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Multi-County Clients Council - A Tradition of Advocacy and Client Education in Kentucky

The Multi-County Clients Council (MCCC), located in Louisville, Kentucky, is a "non-profit organization that addresses the needs and issues of low- and moderate-income people" with respect to governmental benefits and services, that is, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Food Stamps, Social Security/Disability, Medicaid, and Medicare, as well as legal services. MCCC "fosters self-help and self-advocacy." MCCC focuses on "education, training, networking and providing information to clients about these social service programs and informing them of their rights and responsibilities."

MCCC's members come from many different backgrounds. Some represent service providers or advocacy groups such as the NAACP, the Urban League, and tenants' associations. Others are low-income and/or beneficiaries of government programs. Of the 15 board members, at least 2/3 receive some sort of government benefits and one-half are welfare recipients. MCCC is part of the Kentucky Clients Council, which in turn is part of the Region VI Clients Council serving ten Southeastern states. MCCC is also a member of the Kentucky Welfare Reform Coalition and the National Organization of Client Advocates and is affiliated with the National Legal Aid and Defender Association.

The Multi-County Clients Council was founded in late 1977/early 1978 by the current director, Ron Wright. Mr. Wright was working at that time as a community organizer for the Community Action Agency when he became concerned about problems community members were having with welfare, food stamps and housing. Mr. Wright began attending board meetings of the local Legal Services office who asked him to be a delegate to a National Organization of Client Advocates meeting. He returned to Kentucky and organized the Multi-County Clients Council.

MCCC maintains close ties with the Community Action Agency and the Legal Aid Society. Group member Lealer Barney, who recently passed away, was the group's liaison with these agencies as well as a community advocate who did outreach to church and neighborhood organizations. She was also MCCC's medical advisor to the Kentucky State legislature and was a key player in MCCC's efforts to extend medical assistance to low-income children throughout the state. Her work will be sorely missed.

MCCC does individual client advocacy as well as community outreach and education and lobbying. MCCC "helps to promote low-income people's views" about issues of concern at the local and state level. It presents workshops on welfare reform, food stamps, housing, education and health care issues. In 1996, it gave workshops or did outreach to senior citizen centers, churches, resident councils and at community events. In 1995, MCCC organized the Region VI conference on Welfare Reform and Health Care. Delegates from each state in the region attended.

Most recently, Chairperson Imogene Washington organized a conference on welfare reform which took place on June 21 in Louisville. The conference addressed issues of welfare reform on both the federal and state level. Congresswoman Anne Northup spoke on welfare reform on the federal level while Kentucky officials spoke on Kentucky's Temporary Assistance Program (K-TAP, which replaces AFDC) and Project L.I.F.E. (Learning Independence From Employment) a welfare-to-work program designed to get people off public assistance and into entry-level employment.

The conference was primarily for recipients to learn about the new programs. MCCC sent mailings to social service agencies, attorneys, and housing authority offices, asking them to sponsor recipients. Sixty people attended, over forty of whom are public assistance recipients who will carry the information gained back to their communities. MCCC board member Anita Lawless, who was involved at the start of the national welfare rights movement in the 1960s, remains active with the MCCC and assisted in organizing this conference. She was instrumental in recruiting welfare recipients to attend.

Prepared by Maryanne Joyce, a Center legal intern.

-- from the September 1997 issue of Welfare News