After months of planning, meeting, and talking to citizens statewide, the Arkansas Task Force on Eliminating Poverty and Promoting Economic Opportunity released its findings on November 29. Joined by State Sen. Joyce Elliott (D-Little Rock) and Task Force members, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, or AACF, joined the chorus of those clamoring for a real strategy to reduce poverty. The Task Force recommendations include our ambitious goal of cutting poverty in half in 10 years.

The Colorado Half in Ten Campaign supported the successful Economic Recovery Forum Tour that was held throughout the entire state this year. In December, the tour ended with stops in Pueblo and Aurora. These seven statewide forums showcased the positive…

The Virginia Interfaith Center has been preparing for congressional visits during the lame duck session, briefing some of Virginia’s faith leaders, and is gearing up for the 2011 Virginia General Assembly session that will begin January 12.

A Minnesota Without Poverty held a statewide convening on the state of poverty in Minnesota on December 9. This convening was nine months in the planning. Approximately 600 people participated at five sites around the state, with an additional unknown number joining the web-linked part of the program online.

A Minnesota Without Poverty has been forwarding fliers and invitations for its December 9 gathering, Enough For All, to allies and encouraging those allies to spread the word. The initial plans for the events had been to have the state’s new governor deliver the keynote address but Minnesota is likely to still be in involved in a recount for that office on December 9. The organizers, therefore, are working to identify and recruit another keynote speaker.

Members of the Colorado Half in Ten campaign met with U.S. congressional staff in Washington, D.C., on November 8, 2010, to urge their support of reauthorization and extension of the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund. The TANF Emergency Contingency Fund has helped states create jobs and provide emergency assistance to families struggling to make ends meet. However, the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund expired on September 30, 2010, leaving 250,000 jobs in jeopardy.

The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy hosted two Social Justice University events at chapters in Alexandria and Richmond. The SJU events introduced those in attendance to the policy work on which the Center will be working this year, including payday/car title lending, redistricting, immigration reform, and clean energy economy/energy efficiency, and the Half in Ten campaign in general.

Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and members of the Kids Count Coalition hosted more than 80 advocates from around northwest Arkansas for a Pre-Legislative Conference on November 18 at the Jones Center for Families in Springdale, AR.

Kathy McCann, a 54-year-old mother of three, doesn’t have a plate - she has a platter. And it’s full. She’s a single parent. She’s a full-time student. And she works any odd job she can find, including one as a seasonal landscaper.

Here in Arkansas, it sometimes appears that we have escaped the worst of the recession. Arkansas’s unemployment rate of 7.5 percent remains well below the national average. Why then do one in four Arkansas children have insufficient food — among the highest rates in the nation?