Nebraska Appleseed

OSHA Hears the Voices of Meatpacking Workers

Written by Norm Pflanz on March 9, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Last week, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) opened its doors to stakeholders from around the country for an all-day “OSHA Listens” event in its Washington, DC headquarters. The purpose of the event was for OSHA to receive comments and suggestions on key issues facing the agency in order to improve OSHA’s efforts to protect the safety and health of workers. The agency was particularly interested in specific actions it can take to enhance the voice of workers in the workplace, particularly workers who are hard to reach, who do not have ready access to information about hazards or their rights, or who are afraid to exercise their rights.

Stakeholders presented their ideas, suggestions and comments to Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Michaels, Chief of Staff Deborah Berkowitz, Director of Enforcement Richard Fairfax, and Director of Standards Dorothy Dougherty.

Nebraska Appleseed testified on policy changes by OSHA to improve health and safety conditions for meat and poultry workers. Read our testimony and media coverage of the event.

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Posted in Immigrant Integration & Civic Participation | Tagged Immigration, Reform, Worker Safety

Making the Grade on Child Nutrition

Written by Kate Bolz on March 8, 2010 — Leave a Comment

I am blogging today from Washington, D.C. I am attending the Food Research and Action Center’s Annual Anti-Hunger Policy conference and visiting our federal delegation. There is a real movement here surrounding President Obama’s goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015.

This would mean that by the time our current class of sixth grade students graduates from High School child hunger would be eradicated in our nation. It’s an exciting vision.

Just as they’ll be working through their junior high, freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years, we advocates must continue to “make the grade” in anti-hunger advocacy.

In the midst of other major issues, children’s health and nutrition needs cannot be lost – particularly now when one in seven children under 18 in Nebraska struggles with food insecurity.

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Posted in Low Income Self-Sufficiency | Tagged Food Security, Hunger

Healthy Babies or Politics?

Written by Jennifer Carter on March 5, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Monday, March 1st was not a good day for Nebraska. On Monday, over 1,500 women and their unborn children lost their access to prenatal care. For decades Nebraska has been a state that prioritized the health of the mothers and babies in this state. On Monday, the Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services decided that wasn’t important anymore. That healthy moms and babies were no longer a Nebraska value.

We don’t agree. And we hope the Legislature doesn’t either. As you’ve read and as we’ve discussed on this blog, this problem could have been solved quite easily by the administration and DHHS. For nearly a year, the state has known that it could continue to provide prenatal coverage to low-income women by covering the unborn child through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). All that is required is a simple state plan amendment. But they have refused.

Now, thanks to Senator Kathy Campbell, the Legislature can make this right. Senator Campbell has introduced LB 1110 which would require DHHS to create a program to cover unborn children under CHIP. This would restore Nebraska’s long-standing policy of providing all low-income mothers and babies with prenatal care, regardless of immigration status.

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Posted in Health Care Access, Low Income Self-Sufficiency | Tagged Families, Health Care, Prenatal Care, Public Benefits

Two Important Child Welfare Bills Need Our Support

Written by Norm Pflanz on March 3, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Last month, the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee heard testimony on two important child welfare bills that Nebraska Appleseed strongly supports.

LB 971, introduced by Sen. Kathy Campbell, would implement several key provisions of the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 into Nebraska statute.

Specifically, the bill requires the state to place siblings together or to provide for ongoing interaction among siblings in foster care unless doing so would be contrary to safety or well being of the siblings. Maintaining sibling connections for children in foster care has many benefits, including the fact that siblings placed together tend to have an enhanced sense of security and connection.

LB 971 also provides for notice to adult relatives within 15 days of the child being removed from the home. Maintaining these extended family connections is critical to the well being of children. While relative placement is not indicated in certain circumstances, generally speaking placing children with relatives has a number of advantages, including that relative placements tend to be more stable and provide important cultural and familial connections for children.

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Posted in Child Welfare System Accountability | Tagged Child Welfare, Foster Care, Legislature, Reform

A Bumpy Ride

Written by Kate Bolz on February 22, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Increasingly, the economic downturn is leading Americans, and Nebraskans, to access public benefits programs such as Child Care Assistance and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In fact, the New York Times ran a recent story about “the new poor” entitled “Millions of Unemployed Face Years without Jobs”. The story chronicles the experiences of folks who never imagined they would need assistance. Similarly, for many Nebraskans, the economic downturn and road towards recovery has been, and continues to be, a very bumpy ride.

Public benefits programs are intended for times such as these – for times when the nation as a whole is struggling and families and workers need support. And, for many Nebraskans, they are providing vital assistance. For example, Nebraska’s SNAP participation has increased over 25% in the last year.

Yet, times such as these illustrate the gaps in our programs. Increased utilization shines a spotlight on the holes in our safety net. Consider this chart, which illustrates the experiences of a single parent accessing public assistance programs. This family will lose Child Care and Food Stamps/SNAP assistance far before reaching self-sufficient wages of about $14 in Lancaster County. For many, the road to requiring assistance was difficult, and the road to moving back towards self-sufficiency will be uneven at best.

Family, Self-Sufficiency and Wages

The need for improvements to our public assistance programs is clear. For recommendations about how, take a look at our newest report “Back to School, Back to Work”. As a state, we can improve eligibility for child care assistance, expand participation in the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and improve the quality of our ADC program to ultimately make the road to self-sufficiency just a bit more manageable for struggling Nebraskans.

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Posted in Low Income Self-Sufficiency | Tagged Jobs, Opportunity, Public Benefits, Unemployment, Welfare

Changing the Odds

Written by Kate Bolz on February 18, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Last week, we launched our Economic Opportunity Campaign, which is a values based policy agenda to build opportunity in the state. The Campaign puts forth a vision where programs and policies change the odds for working Nebraskans. The vision includes job training, adult education, child care assistance, and access to health care.

