Join the Network, the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies and friends as we come together to discuss how we can:

Work across practices to respond holistically to poverty
Generate systemic change as we directly serve those in need
Talk about the change we need in a way that others hear us

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

Registration and Breakfast: 8:30am

Panel Discussion: 9:00am- 10:00am

Barbara Levy Simon - Columbia School of Social Work
Deborah Axt - Make the Road by Walking
C.Nicole Mason - Dir. of Women of Color Policy Network, NYU

Working Session: 10:15am - 11:45am

Berlin Rosen: "Addressing Poverty & Institutional Messaging"

Luncheon and Remarks: 12:00pm- 1:30pm

KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Prof. Frances Fox Piven, Distinguished Professor,

CUNY Graduate Center

Special Anniversary Ticket Pricing:

1 Ticket $45
2 Tickets $80
3 Tickets $100

These measures have garnered significant opposition from Republican lawmakers in the Senate, who argue that the bill is a tactic by Senate Democrats to appeal to liberal voters in an election year. Senator Jeff Sessions (R- AL) stated: "I favor the Violence Against Women Act and have supported it at various points over the years, but there are matters put on that bill that almost seem to invite opposition." Sessions remarks offer insight into the thinking of those who would oppose legislative action to make much needed improvements to VAWA. Senator Sessions' remarks highlight that issues of domestic violence intersect with immigration status and marriage equality. To reauthorize the bill, without these considerations, suggests that conservative lawmakers would prefer to craft legal protections to protect those facing domestic abuse within specific contexts. Public safety, and the mental and physical health of countless Americans, would certainly suffer should legislation be crafted in such a narrow manner.

In the context of recent national discussions of health insurance coverage of contraception, the proposed reauthorization and improvement of VAWA highlights that women's health and well-being is receiving attention in Congress and the White House. It is critical that as these issues are considered by lawmakers and the President, subsequent regulations and laws are crafted to foster inclusion, public health, and safety for victims of domestic violence.

Today, the Network's recent report, "Above Board: Raising the Standards for Passenger Service Workers at the Nation's Busiest Airports," [PDF] was featured on Demos' blog - Policy Shop. In the post, Demos Senior Policy Analyst Amy Traub discusses the findings of the Network report, citing recent press coverage the issue received in the Village Voice, under the headline "Air Safety on the Cheap."

Traub writes of the Network's findings:

"The NYU report points out that the federal government provided $15 billion in grants and loans to the airlines after 9/11 and continues to bestow public subsidies such as tax-free bonds and fuel breaks on the industry. And despite all this public largesse, the airline industry chooses to do business with such low-wage contractors that their workforce policies necessitate a second set of public subsidies: nearly one in four passenger service workers at airline contractors rely on government sponsored health coverage, and one in five depend on food stamps to feed their families. Other subsidies, from the earned income tax credit to rental and heating assistance were not quantified in the report, but are likely substantial."

Earlier this month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report showing that many workers receiving unemployment benefits (UI) are exhausting them, despite UI extensions enacted by Congress. The report found that, of 15 million workers who lost their jobs between 2007 and 2009, half received unemployment benefits. Of these UI recipients one-quarter exhausted their benefits. This amounts to approximately 2 million UI recipients losing their benefits over a two year period. Also noted in GAO report is that an additional 3.5 million workers exhausted benefits between 2010 and 2011.

Of these workers who are disconnected from UI benefits, the unemployment rate and poverty rate was shown to be extremely high. According to the GAO report, the unemployment rate for those exhausting UI benefits was 46 percent in 2010, drastically higher than the national average of 8.3 percent. Trends in high unemployment for those exhausting benefits results in a higher poverty rate for these workers. Disconnected workers have a poverty rate of 18 percent, compared to just 13 percent for working-age adults. Workers disconnected from UI also tend to earn less when they do reenter the labor force, with 40 percent having "relatively low-incomes."

