Inequality
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Stimulus Bypasses Women and Minority Businesses
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Fresh Produce Still Costly
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The Flawed U.S. Poverty Measure
Free Anti-Poverty Organizing Materials
Published October 19, 2009 @ 05:42AM PT
The Poverty Scholars Program has uploaded its training materials from its Leadership program, and I highly recommend those who are trying to do anti-poverty organizing in their own communities download them stat.
Many of the materials are in English and Spanish, and include: statistics on the current economic crisis, the causes of the current rates of poverty and inequality, and lessons on histories of anti-poverty organizing here in the US on which to build. There are lots of graphs and images and accompanying explanations.
This is a terrific resource for our anti-poverty activism. Many thanks to the Program for making these materials available.
How Environmental Justice Works
Published October 15, 2009 @ 09:03AM PT
Through MIT, I've had the opportunity to provide research and writing for a range of social justice clients, including grassroots groups fighting for environmental justice and green economic development. I've written occasionally about EJ here, but I've never really taken the time to define it. Embracing this frame is imperative as stimulus funds flow and talk of "green jobs" and "green development" abound.
Today, in honor of Blog Action Day 2009, in which Change.org hosts over 8k blogs from 135 countries worldwide to blog about Climate Change to raise awareness of this pressing global problem, I want to provide some important information on environmental justice, racism and equity to inform your climate change activism. To be effective climate change activists, we cannot forget the unequal and unfair impacts borne by low-income communities, often communities of color, often in the US South, on reservations and borderlands, from environmental degradation. Read on to learn more about these critical frames and see how one group in San Diego, the Environmental Health Coalition, is succeeding in pursuing environmental equity for low-income Latin@ communities there.
Students Purchase 400 Calories With $1
Published October 15, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
It's one thing when parents and teachers can monitor what children eat on a daily basis, but it's quite another when kids get to choose what to fill their own stomachs with.
Researchers in Philadelphia have found that when children choose their own before- and after-school snacks, the most popular choices are high-fat products like sugary fruit drinks, Sour Patch Kids and potato chips. The majority of the children studied were from low-income communities.
However, the most surprising part of the study was not how many calories the children purchased, but how cheap they were. With only a little over one dollar in their pockets, children were able to purchase a whopping 356 calories on average per day.
No Work for Welfare in CA
Published October 07, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Cue the hyperventilating about dependency and free riders: California, in an effort to save money, has suspended work requirements for some of its public assistance recipients for the next 17 months. Never mind that its welfare-to-work program will become even more stringent in 2011, and that it cannot even afford to subsidize the critical child care needed for recipients to work in the first place. Layabouts will be getting rich off your tax dollars, without earning a dime! Shiftless miscreants.
Oh, what's that now? What are we seeing in Fresno, one of the first places to implement the new, less expensive policy? "Belying stereotypes, only about 10 percent of those who could be exempted from the work requirements — and supporting aid like child care — chose to do so in the first month." Turns out, people like receiving job prep and trying to play an active role in society! Let's try to remember that when we crank up the wailing about welfare queens despite the fact that "opting out" will become "mandatory" in the future due to CA's insane budget realities.
Nominate a Changemaker Today!
Published October 04, 2009 @ 01:01PM PT
Change.org has launched a new competition, Changemakers, "to identify the leading activists, elected officials, authors, bloggers, actors and thought leaders who have the greatest capacity to spark change on issues of importance."
Changemakers will be invited to write on one of the many social change issues we cover here at Change.org to mobilize the countless readers and activists we have here to take action. You can vote on those you'd like to see here at Change.org, and also nominate your own.
I voted for: Ben Jealous, Cleve Jones, Cory Booker, Gloria White Hammond, Jim Wallis, John Lewis, Majora Carter (above photo), Sister Helen Prejean, and Zainab Salbi.
I nominated Geoffrey Canada of Harlem Children's Zone, Cheri Honkala of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, and Bertha Lewis of ACORN.
I also think I will nominate Angela Glover Blackwell of PolicyLink and James Perry of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Center and a leading candidate for Mayor of New Orleans.
Vote Today and Nominate your Favorite Anti-Poverty Activists and Leaders!
Photo of Dr. Majora Carter, MacArthur Genius and Founder of Sustainable South Bronx, by mospeaks
Rural Child Poverty Widespread
Published October 03, 2009 @ 11:15AM PT
Thanks to Diane, we get a glimpse here of rural poverty in the U.S., a topic typically overshadowed by a national focus on urban poverty. Not surprising, given 80% of the country is classified as metropolitan, meaning there's a significant density of people and homes in the majority of the nation. But rural poverty is just as troubling and worrisome as poverty in the cities and suburbs, particularly given how many children are poor in rural America.
The Economic Research Service provides some #s from the recession's impact on rural America: Unemployment rose more sharply in metro regions, though it's about 9% nationwide. In rural communities, minorities and teens have the highest unemployment rates. Almost 1 in 4 kids in rural areas are poor, especially in communities with high minority populations. And well more than half of all rural counties have high child poverty rates where at least 1 in 5 children are poor. Child poverty is highest in well-known chronically poor areas: the Mississippi Delta, on Native American reservations, and along the border with Mexico.
Childhood poverty in rural America is a chronic problem; one that activists, advocates and policymakers are still trying to understand. It appears to be a perennial lack of educational and job opportunities, particularly for rural African-Americans, who have lived for generations with resources bypassing their communities and no particular means to get out. This is a topic I know very little about, but I do know this: the recession is by no means over, and if there was ever a time to refocus our priorities on these chronically poor, chronically forgotten communities, it's now.
Single Moms Just As Good
Published September 30, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
In a non-news flash for those of us who have succeeded despite growing up in the dreaded den of broke-a** dysfunction that is the female-headed-household, i.e., with a single mom, a new study of 5,000 families reveals that "Family stability -- regardless of whether it's a one- or two-parent household" is what's key for children to thrive. Yet, the research shows that for black children alone there were clear differences on math and reading test scores for those kids in 2-parent families. I, like so many activists, scholars and proud kids of single moms, am trying to figure out why this racial difference persists.
