Ongoing
Projects
BRAG
( Benefit Rights Advocacy Group)
(formerly Welfare Rights
Coalition (WRC)
BRAG is made up of low and moderate income people who are working to
improve policies that affect their lives here in Hamilton
County. We are the
parents and the individuals who truly know what will get us out of
poverty: jobs at livable wages along with quality child care, kinship
care, and quality
health care.
BRAG MEETING
Sept. 2, Thursday
12:00 noon
Potluck
Child care available
but please RSVP 513/381-4242
Guest Speaker: Paula from the Sarah Center, an Over-the-Rhine job training program that builds women's creative skills.
We will also be planning our Kinship Care Pancake Social in honor of National Grandparents Day.
***********************************
Mark Your Calendar!
Contact Center's
Kinship Care Pancake Social,
Friday, September 10 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
@ Nast Trinity United Methodist Church,
1310 Race St., Cincinnati, OH 45202
The
public and policymakers are invited to come and hear the stories of
low-income families impacted by kinship care (relatives, usually
grandparents, raising relatives' children), as well as TANF policy and
education.
And, of course, there will be lots & lots of
delicious pancakes made by Chef William Wallace (otherwise known as our
local "Over-the-Rhine Education in Public Schools" (OTREPS) organizer!!
$5 per pancakes/sausage meal is requested to raise funds for
Contact Center's issue campaigns.
Please RSVP to 513-381-4242 or lwilliams@zoomtown.com
Many thanks to Nast-Trinity United Methodist Church
for donating space and kitchen facilities!
(Pictured above, OEC Leaders at Spring Training Day,
April 10, 2010, at Barack Recreation Center, Columbus, OH)
Ohio
Empowerment
Coalition (OEC)
The OEC is made up of grassroots groups from across the State of
Ohio that have united together to get the voices of low-income people
heard by policymakers. The OEC has membership from Cincinnati, Dayton,
Columbus,
Southeast Ohio, Cleveland, Toledo, and other areas. We are working to
impact policies in the State of Ohio and nationally that
affect low-income people, especially in areas of income support,
kinship care, and health care.
***********************************************************************
OHIO EMPOWERMENT COALITION NEWS
OEC RETREAT
& LEADERSHIP TRAINING DAY
Saturday, Oct. 9
10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Columbus
Location: Barack Recreation Center,
Columbus, OH
FEDERAL BILLS
H.R. 4978
Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) bill has been introduced that
requires all states to implement the Family Violence Option. OEC
organized long & hard to get Ohio to adopt the Family Violence
Option, which was finally passed in 2007.
OEC wholeheartedly supports H.R. 4978 that will do the following (brief summary):
train all caseworkers in county public assistance offices in how to identify and assist domestic violence victims
require caseworkers to screen public assistance applicants for domestic violence and refer them to support services as needed
allow public assistance time limits for receiving cash assistance and work requirements to be temporarily waived
as the battered family is getting help to overcome this crisis
require monitoring to make sure all states are complying with implementing these policies to assist battered families
H.R. 5083
Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) bill has been introduced that
effectively helps disabled persons on public assistance to be allowed
flexibility in TANF work requirements. It also helps caregivers
on public assistance to count caregiving of disabled family members as
their TANF work requirements. Furthermore, this bill does not
penalize states for allowing this flexibility in work requirements in
states' work participation rates. Ohio Empowerment Coalition
wholeheartedly supports H.R. 5083!
February 2010
OHIO EMPOWERMENT COALITION MEMBERS PARTICIPATED
IN TANF BRIEFING ON CAPITOL HILL, WASHINGTON, D.C.
On February 25, 2010, three members of the Ohio Empowerment Coalition,
Cassandra Barham, Christina Schnetzer and Memory Royal, participated
in TANF Briefings on Capitol Hill in the United States House of
Representatives and United States Senate. Ohio Empowerment Coalition is
part of a national organization, Women for Economic Justice or WEJ,
that is part of these Congressional briefings to educate policymakers
about TANF and public assistance issues as lived by low-income women
themselves. WEJ is a collaboration of several national groups
working on welfare issues and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF) Reauthorization, currently scheduled to take place before
September 30, 2010. TANF is the public assistance program for
low-income families with children that replaced AFDC (Aid to Families
with Dependent Children) in 1996. It is a federal block grant
that must be reauthorized every five years.
Our national economy is struggling to provide jobs for so many of its
citizens. Now more than ever, it is critical that the path out of
unemployment into self-sufficiency be maintained and strengthened for
the many women and men motivated to go to school, earn degrees, and
enter the workforce with a family-supporting career.
Women for Economic Justice (WEJ) Network consists of:
Ohio Empowerment Coalition (OH); LIFETIME (CA); Community Voices Heard
(NY); GA Citizens' Coalition on Hunger (GA); and Working for Equality
and Economic Liberation (MT).
**********************************************************************************
February 2010
OHIO EMPOWERMENT COALITION'S
SAFE & STABLE FAMILIES CAMPAIGN: OHIO UPDATE
Kinship Care Bill
in Ohio House of
Representatives
Judiciary Committee
H.B. 197
The main part of this bill would give "power of
attorney" or caretaker affidavit to adult relatives. (Note: A
prior bill that passed the Ohio General Assembly gave these rights to
grandparents. H.B. 197 would expand the relatives allowed these rights,
example: aunt, adult sibling, etc...)
H.B. 197 also includes the following policies that
Contact
Center and
Ohio Empowerment Coalition have advocated for:
- Requires all County Children Services
to notify grandparents and other adult relatives if a child is being
placed in foster care within 30 days of child’s removal from
parents
- Encourages placement of siblings
together if in foster care
- Extends Kinship Permanency Incentive
(KPI) payments (special kinship care cash assistance
program) in Ohio from 3 years eligibility to 5 years
In addition HB 197
requires Ohio Department of Job & Family Services to study
feasibility of paying kinship caregivers same income payments as foster
care providers. ODJFS will be required to
complete study by Dec. 31, 2010.
Testimony for Senate Finance
and Financial
Institutions, Public Hearing on HB 1,
May
21, 2009
RALLY DAY AT OHIO STATEHOUSE
April 23, 2009
****************************************************************************
Over-the-Rhine Education in Public
Schools (OTREPS):
OTREPS is a collaborative project of Contact Center, Peaslee
Neighborhood Center and Over-the-Rhine Community Housing. We are
organizing to improve our Over-the-Rhine neighborhood school,
Rothenberg Elementary, to be an outstanding school.
Our children
deserve a quality education if they are to have a "fighting" chance to
find a way out of poverty. Education is a KEY way to get out
of poverty. Our children count, too, and deserve the best!
We plan to make this happen and are organizing hard so our
children can share the American Dream.
Thanks
for visiting.
Please e-mail
any
comments to contact96@fuse.net.
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513.381.4242
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