While disconnected workers are clearly struggling with a lack of economic security as a result of the "Great Recession," many of those locked out of UI are not eligible for TANF benefits because they do not have children below the age of 18. The statistics included in the GAO report show that, while the safety net is responding to the crisis, it is also letting many slip into poverty and economic insecurity. The Network has written about the crisis of long-term unemployment in communities of color, and understands the need for added supports to decrease the deleterious impacts of labor market disconnection. The conclusion of the GAO report notes that:

"As for the programs UI exhaustees and their households have turned to for additional assistance, few have received TANF as of 2009 in part because most do not match the target population of TANF. As currently financed and structured at the federal and state levels TANF does not appear to provide many of those we studied income support to help them weather the bad economic times."

On February 23, 2012, Kids Count released its latest "Data Snapshot on High Poverty Communities," which assesses trends in child poverty across the country. The report finds that African-American, Native American and Latino children are six to nine times more likely than their white counterparts to live in an area of concentrated poverty. In addition, the report finds that children whose parents are foreign born are more likely to live in an area of concentrated poverty.

Kids Count underscores that families living in areas of concentrated poverty have difficulty providing for their children's basic needs. The report finds that families living in these areas are more likely to go hungry, have trouble paying their housing costs, and experience low levels of health insurance coverage. Due to the current economic downturn, the percentage of children living in dense poverty in on the rise, as there are 1.6 million more children residing in high poverty areas today than in 2000.

Children living in rural areas (10 percent) and urban areas (22 percent) are more likely than their suburban counterparts (4 percent) to live in an area of concentrated poverty. Kids Count identifies the cities with the highest levels of children living in concentrated poverty. From the report: "Among the country's 50 largest cities, Detroit (67 percent), Cleveland (57 percent), Miami (49 percent), Milwaukee (48 percent), Fresno (43 percent), and Atlanta (43 percent) have the highest rates of children living in areas of concentrated poverty."

The following chart, created by Kids Count and included in the Snapshot, shows that child poverty is on the rise - especially in communities of color.

What can we do to address this growing inequality and child poverty? The report offers recommendations for reducing the levels of children living in high poverty areas. These recommendations include: investing in human capital and community revitalization; increasing asset development and providing work supports; connecting local efforts with city and regional planning; and increasing access to affordable housing, especially in communities of color. Read the report, here.

"Sadly, there was no surprise to Gov. Chris Christie's veto on Friday of the same-sex marriage bill that cleared New Jersey's Assembly and Senate this week. Mr. Christie had said all along that he would block the measure as soon as it reached his desk. That does not change the message of intolerance or lessen the pain for gay residents and their families. Mr. Christie compounded the insult when he dismissed the Legislature's support for the rights of gay people as merely "an exercise in theater." The only one who deserves that accusation is Governor Christie, who is clearly pandering to his own conservative base."

       -Preventing foreclosures
       -Ensuring fair and sustainable mortgages
       -Restoring neighborhoods
       -Rebuilding economic security
       -Fostering fair housing

The graphic below, created by the Opportunity Agenda, breaks these five categories into the specific actions that can be taken.
 


The Network blog has focused on the disproportionate impact that housing and mortgage crisis has wrought on communities of color, and the subsequent decrease in asset wealth. The recommendations described in the Opportunity Agenda report would start the process of repairing the negative impact that the foreclosure crisis has had on many homeowners, including those behind on their loans and those contending with significant decreases in the value of their home. 

The report also notes that literacy issues have fairly uniform impacts across gender, underlining that institutional gender discrimination accounts for the variation between earnings. Considering these realities, it is crucial that programs designed to lift those with lower literacy skills into higher wage positions be tailored to women, in order to reduce literacy related income disparities.
 

On February 3, 2012, Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) released an analysis showing that levels of unemployment in African-American and Latino communities had dropped significantly this January. Baker states of the January data released by the Department of Labor:

"The Labor Department reported that the unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent in January, bringing its drop over the last year to 0.8 percentage points. African Americans in particular saw an especially sharp decline in unemployment, with their overall rate falling by 2.2 percentage points to 13.6 percent, the lowest level since March of 2009. The unemployment rate for African American men over age 20 fell by 3.0 percentage points to 12.7 percent, the lowest level since November of 2008. The drop for women over age 20 was 1.3 percentage points to 12.6 percent. The unemployment rate for Hispanics dropped by 0.5 percentage points to 10.5 percent, the lowest since January of 2009."