The Anti-Poverty Task Force has been working with State Representative Jon Hoadley to develop a plan to decrease poverty in our community. At the ISAAC Public Meeting in October 2018, Rep. Hoadley and the other candidates in districts 60, 61, 63 and 66 agreed to start a process to change state policies to extend benefits for working people who need state assistance to cover their living expenses when they are newly employed.

At our March meeting, we met with Rep. Hoadley to get a status update on this policy change request. Currently, the state legislature is focused on completing the 2020 state budget by June 2019. The first budget priority is securing funding to fix the roads. This may result in less funding for social services. Therefore, we will need to work with Rep. Hoadley to raise awareness about the impact of decreasing funding for social services on our community.

Rep. Hoadley has asked ISAAC’s Anti-Poverty Task Force to partner with him to hold a community conversation this spring about the budget to empower the community to advocate for a state budget that will increase revenue so there will be enough funding to fix the roads and provide adequate social services.

– Dr. Regena Nelson, Anti-Poverty Task Force co-chair