VOICE Buffalo's Public Meeting

Sunday afternoon I went to VOICE Buffalo's annual public meeting. VOICE Buffalo is a faith-based community organization that is working on projects many projects in the community. I wanted to do a write-up about the meeting, but my thoughts don't seem to be coming together on it, but I wanted to write something...

I am interested in safe neighborhoods, education, public transportation, transitioning former inmates (particularly youth) back into the community, and extending the millionaires tax cut; however, I work with National Fuel Gas every day so that's what I found most interesting.

One of the things they talked about was the “National Fuel Campaign For Fairness” with the National Fuel Accountability Coalition. I've recently had a small a run-in with NFG and I have lots of clients who have big problems with NFG, so this was something I was quite interested in. At the meeting, I learned that the CEO of NFG (David Smith, in case you care) makes about $3,500 an hour. Yeah, an hour. That's double what I make in a month. Last winter, NFG ran over 2,000 adds on TV in the Buffalo area about their winterization efforts even though last year they didn't spend a single dollar of their profits on winterization. NFG's winterization efforts are funded through donations they ask for in their customer's bills. I don't have a bill yet, but I did receive something asking for money for different programs they have (also, they spelled my name “Maty,” so that's one more black mark against them in my book).

Think of all the winterization NFG could do with just one hour a week of their CEO's pay check. Of course, that wouldn't really be to their benefit since it would lower heating costs for the customers who had their homes winterized. On Tuesday, I went to a utilities workshop for work that was sponsored by NFG. The representative from NFG who spoke talked about how little profit they actually make because of how much they help people who have trouble paying their bills (I don't see this happening much at all--what I see is NFG cooperating with non-profits like Catholic Charities and government-funded programs to pay the bills for the clients and sometimes forgiving a small amount of the bill as long as most of it is paid for by the programs). I know that a lot of their profits come from places other than customers, but they can't be doing too poorly if their CEO makes about 7.1 million a year.

Back to the VOICE Buffalo meeting—VOICE is working to organizing meetings with community representatives and National Fuel. Recently, they have also successfully pressured NFG into increasing their winterization efforts by 50% (and this includes using some of their own money).

Some other things I learned at the VOICE Buffalo meeting:

--Buffalo's High School graduation rate is 50% and for black males the graduation rate is only 25%. This is embarrassing for Buffalo and if the Millionaires tax is cut, funding for schools will be cut by 20%, which certainly will mean nothing good for those percentages.

--Eliminating the Millionaires tax would decrease funding to Medicaid by 25%

My favorite quote of the meeting was “love is the only force capable of turning enemies into friends.”

I learned a lot at the meeting and it certainly made me want to get more involved in my community to help creative positive change; however, they didn't offer any volunteer opportunities except one that took place during the day on a week while I'm at work. They did give the opportunity to donate money, but I don't have a whole lot of that.

Please Take Action

I’ve been trying a lot of new things lately. Until Wednesday, I never used the forward button on my email and until yesterday, I never called a senator’s office. Yesterday I forwarded an email asking that people sign a petition to save AmeriCorps and today I forwarded an email asking people to contact their senators to keep funding for refugee programs.

I’ve sent many form letters and signed numerous online petitions in the past year or so, but today I also wrote my own personal letter and emailed it to Maine senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

Many things will be cut in the new budget for our country and I agree that we need to spend less money, but I’m not sure all the cuts are from the right places. The two cuts in funding that I asked the senators not to support in my calls and emails are the potential cuts to Migration and Refugee Assistance and the Office of Refugee Resettlement as well as the proposed cut in funding to the Corporation for National and Community Service (which includes AmeriCorps).

Congress proposed that we completely cut the AmeriCorps program and reduce funding for refugee assistance programs by a huge amount. Both programs are extremely important. As much as I hate the idea of cutting funding for either of these programs—I can understand the need to cut some, but all of the funding for AmeriCorps? And half of the funding for refugee programs?

What I am including below is part of an email the director of my program sent to all Catholic Charities of Western New York employees.

“On Saturday, February 19, the House of Representatives recommended massive cuts to various humanitarian assistance programs, including:
45% cut to Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA);
10.4% cut to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR); and,
67% cut to International Disaster Assistance (IDA).

"Since we are already five months into the federal fiscal year those cuts would basically shut down the refugee assistance program within the US and severely reduce refugee processing overseas. There would not be money available to resettle more refugees until October 2011. Since our funding is per capita performance-based, no new arrivals equals no more funding.”

I understand the desire to cut programs that serve non-Americans, but refugees are some of the most vulnerable people in the world who have experienced great violence, oppression, and human rights violations in their home countries, as well as in many of the refugee camps. In addition, refugees bring important diversity to our communities, rent apartments from Americans, work, pay taxes, start businesses, and by cars and homes in the United States. There are also many refugee resettlement and assistance programs similar to the one where I work that would either shut down or have to lay off many employees.

When our director told us of the possibility of these cuts, I felt sick to my stomach, but I’m sure my feeling was nothing compared to many of my coworkers who are themselves former refugees and many of whom are applying to bring their family members to the United States.

