Category: Blog

Alabama Arise stands for dignity, equity and justice

By Robyn Hyden

People are hurting because of racial prejudice and white supremacy. The injury is not new, but violence and threats of violence toward people of color, immigrants and other vulnerable communities have been escalating in recent years, initiated by white nationalists.

It unfortunately is nothing new for America, or for the South, to experience this level of terror. Far too many groups have been targeted throughout our history. But it’s disturbing to see this escalation threatening our democracy and unraveling the progress so many have sacrificed to achieve.

One question our staff, our board and maybe some of you are asking is this: How can we stop this hatred?

We denounce white supremacy and white nationalism.

At Arise, we will continue our core work to lift policy barriers that marginalize people in poverty. And a key part of that is speaking out loudly and clearly for the dignity of all of our neighbors.

We must stand with our neighbors who are targets of hatred. That includes people who are Muslim, Jewish, Hispanic or Latinx. That includes people who are black, brown, white, indigenous, Asian or Middle Eastern. It includes people who are or were incarcerated. And it includes all people, whatever their gender, their net worth, their ZIP code or their country of origin.

We affirm your dignity, your worth and your right to live free from fear and persecution. You are not alone. Read our full statement on racial equity and inclusion here.

We will build connections and bridges with the people who are most vulnerable to attack.

With partners in the Alabama Equal Voice Network, Arise is planning a Grassroots Leadership Conference for early next year. The goal is to build closer connections between advocates across lines of race, ethnicity, language, gender, income level and geography. Our partners include the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice, Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, Alabama Institute for Social Justice, Greater Birmingham Ministries, VOICES for Alabama’s Children and the Women’s Fund of Greater Birmingham.

This network originally formed to build bridges across lines of division. And in times of crisis, the relationships that have been built are especially valuable. In planning this event together, I’ve found that coming together to work toward a joint purpose is profoundly uplifting.

Stay tuned for more information on this event in the coming months. But in the meantime, I hope you’ll reach out to build your own connections and support people in your own community who face so much fear. Please let your neighbors know they are not alone.

We will continue to fight efforts to chip away at human rights protections.

You have so many opportunities to speak out to protect human rights and human dignity. One step you can take right now: Speak out today to protect SNAP against yet another administrative attack. Arise members have fought off dozens of such attacks over the years – and we will continue to do so.

Another opportunity to learn more and speak out on the issues that matter to you is to attend Arise’s annual meeting on Saturday, Sept. 7, in Montgomery. You can find details and registration information here.

Every action you take matters. I hope you find encouragement in coming together, in organizing and in building a state where all people have the resources they need to live – and to thrive – free from fear.

How a proposed new SNAP rule would increase hunger for millions of Americans

By Carol Gundlach

The White House has proposed a new rule that would increase hunger for millions of Americans. The plan would require some states to reduce gross income limits for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) applicants. It also would force 42 states, including Alabama, to impose resource limits on applicants.

More than 3 million people would become ineligible for food assistance under the change, federal officials estimate. You can use this portal from the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) to submit a public comment on the proposal now through Sept. 23.

The plan would require Alabama to impose an asset test, adding new red-tape barriers for nearly all SNAP participants. The state would have to verify numerous assets – including cash, property on which the family does not live, and the resale value above $4,650 for many vehicles – before a family could get assistance. Families with more than $2,250 in assets (or $3,250 for seniors or people with disabilities) would be denied SNAP.

Public policy shouldn’t discourage families to save small amounts to cover automobile repairs, unexpected medical bills or other emergencies. And many seniors have small savings accounts for long-term care or funeral expenses. But reinstating the asset test would punish these struggling families and seniors by denying them essential food assistance.

Federal officials will accept public comments on the proposal until Sept. 23. They must read and consider every comment, so please share your thoughts! Click here to submit your comment today through FRAC’s comment portal.

Help Arise add 37 more members by Aug. 8!

By Brenda Boman

Alabama Arise needs 37 more individual members by Aug. 8, 2019, to stay on track for another membership record. If you’re not an Arise member yet, please join with a gift of $15 or more today!

