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Welfare Reform Coalition of Iowa

The Welfare Reform Coalition of Iowa is a special project of the Iowa Coalition of Housing and Homeless that was formed by a group of human service providers in June of 1995 who were frightened by the welfare reform proposals in the legislature. This initial set of discussions gave birth to what is now a large group of current and former welfare recipients and advocates, religious community leaders and general public that holds monthly meetings, and has specialized sub-committees working on various federal and state welfare issues.

The main goal of the group is to get the word out about the impacts of welfare "reform" measures being made on the federal and Iowa state levels. This is a massive outreach effort to the Coalition's 900 person/group mailing list as well as to Iowa state congressional members.

Since the signing of the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996, the group is asking itself, "where do we go from here?" It intends to focus on demanding the appropriation of better child care, education and training, and living wage jobs, which are all areas of significant under-funding under Iowa's current waiver project.

In the last election year, the Welfare Reform Coalition of Iowa was instrumental in getting an increase of 4 million dollars in the Iowa waiver budget for child care spending. This year the Coalition is particularly excited about an upcoming conference they are planning to educate the public about the projected impacts of new federal and state reform.

They are currently looking for foundation funding, so that they can establish themselves as an independent group and further educate their community.

Prepared by Jo Townson, a student intern.

-- from the November 1996 issue of Welfare News