Health & Healthcare
Help Protect Housing Vouchers
Published October 16, 2009 @ 05:05AM PT
This country needs therapy. We've gotten to the point, collectively, when common sense fails us. The breaking point? I'd point to the current mindset that it's OK to cut funding for what little housing we have for limited-income families.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) reports that funding shortfalls for the 2009 Housing Choice Voucher Program could cause state and local housing agencies to terminate vouchers or raise rents to levels beyond the financial reach of many families.
This is why I'm in Massachusetts today, to join with activists calling for continued funding of the Housing Choice vouchers, one of the few resources to keep families housed instead of homeless. And we need your support!
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.
Maine a Medicaid Model?
Published October 12, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT
The Commonwealth Fund has released new data demonstrating "shockingly wide" health disparities across the 50 states. This is the third annual survey, and one reflecting data from 2007, so expect the overall state-by-state performance to get much worse in the coming years.
What's interesting about the results is the exceptions to the general correlation between states with higher incomes and lower poverty rates also having better resident health. In particular, Maine is singled out for its position in the Top 5 states with good health despite being a relatively poor place. Some reasons? It offers Medicaid to childless adults, a rarity, and requires stringent information sharing among providers in order to track and respond to issues like repeat hospitalizations.
The Medicaid extension seems key here, as efforts like SCHIP have improved the "medical safety" net for kids, yet ever more adults are losing health insurance and going without necessary care. According to researchers, places like Minnesota or Massachusetts that perform well also show "a greater willingness to use government to improve social conditions." Massachusetts has the fewest uninsured adults, with only 7% lacking coverage.
The moral of the story for thinking about universal health care? Besides that we should maybe be looking to Maine and other states for critical best practices?
"The nation doesn't have one system and one reality, it has at least 50 each with its own economic, social and demographic characteristics."
"States cannot go it alone. Health reform is needed on a national level."
(Photo of Greenville, ME by Lee Coursey)
Poverty + Food Insecurity = Obesity
Published October 08, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Nearly two years ago, researchers at Johns Hopkins University predicted that by 2015, nearly 75 percent of the population in the United States will be overweight or obese.
As our waistlines have continued to grow with the mass availability of highly processed packaged foods and cheap meat made possible by government subsidy programs, it might seem as though weight gain is a symptom of overabundance.
However, there is a very real link between being poor and being overweight, regardless of how contradictory these problems seem to be. When hunger is lurking and money is tight, many people tend to purchase the foods that offer the greatest caloric content for the price. Unfortunately, these products usually aren't fruits and vegetables.
The fact that there is a correlation between poverty and obesity is not news. It has been documented in studies, and can be observed first-hand in many low-income communities across the country. (However, new data suggest that gender and age are significant factors in the link between poverty and obesity, and that young girls may be the most at-risk demographic.)
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
Boston Hyatt-Worker Dispute Continues
Published October 02, 2009 @ 11:07AM PT
Last week we joined and covered the boycott initiated by MA Governor Deval Patrick against Hyatt Hotels, for what he saw as the "unceremonious" termination of housekeeping staff and their replacement with "outsourced" low-wage workers from a temporary staffing agency based in Georgia. In part through Change.org member activism, Hyatt offered the laid off workers new jobs at their higher wages with benefits into 2010. In a bold, and I think very cool, move, the majority of the workers rejected the offer, demanding their old jobs back. With the help of UNITE HERE, which has also joined the boycott, the workers are generating publicity and protesting Hyatt's actions - the case offers a great window into why it's so important to support service worker unionization.
