author : Monica Peabody
May 2008
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 . . .
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October 2007
by Monica Peabody
What has your local welfare rights group in Olympia been doing since you heard from us in the June Works in Progress (“What’s Up With WROC?”) We have been continuing the daily work of giving information to low income people about their rights at the welfare office, providing witnesses to people for their welfare appointments, doing weekly outreach at the welfare office with coffee and pastries, providing volunteer, intern and work study opportunities for office and community organizing work, insisting the voice of low-income parents be present at legislative and policy . . .
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June 2007
by Monica Peabody
I have been involved with the Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition (WROC), for a long time. I have a 17 year old daughter and became aware of wroc when she was an infant and we lived in a studio apartment in Seattle. Her father had abandoned us and no one wanted to hire a woman who refused to put her newborn into daycare, insisting she could work with her on her back.
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July 2006
by Monica Peabody
Governor Christine Gregoire was the keynote speaker at this year's graduation ceremony at the Evergreen State College. She is strange company in the list of past graduation speakers; Shirley Chisolm, Leonard Peltier, bell hooks, Winona LaDuke, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Ken Kesey, Amy Goodman, to name a few. Stranger still is Governor Gregoire's recent decision to cut the welfare benefits of children whose parents are perceived as not complying with welfare to work rules. Strangest of all is Governor Gregoire's refusal to explain or even acknowledge her decision.
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June 2006
by WROC members Karin Murphy, Shannon Blood and Monica Peabody
SANCTION: A penalty intended to enforce compliance or conformity; a coercive measure adopted usually by several nations against a nation violating international law.
Does this seem like a word that should be associated with Washington's poor children? Yes, according to Governor Gregoire. As of March 2007, children living in Washington will be "sanctioned" -- their welfare benefits cut off -- if their parents are perceived as not complying with welfare to work programs. Though it will harm children already facing a lack of support for . . .
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November 2005
by Monica Peabody
Do you benefit from taxes? Do you drive? Ride public transportation? Read books from the library? Do your children go to school? Do you receive public assistance? Go to the park? Recycle? Use tap water?
Do you pay taxes? Washington state collects several types of taxes including sales tax, business and occupation taxes (B & O) and property taxes. There is a notion that only property owners pay property tax, however renters pay property taxes, because rents increase to cover the costs of property taxes. Sales tax costs the same for everyone, regardless of income. Low-income . . .
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