Last week on January 7th, the Coalition on Human Needs held our first webinar of the year, “Our Path Forward: Practical ways to protect people from harm despite threats from the new Administration and Congress.”  

Nearly 3,000 activists registered for the webinar, ready and willing to work together. We heard from national experts on immigration, child welfare, women’s rights, tax justice, and more, sharing strategies that we must implement together to defend our rights and meet our needs. 

We know that whether it’s attacks on immigrants or cuts to critical programs and services from Medicaid to housing to nutrition to Social Security, a slim majority in Congress and the incoming administration are preparing an agenda that hurts the most vulnerable among us while handing massive tax breaks to the rich and corporations. 

We heard from national experts on strategies to fight back against proposals that will take health care, food assistance, and other basic services away from people. And, we discussed the need to stand together to protect vulnerable communities―children, immigrants, older adults, people with disabilities, and folks struggling with high food and health costs―as we push for the society we need and deserve. 

That’s why we’re sharing the recording and resources from the webinar on our Voices for Human Needs blog. Special thanks to our partners from the Child Welfare League of America, the National Women’s Law Center, the National Immigrant Law Center, and Community Change for sharing their expertise at the webinar.  

Below you will find the information and resources shared during the webinar: 

• Presentation slides.

• Q&A typed responses. There are many great questions and answers from webinar participants and our presenters, be sure to have a look

• CHN’s Budget and tax toolkit for local groups (Winter 2025): This toolkit includes helpful sample materials with everything you’ll need to set up a strategic group meeting with your members of Congress.  You’ll see sample messages with direct links to tables with state data you can insert in the suggested spots, saving you lots of time.
  
  • Working with other groups in your area to set up a meeting with your members of Congress or their staff is really important. If you are willing to set up such a meeting, or if you want to ask us questions about it, please let us know! Contact CHN’s Dominique Espinoza: despinoza@chn.org

• CHN’s Poverty Resource Library: An expansive library of data on poverty by state, congressional district, and major metropolitan area, with breakdowns for race, age, family make-up, etc.

• CHN’s State Data Library: More state and local data on housing cost burden, people living with disabilities, health insurance and more with breakdowns by demographics if available; poverty data is repeated here too.

• CHN’s December 12 webinar recording: Budget Rules in the New Congress (Hearing a lot about budget reconciliation? This webinar explains how the rules work.)

• CHN’s Federal Connection Zoom Meeting, Thursday, January 16: Latest updates from Congress; Training and resources for a strategic group meeting with your member of Congress. 3:00 p.m. ET; 2:00 p.m. CT; 1:00 p.m., MT; noon, PT. Join with this link.

• National Women’s Law Center’s talking points on taxing the rich to fund care investments for everyone.

• NWLC’s Tax the Patriarchy online interactive tool.

• NLWC’s blog and action alert.

• National Immigration Law Center’s Know Your Rights resource page.