Category: Safety Net

March 4, 2020 Michael Jackson

Convening of the Housing Narrative Project: Re-centering the Conversation About Housing Around Love, Belonging, and Human Dignity

The year-long Housing Narrative Project is rooted in a bottom-up approach that listens to the voices of the most impacted and those working on the front lines of the housing […]

My first time using a food pantry—One moms story

Sharisse Tracey

This past holiday season was the first after my mid-spring divorce, and also the first time my children and I ate from a food pantry said Cynthia—the woman who wishes […]

Real Families Need Real Food Assistance

Center for Community Change

The Trump administration is proposing a new cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP, that would leave more than 3 million people without enough food to eat. These […]

Less stigma, more empathy for WIC families

Sharisse Tracey

In my struggles as a single mom on a limited income, the Special Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) helped my family get by. The shame I felt […]

Bold ideas rooted in the lives, experiences of real people

Center for Community Change

Now you can check out some of the discussions from the event and hear for yourself how power and agency are at the root of economic justice for our communities.

Here’s why America is talking about Universal Child Care

Marisol Bello

This week, Senator Elizabeth Warren unveiled her plan for Universal Child Care, signaling its place atop the national political agenda. In it, she details the difficulties of finding affordable and […]

How to stop another nightmare government shutdown

Darryl Lorenzo Wellington

We – “we” meaning all Americans who still believe we are united as a nation that cares for our own – face an apocalyptic nightmare scenario. In Hollywood, the apocalypse […]

This housing experiment brought struggling seniors and young families together. Did it work?

Bonnie Page

Genesis, means the beginning and the first. The community of Genesis was the brainchild of the nonprofit organization, MiCasa. It was planned as a purpose driven, intergenerational, affordable housing program, […]

Out of Time: Work Requirements and College Life

Willie Francois

Almost one in eight Americans live under the discriminating tyranny of food insecurity. Bureaucratic hurdles to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)—formerly known as food stamps—stunt the strides of hardworking […]

In Alaska, Changes To Snap Could Spell Disaster

Jody Ellis

This piece was Co-published with Civil Eats Sarah was born in the Alaskan village of Utqiagvik (formerly known as Barrow) and she spent a good portion of her youth there. […]

With payday loan , Trump again shows he’s not out to help the working class. He’s out to get them.

Darryl Lorenzo Wellington

During his campaign, and again and again since becoming president, the Tweeter-in-Chief has brashly portrayed himself as “a populist,” a protector of the working class. His style, his rhetoric, and […]

Ideas of MLK, RFK still needed today

Dorian Warren

This piece originally published in the Memphis Commercial Appeal. When President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the War on Poverty in 1964, his audacious goal was to end poverty in the […]

7 Lessons I learned from the Rust Belt and Appalachia

Stephen Smith

I am a community organizer in West Virginia. At the end of 2017, I traveled for a week with friends and colleagues through Appalachia and the Rust Belt, seeking lessons […]

When the last measures of security are under attack, it’s time to organize and amplify.

Cristina Rayas

The aftermath of the 2016 Election was an opportunity for lawmakers to take aim at the safety net programs in the United States, putting profits over people.