First Equal Voice for America's Families Town Hall Meeting
SEATTLE, WA – In what may seem like an unlikely location — the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe, Wash. — Seattle-based Marguerite Casey Foundation will kick off Equal Voice for America’s Families, a campaign that will bring together low-wage families from across the country to develop a national platform for change. The first of the campaign’s 30 national townhalls will take place on Saturday, October 27, at the annual community summit of the Black Prisoners’ Caucus (BPC). The event will take place in two sessions, from noon to 3:30 p.m. and from 5:30 p.m. to 7:50 p.m.
“Criminal justice is one of many issues that profoundly affect America’s families,” said Luz Vega-Marquis, president and CEO of Marguerite Casey Foundation. “It’s time America listens to the voices of its families. Over the next 11 months, the Equal Voice for America’s Families campaign will convene families from across the country to identify the economic and social issues that must be addressed nationally if America’s families are to prosper.”
The Foundation’s decision to hold its first townhall meeting at Washington State Reformatory reflects a commitment to drawing attention to the issues its grantees and their constituents are working to resolve at the local level: issues such as incarceration and recidivism, healthcare, immigration, living wage jobs and affordable housing.
The BPC Summit gives prisoners the opportunity to work with those on the outside to strengthen community and, ultimately, change policy and environments that contribute to cyclical poverty, crime, incarceration and recidivism. Working with other groups with a goal of mutual learning and cooperation, the BPC provides emotional and spiritual support while addressing individual accountability and systemic issues that have led to the disproportionate high levels of incarceration of African Americans and Latinos nationally.
The Equal Voice for America’s Families campaign developed out of Marguerite Casey Foundation’s goal of fostering a movement of low-wage families who can advocate for themselves on the issues that most affect their lives. The Foundation will invest $5 million over the next year in the campaign, which will include townhall meetings, national days of action and a concentrated media campaign to draw attention to the social and economic barriers low-wage working families face. It will culminate in three conventions of several thousand families each in September 2008, when the national family platform will be released.
Marguerite Casey Foundation is a private, independent grantmaking foundation dedicated to helping low-wage families strengthen their voice and mobilize their communities in order to achieve a more just and equitable society for all. For more information, visit www.caseygrants.org.
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