The Voices Project

Massachusetts used most of the money saved by Welfare Reform to help low-income families move out of poverty - APRIL FOOLS!

A new report released at the Massachusetts Statehouse on April Fools Day revealed the truth that many of us already knew - the state is spending $1.3 Billion a year less to help low-income families than it did a dozen years ago. The state made these cuts even though law makers promised that they would shift funding from the cuts in the welfare rolls to programs assisting working poor families.

The report by the Home for Little Wanderers and the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center found that the state shifted a small amount of savings into increased child care but areas such as employment services to current and former welfare recipients dropped 21.9% and other supports (aid to elderly and disabled, and SSI) dropped 22.6%.

Where did most of the savings go?  To fund tax cuts for the upper middle class and the wealthy!

While overall poverty rates in the U.S. have fallen since 1995, the poverty rate in Massachusetts remains at about 10% of all people living in the state. 

If you are as outraged as I am, join us in working to invest more in education, training, childcare and affordable housing to help families out of poverty, by signing up for the Voices Advocacy Network at www.LiveWorkThrive.org.

You can find the report called “Following Through on Welfare Reform” at www.massbudget.org

Ruthie Liberman
Vice President of Public Policy
Crittenton Women's Union

The Working Poor Families Project

CWU just released a new report, “Unlocking the Doors to Higher Education and Training for Massachusetts’ Working Poor Families,” which describes the critical need for working poor families, especially those headed by women, to obtain some higher education and training in order to pull themselves out of poverty. 

The paper suggests three important things the state can do to support success in obtaining higher education & training:

1. Insure that working poor students don’t fall through the cracks when transitioning from K-12, to adult education, to higher education systems
2. Help working poor students succeed by helping them make good choices about what career to pursue; what school to go to; and by providing free or low-cost, child care, case management and other specialized supports for non-traditional students
3. Lower the financial barriers to education by increasing special grants (not loans) that cover tuition, fees, books and living expenses to support working poor students and by offering free tuition at community colleges.

Read the report now and tell us what you think!

Interactive: We want to hear your ideas!

How you think Massachusetts can better support you, or people you work with, to get an Associate's degree or an equivalent certificate? The more details you can share about your ideas the better!

Upset T Rider

After being in Massachusetts for six months, I have found that the bus system here sucks. I know the word “sucks” seems a bit juvenile, but it best describes how I felt this morning. I stood there this morning looking dumbfounded. After waiting for the bus for 20 min and walking around a pile of snow that stood at least 5” tall in front of the bus stop; me, eight months pregnant, and an older man with a cane, looked at each other, astonished by the fact that the bus would actually roll on by without stopping.

The buses are crowed. There are hardly any seats available for the elderly, handicapped, disabled, or pregnant people. There is also hardly any room for carriages. The buses are usually late. In front of the bus stops, the snow is piled up. If the bus driver does not feel like stopping he/she will not, further more the buses do not run often enough.

Why am I complaining, you ask? I am a single mom of two with one on the way. I rely on the bus everyday to get me to and from appointments, the grocery store, and my career development class. The bus is my basic means of transportation.

I know that I am not the only one frustrated with the way public transportation operates in Massachusetts. Everyday you hear complaints from people riding the T. We need to do more than complain, curse, or fuss to the air. It is our duty to attend the public meetings given by the MBTA. There we can voice our opinion, and actually be heard. We can also contact Bernard Cohen, the Secretary of Transportation, or Daniel Grabauskas, the General Manager of the MBTA. In addition, if these actions are not enough we can take our issues to Mayor Thomas M. Menino. It is our responsibility as T riders to make sure that the T is comfortable, assessable, and affordable.

Sincerely,
Troubled T Rider 

Democratic Candidates Answer Your Questions!

Do you have questions for the Democratic presidential candidates on women and poverty in the U.S.? If elected, do you want to know what they plan to do about the growing divide between the rich and the poor? Now is your chance!

