December 2009 Edition |
| Moving Forward! by Leslie Moody, The Partnership for Working Families Executive Director What a year it has been! Across our network, Partners are bringing communities together to fight for real change, and scaling up to effect major policy changes to improve the lives of thousands of workers and their families. Time and again we are realigning our regions around a shared, big picture vision: that by lifting up workers, communities and the environment together we can achieve shared prosperity and sustainability for our cities and country. |
| Poverty Day 2009 by Sebrina Owens-Wilson, Partnership Policy and Research Specialist New data reveals that working families were hit hard by the current economic crisis. Unfortunately, as unemployment rates continue to rise and incomes fall as a result of eight years of policies that hurt working families, we have only begun to see the full implications of the recession. This fall, eight organizations in The Partnership for Working Families network released reports on new data from the American Community Survey (ACS) on poverty, income and earnings. |
 | Green Justice Coalition Victory!
$1.4 Billion Energy Efficiency Plan Will Revive Working-Class Neighborhoods by Community Labor United On October 27, 2009 Massachusetts adopted a $1.4 billion plan that will a) cut greenhouse gas emissions; b) create high-quality jobs in the state's highest-unemployment communities; and c) provide up-front financing so low-to moderate-income residents can save money and do deep retrofits on their homes. This is a victory for CLU's Green Justice Coalition, a community-labor-environmental alliance that is less than a year old. |
 | Learning Green Skills on the Path to Middle-Class Careers by Center on Policy Initiatives CPI released a report in September linking quality apprenticeship programs in the building trades to the future of California's green economy and economic recovery. The report, Construction Apprenticeship Programs: Career Training for California's Recovery, demonstrates that apprenticeship training is most effective when run collaboratively by labor and management. |
 | Good Jobs as a Violence Prevention Strategy in Oakland by East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy EBASE’s newest report, co-published with the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the Urban Peace Movement, is entitled Good Jobs, Safe Streets: How Economic Recovery Can Lead to Community Safety in Oakland. The report makes the case that good jobs matter more in reducing future criminal involvement for those who are most “at-risk." |
| Partnership Groups Convene on Equitable Transit and TOD by Robin Kneich, FRESC: Good Jobs-Strong Communities With increased attention on global warming and a financial pinch on the ability of working families to afford cars, there is a growing movement to increase our local and national commitment to mass transit. Forward-thinking Partnership cities Atlanta, Denver, San Jose and Seattle are in the midst of large, new transit expansions which will channel billions of dollars of investment into our communities and create thousands of new jobs. |
 | Realizing a New Vision for Fort McPherson by Melissa Conrad, Georgia STAND-UP Imagine 500 acres in the middle of your neighborhood that could become anything you want it to be. That’s the question Georgia STAND-UP posed to over 150 community members at Fiske Elementary School in southwest Atlanta last August. |
 | LAANE Helps Bring Family Healthcare to Thousands of LAX Workers by Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy In a sweeping victory for working families, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously last month to make a long-overdue update to the city’s living wage ordinance. This update will raise the living wage in order to provide access to quality family healthcare for thousands of private sector LAX airline service workers. A year in the making, the vote amends the living wage to provide an increase to the healthcare allotment, meaning that families who have never had private healthcare will now be able to seek medical treatment and care. |
| Sonoma’s Living Wage Coalition Is Leading the Way towards Standards and Accountability by Ben Boyce, New Economy Working Solutions NEWS’ community project, the Living Wage Coalition (LWC), is moving forward on several fronts. We are now well into the negotiations with the developers of the Railroad Square project, a mixed-use, transit-oriented development that will serve as the main hub of the newly approved SMART (Sonoma Marin Rapid Transit) passenger train line. |
 | Transit-Oriented Development in the Platinum Triangle Serves as Catalyst for Community Action by Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development For years, the planning process in Anaheim has excluded the voices of low income, immigrant communities. As a result, Anaheim’s working families find themselves trapped in a perpetual cycle of poverty, as elected officials fail to address their concerns. To break this cycle, OCCORD, working with the Community Benefits Coalition and a committee of neighborhood leaders, has crafted a new, community-based plan to ensure that working families will benefit from economic development in Anaheim’s Platinum Triangle, the city’s largest new development area. |
 | Green Jobs Partnership Celebrates First Training Graduates in Seattle by David West, Puget Sound Sage Puget Sound Sage’s year-long green jobs campaign reached two milestones today: 1) A first-ever class of weatherization installers has completed the Laborers’ Union new weatherization training program located in the Seattle area, a majority of whom were young adults of color; and 2) The City of Seattle announced new contractor standards to ensure that new weatherization trainees will find jobs through the City’s low-income weatherization program. |
| Sage Survey: Residents Say the Port of Seattle Is Making Them Sick by Puget Sound Sage According to a recent survey, a majority of residents living in neighborhoods bordering the Port of Seattle believe trucks and other Port of Seattle operations are making them ill. As part of the Washington Coalition for Clean and Safe Ports, Puget Sound Sage conducted a door-to-door health survey over the course of the summer in the neighborhoods that border the Port of Seattle—Georgetown and South Park. |
| Revising the City’s Competition Policy by Working Partnerships USA On October 20, 2009, the San Jose City Council approved two policies that together constitute one of the most comprehensive frameworks in the nation for controlling the outsourcing of local government functions and services to private contractors. |
