Recently we wrote a blog post letting you know about the Mitchell Plan, an admirable proposal by Assemblymember Holly Mitchell to increase the meager CalWORKs cash grant. Currently, the maximum cash grant for a family of three—a mother and two children—is $638 per month.
Assemblymember Mitchell recommends that the CalWORKs grant be increased by 12 percent starting January 1, 2014, with subsequent annual adjustments of 4.5 percent until the total grant a family can receive is at 50 percent of the Federal Poverty Line. For a family of three, the proposed maximum grant would be $814.*
At this very moment, the Mitchell Plan is being discussed and negotiated in Sacramento and a decision will be reached by June 15, 2013. We’re nervous because the Assembly supports the Mitchell Plan, while the Senate and the Governor have yet to be convinced.
This life-saving plan is a turning point that we’ve all been working toward. The Great Recession has made life very difficult for California’s poor children and families and this plan is a decisive step in the right direction.
We must make sure that the Mitchell Plan survives the negotiations in Sacramento. We have a week to convince our senators and the Governor to reinvest into CalWORKs. Our children need us—they are the main beneficiaries of this program. And we need your help to spread the word about the Mitchell Plan and its importance.
To help you understand Assemblymember Mitchell’s plan and to help explain CalWORKs, we created an infographic that shows, plain and simple, that children are the main recipients of CalWORKs; that CalWORKs takes up only a fraction of our state’s budget (but has suffered disproportionate cuts over the last three years—more than $700 million in cuts); and that CalWORKs grants today are worth HALF of what they were worth 25 years ago. (Scroll down to see instructions for sharing the infographic.)
If you take away anything from this infographic, let it be this: Children and families on CalWORKs today receive the same cash amount as they did 25 years ago. But what about inflation? What about the rising cost of living? How are families supposed to pay rent and bills?
In addition to the infographic, we created a very informative CalWORKs fact sheet. Please read it to learn how CalWORKs benefits children, families and our state economy: Why CalWORKs Matters: Helping Women and Children Move Out of Poverty.
Please SHARE this infographic WIDELY with your friends and networks. If your social share reaches and informs just one more person, we will have made a difference.
All sharing options are below.
FACEBOOK:
Share a link to this blog post on your personal or organization’s Facebook page. You could use or adopt the below message to accompany the link:
The Women’s Foundation of California supports the Mitchell Plan to increase the CalWORKs cash grant by 12%. Want to know why YOU need to support this plan? Check out this infographic and please LIKE it and SHARE it!
TWITTER:
- What is the Mitchell Plan and why support it? »Tweet this «
- We need to shatter the welfare mom myth. »Tweet this«
- 4 out of 5 people on CalWORKs are children. »Tweet this«
- Today’s CalWORK’s cash grant is the same as it was in 1988! »Tweet this«
- We need to raise the CalWORKs grant and give poor children a chance! »Tweet this«
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* Federal Poverty Line for a family of three is $19,530, meaning that 50% is $9,765. To be at 50% of Federal Poverty Line, a family of three would need to receive $814/month.