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In our first workshop, in July 2005, the Our Knowledge, Our Power (OKOP) group identified three key problems with the existing public assistance system in New York State:
1) We trade our rights as citizens to receive benefits.
2) Caseworkers don’t always do their job very well, or even seem to care.
3) The welfare system doesn’t promote self-sufficiency or self-determination.
Participants at this workshop were particularly concerned about their rights to information -- How do you know what your rights are at DSS? Who gets to keep information about you? Who can they share it with?
We spent the next 12 months deciding how we wanted to intervene in the system to create positive social change. Interested in working with us on these projects? Please come to a meeting, or get in touch at virginia [at] populartechnology.org or (518) 892-6697.
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OKOP seeks to create social justice for families on public assistance by:
Creating spaces to think together.
We meet on the second Saturday of every month to learn from each other, develop new skills, and strategize for social change. Join us!
Using media & other tools to share our knowledge.
We are currently writing for and distributing Mother Warrior's Voice, the newsletter of the Welfare Warriors. We also hope to start producing our own media (maybe a podcast? radio show?) soon. Ideas? Want to help? Get in touch!
Engaging in direct action to change the system.
Supported by a grant from Holding Our Own: A Fund for Women, our most successful project to date has been a set of 12 Welfare Information Cards. Researched, planned and produced by people currently on public assistance, these cards provide a "survival guide," particularly if you are new to social services. Download a set here. Feel free to reproduce and distribute them, but please let us know at virginia [at] populartechnology.org.
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