Thank you for your interest in our recent webinar, “Impact of Looming Budget Cuts on Low-Income Families, Our Communities, and Our Economy.” Convened by Half in Ten, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Coalition on Human Needs, and the Community Action Partnership, the webinar featured expert panelists who discussed the proposed cuts to the safety net as outlined in the House-passed budget and their impact on low-income families and communities. Panelists also discussed the potential impact of automatic budget cuts to human needs programs that are slated for January 2013 and action steps that advocates can take to fight cuts to the safety net. To watch a recording of the webinar, click here.

Deep cuts to the safety net and other opportunity-generating programs such as nutrition assistance, early education opportunities, job training, and Pell Grants would deal families in need a tough blow and would hurt our economy. It doesn’t have to be this way. We don’t need to disinvest in poor families, children, and the elderly in order to finance more tax breaks for wealthy individuals and corporations.

Check out the resources and action opportunities below to learn how you can push back against damaging safety net cuts:

Resources:

• If you missed the webinar or would like to share it with your networks, you can access a complete recording here. If you would like a transcript of the webinar, please email [email protected].
• Concerned about the proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly called food stamps)? Click here to see the impact of the proposed cuts on jobs and meals in your state. To see how much inaction on hunger is costing your state, click through this interactive map.
• Read the Coalition on Human Needs’s new report, “Self-Inflicted Wounds: Protecting Families and Our Economy from Bad Budget Choices,” to learn more about the potential impact of automatic cuts, or “sequestration,” on low-income families in your state.
• Click here to access the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights’s Voting Record and Civil Rights Monitor to find out more about the positions taken by every senator and representative on the legislative priorities of The Leadership Conference and its more than 200 coalition members.

Action steps:

• Check out the action toolkit Half in Ten developed with the help of our friends at RESULTS and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights for sample letters to the editor, opinion-editorials, event ideas, and other antipoverty advocacy tools.
• Get the facts on poverty and opportunity for your state at http://halfinten.org/indicators and integrate the data points into your social media strategy, advocacy, letters to the editor/op-eds, and public education efforts.
• Learn best practices for asking candidates questions at town hall meetings and candidate forums, courtesy of RESULTS.
• Find out more about safety net usage in your state and your congressional district.
• Check out the Half in Ten/Coalition on Human Needs storybank. Then share your story with us about how the safety net has worked for you, your family, or those you serve. Submit your short video or written story today.
• Engage with us on social media! “Like” Half in Ten on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Explore our social media directory. To add your organization to the directory, please email [email protected].
• Spread the word about the safety net—check out the webinar slides for some ideas and work with local activists to share with local reporters and promote the facts via Twitter.

Thank you for all you are doing to fight poverty in America—we look forward to working with you in the future to cut poverty and to expand economic opportunity for all.

This webinar was co-sponsored by Half in Ten, the Coalition on Human Needs, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Community Action Partnership.