U.S. Poverty Weekly Update October 11, 2016
U.S. Poverty Campaigns
Weekly Update | October 11, 2016
“The good news that the poverty rate has dropped energizes us to keep working together to continue this trend. When we finally reach the day that no child goes to bed hungry, then we can really celebrate!”
– RESULTS Salina (KS) volunteers Vic and Kay Streufert in an October 6 letter to the editor in the Salina Journal
- Got Two Minutes? Find a Candidate Event to Ask about the Racial Wealth Gap (October Action)
- Got Ten Minutes? Use Sunday’s Debate as a Hook for New Media
- Got Twenty Minutes? Start Planning Your Local November 15 National Outreach Event
- Quick News
- Upcoming Events
Quick Action: Generate Media about Ending Poverty in America
| Take Action! |
Got Two Minutes? Find a Candidate Event to Ask about the Racial Wealth Gap (October Action)
Many of you are probably frustrated (and even disgusted) at the tone of this year’s election. It seems that when things can’t get any lower, they do. The lack of substance in the debate is particularly troublesome because it denies voters the opportunity to make informed choices. You can help remedy that. Town halls and candidates events are a good way not only to inform candidates about the issues, but also educate people in the audience (if they are taking questions).
This past weekend on the RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Webinar, Emanuel Nieves of CFED shared new information from CFED’s Every Growing Gap report, which highlights the growing racial wealth gap and how we can begin to close it. This is an issue that needs much more attention, but very few people are talking about it. We cannot wait for others to raise the level of debate in our elections – it is up to us.
TAKE ACTION: Take two minutes to contact candidate offices (and members of Congress (MoCs) who are not running) to schedule meetings or ask about candidate town halls you can attend and ask a question about the racial wealth gap. Contact local candidate offices to ask about events (use our Election Guide to find candidate websites and contact info, as well as our Elected Officials Guide for MoCs). You can also set up a Google Alert to automatically search the internet for information on events and e-mail you the results. The October webinar resources have a great deal of information about the wealth gap that you can use in interactions with candidates. In addition, the October Action has tips for scheduling meetings and finding town halls, as well as a sample question about the racial wealth gap you can ask. If and when you plan to attend a town hall, please contact Meredith Dodson ([email protected]) to set up a prep call to help you get ready.
RESULTS sincerely thanks Emanuel Nieves for taking time out of his weekend to speak with us on Saturday’s webinar. You can find the webinar, recording, slides, and summary on our National Webinars page.
Got Ten Minutes? Use Sunday’s Debate as a Hook for New Media
We are three debates down with one to go, and not one question about the 43 million American living in poverty. When one in five children living in poverty can’t muster one question in four and half hours of debate time, that’s worthy of attention. Let debate moderators, candidates, and people in your community know that poverty is an issue candidates need to address.
Use Sunday’s debate (and lack of poverty questions) as a hook to get letters to the editor or op-eds printed this week. Or if you’re pressed for time, a previous letter you’ve written this month is probably still relevant. Why not resubmit it to another paper? RESULTS volunteers have had 31 media pieces published in the last 40 days. Let’s keep this up and put candidates on notice that poverty is not an issue they can ignore.
TAKE ACTION: Take ten minutes to submit a letter to the editor or op-ed using Sunday’s debate as a hook. See the September Action for tips and sample letters or use our online letter to submit one today. You can also send your previously unpublished letter to another paper in your or another city or state. Find media outlets for all 50 states in our Media Guide. If you need help with drafting, editing, or submitting your media, contact Jos Linn ([email protected]).
Got Twenty Minutes? Start Planning Your Local November 15 National Outreach Event
This year’s election provides you a great opportunity to grow your local RESULTS group and broaden our influence on issues of poverty. People are more politically engaged and want their vote to mean something even after the election. You can provide that by introducing them to RESULTS. Each new person we add to the RESULTS family brings us that much closer to realizing a world without poverty.
Outreach is also an important part of RESULTS’ success. It is more than likely that you came to RESULTS because of some kind of outreach – a group start meeting, a one-on-one conversation, a RESULTS Intro Call, or our website. Think of the actions you’ve taken, successes you’ve had, and people you’ve influenced by being a part of RESULTS. Why not give others the opportunity to experience that.
