Save the Date! Join us we commemorate 40 years of child advocacy! We’ll recognize champions for kids, past and present while building our movement for a Vermont where every child gets to thrive.
Join our discussion with national experts and advocates on April 17th to learn more about this problem, the situation in Vermont, and the work being done to find a policy solution.
Join Voices and The Root Social Justice Center for a conversation with Vermont’s new Office of Child Youth and Family Advocate!
In this country, outcomes and experiences for birthing people and families are an area of persistent and stark disparity - where numerous systemic failures often converge. Doulas - individuals who provide independent, non-clinical emotional, physical, and informational support to birthing people throughout the perinatal period - have been shown to have a significant impact on a number of facets of perinatal well-being, and many states and collaboratives are making attempts to increase access to doulas as a means to improve care and outcomes for families.
What is the impact of doula care?
What are some of the principles and practices of the work that might be responsible for this positive impact?
As we seek to make this option more accessible to families through mechanisms like Medicaid coverage and volunteer or community-based models, how can we center and protect these principles?
Join us as we dig into different models of collaboration and sustainability, considerations for policy and training, and especially, hear from Vermont doulas, families, and advocates about why this work is a powerful path for activism.
Join us for a discussion of the Vermont Young Child Tax credit and the importance of income supports for families. Featuring Julie Lowell of Public Assets Institute, Rebecca Balin, Deputy State Campaigns Director, Travis Poulin of Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity, and Liz Scharf of Capston Community Action . This event will include ASL interpretation and transcription. Registrants will receive access to the recording and additional resources.
Rebecca Bailin, Deputy State Campaigns Director, works in partnership with grassroots and policy organizations across the country to win state-level campaigns that use our tax code to get cash in the hands of working people. Rebecca has over a decade of experience turning complicated policies into winnable organizing campaigns – and winning is her favorite thing to do! Rebecca has lead winning campaigns in New York including winning billions of dollars for New York State by increasing taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and New York City’s first program providing discount MetroCards for low-income New Yorkers.
Rebecca has been named City & State’s 2021 Albany Power 100 and Albany’s 40 Under 40. Rebecca lives in Brooklyn where she hangs out with her cat and goes on bike rides with her husband.
Julie Lowell is a policy analyst at Public Assets Institute in Vermont, where she focuses on researching and advocating for state systems that ensure all people can meet their basic needs, and to right historic and current racial, gender, and ability injustices impacting the community. She joined the Public Assets team after working for over a decade in Chicago, Oregon, and Vermont with survivors of domestic violence, families experiencing homelessness, and women in the criminal justice system, and seeing the many challenges people face accessing resources and navigating through crises.
Travis Poulin is the Community Action Network Director for the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity (CVOEO). Travis has worked with CVOEO for the past 30 years, focusing on hunger relief, housing, fuel and utility, and free income tax preparation through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.
Liz Scharf is the Director of Community Economic Development and Food Security at Capstone Community Action. She is an AFCPE® Accredited Financial Counselor® and an Advanced Level Certified IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) preparer. Liz has worked at Capstone for 9 years and currently oversees the Economic Development programming at Capstone including the VITA program.
65% of Vermonters lack access to paid family and medical leave today, yet every single one of us can benefit from it during the course of our lives. What might a universal, equitable paid family and medical leave program look like? Join local and national experts and impacted community members to discuss the transformational potential of a universal PFML program in Vermont and the campaign to make it a reality.
Register now to join live or access the recording: https://bit.ly/3EiyPdZ
Universal Basic Income (UBI) has become a flashpoint for discussions about the value of cash supports. Join Voices and local and national experts to explore what a UBI program for Foster Youth in Vermont might look like.
You may have heard the phrase “poverty is a policy choice,” but when it comes to the lives of children and families in Vermont, what does it really mean? Throughout the month of January, Voices will host a free series of reflective conversations to help illuminate and demystify Reach Up, Vermont’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.
During these discussions, we’ll work to uncover the structural underpinnings and real consequences of a Reach Up policy that shapes the lives and opportunities of 5,000 to 8,000 children in Vermont each month. We’ll hear from individuals with lived experience and direct experience working with the system and trying to change it. And we’ll work together to envision how Vermont can repair the harm caused by poverty and move toward a practice that truly meets the current mission of ensuring that every child’s basic needs are met. The legislative session is here and there's never been a better time to start engaging with the policies that shape children's ability to thrive. Register today!
Session 1: What is Reach Up? An exploration of Vermont’s TANF Program(Thursday, January 12th, 12 -1 pm): Vermonters value ensuring children’s needs are met, yet families accessing Reach Up currently receive less than half of a subsistence budget, and are significantly restricted in their ability to access additional funds. How did this come to be? Join us for a dive into the historical context around TANF programs in the United States as we uncover the unjust foundations of Reach Up’s past as part of a greater effort to create a more just future. Featuring Felicia Kornbluh, writer, activist, and professor specializing in the histories of feminism, gender, social welfare, and reproductive politics at the University of Vermont. Among other The Battle for Welfare Rights: Poverty and Politics in Modern America, Dr. Donna Pavetti, senior fellow at the center on budget and policy priorities and leading expert on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and Olivia Graffeo-Cohen, staff attorney at Vermont Legal Aid.
Session 2: Reach Up Today (Thursday, Jan 19, 12-1 pm): - Despite its impact on the lives of thousands of children in Vermont, our Reach Up program can feel impenetrable. During this discussion, we’ll explore the way in which current benefits impact families and child well-being and listen to stories of what it means to have the program designed the way it is.
Session 3: The Future of Reach Up in VT (Thursday, Jan 26, 12-1 pm) - There is broad recognition that if Reach Up is going to meet its mandate to ensure the basic needs of all children are met, it needs to change. Yet many questions remain- what does justice for families look like, and how can we avoid the many pitfalls of a partially-funded program? Join us to collectively vision how Reach-Up might effectively and equitably meet the needs of Vermont families.
