National Outreach Event with Barbara Ehrenreich

Now that the November election is over, Congress has a lot of work to get done before the end of the year. Your advocacy will be critical to protect low-income working families around the country. Without a strong voice urging Congress to preserve vital services like the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly Food Stamps), they could disappear for millions of struggling families. 

To build support for this effort, RESULTS hosted a national outreach event with renowned author and activist Barbara Ehrenreich on Saturday, November 10, 2012. Ms. Ehrenreich has written extensively about low-income families in America. In her book Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich spent time working in low-wage jobs to investigate what life was like for the working poor. Currently, she is a regular columnist with The Progressive and has also written for Time Magazine, The New York Times, Mother Jones, The Atlantic Monthly, Ms, New Republic, Z Magazine, In These Times, Salon.com, and other publications.

This was an informative and inspiring call and we thank everyone who dialed in to learn more about the importance of speaking up on behalf of people living in poverty. If you were not able to join us, you can listen to a recording of the call on the RESULTS website. You can also download the PowerPoint slides we used during the call (pdf) as well as a summary of the call (Word).

Take Action Now!

To keep the momentum going from our November 10 conference call, here are some things you can do to stay engaged.

• Join the Next RESULTS Introductory Call. If you are new to RESULTS, we urge you to join one of our RESULTS Introductory Calls. These 30-45 minute calls are perfect for people looking to be inspired about advocacy and learn more about RESULTS. The  November calls are on Wednesday, November 14 at 9 pm ET and Friday, November 30 at 1 pm ET. You can register for an upcoming call at http://tinyurl.com/RESULTSMeetandGreet. 
  
• Participate in the November 13 RESULTS Call-in Day. To build support for protecting the EITC and CTC in upcoming budget/deficit reduction negotiations, REUSLTS is urging people to call their House and Senate offices on Tuesday, November 13 and tell their representatives and senators to protect the EITC and CTC.  Without a strong push, these critical supports could get sacrificed in the name of deficit reduction. Download our Tax Credit Call-in flyer for talking points and contact information for your calls. If you cannot call tomorrow, please send an e-mail to your members of Congress telling them to protect the EITC and CTC using RESULTS' online e-mail alert.
  
• Take the RESULTS U.S. Poverty November Action. 

  For those who have worked with Congressional offices before or those of you wanting to do more, we urge you to call and talk directly with the tax aides in your House and Senate offices about protecting the EITC and CTC. The aides in Washington, DC are the policy people and the gatekeepers of information, so talking and getting to know them is very important. Use the RESULTS U.S. Poverty November 2012 Action sheet for talking points and  state-by-state data on the impact on families and children if improvements to the EITC and CTC expire.

If you have questions or need coaching in taking these actions, please contact Meredith Dodson (dodson@results.org) or Jos Linn (jlinn@results.org) of the RESULTS U.S. Poverty staff.

Resources for RESULTS Groups Hosting Events

Below are resources to help RESULTS groups and others host outreach events around our November 10 National Conference Call with Barbara Ehrenreich. We will leave these resources available in case groups want to download and tailor them for other outreach events they have planned or to send some of these resources to those who came to their event.

Materials to help you prepare for and promote your event:

• October Action sheet 
• Recording of our October 2012 National Conference Call: Engaging New Advocates through Outreach with Mark Reynolds, Citizens Climate Lobby, and the October 2012 U.S. Poverty Conference Call Slides

   

• Outreach laser talk 
• Outreach flyer
• Facebook event -- which your group can tailor to include information about your local event
• Sample e-mail invite (see below)

Materials to have at your event:

• Tax Credit Call-in flyer to give out at your meeting, or tailor the Word version to urge others to directly call your policymakers.
• RESULTS Participation Form to sign up new group members, action network members, and donors

• Outreach Brochure you can personalize for your group

• Outreach Event PowerPoint Slides (pdf)

Sample E-mail Invite

Dear ___,

How are you? I wanted to let you know about a very cool event our local RESULTS group is organizing in a few weeks. Our local RESULTS group is organizing a houseparty on Saturday, November 10, to participate in a national conference call with the author Barbara Ehrenreich. As you may know, Ehrenreich is an author, journalist, and activist who is very outspoken about the plight of low-income working Americans – you might have read her work in various magazines or read her best seller Nickel and Dimed, which recounts her going undercover as a low-wage worker in various cities.

Ehrenreich will talk to us about her past work and her new project, which is focused on raising awareness of poverty in the media. We’ll then discuss the importance of folks like you and me pushing our elected leaders to address poverty in America, especially with so much at stake for low-income families when Congress comes back after the elections. Our local RESULTS group is meeting from 12-2 on November 10 at ________________ and [attached is a flyer/see our Facebook event (you can tailor http://bit.ly/RESULTSbarbara to create your own)] for more details.

It would mean a lot to me if you could join us. What do you think?

Take care,

________