Reform Organization of Welfare (ROWEL) is a Missouri statewide membership organization of low-income people and their allies dedicated to reducing poverty and prejudice. Since the group’s founding in 1972 ROWEL members have worked continuously to improve the lives of Missouri’s most vulnerable citizens. The group has launched a range of activities to confront the many challenges facing people with limited resources. These activities include public education, community and legislative organizing, leadership development, advocacy training, political education, and direct-action campaigns. In 1982 ROWEL formed a sister organization, the ROWEL Education Association (REA), which uses individual advocacy and public education to provide members with a route out of poverty. With approximately 1,350 members statewide, REA plans educational events and offers leadership training and membership development.

ROWEL's membership includes current and former welfare recipients and low wage workers. Its Board is predominantly low-income and its staff includes former recipients. Missouri’s low-income residents learn of ROWEL through word of mouth, public education, community outreach and through other community-based organizations. According to Robin Acree, ROWEL's community organizer, the group currently has active chapters in St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia, Jefferson City, and Mexico.

ROWEL members have been creative in designing projects to achieve their mission. For example, the group recently collaborated with BreakThrough - Education for Economic Action to produce a combined newsletter. BreakThrough is a group of female economists whose primary activity is to support low-income communities by offering training in economic literacy. Through this new collaboration ROWEL hopes to expand the readership of its newsletter the ROWEL Reporter. The new ROWEL Reporter now includes articles to educate mothers on the systemic causes of poverty, provides a forum where poor people's voices can be heard and inspires low-income individuals to organize to fight against social injustices. The recent issue is posted on the Welfare Law Center’s LINC Project webpage.

ROWEL has also established a leadership academy. Each year the academy holds four training sessions. Selected groups of members attend to receive intensive training in leadership skills. Participants are taught how to plan and execute organizing campaigns, as well as how to assume leadership roles in activating statewide campaigns around public policy issues. The academy also conducts training in effective public speaking, membership building, and fund-raising.

ROWEL has an impressive record of accomplishment and collaboration and cites several recent efforts in particular. In 1994 ROWEL Education Association (REA) was selected by the Missouri Coalition of Human Needs (CHN) to conduct research on the implementation of the state’s Job Opportunities and Basic Skills program. The information gathered was used in the state's assessment of the program. Also in 1994 REA successfully sponsored a series of workshops entitled "Telling the Truth about Welfare." The workshops were tailored to dispel the myths and stereotypes commonly associated with people on welfare. Facilitators specifically targeted local media representatives and politicians to serve as workshop attendees.

In 1996 ROWEL collaborated with the Missouri Association for Social Welfare (MASW), Missourians for Tax Justice (MTJ), Catholic Charities, and ACORN to coordinate an April 16 Lobby Day. ROWEL and ACORN activists marched to the state's capitol and successfully protested Missouri's proposed hike in food sales tax. Their campaign was successful, and instead of a tax increase, Missourians now enjoy a reduced tax.

This year ROWEL and other advocates scored a major victory in the fight for social justice. Earlier this year ROWEL members were informed of the Missouri Department of Social Services' (DSS) intention to file a series of emergency rules related to welfare changes. If implemented the new rules would mean among other things, imposing full family sanctions if an adult head of house hold failed to comply with workfare requirements and a twelve month lifetime limit on the work exemption for families with very young children.

Believing there was no real emergency to justify the adoption of such punitive and oppressive changes, ROWEL members quickly mobilized to get the state to rescind the emergency rule filing. In an Action Alert the group urged its members and the community at large to call the Governor and other state officials to protest the emergency rules. In addition to issuing a call to action the group organized a day of action appropriately entitled "The Wizards of Odds"- imploring state officials to put a heart into welfare reform and to stop playing games with people's lives. After a series of rallies, protests and meetings with ROWEL members, DSS withdrew the emergency rules. Soon after, DSS issued new rules, and ROWEL and other allies continued to push for changes and a public hearing. After negotiations and public pressure, DSS made some changes and canceled the hearing. Final regulations have been published. While they still contain troubling provisions, ROWEL and its allies won an especially important victory when DSS abandoned full family sanctions. (Chalk one up for the good guys!) This experience has renewed ROWEL’s determination to continue its fight for fair rules and policies.

For further information contact Jeanette Mott Oxford at ROWEL, 5300 Delmar, St. Louis, MO 63112, tel. 314-361-6665; e-mail: rowel@fastrans.net.