Workgroup meeting-Employment and Economic Development

The employment work group will meet this coming Tuesday, August 3rd, from 1-3 pm at the Denver Inner City Parish. (1212 Mariposa Street)
Feel free to park in the DICP parking lot if a space is available. Additional parking is available along the street next to the park. Coffee and snacks will be provided.

Community Meeting - Half in Ten Campaign

What are real solutions to reduce poverty?

Half in Ten Campaign Local Chapter: Colorado

Monday, August 2, 2010 - 5:30pm - 7:00pm MDT
Blair-Caldwell Library 2401 Welton St

RSVP: Bridget Kaminetsky Phone: 303-628-0925 E-mail: bridget@9to5.org

More than thirty-seven million Americans live below the official poverty line. It does not have to be this way! The Half in Ten Campaign believes in REAL solutions and wants to hear your story about why poverty reform is needed now!Come help cut poverty in half over the next ten years!Light refreshments provided. Childcare provided upon advance request.

Education

Chair--Senator Hudak

This group is connecting the dots and overlapping with other committees. Broad scope will be the impact with the recession and budget cuts, housing, homelessness and the high cost of child care. Focus will be the importance of intervention from ages 0-3.



This workgroup will meet the 2nd Friday of each month 9:30 am-11:30 am. Locations to be announced.

Future topics include; Promise Neighborhoods--Harlem Children’s Zone. Higher Education Initiative--prioritizing the budget cuts.

Consumer Protection

Chair: T. A. Taylor-Hunt
This group encompasses issues in Housing, Employment, Education, Health, Auto Insurance and lending. The perspective is legislative enforcement. Broad scope--intervention and education. Solutions proposed. The common thread is the importance of consumer education, which affects insurance, health care, employment, credit, etc.
Stay in touch for future meeting dates of this workgroup.

Constitutional Amendments

Chair--Annmarie Jensen


The group determined that the amendment requiring government to restrict bonding has the worst polling. The impact on low income people includes: public transportation, Community Health Centers, Education--bldg repair, FASTER, Higher Ed, private sector jobs-construction; OED; families and children. The task is to develop 2 or 3 paragraphs to feed back to the campaign; how do we get out to the faith community, etc.
Meeting notes and future activities.

Employment and Economic Development

Chair-Carol Peeples, Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition

New members have to catch up and found it frustrating to respond to last year’s recommendations, so they have opted to start with new 2010 recommendations. Meetings will occur every 2 weeks. Next meeting August 3rd 1:00 pm-3:00 pm. Location details to follow.

EOPR Meeting Minutes; July 20, 2010

Legislative Attendees: Senator Guzman, Representative Kefalas (Chair), Representative Kagan and Senator Hudak

Participating Organizations: Colorado Progressive Coalition, Colorado Center on Law & Policy, Colorado Children's Campaign, Urban Peak, Housing Colorado, Catholic Charities, 9to5 National Organization of Working Women, Denver Women's Commission, Colorado Women's Lobby, Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, City and County of Denver, Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, Greater Good Academy, Worklife, People's Leadership Council

Participating Individuals: Chaka Mzee, Elizabeth Dolan, Tim Luethke, Devin Cross, Nancy Reichman, Jim Schulz


Agenda Items:

• Introductions
• Review of last year
  The opportunities today: Testimony on Employment & Education or Job Training
• Workgroup Introduction & signup
  Workgroup breakouts/public input
  Big Group Next Steps
  Closing

Representative Kefalas: We want to reframe conversation about poverty, not partisan, look at poverty reduction and economic opportunity as business development issues. Purpose for 2010: look at ‘best practices’ at state and community level to come up with action plan to cut poverty in half by 2019. HB09-1094 established task force. Bills came out of interim committee and 8 pieces of legislation all passed into law this past session.

Open Discussion:
Debra Ortega--supported employee model. Ensures that individuals have what they need to be successful once they are employed; transportation, clothing, case managers. Best practice. Dept. of Education funded rehabilitation and voc rehab for the formerly homeless. Collaborative effort. Bayaud Enterprises--peer counselors with paid staff facilitators.
Lydia Romero-Worklife in Jefferson, Clear Creek and Gilpin counties. Focus: TANF eligible families; training and education opportunities.
Representative Kagan-referred to New Belgium Brewing company’s testimony from last year. Intervention is important and understanding is key. Medical story--poor worker was sick but could not pay for dr. appt. or get the certificate of illness. If we could make more employers sensitive to the lives of low-income families, then we could alleviate many of these issues.
Jeff Romero-Urban Peak; emphasize the value of case management. It is essential for recruiting and supporting youth. Success stories have been with youth with multiple case managers. Seeing more youth that have aged out of foster care.
Representative Kefalas-Larimer County; consider peer counselor with mental health;

Annmarie Jensen-conversation with the Governor’s Office; need to develop pipeline of occupations in the sciences, etc.
Randle Loeb-Housing is fundamental.

