Community Voices Heard

CVH Testifies at the first oversight hearing of the New York City Council’s Committee on Community Development

4 Community Voices Heard Members gave testimony at the first oversight hearing of the New York City Council’s Committee on Community Development. Members testified on the problem of poverty in NYC, gave recommendations on waht the Committee should focus on in the next year and a half in order to effectively address the City's poverty problem. We were covered in the black start news. Below are copies of the 4 testimonies as well as the press coverage. The original article can be found here.

HRA Comissioner Robert Doar Meets with CVH

CVH had their on going six month meeting with Commissioner Robert Doar of Human Resources Administration (HRA) on June 11th. CVH was please that the Comissioner actually listened and agreed to do something to push the expansion of the Job Training Program (JTP). CVH members asked one questions 5 times through chants loudly and clearly, "The Work Experience Program (WEP) exploits welfare recipients as unpaid workers. We believe this is unacceptable.

"Work experience not much of one, thanks: Welfare recipients beg bureaucrat for better jobs" - NY Metro

Here is an article about Community Voices Heard meeting with Robert Doar last week. The article quotes CVH board member Ketny Jean-Francois on her experience with the Work Experience Program (WEP). The original article is located on the Metro's website here.

CVH members will meet with Human Resources Administration ( HRA) Commissioner Robert Doar in June 2008.

CVH Members will meet with Commissioner Doar about the current Work Experience Program (WEP). Our main issue with WEP is that it needs to be fixed!!!

Plan to attend the meeting. See attached flier for more details. Email anita@cvhaction.org for more information.

"Target of Opportunities" - City Limits Investigates

This is selected pages from the Spring issue of City Limits Investigates. The full issue can be purchased from City Limits here. City Limits is a non-profit magazine that focuses on policy. This issue is about poverty policies and Community Voices Heard and its members are quoted throughout the issue.

"As the Economy Worsens: Helping People Find Jobs" - Gotham Gazette

This is an article that appeared into today's Gotham Gazette. The article is about how the economic slump has affected the workforce. The article speaks about welfare programs and whether or not they are effective at helping to move people into the workforce. Community Voices Heard board member and leader in the Welfare/Workforce Campaign Ketny Jean-Francois is quoted in this article. The article is attached below or can be found on the Gotham Gazette's website.

$2.5M in TANF for Career Pathways in final State Budget!

Community Voices Heard leaders Michelle Cannady and Mia Bell along with other members on the Building the Workforce Campaign are pleased that Commissioner David Hansell of the Office of Temporary & Disability Assistance in New York State included 2.5 million dollars of the State TANF budget in his final executive budget for Career Pathways for Education and Training programs.

"Exit Stage Left" - New York Metro

This is an article in today's New York Metro about Republican Presidential Candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and how he lost the Florida primary last night. As a result of his loss in Florida, he will be most likely quitting the race for the White House. The article focuses on all of the negative things Giuliani did while he was Mayor of New York including a quote about the WEP program from Community Voices Heard Board Member, Yvonne Shields.

"Help the poor, not only the pols" - Daily News

This article is an editorial by Errol Louis regarding New York State Governor Spitzer considering to raise the pay of the state Legislature, which is currently $79,500 a year. The article quotes CVH Members Ann Michelle Valdez, a Brooklyn Public Housing Resident, and Harold Gardner, a CVH member from our Poughkeepsie chapter.

Anita Graham on BBC News

Recently reporters from the BBC came to New York to find out about WEP and how it works here. They were interested in WEP because there is talks of instituting a similar system in Britain and they wanted to find out what people here thought about the program. They interviewed Anita Graham, the Welfare / Workforce Organizer at Community Voices Heard you can check out this link for the video.