[COMM-ORG] Virginia Organizing Project newsletter

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

From: Virginia Organizing Project <e-action at virginia-organizing.org>



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703 Concord Avenue
Charlottesville, VA 22903-5208
(434) 984-4655 • (434) 984-2803 fax
www.virginia-organizing.org

Dear Friend,

The Virginia Organizing Project is publishing this electronic newsletter 
instead of the usual paper edition. Check out the VOP website at 
www.virginia-organizing.org to learn more and to take action on several 
important campaigns.

1. SUMMER CIVIC ENGAGEMENT PROJECT
2. 300,000 VOTER GUIDES TO BE DISTRIBUTED
3. VOP IN THE NATIONAL NEWS
4. VOP RECEIVES COMMUNITY AWARDS
5. GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2009 SUCCESSES
6. PLEASE SUPPORT VOP’S WORK!


SUMMER CIVIC ENGAGEMENT PROJECT

This past week 40 VOP interns hit the streets in a major non-partisan 
door-to-door canvass across the state this summer! Along with ten 
organizers and hundreds of volunteers from VOP as well as other 
statewide and local groups, they are handing out a non-partisan voter 
guide and talking to people about health care, child care, immigration 
and climate change, and finding out what issues are most pressing for 
Virginians.

300,000 VOTER GUIDES TO BE DISTRIBUTED

VOP has printed a 32-page non-partisan voter guide for the November 
elections for Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General and all State 
Delegates. Included is information from groups working on a wide variety 
of social justice and environmental issues.

Last year, VOP’s interns, organizers and volunteers succeeded in 
activating people to participate in the electoral process, many for the 
first time. We’re doing it again for this fall’s elections, building on 
the historic change we saw in Virginia in 2008.

VOP RECEIVES COMMUNITY AWARDS

The Hampton Citizens' Unity Commission has honored the Virginia 
Organizing Project for working to make a positive effect on diversity in 
Hampton or to improve cultural and racial relations.

In nominating the Virginia Organizing Project, Patricia Lacy said the 
group has taken on issues such as predatory lending, inclusive housing 
campaigns, racial profiling, restoration of rights for non-violent 
former felons, and affordable quality health care for Virginians. 
Virginia Organizing Project "is a statewide, multi-issue citizens 
organization committed to challenging injustice by empowering people in 
local communities to address issues that affect the quality of their 
lives," Lacy said in her nomination.

Children, Youth and Family Services in Charlottesville awarded the 
Virginia Organizing Project the Mitch Van Yahres Family-Friendly 
Employer award. VOP offers employees full family health care coverage 
with no out-of-pocket expense, and a long list of other family-friendly 
benefits.

VOP IN THE NATIONAL NEWS

The Virginia Organizing Project is one of the groups that National 
Public Radio is following this year to see how changes on the national 
level affect local community organizing. NPR Reporter Pam Fessler 
followed VOP grassroots leaders and board members in stories aired in 
January and February.

Excerpts from one story:

“That's why the [Center for Community Change] brought 10 grassroots 
activists to Washington last week for some team building, training and a 
trip to Capitol Hill. They plan to bring in similar groups each week 
until May to push for housing, health care and jobs, among other things.

They first dropped in, without an appointment, at the office of Virginia 
Rep. Bobby Scott, a Democrat.

[Denise] Smith introduced herself to one of the congressman's aides, 
then made her pitch: ‘We want to try to make sure that some of the jobs 
that are being created go to low-income people.’

She's from Bland County, which has a population of only 6,500 and is 
located in the Appalachian Mountains. Scott is from Newport News, on the 
other side of the state. But Smith noted that the Virginia Organizing 
Project, where she's a volunteer, operates statewide.

‘We gave out 300,000 voter guides last year and we knocked on about 
150,000 doors, and it wasn't just to give them a voter guide,’ she told 
the aide. It was also to ask about their concerns.

Now, the group has a database of everyone its canvassers have talked to 
and what issues they care about most. It's part of a national 
information network that community organizers hope to use increasingly, 
in the months to come, to help push their issues through Congress. In 
fact, while Smith was in Washington, colleagues back at the Virginia 
Organizing Project were e-mailing thousands of state residents, asking 
them to urge Congress to support health insurance for immigrant 
children, something else on Smith's agenda.”

GENERAL ASSEMBLY 2009 SUCCESSES

Payday lending
Legislators became incensed that payday lenders were trying to avoid 
having to comply with the new payday lending requirements – that VOP and 
others pushed for in 2008 – by offering a new loan product. 
Consequently, legislation passed that would prevent a payday lender from 
also offering an open-end loan, other than one that was secured by a 
car, unless the payday lender gave up its license to offer payday loans. 
If the lender gave up its license, it would be prevented from offering 
payday loans for ten years.

The legislature agreed to set up a study committee between General 
Assembly sessions to research car title lending and to make 
recommendations to the legislators before the 2010 session.

Economic security
• Employers are now required to post notices provided by the Virginia 
Department of Social Services to inform employees of their potential 
eligibility for the earned income tax credit.
• A bill passed to make it easier for spouses of military personnel to 
qualify for unemployment compensation when they have to leave their jobs 
to accompany the spouses to new locations due to their military 
reassignments.
• Legislation passed to postpone the increase in the minimum amount of 
wages an employee must have earned in order to be eligible for 
unemployment benefits, thus making it easier for some workers to be 
eligible for benefits. Amendments recommended by Governor Tim Kaine were 
adopted to expand the criteria for extending these benefits for an 
additional 13 weeks.
• New legislation revised the limitation on receipt of one-time 
diversionary cash assistance from local departments of social service 
from one payment per 60-month period to one payment per 12-month period.

Health Care Reform
Legislation passed requiring all hospitals to provide written 
information about the hospital's charity care policies, including 
policies related to free and discounted care, in public areas of the 
hospital. It further provides that information about eligibility 
criteria and procedures for applying for charity care shall be provided 
to patients at the time of admission or discharge, at the time services 
are provided, with any billing statements, and on any website maintained 
by the hospital.

The law now allows health insurers to offer and sell group health 
insurance policies or contracts that do not include state mandated 
health insurance benefits to employers with 50 or fewer employees if the 
employer has not offered health insurance coverage to its employees 
during the preceding six months.

Verifiable Voting
A resolution passed calling for the establishment of a joint 
subcommittee to study postelection audits of voting equipment.
Measures were introduced to delete the provision enacted in 2007 that 
prohibits the acquisition of direct recording electronic (DRE) machines 
by any locality on and after July 1, 2007. These measures would have 
reversed the hard fought victory of the Verified Voting Coalition to 
help make optical scan equipment, which provides paper back-ups for all 
votes cast, the standard in Virginia for the future. The bills passed, 
but only after they were significantly amended to only permit localities 
that had acquired DREs prior to July 1, 2007 to acquire them on a 
temporary basis when the existing DRE inventory is insufficient to 
conduct the election because all or some of its inventory is under lock 
or seal.


PLEASE SUPPORT VOP’S WORK!
With 40 interns knocking on 200,000 doors, and another 100,000 
non-partisan voter guides being distributed at events throughout the 
state, VOP is moving forward! Please help us expand our organizing by 
making a donation right now at www.virginia-organizing.org/donation.php. 
Many thanks for your continued support!