U.S. Poverty Campaigns

Weekly Update | February 23, 2016

“Congress took a critical action in December 2015 to the great relief of 16 million recipients of the Earned Income Tax and Child Tax Credits.”

– RESULTS Santa Fe volunteer Lydia Pendley in a February 7 letter to the editor in the Santa Fe New Mexican

In This Week’s Update:

• Got Two Minutes? Confirm Time for Your Between the World and Me Discussion (February Action)
• Got Ten Minutes or More? Help Us Grow RESULTS with Intro Call and REAL Change
• Got 20 Minutes or More? Read Between the World and Me (February Action)
• Quick News​
• Upcoming Events

Quick Action: Register for the 2016 RESULTS International Conference!

Got Two Minutes? Confirm Time for Your Between the World and Me Discussion (February Action)

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates is a critically-acclaimed and award-winning memoire about race in America. RESULTS volunteers are spending February reading this book as part of our effort to better understand how the issue of race impacts poverty (and vice versa). Volunteers are then talking about what they learned from the book and how it will affect their advocacy work on issues such as the racial wealth gap. Last week, RESULTS held two online discussions about the book that went even better than expected. The conversations were rich, informative, and moving. We hope your local book club discussions in your groups are going the same.  If you have not scheduled your local discussion about Between the World and Me, please do so as soon as possible.

TAKE ACTION: Take two minutes to confirm with your group when you will get together this month to discuss your insights from Between the World and Me. Let everyone know when and where you will meet. See the February Action for information to help you. These articles by Ta-Nehisi Coates can also be informative to your discussions:

• Excerpt from Between the World and Me in The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/tanehisi-coates-between-the-world-and-me/397619/
• “The Case for Reparations” in The Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/

We also want feedback from your discussions. How did they go? What did you learn? Did you set any action steps? Please let Jos Linn ([email protected]) know how things. Also, please let us know if you liked this type of action. If you do, we may consider doing it again in the future. 

Got Ten Minutes? Help Us Grow RESULTS with Intro Call and REAL Change

RESULTS staff and volunteers are actively working to expand our RESULTS network by welcoming new advocates to our work. Last month, we welcomed a new U.S. Poverty group in Kansas City and last week, our newly re-started RESULTS Chicago group completed their new group training (Welcome, Chicago!). With new voices and new energy getting involved, we get closer and closer to a world free of poverty.

But engaging these people requires work. Finding leads, following up with them, and moving people from interest to action – all these take time and energy. RESULTS staff are happy to take on this work but we can use your help. As our most treasured ambassadors for RESULTS, your work as advocates inspires others. We always welcome new advocates anywhere in the U.S., but here are some key states we are targeting for outreach in 2016: NC, GA, MS, AL, WV, AR, OR, ID, WI, AZ, and SD. Do you know people in these or other states? If so, please see below for ways you can help get them connected to RESULTS.

TAKE ACTION: Take ten minutes to help us expand our reach and impact by inviting new people to discover RESULTS. Here are two things you can do this week:

• Invite Someone to a RESULTS Intro Call. RESULTS holds bi-monthly Introductory Calls for potential new advocates. These 30-45 minutes calls provide an overview of our work and how to get involved. Every person who is interested in learning more after the call gets a personal follow-up from RESULTS staff. Our next call is this Friday, February 26 at 1:00 pm ET. Think of the people you know who would benefit from being involved with RESULTS and invite them to attend a RESULTS Intro Call. Send them this link where they can register for an upcoming call: https://results.org/take_action/become_a_results_activist/#Introductory%20Call.
• Urge a Young Leader to Apply for REAL Change. RESULTS is now taking application for the 2016-17 REAL Change Fellowship. REAL Change is a year-long program designed to educate, train, and inspire young leaders to get involved with anti-poverty advocacy. Fellows attend the RESULTS International Conference and then get on-going training throughout the year to take action on our issues and bring RESULTS to their local communities. The program has proven very successful in creating some of our most effective and energetic young leaders the last few years (our new Kansas City and Chicago groups were started by REAL Change Fellows). If you or someone you know is 18-30 years old, encourage them to apply for this year’s REAL Change class. You can find details and the online application at https://results.org/realchange.

