Building Power to Effect Change for Children: Child Poverty Task Force Merging with Citizen Action of WI

Image of a handshake.

By Lynn Buske and John Wagner, edited by Jeremy Gragert 

Huge thanks to John Wagner for all his efforts for JONAH with this issue! 

JONAH exists because we live in a world where so much is happening – people experiencing so many different things, holding different perspectives, not often aware of what others are experiencing, and too many of those experiences are unjust. JONAH’s role is to build vast relationships, be the bridge that unites that range of diversity, ensure that as many perspectives as possible are considered, and collaborate so the right entity is prepared to make powerful changes that benefit us all. Organizing.

People often ask how a task force in JONAH comes to be.

There are three criteria:

  1. There is an issue that is affecting people in the Chippewa Valley, and those people are asking for help. People are talking about it.
  2. No one else in the community is working on it in a way that includes residents in the community, particularly those affected by the issue, nor is it approached from an interfaith, sustainable perspective.
  3. Not only are there people willing to volunteer to address it, but at least one individual willing to voluntarily lead it – passionately.

Our goals are to:

  1. Have voices be heard by the people who need to hear them.
  2. Collaborate so our working together has a deeper impact.
  3. Make an impact, for people affected, on the causes of the issue, and keep making an impact until the issue no longer exists, it becomes clear a new direction is needed, or those who can make the deepest impact have taken it on.

We’d love for a task force to dissolve because we’ve eradicated a social injustice. But the truth is, as long as there are humans we will have injustice because we are not perfect beings. To have a task force dissolve, however, because we acknowledge that we can do better in a different direction is a grand example to demonstrate!

Our child poverty task force formed 6 years ago thanks to the efforts of John Wagner. A statewide coalition was working to impact child poverty through a legislative ask needing people support. We wanted to support that effort on the ground. We found, again through John Wagner’s dedication and efforts, that education was lacking on why children were growing up in poverty in the Chippewa Valley and beyond. We found that stronger legislative urging is required. We also found that the problem is rather grand in scale, and we began focusing on smaller pieces of it: Medicaid expansion and childcare (birth-5 education).

One of our longtime partners, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, has always been where we direct people wanting to affect positive change for healthcare. We joined with them on Medicaid expansion for their experience and focus in this area.

Citizen Action of Wisconsin has now decided that childcare, or rather the extreme lack of childcare in Wisconsin, is too big a crisis to ignore, and they have impacted voices leading the advocacy. They are powerfully organized as a statewide group to move the needle on this crucial need for our children and their families. 

JONAH and its leadership in Child Poverty have proudly decided to merge with Citizen Action on these issues and disband our own Child Poverty Task Force – BECAUSE WE ARE STRONGER AND BETTER TOGETHER! Citizen Action has strengths here and we are happy to change course for the betterment of children.

Child Poverty will remain a special interest, and we will share information about what becomes of these efforts! If you have a keen passion for children and want to support the expansion of Medicaid or be part of working to address the childcare crisis – please contact Citizen Action! 

Jeremy Gragert is the organizer for Citizen Action’s Northwestern Organizing Cooperative. He and the Cooperative are based in Eau Claire and can be reached at: [email protected] or phone 612-220-1970.

Learn more about Citizen Action of Wisconsin at: www.citizenactionwi.org.

How can you take action to support this work now?

  1. Attend a local advocacy effort, “Child Care in the Wisconsin State Budget and Beyond – What We Have, What We Need, and What We Can Do” on Friday, February 21 from 4:00pm to 5:30pm. Gather in the 3rd floor Riverview Room of the L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire for a panel and open discussion. This will be a great chance to hear from panelists: our local elected officials Senator Jeff Smith and Representative Jodi Emerson, Julia Bennker of Ms. Julia’s Schoolia, Jeremy Gragert of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, as well as a representative from the Wisconsin Alliance for Infant Mental Health. Corrine Hendrickson of Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN) will moderate the discussion about the importance of funding childcare, explain the current landscape, the devastating reality if the state does not invest, and what will be possible once the funding is provided. 
  2. Share a link to the petition that Wisconsin Early Childhood Action Needed (WECAN) is circulating. It is for $2 billion in the state budget to support child care: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfIOmmpwor-tGmtezP9oj5Ar6FQyieI3HT0pt-WkuvxSHci8A/viewform?fbclid=IwY2xjawHR1-ZleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHWLI4n5_rDeGPgKYW4bh3YGQRcm_Dq9C6P9StrDrdWAKJr7F1osEkD5fOg_aem_2a5BgYMhh_BElbNP4MY2bw