Affirmative Options is a statewide coalition of more than 50 organizations who believe that poverty is not inevitable.

Together we advocate for a Minnesota economy that creates opportunities for women, men and children to move out of poverty.

The opportunities we envision:

A welfare program that is effective at helping very low income parents get and keep work that moves them and their children out of poverty. 

An economic infrastructure that could put the welfare program out of business:

• By making work pay:  adequate wages, tax credits for working families, and access to training and education;
• By making work possible:  child care, health care coverage and transportation; and
• By preventing deprivation when work is not a real possibility:  a safety net for the disabled, for children and for the unemployed.

What We Do

• Develop and advocate for state policy changes each year
• Make information about policy easy to understand and act on.
• Mobilize our members to act.
• Seek out new partnerships.
• Connect allies around a common mission and a coordinated strategy.
• Provide the news media with information, analysis and points of view.
• Mobilize our members to telephone, write, and meet with policy makers and to offer testimony at formal hearings
• Advocate for federal welfare policies that support anti-poverty efforts and state flexibility and innovation

Our members:

• Anti-poverty advocacy organizations
• Non-profit organizations and their staff serving low income people.
• Faith-based networks.
• Individuals who are committed to diminishing poverty.

We welcome your membership in the Affirmative Options Coalition.  Together we can be a strong voice for public policies that ensure that all Minnesota provides real economic opportunity for all.   Join today.

Our Funders:

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

The Joyce Foundation

The Minneapolis Foundation

Otto Bremer Foundation

The Workforce Alliance