to a global tuberculosis webinar this Thursday. On Thursday, April 11, 10:00-11:30 a.m. ET, our friends at the ACTION Project will be offering a webinar titled “A Different Kind of Gap: Maintaining and Accelerating Progress in the Fight to End TB.” Register today!

Announcements

Listen to the April National Webinar. During this month’s National Webinar, we were fortunate to hear from the founder of RESULTS, Sam Daley-Harris, as he inspired us once again to get in touch with our power and purpose in this advocacy we do together. Don’t miss his story – or the stories of several advocates who have exercised their skills in advocacy. View the recording and slides today.

Please report your recent advocacy actions. With the start of a new month, it is a good time to make sure you have reported your recent lobby meetings, media, and outreach activities. These reports are invaluable. Not only do they help us celebrate your amazing advocacy, they also help us attract allies and donors who want to support organizations that have real-world impact. If you want to check to see if something has been reported, look at a lobby meeting and media report lists.

Read great lobbying story from RESULTS Austin. Check out the new Grassroots Spotlight piece on the RESULTS Blog about Austin volunteer Eloise Sutherland. It details her recent encounter with Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-TX) at a recent town hall. Eloise also shared her story on the April National Webinar.

Interested in being a Regional Coordinator? The Regional Coordinator (RC) is a key player in the RESULTS community. RCs work with RESULTS staff to provide training, cheerleading, and support for our network of groups.  Ideal candidates for this volunteer role have experience as a RESULTS Group Leader, but all inquiries are welcome. Want to learn more? Contact Lisa Marchal.

Upcoming Events

Congressional schedule: This week, the House and the Senate are on recess.

Typically, registration ends one hour prior to the start of all webinars and trainings.

Thursday, April 11: Outreach and Event Office Hour, 2:00 p.m. ET. Drop in via https://results.zoom.us/j/94004748060 or dial (312) 626-6799, meeting ID 940 0474 8060.

Thursday, April 11: Global Allies Program (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers), 8:30 pm ET. Learn more.

Tuesday, April 16: U.S. Poverty Free Agents, 1:00 p.m. ET and 8:00 p.m. ET. Contact Jos Linn for more information.

Tuesday, April 16: Together Women Rise advocacy chapter webinar, 8:30 p.m. ET. Learn more about this opportunity.

Wednesday, April 17: Action Network Manager Calls, 12:30 p.m. ET and 8:00 p.m. ET. Join at https://results.zoom.us/j/95416781155 or dial (301) 715-8592, meeting ID: 954 1678 1155. No registration required.

Wednesday, April 17: Media Office Hour, 2:00 p.m. ET. Join via Zoom at https://results.zoom.us/j/93668005494 or call 312-626-6799 (Meeting ID: 936 6800 5494). No registration required.

Wednesday, April 17: New Advocate Orientation, 2:00 p.m. ET. Register today!

Friday, April 19: Anti-Oppression 301 – Oppression: The Missing Perspectives, 12:00 p.m. ET. Register for this special 90-minute workshop.

Monday, April 22: Global Poverty Free Agents, 7:00 p.m. ET. Contact Lisa Marchal for more information.

Wednesday, April 24: New Advocate Mentor Community Webinar, 8:00 p.m. ET. Register today!

Saturday, May 4: National Webinar, 1:00 p.m. ET. Register for the webinar.

Grassroots Resources

• EOPs: Learn about the RESULTS Experts on Poverty.
• Actions and volunteer resources: Visit our Volunteers Hub, including our anti-oppression resources. To join the RESULTS listserv for more RESULTS conversation, send an email to [email protected].
• Please report your actions. Remember to please report your recent advocacy successes in lobby meetings, media, and outreach activities. Also, use our Volunteer Information Formt to add/edit your info and to sign up for updates and alerts.
• Share your story. If you have an inspiring story about advocacy, please tell us about it. Also, if you want to celebrate the actions of a new volunteer, sharing about the experience.
• Questions for the Board? If you have a question, comment, or suggestion for the RESULTS/REF Board, please e-mail [email protected]. View Board minutes and Annual Reports.
• Staff and jobs: RESULTS Staff directory and job postings.