The audio conference featured below is sponsored by Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity.

Poverty Impact Projections:
What Are They and How Can They Make a Difference?
Friday, September 16
12:30-1:15 EST

Imagine a tool that would show the direct impact of proposed anti-poverty efforts in reducing the number of poor people in your state. In Connecticut, for example, such a tool demonstrated that poverty would decline by 35 percent if programs promoted by the state's poverty council were pursued.  Would your work benefit from similar data analysis? Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity will sponsor a national audio conference examining Poverty Impact Projections (PIPs), an emerging tool that assesses the effect that proposed policy would have on the number of people in poverty. Speakers will discuss how PIPs have helped them in the past and how states can tailor PIP analysis to their own policies and programs.

After you register for the call, you will be able to send in questions. You will receive resource materials and call-in instructions in September.

Moderator:
Jodie Levin-Epstein, Deputy Director, CLASP

Guests:
John Kefalas, Representative, Colorado General Assembly
Brian Rusche, Executive Director, Minnesota Joint Religious Legislative Coalition
Linda Giannarelli, Senior Research Associate, Urban Institute
Mark Levitan, Director Poverty Research, New York City Center for Economic Opportunity

Space is limited. Please register today.

From our partners at Legal Momentum:

Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of the enactment of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. On August 22, 1996, President Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, replacing Aid to Families with Dependant Children with TANF as the national welfare program for needy Americans. 

Fifteen years later, the truth is that TANF has shredded the safety net.  It has been a disaster for poor families, the majority of whom are headed by single mothers.  Benefit receipt has fallen from three-fifths of poor children pre-reform to just one-fifth of poor children post-reform, and benefit amounts have plummeted to less than five dollars a person a day in most states. 

The shriveled safety net condemns millions of women and children to poverty so extreme that many are deprived sufficient food, housing, and utility services.  Inaccessible or inadequate TANF aid has been shown to deter domestic violence victims from fleeing their abusers. 

Today, as TANF turns 15, the Administration and Congress must work together to restore an adequate safety net.   Benefits must be raised and steps must be taken to ensure that aid is provided promptly to all those who are eligible.  Education and training for living wage employment must be encouraged and funding for child care and subsidized employment must be increased.

Last month, the Network released a summary of state legislative activity thus far in 2011. The brief, State Legislative Roundup for 2011, provided an overview of emerging trends in the Network's priority issue areas, noting that an unprecedented number of state-level attacks on workers' economic security, immigrant rights, and women's reproductive health suggest challenges ahead for women of color.
 
Today, the Network is releasing a companion brief, 2011 Federal Policy Review, highlighting recent legislative wins and losses at the federal level that impact women of color, their families, and communities. The brief focuses on policies in three main areas--economic security, social equity, and immigration reform--that correspond to the Network's Federal Policy Agenda for 112th Congress. Some bills, such as the JOBS Act and FY Agriculture Appropriations Bill, pose a threat to the economic security of women of color, while others, such as the Urban Jobs Act and Paycheck Fairness Act, offer progressive opportunities for our communities. The brief can be viewed and downloaded at: http://wagner.nyu.edu/wocpn/publications/files/Federal_Policy_Review_2011.pdf  

As the rest of 2011 unfolds, the Network will continue to monitor relevant legislation on an ongoing basis and prepare research and policy analyses that provide stakeholders, lawmakers, and advocates with the information they need to create more inclusive and representative public policies. We hope this mid-year federal legislative summary is helpful to you and your organization at this time, and that you will join us in remaining vigilant of federal, state, and local policy proposals that impact women of color, their families, and communities.

From our partners at the Coalition on Human Needs:

The Deficit Deal Explained:
A Non-Wonky Guide to the New Law's Sweeping Push to Cut Federal Spending: and Maybe Increase Revenues Too?

Webinar, Thursday, August 18, 1:00 - 2:15 p.m. EST
Register here: https://chn.peachnewmedia.com/store/seminar/seminar.php?seminar=9034

If you are concerned about health care, jobs, hunger, services for seniors, children, or people with disabilities, housing, rebuilding communities, retirement and unemployment benefits, education, protecting the environment, reducing poverty, or pretty much any of the problems facing this nation, you need to know about the new Budget Control Act. That's the legislation the President signed on August 2 to continue the federal authority to borrow. The price of averting that crisis was a ten-year plan to reduce the federal deficit. The bill forces Congress to make nearly a trillion dollars in cuts, and sets up new budget procedures designed to fast-track at least another $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction.

