Board Bios

 

Cat Sullivan has been a low-income worker for over 30 years. She has also been a welfare recipient. As an older woman who straddled the advent of more women in the workforce from a time when many women stayed home and raised their children, Cat knew of those two worlds, their differences and what was good and bad about both. She can testify from personal experience as a low-income worker, as a parent, and welfare recipient because she has lived them all well as being an organizer and an activist.

For over 18 year Cat has known and worked with the community of organizers who have worked to eradicate poverty. She successfully fought for, got an education ,and earned two degrees through the WorkFirst Program. She is passionately supportive of allowing all low income women (and men) to obtain a higher education or skill according to their abilities and desires and to eradicate the rampant racism and sexism that prevents such education that she has witnessed with her own eyes.

Cat is also a passionate support for raising our society’s consciousness around the sexist and racist attitudes in our society, especially for the lack of support for raising children. She tries to live her life as well as speak to changing things so that no matter who you are and your circumstances, parenting and care giving is considered work that contributes to and is worthy of our community’s and government’s support. She has worked for years on raising the conscience of legislators, policy makers, citizens, and other organizers to promote these things by writing and speaking to them.

Cat lives in the Seattle area and has served on the following organizations as board member. Lake City Christian Church Elder, Diaconate and Board member, Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition Board Member, Headstart Parent Board, part founder of POWER and part of the Lake City Homeless Coalition. Cat wants to serve on POWER’s board because she is a passionate supporter and believes in the people and policies around POWER’s mission and work, which coincide with her own work. It means more to her than any other work she has done except perhaps parenting her kids. This is why POWER is so important and a strong voice to speak for those who have few to speak for them.


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Laura Downing has been a member P.O.W.E.R. since its beginning and a member of WROC since the early 2000s. As a differently-abled low-income woman, she has found a home and purpose as a P.O.W.E.R. volunteer, member and ally. Since she was introduced to the organization and welfare rights movement in general, she has been a witness to the hassles and struggles low-income families face whether in or out of the welfare system as well as their strengths and unique amazingness as human beings. She is in awe of what it must take. She has grown in her willingness to listen and stands in deep empathy solidarity with low-income families.

Over the years, Laura has gotten to know and become friends with many of the families involved in P.O.W.E.R. She has really enjoyed working with parents and children on the Sock Monkey for Social Justice Project and other craft projects at P.O.W.E.R. She has done advocacy, organizing, office work, attended countless workshops and meetings, childcare, written legislative letters, made signs, and much more for P.O.W.E.R. She feels her volunteer work is win-win between her and the organization.

In her free time, Laura enjoys painting, drawing, knitting, listening to jazz, and sharing good times and humor with friends and family.

 


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Kevette Palmas -has been a resident of Olympia by way of Detroit, MI for quite some time now and has felt an outpouring of love for and from her home away from home. Being family and community centered, Kevette found great comradery and an improved sense of self since joining P.O.W.E.R. in 2021. Coming from a low income background herself, Kevette champions for the plights of her fellow working class folks just trying to survive in todays dubious economy. 

In her time with P.O.W.E.R., Kevette has broadened her abilities as a freelance artist via her participation in ARTS WALK and now even helps with the Sock Monkey’s for Social Justice Workshops and the various rallies and events P.O.W.E.R. engage with.

 


Azure McCormick -bio coming soon 


Shelly Robbins is a former AFDC recipient. Shelly earned their B.A. as a participant in WA State Family Independence Program, a program that encouraged self-determination and education for AFDC recipients. After graduating from college Shelly was hired by Solo Parenting Alliance to develop a program to create Mutual Support Groups for single, custodial parents. Shelly created 8 groups in the Greater Seattle Area that supported 200 parents. Shelly went on to create their own company, The QuickSource Inc, which employed 8 people in a flexible working environment that allowed parents to schedule their work around school breaks so their employees could be more available to their children. Shelly continues to work in their company part-time, and volunteers at POWER to affect legislation that impacts single custodial parents with limited incomes.


