Today, the need for organized advocacy around the rights of low-income and vulnerable populations is more important than ever. There’s so much work to be done, and we all need a hero to motivate us to keep striving for justice. This year, CHN will be honoring Jim Weill as our Human…
Archives: Voices
Fact of the Week: Since FY 2010, at Least 119 Important Human Needs Programs Have Been Cut, 99 by more than 10%
New data released by CHN shows that, out of a group of 131 programs of special importance to low-income and vulnerable people, 119 saw decreases from FY 2010 through FY 2014 after adjusting for inflation. Ninety-nine programs were cut well over 10 percent. Only 12 programs increased during this same…
A New Tool in the Fight to Raise the Minimum Wage
In coordination with the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), Oxfam America has released an indispensable tool for minimum wage and anti-poverty advocates’ tool box: an interactive map with accompanying scorecards detailing the impact a federal minimum wage increase would have on the workers in each Congressional district. But it is not…
Head Smacker: House Committee Takes Revenue That Could Have Helped the Jobless to Fund Highway Bill
On Witness Wednesday, advocates for the long-term jobless sweated outside the Capitol and told some of the painful stories out of the 3.3 million so far denied unemployment benefits because Congress let the program expire. The following day, the House Ways and Means Committee approved a bill to replenish the Highway…
Elnora’s Story: A Voice for the Unemployed
“There are a lot of people truly hurting. Many feel they have no voice, or they are ashamed to share their story, and they’re going downhill. This isn’t just affecting individuals, but families, too. It’s taking away your dignity as a grown-up and individual. You go from providing for yourself and…
Fact of the Week: A Quarter of Americans Live in Concentrated Poverty Areas
Over 25% of Americans – more than 77 million people – lived in areas of concentrated poverty in 2010, up from 18.1% in 2000. The percentage of people living in these “poverty areas,” defined in the Census Bureau report released last week as an area where more than 20% of…
Head Smacker: Close to Independence Day, Supreme Court Threatens Independence for People with Disabilities
The Supreme Court ignored some time-honored rules on Monday when it decided against unionized home care workers. Such as: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and its corollary, “if it’s working, don’t break it.” In Harris v. Quinn, Justice Alito wrote an opinion for the 5-vote majority that qualifies…
Fact of the Week: US Has Less Child Poverty than Romania, but is Worse than 28 Other Developed Nations
The U.S. ranks 28th out of 29 developed countries surveyed in terms of relative child poverty, placing it between Latvia and Romania, according to a report by UNICEF. More than 23% of American children live in households where disposable income is less than half of the national median, earning the…
You Are Not Alone: The White House Summit on Working Families
Decades ago, I remember women slowly awakening to the fact that their dissatisfaction about roadblocks to working outside the home was not just their personal problem. It was a hard slog to get from blaming yourself to recognizing that the “system” needed changing. It felt like that again at the…
Shoebox of Money
One of the central themes of conversations among social workers is recognizing one’s privilege. I quickly realized my privilege on June 16th as the panelists for the discussion on financial literacy for foster youth, organized by the Senate Caucuses on Foster Youth and Financial and Economic Literacy, began to tell…
Immigration Reform Wasn’t the Cause of Cantor’s Loss
When House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) lost his primary election earlier this month – much to everyone’s surprise – claims that immigration reform was dead were all over the airways. Many pundits pointed to the belief that Rep. Cantor’s support of immigration reform was the cause of his loss,…
Heading to the White House Summit on Working Families
Today the President, First Lady, and Vice President and Mrs. Biden are underscoring the importance of improving the daily lives of millions of working families by participating in the White House Summit on Working Families. The President highlighted the need for workplace policies that meet the most basic family needs…