Introduction
Earlier this month, the Big Ugly Bill was signed into law. It is an enormous step backward, especially for America’s poorest and most vulnerable. Our aim now is to block, delay, or mitigate the bill’s cuts where possible, and hold those who voted for them accountable.
As the MAGA regime advances its Project 2025 plans to defund safety net programs and set up cruel, bureaucratic systems to block people from accessing health care and food assistance, we are fighting to protect our communities and the programs that meet basic needs. At the same time, we are building a broad countervailing movement with an affirmative vision of the future, driven by proven solutions to addressing poverty. Keep reading to learn about how we are advancing ideas like a guaranteed income for targeted populations, public funding for high-quality, affordable child care, and quality health care as a right for everyone, not a privilege for the rich.
Program Pulse
Organizers Descend on Chicago for “Guaranteed Income Blitz”
Community Change and our grassroots partners are building the Illinois Future Fund — a coalition of people who are willing to fight for a permanent guaranteed income (GI) for those who need it most across Illinois. From July 14 to 17, Community Change Action and our partners Equity and Transformation and Workers Center for Racial Justice hosted an “organizing blitz” in Chicago that convened 80 organizers from across the country to participate in a canvass experiment targeting GI-eligible households. We are organizing in the Chicago area to build on the success of guaranteed income pilot programs in Chicago and Cook County . More than 400,000 people in the Chicago area applied for the limited program slots, revealing extensive need as well as enormous organizing potential. During the blitz, we knocked on over 2,100 doors, holding conversations with more than 600 folks in the community; 417 of them signed up to join the Illinois Future Fund campaign. Next up, we will continue to work with our Chicago partners to engage hand-raisers while expanding the geographic reach of local partners, building long-term collective power, and creating a blueprint for GI base building. Check out Equity and Transformation’s highlight reel from the blitz.
Safety Net Organizing At Mike Johnson’s Doorstep
Now that the Big Ugly Bill has been signed, we are organizing in target states to hold its champions accountable. For example, in House Speaker Mike Johnson’s home state of Louisiana, we are working with partners like ASAP Shreveport to build a strong base of people who are eager to protect basic needs programs. On July 10, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and members of the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee held a town hall in New Orleans on damage the bill will cause to our healthcare system, which already falls short for too many people. One of our new Louisiana grassroots leaders, Eugene Collins, spoke movingly at the event, connecting family tragedy to the damage the Big Ugly Bill will bring to his state’s health care system.
Building a Vision for Universal Public Child Care
It’s no secret that child care is increasingly unaffordable and inaccessible to U.S. families, yet childcare providers earn poverty wages. Meanwhile, private equity is making inroads in the childcare industry as more and more community-based centers are forced to close. While other countries provide models of high-quality, state-supported child care, a public option has long been taboo in the U.S., but this is shifting. Last week, Community Change and The Roosevelt Institute released a paper called “ Building a Vision for Universal Public Childcare: Principles for a Childcare System that Works for Workers and Families,” the product of a year-long research project supported by the Economic Security Project. Working with grassroots partners in our childcare cohort, Community Change and The Roosevelt Institute held a series of conversations with parents, providers, and organizers to collectively imagine what a public, universal early childhood education system could look like. You can read a summary of recommendations here and hear what research participants say about what universal child care could mean to their communities here.
Before You Go
- Community Change Director of Care Economy Jennifer Wells co-authored this op-ed in Essence on the damage the Big Ugly Bill would have on millions of Americans, with Black, low-income, and rural communities suffering the greatest impact.
- ChangeWire Fellow Gabb Schivone reflects on the meaning of luck. “Can one be thankful for a black hole because it exists somewhere else, far, far away? What can one be towards a solar system that makes some people starve, that makes some people thrive? What is being thankful other than localized amnesia”
- Community Change Director of Strategic Communications Jasmine Nazarett appeared on WBRZ-TV, describing what she hopes people took away from the community conversations we held in Baton Rouge and Shreveport on the Families First Day of Action, which featured over 200 events nationwide.
