ParentsTogether Action, a family advocacy organization which represents 2.5 million parents across the U.S., is collecting stories from moms across the country about how the new, expanded Child Tax Credit has made their lives easier. The group is turning these stories into professionally produced videos. Here are six snippets.
Archives: Voices
CHN’s Podcast Episode 6: Undocumented and Unafraid: Student Advocates Speak Out for Immigration Reform
With many students in school this fall amidst the ongoing stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic, many students and their families are also burdened with additional anxieties and stresses associated with being undocumented. These additional challenges could include not having the proper documentation for certain opportunities such as federal student aid, living with the fear of deportation, or dealing with anti-immigrant rhetoric often circulated in political discourse.
President Biden’s Historic Build Back Better Framework Will Help Millions of Americans
The nation needs to Build Back Better. President Biden has recognized the urgent need to invest in our future, to lift millions of children and their families out of poverty, extend health care to millions who now cannot afford it, protect the aging and people with disabilities through expanded home care, expand education at all levels, protect against climate disaster, and provide affordable rental housing to hundreds of thousands of households. The Build Back Better framework announced today makes historic investments in all these areas.
CHN’s latest Human Needs Report: Build Back Better update, FY22 spending bills, and voting rights legislation
CHN just released another edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for the latest on negotiations surrounding the Build Back Better Act, what’s in the recently-released Senate FY22 spending bills, and a blocked effort to protect voting rights.
CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship October 22, 2021
The Americans-are-falling-behind edition. Rents are late and evictions are looming. Two-thirds of parents say their kids have fallen behind in school. One in five households say someone in the home has been unable to get medical care for a serious condition. These are but a few of the findings from a new poll conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Next Week’s Podcast: Student Advocates Discuss The Need For Pathway To Citizenship For All Immigrant Communities
Stay tuned for next week’s podcast featuring undocumented and unafraid young organizers and student advocates! Add your voice to the movement of finally achieving immigration reform!
Child Tax Credit advocates: “We’re asking that we keep doing the thing that we knew was right in the first place.”
Earlier this week, faith leaders gathered near the U.S. Capitol for a 12-hour vigil in support of President Biden’s Build Back Better plan pending in Congress. The “Keep the Faith Vigil” focused on so many issues close to the hearts of human needs advocates: hunger, housing, immigration reform, climate change, paid leave, tax credits for low-income families, home and community-based care, health care, labor rights, and more.
What is the cost of not passing Build Back Better?
Kaylen Marie Barker is a ninth-generation West Virginian whose ancestors moved to Appalachia to escape abject poverty. But despite having a master’s degree, Kaylen finds herself living in “generational poverty,” and spends time hunting for pennies in her couch cushions in order to put gas in her car. Kaylen says her state desperately needs President Biden’s Build Back better plan, which would inject billions of dollars into West Virginia’s economy, lift children and families out of poverty, expand health care, and do so much more.
In their own words: Why recipients and providers of home care say Congress must act
Last week advocates gathered on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol to conduct a 24-hour vigil, demanding that Congress provide historic, once-in-a-generation federal funding for Medicaid-based Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS). Advocates organized the vigil to push for historic, once-in a-generation federal funding for home and community-based services (HCBS). During the vigil, advocates shared some 2,500 stories from people who work as caregivers or depend on caregivers to live independently.
CHN’s latest Human Needs Report: Stopgap spending bill passes, debt ceiling disaster averted, and more
CHN just released another edition of the Human Needs Report. Read on for a breakdown of what’s in the Build Back Better Act, the latest on FY22 spending bills, where the debt ceiling showdown stands, and more.
CHN’s COVID-19 Watch: Tracking Hardship October 8, 2021
The 700,000 deaths edition. The U.S. has now officially surpassed 700,000 COVID-19 deaths. Only about 65 percent of the eligible U.S. population is fully vaccinated. Some states, from the South to the Upper Plains to the Mountain West, are under 50 percent. In August, for the first time, the rate of coronavirus infections among children topped infection rates for adults 18 to 64 and seniors. It is true that new cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are all significantly down, and experts say the worst of this current wave brought on by the Delta variant is behind us. But they also warn that we are not out of the woods yet.
Pressing Manchin: From kayaks to Capitol Hill, West Virginians seek to keep Build Back Better Afloat
It’s been a busy week for a convoy of West Virginians who traveled to Washington, D.C. to make their case to Senator Joe Manchin that the Mountain State needs President Biden’s Build Back Better plan.
The “fun” began last week, when members of the entourage climbed into kayaks to visit Manchin’s yacht, Almost Heaven, which he maintains on the Potomac River and lives in when he is in D.C. As it happened, during one of several trips to Almost Heaven last week, the “kayaktivists” found Manchin at home, and once he learned that some of the kayakers were from West Virginia, he greeted them warmly and engaged in conversation.