Arise is working to break down barriers for Alabamians living in poverty. We’re pushing for Medicaid expansion, untaxing groceries and other policy changes to make life better for struggling families. And the more members we have, the more likely we are to see breakthroughs on those issues.

If you join Arise by Aug. 8 at 11:59 p.m. CDT, you’ll be eligible to help choose our 2020 issue priorities at our annual meeting next month. Don’t miss this opportunity to join our movement for change – and please share it with your friends, too. Let’s build a better Alabama together!

The workers who would benefit most from Medicaid expansion in Alabama

By Jim Carnes

They’re the folks who keep things going: the people who serve food at restaurants, bag groceries, patch roofs and repair cars. They’re Alabamians with economically essential jobs that pay low wages.

But tens of thousands of these workers have no health coverage. As a result, they often struggle with health problems that sap productivity, add stress to their households and get worse without timely care.

Imagine what it would mean to the state’s business community to have a workforce with access to regular health care. And more importantly, imagine the peace of mind that coverage would bring for workers and their families.

Most uninsured Alabamians aged 19 to 64 who would qualify for expanded Medicaid coverage (those earning below 138% of the federal poverty level) are workers. The graphic below shows the nine industries employing the largest number of these workers. More than 70,000 work in food service, sales or construction.

Overall, more than 180,000 Alabama workers would gain health security from Medicaid expansion. Our businesses would gain a more reliable workforce. And our economy would gain billions of federal dollars, stronger tax revenues and thousands of new health care jobs.

Alabama Medicaid has succeeded in providing health care for children, people with disabilities, and seniors living in nursing homes. Our state can build on these gains and make coverage affordable for the workers we all depend on every day.

We thank you for helping us reach our goal!

By Matt Okarmus

We just finished our 2019 budget year here at Alabama Arise, and we wanted to thank our supporters for another record-breaking year of contributions! Arise’s Brenda Boman discusses why support from our individual members is such a key part of our advocacy for a better Alabama.

 

RSVP for our annual meeting in September!

By Alabama Arise

Registration is open for Alabama Arise’s 2019 annual meeting on Saturday, Sept. 7!

Arise members and member groups will vote that day on our priority issues for 2020. Please RSVP by Aug. 30 by clicking here or call the Arise office at 800-832-9060.

The meeting will be from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Montgomery. Please bring $10 for lunch if you are able or use the link on the registration page to donate online.

Why join Arise?

By Brenda Boman

Montgomery is fortunate to be the home of several organizations shining a light on social and economic injustice. While these organizations have a shared goal to create a more just society, each serves a specific role.

Here are a few distinctions that, taken together, make Alabama Arise unique:

  • Alabama Arise is completely homegrown and unique to Alabama. Our founding members were Alabama churches and organizations whose members hoped to make utility bills and other basic needs more affordable for low-income people. They learned that the changes they wanted to make could only be addressed by the state legislature. Arise was launched in 1988 as an organization that would mobilize its members to promote legislation to exclusively address poverty issues. While Arise does network with policy organizations from other states, there is no Arise organization on a national scale.

  • Arise combines statewide organizing, policy analysis and advocacy to achieve our goals. Alabama Arise conducts independent research and shares findings with state lawmakers to help them understand how policy decisions affect people living in poverty. Armed with sound data, Arise promotes legislative actions to reduce poverty and remove barriers to prosperity. We employ a team of organizers who hold meetings throughout the state to raise awareness and to help people be a part of the democratic process. Timely communications alert constituents when your voices need to be heard. Arise also employs a professional lobbyist through our sister organization, Alabama Arise Action.

  • Alabama Arise is inclusive and member-driven. The Arise staff takes our marching orders from our members, who meet every September to choose the next year’s legislative agenda. Proposed issues must address poverty in Alabama. And to make sure that our leadership is also inclusive, Arise requires that at least half our board members be low-income people themselves or represent an organization that directly serves low-income Alabamians.

