Category: Advocate

Imagine if a neighbor or family member suddenly found himself or herself without a job, and consequently without a home for his or her family. For Tiarra, this was an unfortunate reality. Without employment, she and her children were homeless and were at one point forced to sleep in a car. Now imagine if everyone in your community had access to job training to put them on a career path that provided financial stability and a secure future for themselves and their families.

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When the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program program (TANF) was created, work and family supports were cited as priorities to provide a safety net and promote work, but over the years flaws in the program’s structure have become apparent. As a result of multiple barriers fewer families in poverty are being helped. In 2014, 23 out of every 100 families in poverty received TANF benefits, as opposed to 68 out of 100 in 1996. Currently, fewer than one in five poor children receive help through TANF. In addition, states spend very little – 8 percent -- of TANF funds on work-related activities that necessary for people to succeed.

READ MORE from 20 Years Since Welfare Reform: The Safety Net Needs Repair

We’ve all said or thought, ”I could do a better job than (name the member of Congress)” at one time or another,  and with Congress’s approval ratings in single digits, who can blame us?   But is it really that easy?  Well here is your chance to find out. We all know the importance of social

READ MORE from Can You Save Social Security?

As our country faces a contentious election, having my nights filled with the Olympics is a welcome distraction. President Obama noted in an interview which aired just prior to the opening ceremony that the Olympics is an event that can unite our country. The event also serves as a way for people to learn about other nations and share in the struggles that are faced by athletes around the world.

READ MORE from If Voting Were An Olympic Sport, Would America Win?

The major party conventions are behind us and Congress is in recess until after Labor Day. However, when they return, much work still needs to be done, and there will be a push to do so before the lame duck (following the election). Of course members of Congress will need even more time back in the district to campaign closer to the election, thus making the time frame to pass a budget and reauthorize major legislation even shorter – a total of eight weeks to be exact. Learn more about some of the issues that are important to Goodwill® and still on the table.

READ MORE from What Remains for the 114th Congress?

Last week’s blog highlighted some of the key points of the 2016 GOP National Platform and as the Democrats head out of Philadelphia, take a look at key parts of the 2016 Democratic Platform that pertain to Goodwill’s priorities.

READ MORE from The Democratic National Platform and Goodwill’s Priorities (Part Two)

I watched my first national political convention in 1976. I was in high school at the time, but watching the gavel-to-gavel coverage and listening to speeches and commentary somehow captured my attention. Now it’s 40 years later and with decades of policy and political experience, those speeches come across to me a lot differently, and, for most part, not for the better. Maybe it’s cynicism; maybe it’s knowing that the issues are more complicated than the kind of sound bite, red meat rhetoric solutions you hear at these conventions.

READ MORE from The GOP Platform and Goodwill’s Priorities (Part One)

This week, a national effort is underway to make the disability vote more influential. The American Association of Persons with Disabilities (AAPD) has designated July 11-15 as National Disability Voter Registration Week. Regardless of one’s political affiliation, people with disabilities play an important role in our democracy and should be able to have as great a voice in the political process as anyone else who exercises their Constitutional right to vote.

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It was two years ago near July 4, that Congress showed a rare form of bi-partisanship and passed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), the law that establishes job-training programs and vocational rehabilitation services. The following year, around this time, the agencies responsible for overseeing the law’s enactment released the proposed regulations for implementation. Just prior to the holiday this year, the final rules were made public.

READ MORE from Help Someone Earn Financial Freedom by Supporting WIOA

The average payday loan carries an annual percentage rate (APR) of 391 percent. Are you or someone you know affected by these often debilitating fees? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed new rules that would reign in many of the most egregious abuses of payday lenders and car title loan businesses. This long awaited effort follows on the efforts of many states to bring order to the nearly unregulated small lender marketplace.

READ MORE from Proposed Payday Lending Rules Seek to End Abuses

For Father’s Day, many of us spent time with our dads or remembering them in various ceremonies. We bought our dads really bad ties, took them to dinner, or did the chores they would normally do so they could sleep in late or watch a game. But there is one group of dads who experienced Father’s Day very differently this year: those who are currently incarcerated.

READ MORE from Give Fathers a Second Chance after Incarceration

Our country celebrated a bittersweet Flag Day earlier this week, as a nation in mourning. This June 14 marked the centennial of this observance, first proclaimed by President Woodrow Wilson. Congress later enacted a statute officially recognizing Flag Day in 1949. The flag is a symbol of leadership and is what unites us. Yet every flag flown at half-staff was a reminder to me that it is a symbol of our democracy and emblem of our freedom, in good times and bad.

READ MORE from Flag Day Evokes the Spirit of Unity