Monica Peabody is the proud mother of an incredible daughter born in 1990. A single mother shortly after her daughter’s birth, she got to experience our society’s lack of support and disrespect for single mothers first hand. A committed breast-feeder, Monica was often made to feel that even that was an act of defiance. Raising a child during the passage of welfare reform made an avid activist of Monica. She joined the policy committee of the Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition (WROC) when her daughter was a preschooler and they began to protest and lobby to end poverty. When she moved to Olympia from Seattle in 1995, she was shocked to discover there was no welfare rights organization. After multiple conversations with parents who were being told they had to quit college and go find low-wage work, they started organizing and held their first welfare rights meeting in Olympia in 1997. Monica accepted a VISTA position with WROC in 1998 so she could quit cleaning houses and organize full time. Although the VISTA stipend is considered poverty wages, it was more than twice her welfare grant. What’s unbelievable is that a welfare grant is smaller today than hers was 20 years ago. Watching more and more families falling into poverty and being disregarded by our society is heartbreaking, yet makes the work toward building resistance all the more crucial. Monica also works at the Olympia Food Cooperative. She plays and teaches old-time banjo.


In Memoriam

Jennifer Roberts volunteered with WROC and POWER for a long time.  She loved the work of POWER.  She knew that poverty is not a choice, it happens to you.  She gained an incredible amount of knowledge  volunteering.  She wanted to help in the fight to eradicate poverty.  

Jennifer started volunteering sometime around 2000 when we were WROC (the Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition) and had an office in the First Christian Church.  She was around 20 years old.

Jennifer developed some lifelong friends while working with WROC and POWER.  She was a passionate advocate for low-income families and learned a great deal about the economics of poverty.  She would talk to anyone and everyone about these issues.  People learned about POWER from Jennifer in the locker room, on the bus, everywhere.

Jennifer died unexpectedly on April 18th, 2014 and her 14 years with WROC and POWER touched many of us and we miss her.

Jennifer’s Obituary:

Jennifer Jo Roberts Jennifer Jo Roberts, 33, passed away at home on April 18, 2014. She was born on June 22, 1980, in Portland, Oregon, and lived in Olympia since 1984. Jennifer attended schools in Olympia and graduated from Capital High School in 1999.

Jennifer was a strong advocate for those who were less fortunate. She was passionate about economic justice for the poor. She volunteered for many years with POWER, Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights, and was a member of their Board. She also participated in SAIL, Self Advocates in Leadership, an organization which legislated advocacy for people with developmental disabilities. Jennifer occasionally participated in demonstrations for the causes in which she believed. She had many friends at the Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation and the Olympia First Christian Church.

Jennifer is survived by her parents, Fred and Jean Roberts; her sister, brother-in-law and nephew, Sarah, Jonathan, and Warren Alexander; and aunts, uncles and cousins, and by her dear friend, Carl Bond. A celebration of Jennifer’s life will be held at the First Christian Church in Olympia on Saturday, April 26, 2014, at 11:00 a.m. Donations in Jennifer’s memory may be made to POWER at 309 5th Avenue SE, Olympia, 98501, or at www.mamapower.org.

On May 31st former POWER member Aaron Scott organized Honoring A Fallen Fighter: Community Vigil For Jennifer Roberts at the Olympia Unitarian Church.

We invite all who were touched by Jennifer Jo Roberts‘ work as a community leader to join us in remembering her witness for justice. As a fighter in anti-poverty struggles, a disability rights activist, an environmental justice advocate, and a vital presence in multiple faith communities, Jennifer’s legacy runs deep and wide. Come help us celebrate the incredible life of an incredible friend– and recommit ourselves to carrying on her freedom-fighting spirit in this world.

We’ll gather to sing, share memories, listen to readings, present art, and stay for as long as it takes us to say goodbye to Jennifer. Kids and babies 100% welcome.  Don’t be shy about turning out: even if you never met Jennifer personally, chances are she was fighting for your rights anyway!

Aaron recorded the event.  You can listen or read her sermon at:

http://aaronheartsjesus.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/honoring-a-fallen-fighter-community-vigil-for-jennifer-roberts/