MSNBC is calling for questions for the Democratic debate in New Hampshire on September 26, 2007. Go to their website and complete their form with your questions right now! Continue to MSNBC >>>

After you send your question to MSNBC, why not post them here as a comment? Let us know what issues are most important to you!

More help for families facing the new school year?

It's back-to-school time for Massachusetts families, and it was announced that low-income families receiving Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC) benefits can receive a little additional help with this to purchase school clothing for their children to the tune of $150 per school-aged child under 19 years.

This sounds generous, but how much clothing and shoes does $150 really buy today? Even shopping at discount clothing stores during a good sale—and I mean a good sale—$150 buys, maybe, 15 items. Mind you, that's 15 items of clothing for the entire school year. The thought is nearly preposterous, let alone families needing to purchase school supplies. In high school alone, I don’t recall the cost of my supplies each year being less than $120 for notebooks, requisite calculators, equipment, and supplies—all required by my school. These purchases each year were certainly cause for financial struggle for my family with two working parents.

Is this clothing benefit helpful? Absolutely. It is a little extra money for school supplies families may not have had otherwise. However, I can’t help but think that families, living in unsubsidized housing in, say, the Boston area, will not find this benefit nearly as generous as the State thinks.

For a single-parent family of 3, to qualify for cash benefits, their gross income must be less than $1171.05 a month. These families will receive no more than $633 of assistance. According to the latest FESS reports, rent alone costs about $1300 a month. These are troubling numbers, and  doesn't leave the family much to work with to keep themselves fed and utilities paid, let alone purchase needed clothing and school supplies.

What do you think the government and/or non-profit family support services do to help children and families meet their back-to-school needs?

Visit CWU's Self-Sufficiency Calculator to find out your family's cost of living in Massachusetts.

Affordable housing has reached crisis stage in Massachusetts

Affordable housing opportunites have become a crisis in Massachusetts. News media reports document the exodus of families and college students from Massachusetts to other more affordable states as a result. I personally see the devastating impact of this crisis on a daily basis when I come to work at the Crittenton Women's Union.

Currently, I am coordinator of one of the housing programs that houses homeless families in scattered sites across the city. We provide families with shelter every night and with services to help them on their path to self-sufficiency. Our shelters are always full to capacity. When one family moves out, another moves in the very next day and sometimes the same day.

I have also worked up close and personal with families on a one-to-one basis for five out of the eight years I have worked in the organization in the capacity of senior case manager. I learned first hand how devastating it is for families to be homeless. Oftentimes these families are depressed and suffer from feelings of low self-esteem. They live in challenging conditions for up to two years while they wait for permanent subsidized housing. These challenges include trying to continue their education under these circumstances, obtaining affordable daycare or child care vouchers that include transporation for their children, coping with sleeping in one room with their children, and managing to comply with shelter rules and regulations as well as Department of Transitional Assistance (or other funder) rules and regulations. These families find it hard to raise their children in "public" not to mention feeling as though they have little control over their lives and are being told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it by service delivery personnel whom they encounter while navigating through the shelter system.

Every citizen of the Commonwealth is deserving of affordable housing but I believe it is, and should be, a priority for the homeless. Not only should there be subsidy programs in greater abundance, but also first time home buyer programs targeted for them as well.

I implore all who are reading this blog to unify to find creative ways to advocate with the legislature for these families to ensure they receive the assistance and support they need which are: grants (not loans) for post-secondary education, child care assistance for work as well as for education and training, more training programs for jobs that pay well, transportation, and add on lots of encouragement to them to be assertive and do not quit until they have achieved their stabilization goals.

What are your priorities? Click here to take the survey.

Take Action for Education & Training Opportunities for Women!

Periodically, we may ask you to take action on behalf of women who are struggling to achieve economic independence. Your voice can make a real difference in providing life-changing opportunities for low-income women. We know that you share our commitment to ensuring that all women have opportunities and access to the education and training they need to obtain family-sustaining jobs.