In November, we want to help you grow your local groups. To do so, we are hosting a National Outreach Webinar on Tuesday, November 15 at 8:00 pm ET. This will be one week after the election and is an ideal time is there to reflect on the results and how they will impact our issues going forward. We are thrilled to have Dr. Maya Rockeymoore, President and CEO of the Center for Global Policy Solutions, speak on this webinar. She will give us her election reactions and share her insights on how best to make issues of poverty a top priority for the next President and Congress.
Please use the webinar to facilitate an outreach meeting for you and your group. It will be geared so that both experienced volunteers and people brand new to RESULTS will have an inspiring and meaningful experience. We have materials to help you promote it (see below). Please use this opportunity to grow your group and create a stronger voice for the end of poverty.
Note: Because of the outreach webinar, there will be no U.S. Poverty Webinar on Saturday, November 12. We will return to the normal Saturday webinar in December.
TAKE ACTION: Take twenty minutes to prepare for the RESULTS National Outreach Webinar on November 15. We are five weeks away from this event so there is plenty of time to make this a success for your local group. Here’s how you and your group can get started:
- Make a list of people you want to invite to the November 15 event. The act of writing it down will make it easier and help you think of new people to invite.
- Communicate with your group on when and where you want to hold the event. Assess how big you want your meeting to be and pick an appropriate space to accommodate them. Start the meeting before the webinar or plan to stay afterward so you can talk about your local group’s activities and a time to invite people to join.
- Download our full-page and half-page flyers about the event and include your local meeting details (where and when). We also have an Outreach Event photo you can download and post on social media (with you writing location and time info in the post). Find these resources on our Outreach Webinar page.
- Start personally inviting people to attend the webinar with your local group. The earlier you invite, the better chance people will not have scheduling conflicts. If you need time to secure a location, invite them to save the date and plan to follow up with the details.
We will have additional resources on the Outreach Webinar page in the coming weeks, including a sample agenda you can use at your local meetings. If you have questions or need assistance in planning your outreach event, please contact Jos Linn at [email protected].
Quick News
Hillary Clinton Proposes Child Tax Credit Expansion. Today, Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton proposed a significant expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) if she is elected. She would double the CTC to $2,000 for families with young children (under 5), lower the income eligibility threshold to zero (currently $3,000), and increase the phase-in rate so families can get the full credit quicker. She also advocates for increasing the CTC for families with older children and expanding tax credits for low-income workers without children.
Invite People to Upcoming Outreach Meetings in SC and AR. On October 17, U.S. Poverty Grassroots Manager Jos Linn will travel to Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC to present to students and help grow the campus group there. He will be speaking at 11:30 am (Anna Todd Room in the Andrews Field House) and 6:30 pm ET (Grey-Jones Room in the Burwell Dining Hall) on the Wofford campus. In addition, U.S. Poverty Organizer Kristy Martino will be in Russellville, AR on October 24 to start a new RESULTS U.S. Poverty group there. If you know people in either of these areas, please let them know and invite them to attend these events; contact Jos or Kristy for more details.
Share Your Stories with Us. RESULTS has created a new form to gather your advocacy stories to use to inform others about the power of citizen advocacy. We’ll share them on our website, promotional materials, outreach, and other places that can educate and empower others. Go to our Voices of RESULTS form today and share your story with us!
Join the new RESULTS Volunteers Facebook page. This new online resource is a place where you can share successes, pictures, challenges, best practices, and ask questions in your advocacy work. Think of it as a listserv on Facebook. Go to https://www.facebook.com/groups/RESULTSVolunteers/ to sign up.
Save the Date for the 2017 RESULTS International Conference! Join us for the 2017 RESULTS International Conference on July 22 – 25, 2017 at the Washington Court Hotel in Washington, DC. More details are coming soon.
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 and Senate: Monday, October 3 – Friday, November 11. Request face-to-face meetings. After your meeting, please tell us how it went by filling out the RESULTS Lobby Report Form: www.tinyurl.com/RESLRF.
RESULTS Introductory Call, Tuesday, October 12 at 9:00 pm ET. If you want to learn more about RESULTS, register for an upcoming Intro Call on the RESULTS website.
RESULTS U.S. Poverty Free Agents Calls, Tuesday, October 18 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#.
Election Day, November 8. Be sure to register to vote!
RESULTS U.S. Poverty National Outreach Webinar, Tuesday, November 15 at 8:00 pm ET. Guest speaker: Dr. Maya Rockeymoore. Join online at http://fuze.me/32255914 or by phone at (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. More details soon.
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 download RESULTS’ most recent Annual Report at: https://results.org/about/annual_report/.