Sounds like a big deal? It is. The new law sets up critical action by Congress between now and the end of this year that will affect all of us for a long time. Learn how it works - or might not work - and what you can do about it, in this wonk-free webinar. Get the scoop from Debbie Weinstein, the Coalition on Human Needs' executive director, who makes a specialty of translating complex budgetspeak into plain English. The moderator will be Ellen Teller of the Food Research and Action Center, who will make sure that lots and lots of questions are answered. Register for the webinar today and please forward this message to colleagues and friends.

Co-sponsored by the Community Action Partnership and the Coalition on Human Needs

Here's the math: Women are 50.7% of our population, only 17% of Congress, and an appallingly low 8% of the Super Committee. Only one woman--Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)--is on the committee.

This lack of representation on the debt ceiling Super Committee, which is charged with cutting $1.5 trillion from the federal budget, is pathetic, particularly given that critical programs--like Medicaid, Medicare, child care, education, food assistance, and Social Security--which have the biggest impacts on women and families are at stake.

Tell U.S. Senator Patty Murray that you're behind her all the way as she stands up for women and families on the Super Committee. When you sign on, you'll also help let the national news outlets and top leaders know that it's critical to have women's voices at the table when making decisions which are going to deeply impact our lives.

http://action.momsrising.org/go/1099?akid=2895.1872028.yuRO8a&t=4

The solutions that come out of the Super Committee need to reflect the needs of Main Street, and not just Wall Street. This Committee needs to put people back to work in our nation, and not continue bad tax break policies for the very wealthiest Americans who can afford to buy political influence while everyday people struggle.

Why is it problematic that there's only one woman on the Super Committee--and why do we need to give Senator Murray as much grassroots backup as possible?

Because, as more and more studies reveal, "When women aren't at the table, programs that disproportionately benefit and employ women--like child care, education, food assistance, and Medicare--are often the first to go."

Numerous recent studies show that having equal representation of women at negotiating tables benefits outcomes. NPR recently reported, "Psychologists have found that when groups are predominantly male, individuals tend to act in increasingly aggressive ways... They show off." Further, the Harvard Business Review recently reported, "If a group includes more women, its collective intelligence rises."

Every bit of American ingenuity possible is needed to fix our economy--and not having equal representation of women on the Super Committee hurts us all. Our nation simply can't afford to continue the way we're going with tax breaks for millionaire CEOs and corporate jet owners, while the rest of us pay an unfair portion of the taxes and have poorer schools and services. 

We need a better approach. 

There's wide agreement that the best way to reduce the budget deficit is by a combination of both cutting federal spending and by increasing revenues through ending tax breaks to the very wealthy. It's going to be an uphill battle on the Super Committee to make the changes we need in our nation. And to help get our nation back on track for real families, Senator Murray is going to need all of the grassroots backup we can muster in order to move forward common-sense solutions for real people, real moms, and real dads in our nation. 

Don't forget to tell U.S. Senator Patty Murray that you're behind her all the way as she stands up for women and families on the Super Committee. As you sign, you'll also help alert the national media and top leaders that women need equal representation in the future.

This action alert is adapted from an emailed alert sent by our friends at MomsRising.

Sam Stein writes for the Huffington Post about a new campaign aimed at getting the economy back on track through investments in infrastructure, public education, job creation, the expansion and strengthening of Medicare and Social Security, and tax reform. Excerpts from the article, Progressive Groups Unveil 'Contract for the American Dream', are included below.

In the wake of the deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling, widely viewed as yet another setback for the progressive community, advocacy groups on the left are redoubling efforts to change the political narrative.

S&P's decision to downgrade the United States' debt and the market selloff that followed has only emboldened those voices who believe the main structural problem plaguing the economy has less to do with debt and more to do with a lack of economic growth.

On Monday afternoon, MoveOn.org and Rebuild the Dream announced a campaign to build up a popular movement that could match (if not surpass) the debt reduction crowd in both size and energy. And they have borrowed a concept from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) as their organizing principle.

The campaign, led by Van Jones, President of Rebuild the Dream; Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn.org; and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), among others, is debuting a new Contract for the American Dream. They describe it as "a progressive economic vision crafted by 125,000 Americans ... to get the economy back on track." Its debut will involve a nationwide day of action, as well as an ad in The New York Times to run sometime this week, organizers said.