In that spirit, we are celebrating five fantastic people, who, in spite of a tough economy, are beating the odds with the help of critical programs to build a better life.

These are folks who have taken advantage of opportunities to gain education, care for their families, and achieve new career goals. Inspired by them, we ask you to review our Economic Opportunity Campaign report “Back to School, Back to Work” and sign on in support of our effort.

The winners have participated in a variety of state education and training programs, such as the Omaha Area Health Education Center Nurses Up! training program, while caring for their families. They are all currently either employed or pursuing higher education.

Congratulations to our Winners!

Nicole Austin, Lincoln, NE

Cinthia Arredondo, Kearney, NE

Jennifer Parks, Bayard, NE

Lillie Manuel

Jennifer Engenhauser, Omaha, NE

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Posted in Low Income Self-Sufficiency | Tagged Education, Jobs, Opportunity

Report Documents Immigration Enforcement’s Harmful Effects on Children

Written by Norm Pflanz on February 13, 2010 — Leave a Comment

While our country is engaged in an intense debate about immigration policy, largely absent from the discussion is the impact of our nation’s policies on the children of immigrants. Today, there are an estimated 5.5 million children with unauthorized immigrant parents, about three-quarters of whom are U.S.-born citizens.

Last week, the Urban Institute released a major report, “Facing Our Future: Children in the Aftermath of Immigration Enforcement,” that examines the consequences of parental arrest, detention, and deportation on 190 children in 85 families in six locations across the country. The report details impacts on children in the days and weeks after parental arrests, in the intermediate and long term while parents were detained or contested their deportation, and in some cases, after parents were deported. The children in the study experienced severe challenges, including separations from parents and economic hardships that likely contributed to adverse behavioral changes that parents reported.

The study found that parent-child separations pose serious risks to children’s immediate safety, economic security, well-being, and longer-term development. Most families in the sample lost a working parent and, as a result, experienced steep declines in income and hardships such as housing instability and food insufficiency.

Children who were separated from detained parents after a raid or other arrest, were more likely to experience behavioral changes in both the short term and the long term such as changes in eating and sleeping habits as well as being increases in anxious, withdrawn, clingy, angry, or aggressive behaviors.

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Posted in Child Welfare System Accountability, Immigrant Integration & Civic Participation | Tagged Child Welfare, Enforcement, Immigration, Reform

Common Sense and Prenatal Care

Written by Jennifer Carter on February 12, 2010 — 2 Comments

For years Nebraska has had a common sense, compassionate, and fiscally sound policy of providing prenatal care to low-income mothers regardless of immigration status. But now, over 1,000 pregnant women face the terrifying prospect of losing their coverage for prenatal care as of March 1st. One of the worst parts of this? The coverage could easily be continued at a savings to the state. But the ugly politics of our time seems to be driving bad policy.

The obvious reasons for providing prenatal care are clear to most. First, there is the humanitarian reason of prioritizing the health and well-being of the mothers and babies in this state. Second, the cost benefits of proper prenatal care are clear and well-documented. This is a perfect example of a time when an ounce of prevention saves a pound of cure. The mothers who are about to lose access to prenatal care will be eligible for emergency Medicaid to cover the delivery and the children will be eligible for Kids Connection at birth. It makes much more sense for the state to pay a small cost for prenatal care rather than paying a huge cost in caring for a child born early or with serious complications that might have been prevented.

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Posted in Health Care Access, Immigrant Integration & Civic Participation | Tagged Health Care, Immigration

Putting Nebraska Students First

Written by Norm Pflanz on February 9, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Educational opportunity for all Nebraska students was the focus of a committee hearing at the State Capitol last week. The Education Committee heard testimony on LB 1001, which would repeal Nebraska’s in-state tuition law—an important educational policy for Nebraska’s future. This law allows Nebraska students who are undocumented to pay in-state tuition rates if they resided in and attended school in Nebraska for three years; graduated from a Nebraska high school or completed a GED; and submitted an affidavit stating intent to file for legal residency. Nebraska’s statute is similar to laws in nine other states, which have been enacted since 2001.

The members of the Education Committee heard inspiring testimony from a wide spectrum of Nebraskan society—including educational, legal, community, and faith perspectives—demonstrating the depth of institutional and community support for Nebraska’s in-state tuition law. Speakers included J.B. Milliken, President of the University of Nebraska; the Nebraska State Education Association; the Nebraska State Board of Education; Nebraska’s P-16 initiative (coalition of 27 organizations in business, government and education); the Nebraska Hispanic Bar Association; the Nebraska Catholic Conference; Nebraska Appleseed; and many others. Three students, who know first-hand the challenges of attaining a post-secondary degree, also provided moving testimony about the importance of providing in-state tuition to Nebraska students.

Our in-state tuition law is smart policy, is consistent with federal law, and is in our best interest. Educated students are a significant asset to Nebraska’s future for communities across the state. Read more »

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Posted in Immigrant Integration & Civic Participation | Tagged Education, Immigration

Equal ACCESS

Written by Kate Bolz on February 2, 2010 — Leave a Comment

Nebraska Appleseed has used the tag line “Core Values, Common Ground, Equal Justice” for a long time. We look to these central principles in a variety of ways about a variety of issues.

Last Thursday, our own Becky Gould testified regarding ACCESS Nebraska – our state’s on-line application system for public benefits programs. And, in many ways, the Nebraska Appleseed point of view was – in simple terms – about equal justice and equal access to public programs.

The on-line system has its good points. It does have some improvements for efficiency and it does provide access for working people that have difficulty getting to HHS offices during open hours. However, we have some concerns, voiced Thursday, about the plan. Read more »

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