August Meeting in Arvada

The Economic Opportunity

Poverty Reduction

Task Force

REMINDER: “Creating a New Plan-Strategies for Helping Families Meet Basic Needs” 2012 summer meeting.

The focus of this next meeting is reviewing strategies for mitigating hunger, increasing affordable housing and accessing funds to meet basic needs.

The meeting will be from 3:30-5:30 at the Arvada Food Bank. Carpooling is available from CCLP address or every driver will be reimbursed for mileage.

Date:         Friday August 24, 2012

Time:         3:30 pm-5:30 pm

Location:     Arvada Food Bank, 8555 West 57th Avenue Arvada

This agenda includes updates on Colorado’s anti-hunger and affordable housing movements.

PROPOSED AGENDA:

3:30-3:45 Call to order/introductions-- Senator Hudak

3:45-4:30 Basic Needs Strategies presentation

4:30-4:45 Quick Break (snacks, bathroom, etc)

4:45-5:15 Brainstorming-What’s missing in this section of the plan? Who knows of “what’s working” for website nomination? What are legislative ideas for 2013?

5:15-5:30 Update on 2019 Summit and Promising Practices Database. Call for Nominations.   

2012 Colorado Conference on Poverty - Understanding CSBG and Getting Ahead of Poverty

Tuesday, August 07, 2012 10:00 AM - Friday, August 10, 2012 12:30 PM (Mountain Time)

 

The Colorado Conference on Poverty is coordinated by the Colorado Community Action Association
PO Box 18321, Denver, CO 80218
(303) 949-9934
www.coloradocommunityaction.org

Pueblo Convention Center
(719) 542-1100
320 Central Main Street
Pueblo, Colorado 81003
United States
Map and Directions

WHY ATTEND THE CONFERENCE:
Enjoy beautiful Pueblo, Colorado - the gateway to Southeast Colorado while participating in a four-day conference packed full of amazing sessions and speakers, inspiring and entertaining keynotes and networking activities with your peers!

UNDERSTANDING CSBG:
Local organizations throughout our state, known as Community Action Agencies or Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) Entities/Subcontractors, actively partner with communities and other organizations on the local, state and national level to reduce the causes of poverty, fight the impacts of poverty, and help people with low-income achieve self-sufficiency.

July Task Force Meeting-July 18, 2012

July 2012 Meeting of the Economic Opportunity Poverty Reduction Task Force 

You, your constituents and your partner organizations are invited to attend the “Creating a New Plan-Strategies for Employment and Education” meeting

This subject is especially timely since current figures show that Colorado’s increased unemployment rate is 8.1%-the same as the national unemployment rate-ranking us 34th in the nation. Developing educational strategies and matching job skills and training with areas of job growth are critical to reducing poverty among Colorado’s most vulnerable populations. We are prompted by the new information memo from the Administration of Children and Families, which now allows states to request “work participation waivers” in an effort to spark innovative ideas for enhancing employment for TANF recipients. Sound familiar? It should—we called it SB12-139 last session.

Date:         July 18, 2011              Time:         3:30 pm-5:30 pm
 

Location:     Capitol Building (200 Colfax, Denv)    Committee Room 0112

PROPOSED AGENDA:

3:30-3:45 Call to order/introductions-- Senator Hudak

3:45-4:00 Employment & Education Strategies presentation 4:00-4:30 Discussion and approval of strategies for plan inclusion

4:30-4:45 Quick Break (snacks, bathroom, etc)

4:45-5:15 Brainstorming-What’s missing in this section of the plan? Who knows of “what’s working” for website nomination? What are legislative ideas for 2013?

5:15-5:30 Announcements and Wrap Up   

PPACA and its Impact on Colorado's Working Poor

The hoopla is over and we're back to the everyday grind. In two days we'll be celebrating another year of independence for the country. This year there may be a pause, a consideration and a moment of wonder for The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. No matter how you slice it, or call it, this piece of legislation demonstrates the power of commitment to a common agenda. What will it mean for Colorado's working poor? Well, first and foremost it will increase access to many underserved communities. According to Barbara L. Wolfe, from the Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison, the increase in funding for community health centers will bring more service providers to neighborhoods (especially rural) who have little to no access now. For more on how implementation will decrease barriers to access read "Health Care Reform and Low-Income Families: New Costs, Lower Burdens".

YouTube Activist Channel

"The Human Rights Channel will be overseen by Witness, an international nonprofit organization that has been using video to help activists document human rights abuses for almost 20 years. They are working with Storyful, a news gathering and curation operation that will help provide verification of videos uploaded onto the platform." ~ The New York Times Check out the New York Times Story here. Here is a link straight to The Human Rights Channel.

Reading Room for a shade respite on a hot summer's day

One of the ways we can mitigate poverty is to rethink banking.  Advocates for public communal banking assembled in Philadelphia some weeks ago to plan for and promote a more sustainable financing system for states, modeled on the bank of North Dakota and the one time public bank of Canada (1938-1974).

http://truth-out.org/news/item/9658-how-big-banks-run-the-world-at-your-expense

Also, a 12 year old Canadian girl explains public banking far more clearly and concisely than I can.

http://www.alternet.org/story/155700/12-year-old_girl_explains_what_most_economists_can%27t_about_money_and_debt/?page=entire


The following article looks at "dead zones" in the U.S. - areas where previous productive based industry has left and all that remains are industries based around military bases, low salaried service industries, private prison industry, and tourism - and how those that are beginning to pull out of an economic slump do so.   It is interesting to note the complexity and diversity of economic development that is necessary to create a truly sustainable local economy as opposed to the easy and obvious approaches that most people consider but create many low salaried jobs and not much else.

http://www.alternet.org/economy/155731/how_to_end_the_nightmare_of_jobless_america/?page=entire

"A person's a person no matter how small."-Dr. Suess

What does it mean to live in the state that has the fastest growing rate of childhood poverty in the country, only to then discover that you live in a wealthy "developed" country that has one of the highest childhood poverty rates in the world? Yes, yes, it's "relative" and "relative" means it's not you. Read on, be outraged and then join us this summer as we work on reducing poverty across the state. Report: US Has One Of The Highest Child Poverty Rates In The Developed World. The task force planning meeting for Interim 2012 is June 11th at Pizza Fusion on Colfax & Pearl. Lunch will be provided so we hope to see you there.