• Ongoing: Center for Law and Social Policy Audio Conferences: "Making Welfare Work"
• Archived: NCC/Unitarian Universalist Service Committee 2001-2002 "Up from Poverty" Audio Conferences

"Making Welfare Work" Reauthorization 2002"
CLASP Audio Conference Series on TANF

The following announcement was received from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP):

We encourage you to sign up for the Center for Law and Social Policy's new series of Audio Conferences, "Making Welfare Work: Reauthorization 2002," which will be held on many Fridays from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. (ET) throughout 2002. Links to the registration form and a brochure listing the program topics are below.

The 2002 CLASP Audio Conference Series will let you hear the latest legislative developments that could impact your programs from Congressional Democrats and Republicans, staff from the House and the Senate, state agency staff, and Administration officials.

Wade Horn, Ph.D., U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Children and Families, will be the "kick off" guest on January 25. He will offer his priorities for welfare reauthorization, his perspectives on other key issues, and what he has learned from HHS "listening sessions" around the country.

Link to the Audio Conference Program Brochure:
http:/www.clasp.org/audioconference/2002_brochure.htm

NCC/UUSC "Up from Poverty" Audio Conferences

Five "Up from Poverty" audio conferences beginning in July 2001 and concluding in February 2002 were sponsored by the National Council of Churches and the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee.  They took on greater urgency in the wake of the disaster of September 11, when public attention shifted to the military response as well as repairing the damage, struggling to prevent future terrorist acts, and stimulating the lagging economy.

Anti-poverty advocates will have to work all the harder to see that the needs of low-income families are addressed effectively in the national debate leading up to the Sept. 30, 2002, deadline for re-authorizing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). Don't let America's forgotten families become part of the "collateral damage" from terrorism and the anti-terrorist "war." A strong and responsive safety net is essential to the national security and to a robust economic recovery.

Issues surrounding TANF are multiple and complex, but "Up From Poverty" started by emphasizing three key themes:

• The need to hold states accountable for poverty reduction and family self-sufficiency, not just caseload reduction;
• the need to fund TANF robustly enough to tackle the unfinished business of welfare reform; and
• efforts to open the national debate to include those most directly affected: low-income parents and children themselves.

The audioconferences were designed to help grassroots groups and individuals influence the coming national public policy debate. Only persistent action will help policy makers hear the voices of those living in poverty, who are among those most drastically affected by the terrorist attacks and the economic downturn. We need to work harder than ever to assure adequate funding for the unfinished business of welfare "reform" and shift the focus of TANF from caseload reduction to poverty reduction.

Mary Cooper of the NCC and Ted Steege of UUSC were co-convenors for the series. Each featured the interaction of public policy, grassroots, and faith-based approaches, plus some time for caller participation.

List of "Up from Poverty" audiconferences:
July, 2001: Up From Poverty: Begin Your Advocacy Work Early
October, 2001: Working Parents: TANF and the Challenges of Sustainable Family Life
November, 2001: Dependent Children: TANF and the Rights of the Child
January 16, 2002: Children and Families First: Budgeting for a Sustainable Future
February 20, 2002: Push Comes to Shove: TANF 'Flexibility' and the Needs of Working Families

To request tapes, write to upfrompoverty@uusc.org or contact Mary Cooper at 1-202-548-3386; mcooper@ncccusa.org