Especially in this economy, volunteers fill needed positions in many jobs that directly serve the most vulnerable Americans. Agencies that serve the disadvantaged are already under-funded and under-staffed and often rely on the help of full-time volunteers. Not only would fewer services be provided without AmeriCorps, but more people would need those services because at least some of the volunteers would be unemployed if they were not in full-time volunteer programs. AmeriCorps provides important job experience to More than 85,000 young Americans a year. I know that AmeriCorps is an expensive program, but it is far less expensive than having a regular, paid employee and paying for all the consequences of less services to those most in need.

Again and again programs that help the poor and vulnerable are the programs that are cut by the government because the people don’t have a voice and are forgotten. I disagree with the Catholic Church on many issues, but I strongly believe in the Catholic Social Teachings that tells us we need to have preferential options for the poor. Cutting programs for refugees and AmeriCorps (as well as other service programs) do not follow with this social teaching.

Please sign a petition, send a letter to your senator, or call your senator to help protect funding for refugee programs and AmeriCorps. I believe it is our moral obligation to help those most in need, which includes Americans and non-Americans.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that we have to take action and fight for justice for things that directly affect us and for people who are poor and marginalized. We are all in this world together and, as much as we might want to ignore people who are easily forgotten, there will never be peace and justice if we don’t include everyone.

Give the Gift of Dignity

As you all know, it's the time of year where there are a lot of opportunities to give your time, money, and other donations to various charities. At Refugee Resettlement, our offices and halls are filled with donations (in fact, it's become quite a tripping hazard in the main hallway, but we have nowhere else to put the boxes and bags).

In a few weeks I'm going to a Christmas party where the hostess asked that if we don't want to come empty-handed we should bring items for care packets for adults instead of food or a hostess gift.

One of my housemates works in legal services for the homeless. At her office, they give their clients care packets that are put together by various organizations. She said that one thing that is never included is feminine hygiene products. She also said that female clients frequently ask if they have pads or tampons. Since the office doesn't have any, she usually gives them whatever she might happen to have with her.

Even though it had occurred to me before that pads and tampons should be included in care packets, I have to admit it's defiantly not the first thing that comes to my mind. I did some informal research by going on Google and looking up “care packages for the homeless,” “homeless care packages,” and “adult care packages.” Out of about a dozen lists I found, not one included pads or tampons.

Apparently, feminine hygiene products are an easy thing to forget, but why? Maybe it's because the stock image of a person who is homeless is a man. Maybe it's because people would rather donate things that can be used by both men and women. Maybe it's because the amount of money it costs to buy one box of pads or tampons could buy a lot of mini deodorants and mini soaps. I think that aside from the image that comes to mind of a homeless man, a big part of it is the refusal to treat anyone other than the “model patient,” who is always male and, therefore, being unable to see the needs of women that are different from the needs of men.

As any woman knows, pads and tampons are expensive and also very necessary. So, my community member who brought this issue to my attention and I will bring feminine hygiene products with us to the Christmas party for the care packages. I encourage everyone to donate care packages or items for care packages, and I hope anyone who does includes pads and tampons in the items they give. Of course, deodorant, soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hand warmers, hats, socks, granola bars, etc. are very important too, but I think it's safe to say that most people won't give pads or tampons, so I hope everyone who reads this will.

Sometimes, care packets are called “dignity packets.” This Christmas, give a woman the gift of dignity by including pads and tampons in your care packages for adults who are homeless and adults in poverty.

Technology and poverty

I hope this is the last time I write about computers and internet access. I've done some reflecting about how computers connect to simplicity and poverty.

Technology has the ability to both simplify and complicate our lives. Lately, I've seen how complicated life can be without a computer and internet access and how complicated it can potentially be to attain these things. Aside from how frustrating it's been to actually attain a working computer, it's hard to live in a new city and not have internet access to do simple things like find directions and what times the metro runs.

What if I didn't have parents who could and were willing to buy me a new computer as a graduation gift? Would I be able to apply to graduate schools with a 17 minute time limit at the library? No. What if I'd never had a computer? I'm sure I could have gotten through college using the library computers that don't have a time limit, but it certainly would have been more complicated.

Yesterday I had a one-on-one meeting with one of the support people for CCSC and we talked about how someone not having a computer can contribute to keeping them in the cycle of poverty. In most schools there are computer labs for students to use, but they probably have limited hours that may be at the same time a student wants to socialize with their friends, so if they don't have a computer at home doing their homework can be a challenge. Then, we talked about how many job applications are online. Some people might not be able to get to the library use the internet to apply, and then there is the issue of the time limit (though I'm sure many libraries are more generous with their time limits than the library that is the closest to my house). If someone already had a job, but maybe it was a minimum wage job and their work schedule prevented them from going to the library to use the internet, they would have that significant barrier to finding a better job.

There are so many obstacles to education and employment that I've thought about before (previous education, child care, transportation, etc.), but this is really the first time I've thought about technology, or rather the lack of technology, being a barrier. I guess I've always been privileged enough that I've never had to worry about what it would be like not to have a computer before.

I find it interesting how the simple lack of a computer is tied into three of the four CCSC pillars. The obvious one are simplicity, but there is also social justice and community (I relied on my community members to borrow their computers while I didn't have one). Really, it's tied to spirituality too: I wasn't able to research for the spirituality night I organized for my community and it was kind of a flop.