POWER boosts funds, hosts Mother’s Day picnic

author : Monica Peabody topic : Mother's Day | Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights

by Monica Peabody

It’s been one year since the members and staff of WROC, Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition, separated from the board to continue WROC’s important work under a new name. If you missed that article, see June 2007 Works in Progress (WIP) at their website, http://www.olywip.org/. Although the split was painful at the time, members and staff spent the year intentionally developing an organization through a consensus, member-led process, all the while continuing the important work of guiding people to expect and demand their welfare rights, improving people’s understanding of poverty, and working toward improved economic policies. In WIP’s October 2007 issue, we updated you that our new name was POWER, Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights.

POWER now has a website and my space, http://www.oly-wa.us/power/ and http://www.myspace.com/parentsorganizing, where you can find our values, mission, meetings, and participate in an online forum, sign up for email updates at welfarerights@riseup.net. An amazing temporary board has guided this work and continues to meet on the first Saturday of every month to continue building a strong organization whose decisions rest in the active membership. Join us. Our upcoming work will include goals setting, electing a permanent board, and applying for nonprofit status. Currently we have state nonprofit status and a federal fiscal sponsor, Olympia’s International Trauma Treatment Program.

We have continued taking calls from parents throughout Washington and providing information about their legal rights. Sadly, WROC in Seattle seems to no longer be functioning, as their voice mailbox has been full for several weeks now. We are doing our best to get the word out about POWER so people can continue to have access to this important service. Volunteers and interns continue to do weekly outreach Tuesday mornings at the Olympia welfare office, bringing donated pastries from San Francisco Street bakery and coffee from Olympia Coffee Roasting Company to improve people’s long waits while providing them with information. Join us. We meet at 8:30 at POWER office at 701 Franklin Street, in the Payne Room of the First Christian Church.

We brought many POWER members to meet with their legislators this session, more still to write and call. After fifteen years of asking, we were shocked and pleased this session when legislators passed a 3% TANF grant increase! Parents will begin receiving it this summer. We also won a sales tax refund for low-income workers, which will begin in 2009. Food stamp eligibility was increased to help more working families. We will be celebrating these successes and talking about what we want for next year at a picnic in Sylvester Park on Monday, May 5th at 5:30. If it’s not picnicking weather, we’ll move to the First United Methodist Church on Legion and Boundary. Join us. Bring a dish to share; children are always welcome.

POWER would not be thriving today without the support of our amazing community. Thank you to all who provided encouragement, volunteered, wrote checks, organized and attended fundraisers, and kept us supported through the difficult transition. Thank you to the Center for Community Based Learning and Action at Evergreen, RESIST, the City of Olympia, and the Olympia Food Cooperative, for believing in and funding social justice work. Thank you to the First Christian Church for continuing to provide us free office space for ten years. We look forward to another ten years of organizing low-income parents to speak out against injustice and work for world in which children and caregivers are truly valued, and the devastation of poverty has been eradicated.

Contact POWER at 360-352-9716 if you would like to get involved or if you would like us to send one of our beautiful Mothers Day cards to a mother of your choice. Cards include local artwork and the original Mother’s Day Manifesto, by Julia Ward Howe.