SNAP, school lunch, summer meals and other nutrition assistance programs are all essential to ensuring millions of low-income families can get the nutrition they need when they fall on hard times. Yet these programs and the people they serve are not always well understood by both the public and elected officials. We have seen proposals to cut or restrict access to these programs arise in Congress and in statehouses across the nation.

Fight back and educate policymakers by sharing your story about your experience with nutrition assistance programs. The campaign ends July 17th – be sure to make your voice heard!

SHARE YOUR STORY

As a part of the campaign, four people who participate by sharing their story and personal experience will have the opportunity to have their expenses paid to come to Washington, D.C., to share their message in a day of action: meetings with officials, members of the media, and advocates. If you work or volunteer for a service agency, community group, or congregation, you can help by encouraging people who have used nutrition programs to share their story.

If you have any questions about the campaign, check out our Campaign Toolkit (PDF). You can also email Michael Richardson at [email protected] or call at (202) 390-2702.

A project of the Center for American Progress

Twelve AmeriCorps members made public presentations of their learning and leadership experience.

MIAMI – On June 22 and 23, Catalyst Miami hosted the AmeriCorps Public Allies Presentations of Learning at Jungle Island in Miami. During the two-day event, twelve Public Allies made public declarations of how they made a difference in South Florida and grew as leaders before an audience of nonprofit colleagues, friends, family, and prospective Public Allies.

Speakers at this event included The Children's Trust CEO Charles Auslander, introductions from Opa-Locka Community Development Corporation, Florida Immigrant Coalition, The University of Miami, The Children's Movement of Florida, and more. Public Allies Miami received a proclamation in honor of the 8th local graduating class from Miami-Dade County Commissioner, Audrey M. Edmonson, naming Tuesday, June 23, 2015 “Public Allies Miami Day.”

Public Allies are local young adults who are devoted to making a difference in South Florida. Their 10-month apprenticeships at local nonprofit organizations allow them to hone their leadership skills while gaining meaningful professional experience. Graduating AmeriCorps Public Ally, Kareena Rozier, said, "I now have a deeper understanding of the connections that hold us together and the factors that drive us apart. Of the work I’ve done recently, I feel most confident about becoming a more committed, passionate, and engaged community member."

Public Allies' mission is to advance new leadership to strengthen communities, nonprofits and civic participation. Public Allies is changing the face and practice of leadership in communities across the country by demonstrating our conviction that everyone can lead, and that lasting social change results when citizens of all backgrounds
step up, take responsibility, and work together.

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Catalyst Miami is a nonprofit organization aiming to build a just and equitable Miami where all residents are meaningfully engaged. Our programs and services empower families and strengthen our communities. Follow us @CatalystMiami.

From Americans for Financial Reform:

Congressional sign on letter in the house supporting rules on payday lenders to close THIS FRIDAY, JUNE 19TH!

That means this is our last week to hit our goal of 100 Members of Congress signed on to the letters--to do that we need 67 House members to sign on. Conveniently, that would also make this letter a bit bigger than a previous House letter supporting rules on payday lenders for military families (so momentum heads in the right direction)! So, this week we need to go from 35 to 67 signers--everyone needs to contact their house members so we can achieve this.

Below are some helpful materials:

• Contact information for appropriate staffers is here: http://bit.ly/1ED20iS (You can also see whether your members have signed in support of other payday reforms)
• The House letter is available here: http://1drv.ms/1Qne67I
• To sign on offices can contact Cahavious English in Representative Sewell's office: [email protected] or 202-226-1973

Contact: Carla Moreira Strickland

Twelve AmeriCorps members made public presentations of their learning and leadership experience.

MIAMI – On June 22 and 23, Catalyst Miami hosted the AmeriCorps Public Allies Presentations of Learning at Jungle Island in Miami. During the two-day event, twelve Public Allies made public declarations of how they made a difference in South Florida and grew as leaders before an audience of nonprofit colleagues, friends, family, and prospective Public Allies.

Speakers at this event included The Children's Trust CEO Charles Auslander, introductions from Opa-Locka Community Development Corporation, Florida Immigrant Coalition, The University of Miami, The Children's Movement of Florida, and more. Public Allies Miami received a proclamation in honor of the 8th local graduating class from Miami-Dade County Commissioner, Audrey M. Edmonson.

Public Allies are local young adults who are devoted to making a difference in South Florida. Their 10-month apprenticeships at local nonprofit organizations allow them to hone their leadership skills while gaining meaningful professional experience. Graduating AmeriCorps Public Ally, Kareena Rozier, said, "I now have a deeper understanding of the connections that hold us together and the factors that drive us apart. Of the work I’ve done recently, I feel most confident about becoming a more committed, passionate, and engaged community member."