The basic premise of the campaign is that America isn't broke, it's merely imbalanced. In order to stabilize the economy, politicians should make substantial investments in infrastructure, energy, education and the social safety net, tax the rich, end the wars, and create a wider revenue base through job creation.

"Many of our best workers are sitting idle, while the work of rebuilding America goes undone," reads one bullet point of the Contract. "Together, we must rebuild our country, reinvest in our people and jump-start the industries of the future. Millions of jobless Americans would love the opportunity to become working, tax-paying members of their communities again. We have a jobs crisis, not a deficit crisis."

To continue reading and view the article in its entirety, click here. To read the 'Contract for the American Dream' directly and sign your name in support, click here: http://contract.rebuildthedream.com/

Linda Basch, President of the National Council for Research on Women, writes for the Huffington Post about the implications of the debt ceiling compromise for working families and communities of color. Excerpts from the article, Beyond Reason: The Debt Ceiling Debacle - How Brinkmanship Harms the US Economy, are included below.

Many of us are still reeling from Congress's down-to-the-wire agreement on the debt ceiling that may have averted, at least temporarily, a catastrophic downgrade in US creditworthiness. The compromise consisted of USD one trillion in budget cuts and the creation of a new congressional committee to oversee an additional one and a half trillion in promised reductions. However, there were no immediate plans to increase revenues and the deal lacks any repair to our already failing social safety nets offering instead only token fixes to ballooning federal deficits.

In the United States, working families, already struggling with stagnant job and housing markets, may be crushed under the weight of these latest cynical and destructive maneuvers.

While the affluent continue to be cushioned by their accumulated wealth from feeling any real pain over the turbulence in the economy, the rest of us are not so lucky.

For communities of color, the recession has had dire consequences even before this latest crisis. A Pew study released last week outlined the extent of the racial wealth gap: white households have on average 20 times the wealth of black households and 18 times that of Hispanic households. It was the "worst disparities in a quarter of a century," according to the Women of Color Policy Network at NYU Wagner. It is important to realize that African-American women earn only 62 cents, and Hispanic women only 53 cents, for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispanic men, as reported by the National Women's Law Center.

What will a further weakening of our economy mean to families, small businesses, local and state budgets, pensions, student loans, and property taxes? In a time of molasses job growth and increasing uncertainty about how to confront our failing schools, crumbling infrastructure, and lack of energy and environmental policy, now is not the time to be decimating critical programs, like Medicare and Social Security.

Holding the US economy hostage to political expediency is a radical and irresponsible tactic. Sadly, it is the least vulnerable of our citizens: low-income and often female-headed households and not the wealthy, the powerful, or the influential, who will bear the brunt of the fallout.

To continue reading and view the article in its entirety, click here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/linda-basch/beyond-reason-the-debt-ce_b_918494.html

The latest jobs report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday showed some promise for Black and Latino workers, whose unemployment rates fell by just a fraction of a percent in July when compared to June. However, the 117,000 jobs added to the economy in July did little to address the deep jobs deficit plaguing the nation and devastating communities of color, with over 11 million jobs still needed to recoup losses from the Great Recession and account for working-age population growth in recent years.

Communities of color were hardest hit by the recession and have been slowest to recover from the economic downturn. Black workers, in particular, continue to face the highest unemployment rates of any group and remain disproportionately affected by job losses, spending cuts, and slow economic growth. Today, the Network released a new policy brief, First to Fall, Last to Climb: Black Workers in the New Economy, that provides a snapshot of how Black workers are faring in the labor market and proposes strategies for building the long-term economic security of Black workers, their families, and communities. The brief can be viewed and downloaded at: http://wagner.nyu.edu/wocpn/publications/files/First_to_Fall_Last_to_Climb.pdf

Organizations and individuals may find the brief helpful in thinking about how to best mitigate the social, political, and economic impact of the economic downturn on Black workers and maximize the benefit of recovery efforts. Bold, targeted remedies are needed to redress not only the immediate economic hardships experienced by Black workers, but the historic structural and institutional barriers that have impeded the economic progress of racial and ethnic minorities since the country's founding.

NOTE: Our partners at the National Women's Law Center have also recently released two analyses that highlight the need to create jobs for workers, Black women in particular. NWLC's analysis of unemployment trends for women and men during the recovery found that women overall actually lost jobs during the first two years of the recovery and their unemployment rate rose, in contrast to men. NWLC's analysis of unemployment trends for Black women during the recovery found that Black women suffered disproportionate job losses and larger increases in unemployment than other groups. Perhaps most alarmingly, this analysis finds that Black women lost more jobs during the recovery than they did during the actual recession.

