Maureen Lane

Personal Liberty and the Collective Voice

Grassroots advocacy contributes to a more open, democratic and inclusive process for determining public policy. Over a hundred years ago, in Democracy in America, Tocqueville observed the importance of minority groups in mitigating the omnipotence of the majority. He notes the right of groups to have the voice to persuade the majority as “inalienable as the right to personal liberty."

Over the centuries, different minority struggles have amplified the value of the mitigation of majority power. In the recent past, Martin Luther King, jr. observed, 'Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." Community organizing and coalition building are a means of brining to the attention of all the direct effects of current policies on individual families.

The organization I am a part of Welfare Rights Initiative (WRI) works in coalition with other grassroots groups to bring the individual voice to community and transport community to the policy-making processes. We believe working together for the common good is at the heart of the American democratic experience and we look forward to this year's opportunities for collaboration.

Some recent examples of how this works include:
Collaboration at CUNY: WRI and CUNY law school were able to keep hundreds of students in school through legal advocacy for people on public assistance who are enrolled in higher education. WRI collaborates with CUNY Law's Economic Justice Project to connect 2nd year law students with students who need personal legal representation to continue their studies. Students receiving public assistance, mostly women with children and young people in college right out of high school, are routinely sent notices from the city welfare agency (Human Resources Administration - HRA) that their much needed family benefits will be cut often because they are in school rather than performing workfare hours. The errors in these notices are striking but often require students to seek legal help to present their case to a judge. This symbiosis puts law students in the court room gaining valuable experience while keeping students on welfare OUT of the court room so they can finish their education. In addition we hold monthly leadership and legal rights skill building training together.

Collaboration across the generations: WRI is in our eighth year of collaboration with JPAC, Joint Public Affairs Committee for Older Adults. JPAC/WRI's Intergenerational Committee is a unique combination of younger and senior adults working together to heighten awareness of each other's issues within the senior and student communities. The Intergenerational Committee hosts events at Hunter College every year on topics that connect older and younger adults, for example: housing, social security and voting.

Collaboration with other grassroots groups: CWOP (the Child Welfare Organizing Project) and WRI collaborate on leadership training and civic involvement for grassroots. WRI student leaders and CWOP parent organizers work together on the intersecting issues of parent involvement in the child welfare system, leadership development and direct involvement in the policymaking. Last week, CWOP and the City Council scored a victory in enhancing ACS Administration for Children Services) by passing, Intro 492 to create a child welfare parent advocate advisory committee. We urge the mayor to sign this bill into law and bring the important voices of parent advocates with firsthand experience of the child welfare system to the policymaking table.

Citywide Coalition: WRI works with the Welfare Reform Network (WRN) to monitor and mitigate city policy. The Empire State Economic Security Campaign (ES2), a statewide coalition of more than 150 organizations, which has successfully advocated in Albany for low income and middle income New Yorkers as well as people receiving welfare. Last year, ES2 successfully worked with other groups on a major campaign to increase the minimum wage in NY. ES2's legislative agenda includes making the work-study law permanent and counting education up to and including college as work activity for people receiving welfare.
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I know some of our readers are activists and organizers- if your organization has some interesting partnerships comming up in the New Year, I'd love to hear about it in the comments section.

Maureen Lane: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 8:34 AM, Jan 05, 2006 in Democracy
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