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Ensuring Opportunity: The Campaign to Cut Poverty in Contra Costa County 2015

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What is Ensuring Opportunity? A collaborative effort to end poverty in Contra Costa County by addressing systemic and structural causes. 2

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Campaign goals Improve residents economic security and well-being Raise awareness of unfair policies Bring diverse stakeholders together to create practical, lasting solutions. 3

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Or to put it in human terms We believe that everyone living in our county deserves to have a safe and affordable home, sufficient food, good quality health care, a decent education, and enough money to build a future for themselves and their family. 4

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Campaign focus We all know what works! We support . High-quality early childhood education Fair pay Affordable higher education Earned Income Tax Credit Housing that is affordable Access to quality health care Healthy and plentiful food Safe communities 5

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Who created the Campaign? Funders Forum Nonprofit providers Public sector providers 6 In the beginning (2008) Contra Costa Safety Net Task Force & Family Economic Security Partnership

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Elected officials The Campaign now includes 7 Nonprofit providers Funders Public sector providers Faith-based community Businesses Labor organizations Cities Residents

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6 Campaign focus areas Ensuring Opportunity Economic Security EducationSafety Food Security Housing Security Health 8

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How will we make an impact? 1. Link with, support and amplify existing efforts of key partners 2. Initiate and lead bold initiatives in collaboration with others 3. Advocate for effective policies at local, state & federal level 4. Share data & strategies with other communities 5. Ensure solutions are tailored to local needs and resources 9

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Current Campaign priorities 10

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Connecting with local initiatives and coalitions Incredible work is being done by advocates and concerned residents throughout the county. Examples: 1. Contra Costa Cares is mobilizing abroad coalition of community members to expand access to health care for all county residents, regardless of immigration status 2. Healthy Richmond is engaging residents and stakeholders on health, safety, education and economic development 3. Antioch Chambers Suburban Poverty Task Force is addressing issues that lead to homelessness 4. Tri-Valley Poverty Task Force is engaging local business community, Kaiser, faith leaders & others 11

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Food Security: Increasing CalFresh Enrollment 12 Joint effort of county Employment & Human Services Dept., Multi-Faith ACTION Coalition, Food Bank, Family Economic Security Partnership & other Ensuring Opportunity partners Goal: Enroll at least 75% of eligible residents by May 2016 Strategies: CalFresh Awareness Month resolution adopted by county & several cities; outreach to schools & Medi-Cal recipients

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Housing security: Ensuring all residents have a home Support countywide Zero:2016 campaign to house all homeless veterans by Dec. 2015 and all chronically homeless by Dec. 2016 Explore strategies (e.g., shared housing, tiny homes, master leasing, housing trust fund) to increase the supply of housing that is truly affordable 13

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Economic Security: Ensuring every resident has enough resources to support their family 14 Key strategy: Support uniform, countywide increase in minimum wage to ensure all residents are fairly paid and can support their families.

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Next steps Continue current initiatives with our Campaign partners Create communications strategy to change attitudes/perceptions Create policy platform to guide us in taking a stand Build momentum and support to advocate for effective public policies Leverage website and social media to share information, resources & alerts Next Convening: deeper dive on minimum wage campaign 15

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16 Communication strategies

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17 Replace & embrace Words to replaceWords to embrace Poor, working poor, low income Cant make ends meet, living on the brink, working to provide for family Workers People, mothers, fathers, cooks, nurses Fight poverty, war on poverty Barriers to success, obstacles to economic stability

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18 Replace & embrace Words to replaceWords to embrace Increase minimum wage, adequate wage Paid enough to sustain a family, make ends meet Wages you can raise a family on Wages you can sustain a family on Good for the economy Good for the nation/ our community We cant survive on $X Respect peoples real contributions

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Engage the base Persuade the middle Alienate the opposition 19 Advocacy strategies

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Poverty results from deliberate policy choices Name the harm (leaders chose, people make deliberate decisions) Avoid use of passive voice (wages have stagnated) Use verbs like produce, create, decide to emphasize that economic conditions are deliberately created 20 Advocacy strategies

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21 therefore other outcomes are possible!

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Minimum wage campaign 22

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Minimum Wage strategies Cross-sector, big tent exploratory committee (business, labor, government, nonprofits, faith-based, elected officials) Comparative analysis of wage increase efforts in 8 cities: Ordinance vs. ballot initiative Dollar amount, phase-in, exemptions, community engagement Target = $15/hour by 2020, few exemptions, negotiate phase-ins Researching benefits cliff issue 23

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Initiative vs. Ordinance 24

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City ordinance strategy Include all stakeholders Approach opposition early, particularly business Deploy communicators with positive working relationships Convene committee(s) Consider regional committees Establish time limit (6-9 months) First few sessions are educational (experts/data) Convene committee reps to craft countywide guidelines Mobilize constituents as needed Individual city attorneys draft ordinance (provide model) City Councils (and county Supervisors) adopt each ordinance 25

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Ballot initiative strategy (if needed) Identify industries with largest concentrations of minimum wage workers for targeted outreach Conduct polling Determine strategic focus on strictly minimum wage vs. including earned sick leave & medical benefits Draft initiative with supportive stakeholders (businesses/workers) Build a strong campaign base (low-wage workers, labor, CBOs; faith-based; supportive businesses) Provide quality data with appropriate messaging 26

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Next steps Political analysis of all 19 jurisdictions (cities + county) Initial outreach to city leaders (formal & informal) Research economic benefits & impact (UC Berkeley Labor Center report due in July) Data will be important for educating the base & engaging persuadables in business community et al Explore partnership with EBASE Draft model ordinance Engage stakeholders Mobilize and win! 27

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How to reach us: Mariana Moore, Ensuring Opportunity Director info@cutpovertycc.org info@cutpovertycc.org (510) 234-1200, ext. 133 www.cutpovertycc.org Fran Biderman, FESP Coordinator fbiderman@firstfivecc.org fbiderman@firstfivecc.org (925) 771-7331 28

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29 Poverty is not natural. It is man-made and can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings. - Nelson Mandela

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We would love to Answer your questions Hear about your successful strategies, experiments & interesting failures 31 Thank you!