ADVOCACY AND CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Mission: Become a strong Latino voice in Pennsylvania, forwarding Congreso’s public policy priorities through local, state & federal coalitions and community participation.
Goals:
- Advocate: Generate positive outcomes for issues of concern specific to Latinos on local, state and federal levels of government.
- Educate: Enhance knowledge, attitudes & behaviors of all stakeholders, for the improvement of the Latino community.
- Mobilize: Empower Latino individuals and organizations to have their own voice with the end goal of improving Latino quality of life and generating action to influence change.
"Eyes on Advocacy" participants
head to the capitol to advocate for more equitable
public education funding system.
June 17th, 2008 - Congreso’s Civic Engagement Committee linked up with E3 Center students and traveled to Harrisburg to participate in “Eyes on Advocacy,” a day of advocacy organized by Good Schools Pennsylvania and Education Law Center. Both organizations worked together to develop the costing-out study that examines the resources needed to meet Pennsylvania's public education goals.
Students met with Senator Tartaglione, Senator Anthony Williams and Representative Tony Payton to discuss the need to improve public education in our state, specifically by putting together a new funding formula that would create a more equitable funding system and allocate much-needed resources to the 471 underfunded schools in Pennsylvania.
Click to learn more about the Education Law Center's Costing Out Study.
ACTION ALERT
Act today to stop anti-immigration bill
Dear friends,
There is an anti-immigration bill, called the “SAVE” Act (also called the Shuler-Tancredo Bill, or HR 4088) that many Republicans are trying to push to a vote. If passed, this bill would require that the 6 million employers in this country verify the legal status of the nearly 130 million workers here. The system that they want us to use has a 10% error rate – that means nearly 3 million Americans could be wrongfully terminated.
This is a piece of ENFORCEMENT only legislation – it punishes people for being in the country illegally, but it does not provide any legal alternatives.
CALL OUR REPRESENTATIVES AND LET THEM KNOW WE SAY NO:
Our Congressmen, Bob Brady and Chaka Fattah are taking a tally of how people in Philadelphia feel about this bill – we want them to know that we are AGAINST this kind of legislation!
The call takes less than 3 minutes! Call Brady and Fattah and say:
“Good morning, I am a voting constituent in Philadelphia and I want Congressman (Brady or Fattah) to VOTE NO on the SAVE ACT/HR 4088.”
That’s it!
Fattah’s office: 202-225-4001
Brady’s office: 215-389-4627
For more information about HR 4088 (“SAVE” ACT), click here: summary text of the bill or National Immigration Law Center's Analysis of "SAVE"
Posted on March 12, 2008
ACTION ALERT
Act today to stop cuts to the Victims of Crime Act (VOCA)
What is VOCA?
The Victims of Crime Act was enacted by Congress and President Reagan in 1984. It provides funding for services that help victims of crime cope with the trauma and the aftermath. The money is NOT taxpayer money, but is collected from various federal criminal fines and penalties, etc.
Why do we care about it?
VOCA funds critical programs that provide a broad array of victim services, such as:
- victims of domestic violence and their children
- victims of sexual abuse, incest and rape
- victims of stalking
- legal and medical advocacy
- victim awareness assistance programs
Without VOCA Funding, many of these victim services will have to cut their programs and will not be able to help as many people. Without VOCA assistance funding or victims compensations programs, victims may not receive the counseling, medical care of legal assistance they need to heal from the trauma of the crime.
What Can You Do??
- CALL CONGRESS: Tell Your Members of Congress that they need to preserve VOCA funding in the FY 2009 spending bills
- Ask them to deny the President’s request to rescind the balance. Congress should insure that millions of crime victims will get the services they need and the funding needed to keep programs open.
- Ask for an increase in the VOCA cap to $1 billion. This will NOT RAISE TAXES, instead it allocates funding already collected to meet the needs of victims of all kinds.
Fattah’s office: 202-225-4001
Brady’s office: 215-389-4627
For more information, go to: http://pubs.pcadv.net/public_policy/VOCA_2009_Fact_Sheet.pdf
Posted March 17, 2008
Congreso advocates visit Washington, DC
On March 6th, 2008, a delegation from Congreso visited Washington, DC, to participate in NCLR's National Advocacy Day and to speak with Pennsylvania congressmen Robert Casey, Arlen Specter, Robert Brady, and Chaka Fattah. Read below the reactions and comments from our Congreso advocates:
Congreso advocates meet with Senator Robert Casey.
Comments from Paul Shoe:
WOW, the highest call in a democracy is that of a citizen. I was reminded of that on March 6th, as we navigated through capitol buildings, met various staffers, and legislators of our state the pulse of being in the environment where our future as a country is worked out. The sight and sound of the place made my heart flutter a little standing side by side with you all voicing our stance on national issues that are directly related to our daily work here in our great city. Let us not forget what we did on March 6th, burn it in your memory save some it for later and then chew some more on what happened, let it marinate some. Why, because we need to get ready for another round writing letters, making phone calls, and lifting other up to join in. Participating with you all is my joy for the week.
Some things aren’t worth doing alone but are worth doing together. Thanks for the company, laughs, pointed conversations, and coaching.
Comments from Alida Padilla:
I feel I am truly blessed to be working with a great group of people who have repeatedly shown their dedication and commitment with advocacy issues. Your willingness and drive to be involved in advocacy is part of my motivation to continue doing this kind of community work. We can accomplish so much more when we band together for a common cause.
Advocacy Day this year was truly different from the years past. I think that the years before have paved the way for an effective strategy that came to fruition this year. I want to say good job to Sarah (our relentless mother hen-in a good way!) for keeping it all together and making this trip more seamless and focused than it has been. I appreciated that focus as it gave us an opportunity to become more-result oriented. We can celebrate the small steps taken to a bigger path that awaits us!
For the youth, I want to say thank you for being there. Your presence exemplifies the reasons why we are so determined to let our voices be heard, because we do it for YOUR future, OUR future. I am very proud of you and hope that you came away with a great learning experience, an understanding of the political process, and an actualization how much you DO count.
Posted on March, 12 2008
Action Alert: Act now to oppose Pennsylvania Senate Bill 9 (SB9).
Senate Bill 9 would bar all Pennsylvanians from receiving a wide range of grants, loans, professional or comercial licenses, or benefits, unless they are able to prove their identity according to a restrictive list of documents and sign an affidavit swearing to be a citizen or lawfully present immigrant. If they are an immigrant, the agency providing the benefit must verify their status through an unreliable federal database.
Learn more here:
SB9
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