November 2001 LINC Project Update

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Miami Worker's Center Stategic Command Office It is, of course, too early to predict the ultimate outcome of debates on welfare reauthorization in Congress. It is, however, readily apparent that low-income groups are and will be active participants nationally on reauthorization and other income security issues as well as locally in related campaigns. Many players and factors have contributed to this encouraging wave of organizing, but technology capacity is clearly an indispensable tool in the growing campaigns. The LINC Project's singular contribution to strengthening organizing - strategic technology capacity building for local low-income led grassroots groups and coalition - has empowered groups and enhanced their organizing.

Organizing on welfare issues has come a long way since the LINC Project began some three and a half years ago. When LINC began, new groups were forming to respond to local implementation of welfare reform. At the same time, technology was transforming the work of other advocacy groups, many of whom had comparatively stable budgets to acquire technology.

The Welfare Law Center, grounded in its history of supporting low-income groups, saw the emerging challenges in these trends. We were keenly aware of the digital divide facing low-income groups whose creativity, vision, and connection to individuals and families struggling to transition from welfare into employment, outstripped extremely limited budgets for staff and office space. Technology acquisitions were a dream for most. Community Voices Heard, banner

Adapting the effective Circuit Rider model from the environmental advocacy community, the Welfare Law Center set out to reduce the digital divide - one group at a time. Initially we had to persuade sometimes skeptical organizers that "details" such as databases, networking, and email distribution lists did hold incredible promise. Today, that early skepticism has disappeared, and low-income groups are applying technology with energy and creativity to organizing work, creating models widely recognized within the non-profit community. For example, this past year alone, LINC work was front page news in the Chronicle of Philanthropy and the Benton Foundation, expressing great enthusiasm, sought to feature LINC's CVH case study on its website.

LINC has brought cost-effective and creative technology solutions to low-income organizing and has leveraged additional resources from within the progressive technology community for these under-served groups. WLC's groundwork has promoted the vision of democratic participation by those with the least political power.

The Welfare Law Center is inspired by the impressive strides in organizing on economic security issues and proud of LINC's contribution to the work of these groups. This report is the behind-the-scenes account of how the LINC Project has partnered with 27 low-income groups in 15 states and three coalitions, worked with numerous intermediaries, and enhanced communication within the organizing community over the past year to achieve this goal.

As we look to the coming year, LINC will continue its strategic technology capacity-building work with the effective coalitions and grassroots groups focusing on welfare reauthorization. We expect that the resolution of the reauthorization debate in the late summer of 2002 will help shape the next round of organizing, that these groups will continue to lead and expand the efforts to promote economic security, and that LINC will be a crucial partner in those efforts.

The Welfare Law Center gratefully acknowledges the generous support from the Ford Foundation which has made our work possible.

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