Dear POWER Supporter,
We hope you will join us as we march to Washington’s state capitol on Monday, January 21st, MLK Day, to impress on our state legislators the need for laws which alleviate our community’s suffering from poverty, unjust immigration enforcement, homelessness, lack of access to nutritious food and inequality. We will be holding a candlelight vigil on the capitol steps.
As we enter a new year, with those who rely on governmental checks living in fear of losing everything, we will continue POWER’s important work of building a community that raises awareness and supports one another to advocate for our rights. We hope you are able to make a donation of time or money to support our work.
In 2018 we continued to provide information to members through our advocacy hotline, fueling our frustrations with a system that provides families with benefits that are 30% of the federal poverty level while finding the funds to pursue a fraud case against a single mother of 5. We provided welfare witnesses to a family with a CPS home visit, a mama with an intimidating landlord and a pregnant woman with a doctor she felt looked down on her because she was low income and disabled. We supported a mother who is not only taking care of her own children, but their CPS placed siblings, who was denied benefits for those children! She won her hearing and the subsequent appeal by DSHS.
We held our monthly POWER Outage with skill shares on crafting, gardening, labor history and telling our stories. We had speakers from the Missing Middle, Thurston Housing Land Trust and the Washington Anti Hunger and Nutrition Coalition. We held our annual Mama Care Fair in May, our cook out in August and our Voter Roundtable in November.
Alchemilla, our Feminist Economic Collaborative, continues to maintain a co-share office space and art gallery at POWER, created fun spring and fall Arts Walk events and a Winter Bazaar, while holding a weekly pop up market over the summer and fall. Alchemilla partnered again with Helsing Junction Farm to provide affordable CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) fruit and vegetable boxes which could be purchased with food benefits through their cooperation with the Farm Fresh Food for Healthy Kids study.
POWER continues to be a great place for volunteers to build skills and connect with community. Long-time POWER volunteer and Alchemilla member, Laura Downing continues to grow in her professional development and social justice values. “I don’t know where I would be without POWER. They have given me so many opportunities to learn how to wear different hats. I’ve done everything from organizing projects, to advocacy, to sitting on the Board. I’ve made many dear friends and developed the confidence to go back to college. I will never forget the kindness of this organization and will always be a POWER member, standing unwaveringly in solidarity with their cause. I can’t think of a more worthy organization to donate to. We contribute so much to the social and financial development of individuals in our community. ”
Sincerely,
POWER’s Board of Directors
Monica Peabody
Jen Witherspoon
Mischa Gilrean
Laura Studebaker
Cat Sullivan
Bunny Boid
Mary Vent