Thank you for joining us for our 9/21 webcast, Stories behind the Statistics: What the 2009 Poverty and Income Data Mean for Your Community. Download the slides and webcast presentation.

During the webcast, we learned about important provisions that have helped struggling families make ends meet in this economy. The TANF Emergency Fund has provided at least 250,000 jobs to low-income workers across the country while growing small businesses. Refundable tax credits like the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit have ensured that work pays more than welfare and improved the economic well-being of families and children. With more than 43.6 million Americans living in poverty in 2009, these successful programs are more critical than ever.

We need your help! Take action now to advocate for timely policy solutions

Step 1: Write a letter to your member of Congress:

• Urge Congress to Extend the TANF Emergency Fund Before September 30
• Tell Congress to Preserve and Improve Tax Credits that Help Working Families

Step 2: The TANF Emergency Contingency Fund expires on September 30. Urge Congress to extend it today using targeted social media outreach:

If you are on Twitter, sign this Twitter petition directed at Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, who will be a key vote on TANF ECF.

You can also spread the word on social media with the following sample tweets:

• Urge Congress to preserve 250,000 subsidized jobs! Ask them to extend the TANF Emergency Fund today http://bit.ly/cael0X
  Click here to tweet this now.
• Help thousands of low-income workers and small business owners: urge Congress to extend the TANF Emergency Fund! http://bit.ly/cael0X
  Click here to tweet this now.
• Act now to keep 250,000 workers employed and out of poverty—tell Congress to extend the TANF Emergency Fund today! http://bit.ly/cael0X
  Click here to tweet this now.

If you are on Facebook, please post the following message on Sens. Robert Bennett, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Lamar Alexander, and Richard Shelby’s Facebook walls:

Don’t put 250,000 subsidized jobs in jeopardy! We need to continue the successful public-private partnerships and subsidized jobs programs created by the TANF Emergency Fund. And we need your help to do it. Please act now to extend the TANF Emergency Fund before its expiration date on September 30.

Here are the links to the Senators’ Facebook walls:

• Sen. Robert Bennett (R-UT)
• Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX)
• Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
• Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL)
  *Please note that you may have to “like” a senator’s page before posting on his or her wall.

With one in seven Americans living in poverty, your efforts to advocate for policies helping struggling families have never been more urgently needed. Will you endorse a goal to cut poverty in half in ten years as an individual or organization? Join us and sign the pledge today.

The senators below will be key votes on the TANF Emergency Fund, but do not use Facebook or Twitter. Please call their offices:

• Thad Cochran (R-MS): (202) 224-5054
• Christopher Bond (R-MO): (202) 224-5721