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Email conversations about "ending hunger in Ohio through changing conditions which cause poverty"
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Advocates for reducing hunger |
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Hunger Network in Ohio |
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Support for antipoverty legislation |
In November, Ohio Senator Capri Cafaro (OS 32), called “all Democrats; all Republicans” in the Senate to join her in cosponsoring a bill that could drastically reduce poverty in Ohio through putting more Ohioans back to work. Senator Cafaro has been considering introducing legislation based on recommendations made by the Ohio Anti-Poverty Task Force, and the recent report from the Brookings Institute has made such legislation even more relevant to our state. She said that, in addition to providing crucial safety net services to those in need, it is important that we combat poverty at a systemic level by strengthening Ohio's workforce and helping the unemployed and hard-to-employ get back to work.
The Anti-Poverty Legislation that will include:
Creation of an Anti-Poverty Council that would implement Transitional Jobs programs and encourage state contractors to provide Transitional Jobs as employment and training options; the Council would NOT be created for the purposes of study; it would exist to actively combat poverty through such previously studied methods as those recommended by The Anti-Poverty Task Force. It would include state agency officials in order to ensure statewide coordination of anti-poverty measures across state agencies and regions
o Creation of a Social Entrepreneurship Initiative as a one-stop resource for those seeking to start up such ventures that would also serve as a host for micro-lending and loan development for socially-minded small businesses. It would highlight existing social entrepreneurship initiatives and best practice information. And it would coordinate investment strategies at relevant state agencies around innovative and proven social entrepreneurship initiatives.
1. Download the attached “Plenty,” Hunger Network in Ohio newsletter (PDF), for more detail on this initiative and other information about the current doings of the Hunger Network in Ohio.
2. Join with us in meeting with Ohio senators to advocate, first to ask them to cosponsor this initiative and then to pass the resulting legislation. We may be reached at the email address and phone number at the end of this message.
Strengths of the Task Force report are many-fold:
- it is the most comprehensive approach to poverty in many years, if ever, in Ohio;
- it contains very specific recommendation, not only to increase accessibility of impoverished Ohioans to service, but save money;
- it was done thoroughly over a 10 month period, representing the thinking of over 2000 contributors in communities across the State;
- Many parts are immediately implementable;
- it is a high-quality produce completed with expert leadership and bi-partisan cooperation.
Throughout upcoming weeks and months, we need anti-poverty advocates to call and visit uncommitted Senators with the message of the importance of this legislation. Facing uphill odds and unassured prospects, we encourage you to join with us in this quest to translate this initiative first into a broadly supported bill and ultimately into law.
Ohio Antipoverty Task Force Report
Ohio Poverty News.
Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies.
2011: A Path to Recovery.
The Self Sufficiency Standard for Ohio 2011. The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Ohio 2011
U.S. Census
Bureau.
Brookings Institute Poverty Report.
Ohio Poverty Report.
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