Got Twenty Minutes or More? Read Between the World and Me (February Action)

RESULTS volunteers this month are reading and discussing Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. We hope your discussions about the book have gone well. However, we know that some of you may not get the book read before your group meetings (the articles above can help). If that happens, we still strongly urge you to read the book when you can. It is a powerful and provocative read. It asks you to re-evaluate your idea of “white” and “black” and how the legacy of slavery and oppression of black Americans is still being felt today. It does not provide easy answers but it does prompt important questions. As we see presidential candidates stoke the fears of “the other” (people of different races, religions, beliefs), educating ourselves about how these fears and prejudices have been used in the past is essential if we want to correct these injustices in the present and the future.

TAKE ACTION: Take twenty minutes or more to read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. Reflect on the ideas and experiences he discusses and how that impacts how you see race and racism in America. If you feel compelled, write down your thoughts and share them with others in your group and RESULTS staff. We welcome your input. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact Jos Linn at [email protected].

Quick News

Register for the RESULTS International Conference! Registration for the 2016 RESULTS International Conference is now open! Join us for four action-packed days of inspiration, hands-on advocacy training, and community building (June 25-28). At the conference, you'll hear from leading issue experts, policymakers, and community organizers. You'll connect with the new and old friends who share your passion to change the world, and then we'll put that passion into action on Capitol Hill. Go to www.resultsconference.org and register today! Registration is only $125 for RESULTS volunteers if you register before April 30. See you in DC in June!

Congratulations on a Great 2015 for Fundraising! Last October, RESULTS reached out to our volunteers to help us meet our $100,000 grassroots fundraising target before the end of 2015. Your response was overwhelming and we are thrilled to report that together the Friends and Family campaigns and grassroots events you all held in November and December helped us BEAT our goal, raising $110,500! This is truly amazing work and shows that the strength and dedication of RESULTS grassroots volunteers in unrivaled. We are so grateful to all of you for heeding the call and making our end of year so successful. We look forward to another successful year in 2016!

RESULTS Experts Presenting This Weekend. Three of our RESULTS Experts on Poverty will be traveling to Washington, DC this weekend to present at the National Anti-Hunger Policy Conference. Maxine Thomas of RESULTS Indianapolis, Andy Trujillo of RESULTS Albuquerque, and Qiana Torregano of RESULTS New Orleans will be presenting with RESULTS Director of U.S. Poverty Campaigns Meredith Dodson. This conference brings people from all over the U.S. to learn from hunger experts and lobby members of Congress on policies that will end hunger in America. For attendees to hear the stories from our inspiring experts will be informative and inspiring. Congratulations to our experts and good luck!

Urge Your Local Action Networks to Take Action on the EITC. To keep your local Action Networks engaged this month, copy and paste this into an e-mail to them: Last December, you helped us protect 16 families from deeper poverty by making low-income tax provisions permanent. Help us build on that success by urging Congress to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit for workers without children. Because of a glitch in the tax code, these workers are actually taxed deeper into poverty. There is bipartisan support in Congress to fix this problem. Use our online alert to tell Congress to expand the EITC for childless workers now. Alert: http://capwiz.com/results/issues/alert/?alertid=9823986&MC_plugin=2201.

Please Send in Your Group Plans. . If you have not submitted your plan yet, please send a copy to Jos Linn at [email protected] as soon as possible. We only have a few left unsubmitted. We want to get all the plans end by February 29.

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.

Congressional Recesses: House: February 13-21. Senate: February 13-21. Request face-to-face meetings.

RESULTS Introductory Call, February 26, at 1:00 pm ET. If you want to learn more about RESULTS, register for an upcoming Intro Call on the RESULTS website.

RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Webinar, March 12 at 12:30 pm ET. Join the meeting online at http://fuze.me/28130766 or dial in by phone at (201) 479-4595, meeting ID: 28130766#. Listen to previous webinars on our National Webinars page.

RESULTS Advocacy 101 Training, March 31 at 2:00 pm ET. To join this advocacy training, go to: https://www.fuzemeeting.com/fuze/f2988286/31404402.  To join by phone, dial (201) 479-4595, meeting ID 31404402#.

2016 RESULTS International Conference, June 25-28, 2016 in Washington, DC. Register now at www.resultsconference.org!

If you have a question, comment or suggestion for the RESULTS/RESULTS Educational Fund Board, please e-mail them to RESULTS Grassroots Board Member Lydia Pendley at [email protected]. You can download RESULTS’ most recent Annual Report at: https://results.org/about/annual_report/.