A new report issued by the Community Service Society (CSS) in June 2011 examines the city's efforts to connect economically disadvantaged youth who apply for public assistance with education and job training opportunities and identifies potential areas for reform. (Mayor Bloomberg's recent announcement about the launch of the Young Men's Initiative underscored the ongoing crisis in the economic advancement of young minority men in particular.) The report, Missed Opportunity: How New York City Can Do a Better Job of Reconnecting Youth on Public Assistance to Education and Jobs, details policy and implementation concerns based on focus groups, surveys, and interviews with approximately 100 New York City youth. 

As noted in the report, New York City is home to 173,000 young people ages 17-24 who are neither in school nor working. Approximately 61,000 are unemployed (i.e., looking for work and not finding it), and 112,000 are not actively looking for work and haven't worked in the recent past. Since "early job experience is the best predictor of later workforce success," and individuals who reach 25 without a successful workplace experience have significantly diminished chances of future financial stability, the number of young people who fall into this category is highly troubling.

The CSS report focuses on two cash assistance programs, Family Assistance and Safety Net Assistance, administered by the Human Resources Administration (HRA) through a network of neighborhood-based offices called Job Centers.  The report concludes that through a combination of flawed policies and ineffective implementation, the HRA has failed to take advantage of "point-of-connection" opportunities to reengage New York City youth and set them on the path to stable careers.  Although federal, state and local policies require successful applicants for cash assistance to enroll in various vocational or education classes, the report found that HRA does not engage young people in meaningful assessments or conversations about their educational or career goals. Instead, youth are channeled into HRA's "one-size-fits-all" adult-focused Back to Work program, which participants claimed did not help them develop skills or find work. Other concerns summarized in the report include the claim that young people are sometimes discouraged from applying for cash benefits or given incorrect information about their eligibility and that HRA staff lack training to work with young people in transition.

Citing studies of successful reconnection programs for disconnected youth and emphasizing the advantages of educational investments, the CSS report proposes reforms in three areas--Openness and Accountability; Access, Assessment, and Youth-Appropriateness; and Education and Training--and urges the city to "act now, with a focus on effective interventions delivered at ready-made points-of-contact...to connect young people with the fewest skills and the greatest need for educational reconnection with the services they need to avoid a lifetime of poverty and dependence on public benefits."

To read the full report, click here: http://www.cssny.org/userimages/downloads/MissedOpportunityJune2011.pdf?tr=y&auid=8724778

From our partners at the NYC Center for Economic Opportunity:

Mayor Bloomberg today announced the launch of the Young Men's Initiative, the nation's boldest and most comprehensive effort to tackle the broad disparities slowing the advancement of black and Latino young men. This cross-agency enterprise is the culmination of 18 months of work begun when the Mayor committed in his 2010 State of the City address to find new ways to tackle the crisis.

The Young Men's Initiative will support the expansion of several CEO programs, including young adult internship and literacy programs, criminal justice programs, and Jobs-Plus, a workforce development program for residents of public housing. Requests for Proposals will be posted on City Agency websites in the coming months.

Learn more:

• Read the Press Release (May 2011)
• Read the Mayor's Remarks (March 2011)
• Download the Report (in PDF)
• Learn more about CEO Programs

Last week, the Pew Research Center released a new study, Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs Between Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics, that unveiled some alarming statistics about wealth inequality in the U.S.  The Center's analysis of newly available government data from 2009 found that the median white household wealth (defined as assets minus liabilities) is 20 times that of Black households and 18 times that of Latino households. Additionally:

• Between 2005 and 2009, median wealth fell by over 50 percent for all households of color--down 66 percent in Latino households, 54 percent in Asian households, and 53 percent in Black households. Conversely, white household wealth dropped by only 16 percent.

• In 2009, the typical white household held $113,149 in wealth, whereas the typical Black and Latino household's wealth amounted to just $5,677 and $6,325, respectively.

• In 2009, approximately one quarter (24 percent) of all Black and Hispanic households owned no assets at all--not a single savings or checking account, interest-earning bond, home or rental property, IRA account, 401(K) plan, stock or mutual fund share, business, or any other financial asset of any kind, other than a vehicle. In stark contrast, the same held true for only 6 percent of white households.

In the quarter century that such government data has been available, never have we observed such vast disparities.

