PathWays PA Policy Blog

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) , originally passed by Congress in 1998 and never reauthorized, provides a framework for a national workforce preparation and employment system. Improvements on the law are long overdue. One bill, H.R. 803 passed the House by a vote of 215-202. The Supporting Knowledge and Investing in Lifelong Skills (SKILLS) Act (H.R. 803) would narrow the range of perspectives on state and local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) by focusing on the representation of businesses with immediate and long-term employment opportunities in industries that are in demand and by eliminating requirements that boards include those involved in one-stop delivery or education and training on a day-to-day basis. The SKILLS Act does not meet the needs of different job seekers. The SKILLS Act weakens workforce investment with every amendment it makes. Considering the high rates of joblessness in the United States, we need to invest wisely in the American workforce now more t...

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On Friday, June 28 at 11AM, PathWays PA, Chester Mayor John Linder, and other Delaware County elected officials will celebrate the opening of our new Transitional Learning Program (TLP) located at 419 Avenue of the States in Chester. TLP provides furnished apartments for homeless young women over an 18-month period while they continue their education, maintain a job or receive skills training. Group and individual counseling to pregnant adolescents and teen moms between the ages of 16 and 21 is also available. TLP assists young women in their transition to independence and is available to those who are not clients of the child welfare or juvenile justice system. Post discharge, PathWays PA provides aftercare services to all young women and their children for up to one year. Please join us for this special day. If you have any questions, please email Diana Marques .

20% of the child care subsidy funding has been cut over the last two years. Without additional funding, thousands of low-income parents have no opportunity to afford adequate child care. Currently, the waiting list for subsidized child care is at more than 8,000 children waiting eight months or more. The full increase in funding would reduce the waiting list for quality child care by 1,400 children.  Additional funds will also ensure more at-risk children can participate in high-quality child care programs through Keystone STARS. Currently, only 20% of children in subsidized child care attend the highest quality STAR 3 and 4 provider. The Senate will take up the budget this week. Ask them to restore $3 million to the child care services appropriation.

Public Citizens for Children and Youth (PCCY) will rally at the Harrisburg Capitol tomorrow at 1PM to ask the Legislature to fund public schools. PCCY is asking for an additional $120 million for Philadelphia public schools in order to avoid enacting the "doomsday budget" that the School Reform Commission (SRC) passed earlier this month. Click here to get on the bus or call Shanee Garner at PCCY 215-563-5848 x36 ( shaneeg@pccy.org ) for more information. If you can't make it tomorrow, contact your elected officials and ask for their support!

In less than two weeks, unless Congress acts, student loan rates will double on July 1st. This will put college out of reach for thousands of young people. Congress has yet to vote on Sen. Elizabeth Warren's solution ; loan students money at the same rate big banks get from the Federal Reserve Bank. It's fair and a good investment. The Senate is currently gridlocked on the issue, and the House passed a bill linking loans to the market which will make the problem worse. Your help is needed to assist future college students. Ask Congress to vote on Senator Warren's Student Loan Fairness Act!

Meals on Wheels provides over 1 million meals to seniors each day, but thousands of homebound seniors may not get a hot meal because Congress has cut funding for Meals on Wheels as part of the sequester. For millions of seniors, Social Security isn't enough to lift them out of poverty and hunger. In the past decade, there was a 78 percent increase in senior hunger. Please  ask Congress to restore funding to Meals on Wheels!

The Greensgrow Philadelphia Project will be putting efforts into its annual initiative, Local Initiative for Food Education  (LIFE), to provide low income Philadelphians with access to locally grown fruits and vegetables. Starting July 18th, the new “SNAP Box” program  allows SNAP beneficiaries to use their benefits to pay for 5-8 produce items each week at a substantially reduced cost. To enroll, email: SNAPbox@greensgrow.org or call the SNAP Box hotline at (267) 496-0148. Pickups for the SNAP boxes will run in three four-week sessions throughout the summer, with the other two start dates being August.

Your help is needed to lobby Congress to exempt VOCA, the Victims of Crime Act, from federal sequestration. VOCA is a non-taxpayer fund that does not contribute to the national debt. It is estimated that cuts to VOCA will result in 785,000 victims annually, not being able to receive the services they need! This includes victims of domestic violence. Domestic violence agencies, including Women in Transition, depend on the VOCA to assist women. Please contact your member of Congress and ask them to sponsor H.R. 2238 to exempt VOCA from federal sequestration.

PathWays PA, and other members of the Better Choices for Better Choices for Pennsylvania Coalition will hold a media event on Friday to send a clear message to state legislators: we need to reinvest in our schools and communities - we can't afford new tax cuts this year. Friday, June 21 at 11 AM Delaware County Courthouse 201 W. Front St., Media Please RSVP to Kate Atkins at Atkins@pennbpc.org , and please share this invitation widely. For more information about this effort please visit www.betterchoicesforPA.com .