Public Allies' mission is to advance new leadership to strengthen communities, nonprofits and civic participation. Public Allies is changing the face and practice of leadership in communities across the country by demonstrating our conviction that everyone can lead, and that lasting social change results when citizens of all backgrounds step up, take responsibility, and work together.

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Catalyst Miami is a nonprofit organization aiming to build a just and equitable Miami where all residents are meaningfully engaged. Our programs and services empower families and strengthen our communities. Follow us @CatalystMiami.

By: Roderick King

In recent months, the nightly news opens with stories of crime, violence, poverty and disparity in America’s cities and then, quite often, right before signing off, it presents a somewhat lighter feature giving us ways to improve our health. Paradoxically, the network news giants are failing to highlight the connection between how the violence in our cities is affecting our population’s health.

As early as 1979, the U.S. Surgeon General’s report, Healthy People, stated that the consequences of violent behavior must be addressed as a matter of public health policy.

Evidence shows that exposure to direct or indirect violence has serious health consequences beyond obvious crime-related factors of injury and death. (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 2011).

As public health professionals, we recite the mantra that our health is determined by where we live, learn, work and play. And to our credit, public health works with community development to create healthy spaces, farmers markets and playgrounds. However, if our neighborhoods are not safe, what kind of lasting impact can we expect to achieve?

This is the challenge Liberty City in Miami is facing. Homicide rates increased 40 percent from 2011 to 2013. A 10-year-old boy was recently released from the hospital after being shot in the leg while riding his bike in the Liberty Square recreational center. A grandmother was killed when a gunman fired into a small crowd outside a Liberty City store. And a well-known pastor was gunned down for a handful of money and a gold-plated chain.

The Florida Institute for Health Innovation, Miami Children’s Initiative, the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County, Jackson Health System, Catalyst Miami, the Jesse Trice Community Health Center have come together to address crime and violence in Liberty City as an upstream factor that is keeping people sick. This initiative, “Building a Healthy and Resilient Liberty City” is one of 18 American neighborhood projects selected by the BUILD Health Challenge to develop innovative approaches to improve community health.

The BUILD Health Challenge, a national award created jointly by the Advisory Board Company, the de Beaumont Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Colorado Health Foundation, encourages communities to build meaningful partnerships between hospitals and health systems, community-based organizations and local health departments to improve the health of local populations by addressing the factors that lead to poor health.

Using a data-driven, results-based approach to collaborative leadership, the Florida Institute for Health Innovation is bringing to Liberty City a framework for collective action that has been used successfully to reduce infant mortality in Baltimore and with the California Endowment’s Boys and Men of Color initiative which was the foundation for President Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper.”

Miami Children’s Initiative will use its “block-by-block” approach with residents to drive planning for results. Catalyst Miami will provide Liberty City parents with leadership training to build community capacity for resident-driven collective action.

The Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County, Jessie Trice Community Health Center and Jackson Health Systems work collaboratively, contributing data and strategies, as part of a year-long planning project for a safer and healthier Liberty City.

Through the power of collaboration, healthy changes are on agenda for the people of Liberty City. Our goal is to make positive headways, not negative headlines.

For more information on the Florida Institute for Health Innovation:http://flhealthinnovation.org/

Email: [email protected]

For more information on Building a Healthy Liberty City:

http://flhealthinnovation.org/build-health-challenge/

For more information on the Miami Children’s Initiative:

http://www.miamichildrensinitiative.org/

For more information on the Build Health Challenge Awards:http://www.buildhealthchallenge.org/awards/

DR. RODERICK K. KING IS CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE FLORIDA INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH INNOVATION. IT WAS FOUNDED IN 2001 AS THE MIAMI DADE COUNTY PUBLIC HEALTH INSTITUTE AND LATER REINCORPORATED AND MOVED TO LAKE WORTH.

By: Chabeli Herrera

A Liberty City neighborhood project to reduce crime and improve health outcomes won anational award Tuesday along with 17 other projects nationwide that take an innovative approach to improving community health.

“Building a Healthy and Resilient Liberty City,” a collaboration between the Florida Institute for Health Innovation, the Miami Children’s Initiative, Catalyst Miami, the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County and the Jackson Health System, won a $75,000 grant in the first BUILD Health Challenge, a national award created by various health foundations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Cecilia Gutierrez, CEO of the Miami Children’s Initiative, said Liberty City has some of the worst health statistics in Miami-Dade County, high rates of crime.

About half of all Liberty City students say they feel unsafe on their way to and from school, Gutierrez said in a statement.

To improve community safety, the project will work directly with Liberty City residents, train parents to adopt leadership skills and use population data to identify better health outcomes.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Chairman Jean Monestime said the project will help curb the violence in Liberty City from within.

“By focusing on the health effects of an unsafe community, we will engage a new set of partners with an interest in creating an environment where our children and families can thrive,” Monestime said in a statement.

Follow @MHhealth for health news from South Florida and around the nation. This story was produced in collaboration with Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

2007 Health care costly for insured families