The Minnesota Half in Ten Coalition – composed of Affirmative Options Coalition, the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition, and a Minnesota Without Poverty – is already planning several events to build out the movement to cut poverty in half in ten years.

• Last weekend, A Minnesota Without Poverty Executive Director, Nancy Maeker, served as the keynote speaker at three Bread for the World workshops on “Bridging the Gap—Making Work Pay: Addressing the Struggle of Low-Income Workers to Make Ends Meet.” Nancy educated dozens of activists on the Earned Income Tax Credit, strategies to end poverty in Minnesota, and the Half in Ten Campaign’s goals and priorities.
• On February 27th, A Minnesota Without Poverty will hold a statewide Gathering on Five Sites entitled, “If Not We, Then Who? If Not Now, Then When?” This web-linked program will focus on the first recommendation of the Legislative Commission to End Poverty recommendation: Restore work as a means out of poverty. All five sites will share the experience of a keynote speaker, music, conversation, report on the progress toward ending poverty, and a community-wide call to action throughout Minnesota.
• On March 25th, the Joint Religious Legislative Coalition (JRLC) will hold a day at the state capitol where over a thousand activists will gather to celebrate JRLC’s Day on the Hill (March 25). Half in Ten issues and goals will be incorporated into this day’s agenda.

Email Nancy Maeker at nancymaeker@mnwithoutpoverty.org to get involved.

This January, Half in Ten joined with the National Employment Law Project,  NELP, to urge Congress to include urgent reforms to the Unemployment Insurance system in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA.  The antiquated unemployment insurance system had failed to ensure equal benefits for low-wage workers, part-time workers, workers who left work due to “compelling family reasons,” and long-term unemployed individuals.  Low-wage workers are only one-third as likely to collect unemployment benefits, even though they have double the chances of being unemployed.  For this reason, UI reform was one of the 12 steps that the Center for American Progress Task Force on Poverty identified to cut poverty in half in ten years.

Congress listened to advocates, and included unemployment reform in ARRA, allocating $7 billion for the project. And these reforms have begun to reach unemployed workers across the country.  Earlier this week, the National Employment Law Project (NELP) released a report (PDF) detailing the “unprecedented wave” of unemployment insurance reforms that has swept across the country since the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) became law on February 17th, 2009.   Read more »

December 18, 2008
Workday Minnesota

ST. PAUL – With large corporations and small businesses slashing jobs at record rates, the country can’t afford to wait for an economic recovery plan, a coalition of Minnesota organizations said Thursday. The group announced a “Jobs and Economic Recovery Now!” campaign to have a plan on President Barack Obama’s desk soon after he takes office.

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Enact Unemployment Insurance Modernization Act

An editorial from the Minneapolis Star-Tribune

The recent release of state and U.S. unemployment rates is just the latest indication that the global economic crisis is quickly becoming an employment crisis as well.

Nationally, new claims for unemployment benefits last week spiked to a 16-year high of 542,000, which brings the four-week average to 506,500. Those are the worst numbers in 25 years, and it’s likely November’s unemployment rate will go even higher than October’s 6.5 percent.
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For years, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) has called for regulatory measures to stanch the increasing problem of subprime lending and the resulting foreclosure crisis. Read more about their efforts across the nation.
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Americans increasingly face financial uncertainty as they struggle to make ends meet during a period of rising food and fuel prices, a continuing mortgage crisis, and an overall economic downturn. Yet even before these latest challenges, a growing number of state and local governments launched comprehensive anti-poverty initiatives. These include special legislative caucuses, poverty reduction targets, and information-sharing summits.
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