Tomorrow, the House is expected to take up its Farm Bill and your help is needed protecting SNAP from proposed cuts - cuts that would cause 2 million individuals to lose their benefits entirely, 210,000 children to lose free school meals, and 850,000 households to see their benefits cut by an average $90 per month. Join advocates from across the country and call your member of Congress and urge him/her to support and protect SNAP. Pick up the phone, dial 866-527-1087 and urge your Member of Congress to speak out in support of SNAP and vote against any harmful amendments to SNAP funding.

On Wednesday, June 19 from 2PM-3:30PM join CLASP for a webinar and conversation with Enroll America and Young Invincibles , two leading organizations raising awareness about the potential impact of ACA on community college students across the country. On the webinar, you will learn about:   New health coverage options available to students   Resources and potential partners that can help you connect with students   Strategies for developing effective and doable outreach campaigns to connect with as many community college students as possible.   Register Here

The Autism Services, Education, Resources, and Training Collaborative (ASERT) has created a new one-stop website. It is funded by the Bureau of Autism Services, Office of Developmental Programs, Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. The goal of the ASERT Collaborative is to provide streamlined access to information for the estimated 30,000 Pennsylvanians living with autism. Please visit www.paautism.org to see all the resources available for the autism community in Pennsylvania.

In the wake of the recent building collapse tragedy that has taken the lives of 6 people, Philly DoGooder feels a responsibility to support those affected and is asking the community to help. Memorial Services are expensive and can go into the thousands of dollars. Help Philly DoGooder raise $12,000, $2,000 per victim, to help ease the cost and pain for the family and give them the space to breath through this tragedy. Please make a contribution today.

The last free brown bag lunch series hosted by Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds-Brown will be tomorrow at 12PM in the City Council Caucus Room on the 4th floor. The theme for the lunch will be "Work Life Balance", a discussion led by working women who multi-task responsibilities in the office, at home and in the board room. Please RSVP to Katherine J. Gilmore at (215) 686-3438 or katherine.gilmore@phila.gov .

The Cover the Commonwealth Campaign, a coalition of over 100 organizations, will be holding a rally in Harrisburg at the Capitol on Wednesday at 1PM to highlight "Lives on the Line" in the fight for Medicaid Expansion. The rally will be a collection of stories of photos of everyday Pennsylvanians who would benefit from Medicaid expansion in PA. You can RSVP for the event here . You can also participate on social media sharing campaign photos on Facebook and tweets with the #LivesontheLine on Wednesday!

Celebrate with Logan CDC tomorrow, June 11th at 11am at the Logan branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia located at 1333 Wagner Ave for a check presentation and kick-off event for the Logan neighborhood planning process which will rehab homes in the area. Funding for this plan is provided by the Wells Fargo Regional Foundation. See the flyer or call (215) 302-1604 to RSVP.

A proposed bill in Congress called the Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act , or STOP Act, would create an independent, professional office in the military to investigate, and prosecute sexual assault, instead of leaving the decisions in the hands of commanders who can act at their own discretion. The STOP Act would still keep the authority over sexual assault cases in the military-just not in the hands of individual commanders who are not trained to handle these cases. Nearly 3,200 cases of sexual assault in the military were reported in 2010, yet the Department of Defense estimates the actual number of assaults to be 19,000 since most cases are never reported. Please urge your representative to cosponsor the STOP Act (H.R. 1593) and fundamentally change how sexual assault is handled in the military.

Here is a disturbing fact: The Equal Pay Act was passed 50 years ago this June and yet, five decades later women still earn, on average, 23 percent less than men earn for the same work. Moms and women of color experience even bigger wage hits. Here's what's happening: In 2013 even after controlling for education, work experience, and occupation, the U.S. Census found that women who worked full-time, year-round on average still made 23 cents less for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. And, the wage gap for women of color was even more staggering than for women overall: When Black and Hispanic women work full-time, year-round, they only make 64 and 55 cents, respectively, for every dollar their white, non-Hispanic male counterparts earn. Since over 80% of women in our nation have children by the time they're 44 years old, this means the majority of women in our nation are touched by this type of wage discrimination at some point in their lives.  Tell Cong...

For more information and to RSVP, please visit  http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4357573620 .

Last week Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD)introduced the Half in Ten Act of 2013, calling for poverty reduction to be a national priority. The bill creates a coordinated effort across federal departments and offices to cut poverty in half in 10 years and eliminate child poverty and extreme poverty in the United States. The Half in Ten Act of 2013 will help to mobilize public and political will toward our shared goal of dramatically cutting poverty over the next decade, and we must seize the opportunity! Please ask your member of Congress to support the Half in Ten Act of 2013 and demand greater opportunity for all!