October 22nd 2007 Meeting Minutes
Presentation to the Catholic Caucus of Southeast Michigan
Marianne Udow-Phillips
October 22, 2007
Human needs in Michigan, State of Delivery, How policies affect delivery and How we make our
voices heard.
State Public Assistance Recipients: All sources
While welfare reform has helped many people get back to work, the end result has
not brought people out of poverty. In fact more people (12.6%) live at or below the
level of poverty and more people need public assistance.
Type of Assistance
While direct cash assistance has decreased, money for food stamps, child care and
Medicaid has increased significantly.
The last three years:
The present policies do not address the critical need of children to get a good start
in development. Because such an investment is considered long term, it is difficult
to get the attention of the State Houses which are focused on very short term
results.
This is partly due to the negative affects of term limits : next reelection is probably
more important than sound policies, lack of knowledge on how policies are
developed and lack of experience in working together and across the aisle.
Human services have been deeply affected by the current budget reduction:
example of human services case workers who have seen the load of cases
increased by 50% in the last few years (from 400 to 600 cases per worker).
Privatization of services has proven to be neither cost effective nor quality driven.
How to get our voices heard?
1. Know your legislators (Representatives and Senators)
2. Know the legislators who are on the Human Services committee.
3. When meeting with legislators go with a group of their constituents and other organizations –
not on your own.
4. Use data – important. Michigan League of Human Services has an excellent website with tons of
updated information.
Please note also that fighting against the present recall (10 Reps and Senators
targeted for this recall) is important. The recall creates a dangerous precedent.
Marianne Udow-Phillips
October 22, 2007
Human needs in Michigan, State of Delivery, How policies affect delivery and How we make our
voices heard.
State Public Assistance Recipients: All sources
While welfare reform has helped many people get back to work, the end result has
not brought people out of poverty. In fact more people (12.6%) live at or below the
level of poverty and more people need public assistance.
Type of Assistance
While direct cash assistance has decreased, money for food stamps, child care and
Medicaid has increased significantly.
The last three years:
The present policies do not address the critical need of children to get a good start
in development. Because such an investment is considered long term, it is difficult
to get the attention of the State Houses which are focused on very short term
results.
This is partly due to the negative affects of term limits : next reelection is probably
more important than sound policies, lack of knowledge on how policies are
developed and lack of experience in working together and across the aisle.
Human services have been deeply affected by the current budget reduction:
example of human services case workers who have seen the load of cases
increased by 50% in the last few years (from 400 to 600 cases per worker).
Privatization of services has proven to be neither cost effective nor quality driven.
How to get our voices heard?
1. Know your legislators (Representatives and Senators)
2. Know the legislators who are on the Human Services committee.
3. When meeting with legislators go with a group of their constituents and other organizations –
not on your own.
4. Use data – important. Michigan League of Human Services has an excellent website with tons of
updated information.
Please note also that fighting against the present recall (10 Reps and Senators
targeted for this recall) is important. The recall creates a dangerous precedent.
