Shakedown Preparation

New Year's day traditionally is a day of new beginnings. But for the nation's low income communities, this New Year's will mark the start of surviving amidst dwindling resources as the congressionally mandated welfare reforms take hold. And to top it off, community groups pledged to advocating for the poor aren't fully prepared for the impending changes, according to the nonprofit think tank, Applied Research Center."Low-income communities aren't set up for the coming onslaught," said Gary Delgado, executive director of ARC. "Unless we fund advocacy based on grassroots mobilization, low-income issues don't stand a chance."The group, which conducted a six-month evaluation of the new welfare landscape, recommended that foundations and advocates should fund low-income organizing and advocacy groups, develop state-level advocacy rooted in grassroots constituencies, and organize suburban and rural districts as well as urban districts. The group used California as a case study because it ranks highest in terms of the number of people living below the poverty line.Among the group's conclusions: Funders need to grant money for political participation, not just for the generation of facts, figures and other "neutral" paperwork, recommended ARC. Many groups have found that to receive grants, they must remain politically neutral, avoiding any semblance of lobbying or supporting specific public officials. The fear of losing financial support is so overwhelming that most avoid taking a pro-active role in policy making, said Rachel Timoner, the author of the ARC study, which is titled "Ready or Not? An Assessment of Low-Income Advocacy in California. "A lot can be changed by changing the structure of funding," she said. The ARC also recommended including the constituents of low income groups in the decision making and organizing processes. When the welfare community is represented by people who come have middle-class incomes, they often don't understand poor people's needs and are more likely to bargain for less than is needed, said Steve Williams, the General Assistance Rights Union (GARU) coordinator. GARU is a coalition of people on general assistance that was started when former San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan implemented a fingerprinting requirement for everyone on welfare. Recipients were frustrated with both Jordan's requirement and the lack of representation by people affected by the regulation. "Middle class advocates feel threatened by including poor people," said Williams. "But if you don't have the [low income] people there, you're selling out communities. It's vital for poverty organizations to include directly affected people."In addition, because state advocates' networks are most developed in urban areasÑthe places which tend to have more progressive legislatorsÑsuburban and rural districts have the least accomplished mobilizing efforts. "We get lots of calls from people who are preaching to the converted. We tell people that if they really want to be effective, they should sit down and make a list of anyone they know who lives in Republican districts, and tell them to call their legislator," Charles Stewart, chief deputy to California state Sen. Diane Watson, told ARC. "I think the only thing worthwhile is getting people in Republican districts to take action."The ARC and low-income advocates aren't working alone to change the structure of community organizations and its impact on lawmaking. Steven Sharkey, professor of behavioral sciences at Alverno College in Milwaukee, recently created a program called "Community Leadership and Development." The program aims to encourage students to run or be part of an organization that has an impact on the community. Many community groups are concerned with members understanding the people they're representing and the policy that will affect them, says Sharkey. Some activists are good with people, for example, but don't know about the laws which affect their community, he explained. "Our goal is to translate good will into an effective tool for social change," he said.