Testimony on Employment & Education or Job Training

• Guest Speaker: Richard Eidlin- The Greater Good Academy--NEFE training program.

Traditional bottom line produces outsourcing, layoffs, other bad things.
The concept of the triple bottom line in progressive companies to employ people to become more self-sufficient themselves. First academy took place at Mi Casa this spring. Emerging strategy for successful business: building involvement in community and the wide range of stakeholders can become consumers, etc. Take social and environmental factors and look at bottom line. Then also look at marketing and increasingly public buys goods and services from companies who care. All people in academy supported by mentors and financing, so if company graduates can secure capital. Next program in the fall: looking for mentors, corporate support, and individuals who can benefit from class.
Discussion: Q and A on funding, case management, student fees, program evaluation and opportunities for the previously incarcerated.

Representative Kefalas: Important to remember that we are dealing with different sub-populations dealing with different issues. The notion of collaboration and not reinventing the wheel has been important.

Connecting the Dots: Children's Campaign introduces the work of the Early Childhood Leadership Commission; stresses collaboration; forums around the state--primary audience is business. Senator Hudak agrees explaining that the ECLC represents leaders of state departments and business who could be looking at the impact of poverty reduction and early childhood development.

Workgroup Links:
Employment and Economic Development
Constitutional Amendments
For more information and analysis: Donthurtcolorado.com or bell policy.org.
Consumer Protection
Education

Concluding statements:
Senator Guzman--closely aligns with Denver work on poverty reduction
Senator Hudak--Education is the key out of poverty
Representative Kagan--the most important job of any government is to make sure no one is suffering in poverty. There are things you can do to reduce poverty. I find that inspiring. I feel so privileged to be a part of this process.
Representative Kefalas--Value in reframing the conversation. There are solutions. We have some specific outcomes to achieve through potential policy proposals.

Next general task force meeting will be held at the end of August outside the Denver Metro area. Details to follow.

Constitutional Amendments Workgroup Meeting

The next meeting of the Constitutional Amendments Workgroup of the Economic Opportunity Poverty Reduction Task Force is:

July 28, 2010

at 1:30 pm

Location: 1120 Lincoln, Suite 900

All are welcome to discuss outreach plan for reaching low-income communities about the impact of Ballot Initiative 61.

EOPR Task Force Constitutional Amendments Wokgroup Minutes

Chair--Annmarie Jensen

The newly formed workgroup on the ballot initiatives 60, 61 and proposition 101 of the taskforce met to discuss what this group could do specifically related to low income persons and these three initiatives. The group decided to focus on amendment 61 because that measure is showing it is most likely to pass. The group decided that they would work on getting some written materials put together about amendment 61 and its affects on low income persons. They divided the impacts of the amendment up into several topic areas, and solicited volunteers to try and get further in formation on each one of those topic areas. Assignments are as follows. If your name is not listed here, please feel free to bring any information on any of these topics to the meeting.

Health Care – Corinne Fowler will contact CCHN and see what they may have already done
Education – Senator Guzman will discuss with Senator Hudak, and also see what CEA may already have.
Families and Children – Kenny Smith and Chaer Roberts will work on providing info on this
Housing and Libraries – Heidi Baker will contact CHFA and also the library association
Community Colleges/Universities – Annmarie Jensen will contact those folks.

Private Sector jobs--open

The 2009 Community Report

During the 2009 Interim Committee Session, the Economic Opportunity Poverty Reduction Task Force created it's first year's report on the scope of poverty and initial policy solutions. You can download the 2009 Community Report by clicking here.

Welcome to 2019, a blog about reducing poverty in Colorado by half by 2019

Thanks for visiting our blog. Please check back for frequent updates. This blog is a space for Colorado residents and the Economic Opportunity Poverty Reduction Task Force to communicate and collaborate on finding ways to reduce poverty. The blog is administered by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, the leading stakeholder in the task force.