Make sure that Minnesotans can easily access public work supports that help them hold onto jobs and meet their basic needs:
Community-based, comprehensive public benefit outreach and enrollment: make finding out about and applying for public assistance programs easier and clearer. When Minnesotans cannot access or do not know about public work supports – such as income tax credits, food stamps, Minnesota Care – that fill in where wages fall short, work becomes difficult to sustain. More than 80% of Minnesotans eligible for income tax credits receive them – but more than three-quarters of low-wage parents eligible for help paying child care bills do not get that help.
For a model of how to use 21st century technology to increase access look at thebenefitbank.com
Poverty is too little money to cover basic and fundamental needs. The solutions must be ones that make it possible for Minnesotans to:
Our Coalition explores policy options that affirm our state’s core values: Work, Opportunity, Fair play, Compassion, and Community. We can build on a legacy of introducing the nation to effective and innovative solutions to end poverty. It's possible. It's time.