I work with Survivors Inc, an antipoverty organization in Massachusetts; I am a volunteer coordinator and Editor of our newspaper Survival News. I work with Mass Welfare Rights Union and the National Welfare Rights Union. We advocate for low income women and their families for an adequate standard of living. I also work with the Poverty Working Group of the USSF.

Our goals at the USSF were to participate in the workshops and to meet like minded folks to network, strategize and organize a plan to raise welfare benefits above the poverty level and to find a way to enact the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The poverty Summit was inspiring and filled with the energy of 350 people in attendance. After quite a few speakers, including me speaking on the, Crisis of Poverty in Massachusetts, we broke into small groups and discussed how we would work to end poverty in this country. After many people spoke,the Native American women said they were opposed to many of our ideas, so we told them we wanted to include the strategies they wanted as well.

Our organization worked hard to fundraise and bring our women there, we thought it was very important to see and hear so many people who were caring and working to end poverty and that we were not just an isolated bunch of do-gooders. Seven women attended the forum from Survivors Inc.

We participated in many different workshops then we all reported back to our group that we felt respected and also felt encouragement from workers and unemployed in every other economic stratum for the ongoing work for poor people’s issues. We also brought a Photo Exhibit with us depicting the fight back and organizing that is ongoing in this country for over a 20 year period.  We call it, The Art of Survival, it included 25 black and white photographs in the style of the civil rights movement photos and a 10 foot long photo collage entitled, The River of Protest. We distributed over 500 copies of Survival News the official newspaper of the National Welfare Rights Union. Many people said they would send in articles to Survival News.

It is the public will that  needs to be changed to one of caring and trusting that we are all deserving of a happy, healthy and productive life in this richest nation in the world. It is a big job to enact the UDHR, but it is the obligation of every congress person to sign onto and enact this declaration. We must find a way to lobby without having millions of dollars to spend on it.

What came out of the summit is a charge to the, Poverty Working Group, with a mandate to draft a constitution for the assembly to end poverty for deliberation and ratification within 3 months which will include a national day of action.

Report to the Poverty Summit on the, Crisis of Poverty in Massachusetts

In Massachusetts you hear our legislators are liberal, ( Ha ), nothing could be further from the truth the poverty rate is increasing for women and children because of welfare reform, Immigration Reform, Social Security Reform, Education Reform, low wages, unemployment and low benefits resulting in homelessness, violence, hunger and death. These reforms are literally killing us keeping us in unhealthy situations living our lives in violent relationships that contribute to our becoming homeless more and more everyday. Homelessness is rising because the rents are extremely high, wages are low were in a recession and there are hundreds of thousands of foreclosures and evictions.

Social Security Reform:  including SSI Disability benefits, Recipients got a $250.00 stimulus check and thought we must be doing better then heard we would not get a cost of living increase for the next 3 years. After the3 years they will probably cut our benefits down even further.

Our children are our future but in my neighborhood our children are killing each other, mothers are forced to abandon their children by working outside the home for 12 or more hours a day for inadequate wages to satisfy Welfare Reform, working 2 and 3 jobs a week just to pay the rent. Our children don`t value life because you get out of them what society puts in to them. They know that minimum wage is a joke so they deal drugs and buy guns to make money and they kill each other because they hold life so cheaply. Our children have no hope only despair.

When the Nazis came for the Jewish citizens no one came to help, the moral is they are coming for us. They came for the poor people on General Relief, and no one helped, then they came for the mothers on welfare and no one helped, they are coming for Social Security recipients who will help?

Dottie Stevens is a volunteer coordinator at Survivors Inc. and editor of their newspaper Survivor News. She is also a leader in the Massachusets Welfare Rights Union and long time leader in the National Welfare Rights Union.