The Network's research on the racial wealth gap affirms the Pew Research Center's findings and notes that wealth disparities are even more pronounced for women of color. In At Rope's End: Single Women Mothers, Wealth, and Assets in the U.S., the Network reveals that Black and Latina single mothers have a median wealth of zero, report the lowest earnings of any household, and experience unique, compounding barriers to wealth and asset accumulation as women, racial and ethnic minorities, and mothers.

To learn more about the racial and gender-based wealth gap, including the structural and institutional barriers that impede access to wealth building mechanisms for women and communities of color and policy strategies to alleviate wealth disparities in the U.S., please reference the Network's research at: http://wagner.nyu.edu/wocpn/publications/reports.php

Earlier today, the Senate joined the House in voting to approve a debt ceiling bill reflective of a bipartisan deal reached over the weekend between President Obama and Congressional leaders. The Budget Control Act of 2011 was promptly signed into law by the President this afternoon, effectively averting a national default by raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling.

The deficit reduction legislation initially cuts spending by $1 trillion, sparing the entitlement programs Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, but cutting into non-defense discretionary programs such as Head Start, Title X, job training, domestic violence prevention, and others. The deal also mandates the appointment of a 12-member joint committee to identify additional savings and cuts totaling $1.5 trillion over a decade, which could affect entitlement and safety net programs, including SNAP, TANF, and CCDBG. The committee is required to reach an agreement by November 23, with Congressional action required by December 23. Failure to reach or pass an agreement will trigger automatic across-the-board cuts from military and discretionary programs, with some exemptions for low-income programs.

The National Women's Law Center has called the deal "unbalanced" for posing cuts to women and families while simultaneously protecting tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and corporations. Legal Momentum has also denounced the deal for harming women and families by continuing to slash government spending at a time when public investments are needed more than ever to support the nation's economic recovery.

Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the adoption of historic new guidelines that will bring the nation one step closer to fulfilling the Affordable Care Act's promise of improving access to healthcare for all. The new guidelines were developed by the Institute of Medicine, a leading independent adviser to the federal government, in their recommendations for women's preventive healthcare services that should be provided free-of-charge under President Obama's healthcare reform law. This exciting and groundbreaking news bears enormous implications for women's access to reproductive healthcare services, particularly for women of color.
 
As of August 1, 2012, women will no longer have to pay a copayment or deductible for the following services when delivered by a network provider under new health insurance plans:

• Annual well-woman visits
• Screening for gestational diabetes in pregnant women
• High-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) testing
• Annual counseling for sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, for all sexually active women
• Prescription FDA-approved contraceptive methods and counseling
• Comprehensive breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling for every birth
• Annual screening and counseling for interpersonal and domestic violence
• Improved screenings for cervical cancer

Offering each of these services to female patients at no cost will expand access to healthcare for American women, who are more likely than men to need preventive healthcare service, but often have less ability to pay as a result of lower incomes and more burdensome out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. As a result, many women - especially low-income women and racial and ethnic minorities - experience "higher rates of disease, fewer treatment options, and reduced access to care."
 
The prohibitively expensive cost of birth control, for example, has forced some women to choose between affording contraception and paying for basic necessities such as rent or childcare, with over half of all Latina and Black women between the ages of 18-34 reportedly struggling with birth control's high cost. By classifying birth control and other key reproductive health services as free preventive healthcare for women under the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has taken an extraordinary step in reducing the likelihood of unintended pregnancies, STIs, and related health risks for millions of women.
 
Please join us in celebrating this important stride for women's healthcare by thanking Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, for accepting the Institute of Medicine's medically-based recommendations and supporting no-cost contraception. Click here to sign your name in support: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5734/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7770

Today at 11:00 AM (ET), as part of the 2nd Annual Latina Week of Action for Reproductive Rights, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health (NLIRH) and National Coalition for Immigrant Women's Rights (NCIWR) are hosting a conference call, "Right to Liberty, Right to Family." Expert speakers will discuss the important roles that immigrant women play in our communities and the increasing pressures they are experiencing with hostility and negative rhetoric meant to demonize them. This important call will also discuss the harmful programs that have stemmed from the negative rhetoric and provide listeners with a preview of the NCIWR's Right to Liberty, Right to Family campaign (to be launched this fall). Call details are available below:

Right to Liberty, Right to Family
Monday, August 1, 2011
11:00 AM (ET)

Speakers:
Danielle Hawkes, JD, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Rights, Policy Analyst and Legal Fellow
Christine Soyong Harley, National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, Policy and Programs Director

Register here: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5734/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=42878