So we told the organizers of the event that they needed to include the voices of actual homeless people, so that the next generation of professionals in the homeless industry will understand that these policies have real consequences on the lives of real people. And tomorrow, members of PTH and CVH and CWOP will be giving a talk of our own. Come check it out... 

 

 

 

Community Voices Heard, the Child Welfare Organizing Project, and Picture the Homeless are all grassroots organizations that aim to build power in marginalized, disenfranchised communities. We will be discussing the intersection of the homelessness, welfare, and child welfare systems based on our members' personal experiences with these systems, and why it is essential that the people most affected by homelessness policies should have a direct role in developing and evaluating those policies.

The Child Welfare Organizing Project (CWOP), founded in 1994, is a parent/professional partnership dedicated to public child welfare reform in New York City through increased, meaningful parent involvement in service and policy planning. Our mission states that "through organized client involvement and collective advocacy both inside and independent of the system, the Child Welfare Organizing Project will change/transform the quality of services provided to New York City families through the New York City child welfare system.”

 

Community Voices Heard is an organization of low-income people, predominantly women with experience on welfare, working to build power in New York City and State to improve the lives of our families and communities. We are working to accomplish this through a multi-pronged strategy, including public education, grassroots organizing, leadership development, training low-income people about their rights, political education, civic engagement and direct-action issue campaigns. We are currently working on welfare reform, job creation, public housing and other economic justice issues that affect low-income people, particularly low-income women of color. While we focus on welfare reform, we broadly define welfare activism to be multi-issue, and thus must include issues such as education, training, jobs, housing, economic development and other community issues. We fill a crucial gap in that our organization connects public policy with grassroots organizing and leadership development.

 

Picture the Homeless is a grassroots organization, founded and led by homeless people. We are organizing for social justice around issues like housing, police violence, and the shelter-industrial complex. Our name is about challenging images, stigma, media (mis)representation - as well as putting forward an alternative vision of community.