Your immediate action is needed to increase Education and Training opportunities for women. Right now, your Massachusetts elected representatives are developing next year’s state budget. Their decisions can significantly help or hinder those who are seeking Education and Training so that they can earn self-sufficient wages and contribute to the overall health of our state's economy.

Click here for the full alert and find out what you can do to help!

Big Question of the Month

Big Question of the Month has begun! We encourage all visitors to use this tool in order to help us continue to focus on the most important issues in the advocacy department at Crittenton Women's Union. The answers we get are important tools in helping us to generate new ideas on how to break down barriers to gain economic self-sufficiency for low-income women.

This Month's Question:

What kind of help do you wish you could get from the government to reach your educational goals? If you have reached your goals already, what helped you to get to where you are today?

Please submit a comment in response to this question. Thanks for your continuing support and input.

April 23 is Equal Pay Day!

Did you know that women still make 77 cents for every dollar earned by men in Massachusetts (on average)?

Did you know that women have to work into April of the following year to earn the same salaries as their male counterparts did the previous year?

Do you think something must be done to eliminate the wage gap in Massachusetts and across America?

Then join us on EQUAL PAY DAY, brought to you by Massachusetts Coalition for Women's Wage Equality, Monday April 23 at the Great Hall, State House (Boston) 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This event will feature Keynote Speaker, Evelyn Murphy, former Massachusetts Lt. Governor and author of Getting Even: Why Women Don't Get Paid like Men and What to do About It.

Learn more about efforts to make sure women earn equal pay for equal work in MA and to encourage our elected representatives to support these efforts during the expert panel discussion with:

• Elisabeth Babcock, President and CEO of the Crittenton Women’s Union;
• Ellen Bruce, Associate Director of UMass Boston, Gerontology Institute;
• Lauren Stiller Rikleen, Senior Partner and leader of the Bowditch and Dewey Institute for Women's Success; and
• Natasha Chatilo, President of the Young Women’s Task Force.

Lunch will be provided. Registration is free but required for this event, so register as soon as possible to Jill Ashton at (617) 626-6525, or e-mail at mcsw@state.ma.us.

• To find out more, visit the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women web site.
• View the Boston.com Event page listing.

Woman to Woman State House Visit

An exciting time was had by women of CWU's Woman to Woman program as they toured the State House on March 26. At the end, everyone had a chance to talk to Governor Patrick who accepted questions and words of encouragement, shaking every woman’s hand (nearly 20 of us), and graciously posing for photos.

Click on the picture to view the photo gallery, and visit "Personal Journeys" to read more about this experience.

Welcome!

As a leading organization in Massachusetts dedicated to transforming the lives of low-income women, the Crittenton Women’s Union wishes to guide social change so that all women of the Commonwealth can discover opportunity and prosperity. We understand that in order to meet this goal, we must foster a conversation on this issue that is compelling, innovative, and provocative.

The purpose of the Crittenton Women’s Union Weblog is to allow direct communication between low-income women, policy makers, educators, researchers, and supporters on the issue of economic self-sufficiency. We know that the diversity of voices surrounding this issue is a valuable resource that must be tapped if we are to find powerful and effective public policy solutions.

We currently feature four categories:

Personal Journeys: The journey to economic self-sufficiency is sensitive and complex. In this area, you will find women’s stories that are invaluable to the conversation and central to changing public policy and opinions in Massachusetts.

The Political Arena: In this category, you can make democracy work for you by directly connecting with your public policy and government leaders!

Insights: In this category, you will find thought-provoking statements, compelling research, and up-to-the-minute information on self-sufficiency from a diverse group of educators, philanthropists, researchers, and opinion leaders.

Advocacy Alerts: In this area, you can stay informed on the state of the Commonwealth by checking in with the CWU's Advocacy Department.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Kirsten Blocker, Web Content Manager
E-mail: kblocker@liveworkthrive.org