POWER Member Meeting Notes July 3rd, 2013
Education:
Montiqua did a presentation on Fannie Lou Hammer – born daughter of sharecroppers in
1917, her family was poor and went hungry often. She started working in the fields at an
early age.
In 1962, she made a life changing decision to attend a protest meeting and became active
in the drive to register black folks to vote. She joined the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a group that engaged in direct action to protest
discrimination in the south.
Hammer was threatened, arrested, beaten and shot at, but she remained undeterred. She
founded the Freedom Democrat Party and brought the civil rights struggle of Mississippi
to the nations eyes during a televised session at the Democratic convention.
Quote: I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired.
She worked on behalf of poor families her entire life and died of cancer in 1977.
Next week: Montiqua had the idea that we study other how other countries deal with
poverty and compare it to here. She’s going to study the Virgin Islands and Egypt,
Monica will do Cuba and Venezuela, Julianne will read (or forward) an email from Cat
comparing poverty in Senegal and here and do Iceland, Kailee will do Canada. If
Corinne makes it she will talk about the time she spent in Norway.
Check Ins:
Montiqua is doing a shoot this weekend at the Nisqually shipwreck.
Julianne went swimming at the Deschutes River, went hiking in the Cascades, saw a
show her best friend did, sleeping outside.
Jim’s been hanging out with different groups of people in different orgs, playing
dominoes at the Senior Center, settles him down, gives him energy.
Kailee turned 21 on Sunday, had a barbeque at her house, was really fun, gotten a lot of
free drinks.
Corinne opened a letter just in time to get an extension, was so happy she did it.
Monica went swimming at the quarry, pic on facebook, and did her favorite yoga class
today.
Recycling/Garbage – the recycling ended up in the garbage can, Monica was sad and
went over the system – there is a garbage can and recycling basket in every room. The
garbage goes in the big bins outside the front door and those bins need to be taken to the
curb, near the light pole on Wednesdays and brought back on Thursdays. The recycling
bin is at the end of the hallway (out our back door and turn right). Please read the top of
the bin and make sure you are only recycling what is allowed. That bin goes out to the
curb on Thursdays, back on Fridays.
Messages:
Patricia feels the message is too long and wants to update it. We listened to the old one.
We agreed we know feels that all we need is our name, address, email, website, and an
option for Spanish. Kailee will write up a script and bring it to the next meeting. She
speaks Spanish so can do the new message once we all agree what should be on it.
Chair Painting Party:
Sierra sent Monica a chair gathering write up for the newsletter. Montiqua will make a
flier. Monica forwarded her the info. Everyone marked their calendars.
Secret Café:
is a month and a half away so now we want to start promoting now and start getting
donations. Letters now to corporate grocery stores, in a couple of weeks to local farms
(with offers to glean) and a week prior to the farmer’s market stalls.
Flier, facebook event, updated donation letter, Montiqua started a meet up account for
POWER, Monica joined OlyWiki. Montiqua will make a flier, Kailee will make a
facebook event and Julianne will update the donor letter.
POWER DOWN:
Montiqua will update the fliers to reflect the writing that we’re doing.
POWER Outage:
Elizabeth put on a really good workshop. Monica taped it, then promptly lost the tape : (
but Patricia took really good notes, which she’s posted on Social Cast.
Montiqua will update the July/August POWER Outage flier to a August/September.
September will be a meeting to discuss what we want to see changed in welfare policy.
We’ll use the results of the outreach survey as well as have a discussion about strategies.
Workshops:
We do quarterly workshops for the Crisis Clinic. In return, our volunteers and interns are
welcome to go to their trainings for free. It’s a great opportunity because their trainings
offer a lot of skill building in areas we use for advocacy and POWER work. We will be
providing a workshop that combines our Myths and Facts workshop along with info
about resources for low-income families in our area for them on Wednesday, July 24th
from 6 – 9 pm. Anyone is welcome to come along and learn about our workshop
presentation. Both Patricia and Monica have given this workshop.
Advocacy:
Montiqua had an advocacy with a woman who had been receiving TANF, got sanctioned
off, but then got a job. Unfortunately, her hours keep getting cut; now she’s working
about 9 a week and can’t pay rent this month. Montiqua went over with her all three
types of emergency assistance – AREN (once in a lifetime of $750 when you’re getting
TANF), Diversion Cash Assistance (when you aren’t receiving TANF, but are poor
enough you could) and CEAP (rarely used, but specifies that can be used for people in
sanction while they are working to “cure their sanction” by participating for 4 weeks.
Monica has been working with a woman whose TANF was cut off for the 5 year time
limit even though she has a special needs child, so should qualify for an extension. She
went into the welfare office to ask what she could do when her TANF was cut off and
they told her nothing, didn’t tell her about her fair hearing rights, continued benefits or
anything. Monica is talking with the office administrator saying she needs to either
restore her TANF or give her continued benefits as an exception to rule because of how
she was treated when she first tried to deal with it. She also got the woman to fill out a
disclosure form (in the bottom right drawer of our desk in the entry room) giving DSHS
permission to talk to us about her about her case.