  • Alabama Arise is grassroots. Arise is supported by 150 churches and civic organizations and receives support from national and local foundations, but the biggest growth in recent years has been individual memberships ─ regular people who envision an Alabama where “all people have resources and opportunities to reach their potential to live happy, productive lives, and each successive generation is ensured a secure and healthy future.”

As we approach the end of our fiscal year on June 30, Alabama Arise hasn’t yet reached our budget goal. With ten days remaining, we need to raise an additional $7,000 to ensure that we will be able to carry out our mission. Please donate today to support our movement to improve health care, increase funding for education, child care and public transportation, improve life for people in poverty and make a better Alabama for all.

Why Arise is focusing on racial equity in our work

By Robyn Hyden

It seems to me that we are living through a time of historic political upheaval and transformation. While we continue to push forward policies to increase dignity, equity and justice, too often we end up playing defense.

Corporations exert more influence today than ever before to suppress the people’s power to organize and access the ballot. White supremacists advocate policies that suppress the rights of black and brown people, religious minorities and immigrants, using a well-worn playbook to build power and wealth at the expense of scapegoated targets. Their tactics prevent us from creating the great society that we imagine in our vision statement.

But something is happening in Montgomery to hold us accountable to our past and to call us towards more direct action. Since the groundbreaking of the Equal Justice Initiative’s Memorial for Peace and Justice and the accompanying Legacy Museum last spring, people are coming here from all over the world to learn about our nation’s history of racial terrorism. Visiting guests are often asking us for our perspective as Alabamians about how we can grapple with our state’s historic and ongoing failures to afford dignity, opportunity and justice to all people.

Against this backdrop, our board and staff have adopted a more explicit commitment to racial equity and inclusion. We know we can’t address poverty without acknowledging how our state’s investment in racial exploitation and discrimination created policies that have built wealth for a few, while disenfranchising the many. And if we don’t have a direct narrative to address ongoing racial inequality, extremists will tell a story about race that serves their own agenda.

As a result of this framework, we hope to create more advocacy tools, data and messaging to acknowledge race and to give grassroots advocates and communities the tools they need to fight, and win, in discussions about policy where racial prejudice is too often the subtext.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts and comments on this as we frame our work more directly to address racial injustice as a key part of winning on our agenda to increase dignity, equity, justice and opportunity for all.

Arise legislative recap: June 14, 2019

By Matt Okarmus

Now that the Alabama Legislature’s 2019 regular session has come to a close, we’ve turned our focus to the expected special session on the state’s prison crisis later this year. In our latest video, Arise’s Jim Carnes explains how Medicaid expansion is an essential component of fixing the state’s prison crisis and increasing economic opportunity for all Alabamians.

Harmful plan to redefine poverty would cut eligibility for Medicaid, SNAP

By Carol Gundlach

Pretending poverty doesn’t exist won’t reduce poverty. But a new federal plan seeks to shrink the federal poverty line, making it a less accurate measure of need.

The Office of Management and Budget’s proposal would reduce annual cost-of-living adjustments to the poverty line. And that would have disastrous consequences for millions of struggling Americans.

It’s time for advocates to speak out against this plan. Tell the White House not to use an artificial definition of poverty to deny people essential services. The comment deadline is June 21, 2019, so it’s important to act quickly.

Changing the way the federal poverty line is adjusted for inflation isn’t just an academic question. It would cause real-world harm to Alabamians struggling to make ends meet. You can read Alabama Arise’s full comments in opposition to this plan here.

Over time, this proposal would reduce or end federal work supports for millions of Americans. Fewer people would be eligible for Medicaid, SNAP food assistance, school meals, energy assistance and other important programs. The cuts would hit especially hard for children, seniors, and people with disabilities.

Redefining the poverty line wouldn’t reduce hunger or hardship. It would only mask the severity of human suffering.

There’s still time to share your thoughts on this proposal. Click here to submit a comment through the online portal that our friends at the Coalition on Human Needs created. Then ask your neighbors and friends to do the same. Remember: The comment deadline is June 21, 2019, so act quickly!