9to5, National Association of Working Women, in collaboration with FRESC for Good Jobs and Strong Communities, Colorado Progressive Coalition, and NAACP of Colorado Springs, is working hard to educate Coloradoans about the benefits of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA.The groups worked together to organize multiple community forums on ARRA’s benefits, which also covered how to access specific educational and work programs and provided participants opportunities to take action for policy reform.

Half in Ten partner the Virginia Interfaith Center details how to participate in the “poverty diet,” a three-day, experiential learning program. Participants can spend no more than $4.23 per person per day (or $12.69 over the 3 day period) on food and beverage items.

This toolkit from the Leadership Conference Education Fund will provide you with the basic structure and strategies needed to plan and carry out an effective grassroots public education or advocacy campaign. It includes what you need to do to establish your goals, create a strategy, make a step-by-step plan, and mobilize the people, partners, and resources to make it all achievable.

A Minnesota Without Poverty, or AMWOP, a Half in Ten partner, held an event in February 2010 to report on progress toward ending poverty in Minnesota by 2020. The organization used the gathering to build community and issue a call to action. This program template includes details on the planning process for this event, reaching out to press and local partners, and next steps. The template includes an appendix with the event format, the news release, an invitation letter, and a flyer for the event.

The program template, Nashville’s Poverty Reduction Initiative, is designed to serve as a resource to local groups working to get their mayors to endorse a poverty reduction goal.The template details Nashville’s successful effort, including the formation of a steering committee, holding a community poverty reduction symposium, forming action committees, formulating recommendations, and presenting a poverty reduction action plan to the mayor for implementation. The template also includes information on Nashville’s implementation process, their commencing work, and valuable resources for local groups hoping to achieve the same goal.