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POWER's Mission
Portland Organizing to Win Economic Rights is a grassroots anti-poverty action group led by poor & low-income people. United with all those who align with this mission, together we're building a local movement to win economic rights for all, end economic oppression, & abolish poverty. When we unite to claim our rights, together we have POWER!
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What
is POWER?
Based in Southern Maine, POWER is a grassroots anti-poverty community organization that is led by poor and low-income people. Together with all those who support our mission, we are building a local movement to win economic rights for all, end economic oppression, and abolish poverty. While POWER has a leadership base of poor and low-income people, our membership is open to people from all walks of life who care about ending poverty & includes people from all walks of life, income levels, economic classes, geographical locations, etc.
As part of our mission of abolishing poverty, POWER members advocate for the basic means of survival that we ALL need and deserve, including food, healthcare, housing, education, living wage jobs, and education. Each of these is an example of what are called economic human rights, which are outlined in what is called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- the international standard for human rights. We demand safe & affordable housing! Quality health care! Jobs at living wages with decent benefits & workers' rights! Access to all levels of education! Safe & affordable childcare! Adequate social benefits for all those unable to work! Fairness & dignified treatment by social service agencies! An end to unjust child removal! An end to the criminalization of poor people!
As part of our ongoing work to end poverty, POWER has organized countless events & activities throughout the community & beyond. Some examples of these activities include: documenting economic rights violations; hosting local Truth Commissions (such as our Healthcare Truth Commisison) to expose some of the many economic rights violations happening right here in our community; creating our own videos on issues of poverty & economic justice - many of which have aired on our local public access television stations; holding demonstrations, rallies, & marches to protest & call attention to various injustices in our community, including around issues of housing, healthcare, wages & working conditions, government benefits, and child welfare; hosting presentations, educationals, & trainings around economic human rights, myths & facts about poverty, & other key issues; and holding community public forums for social & political education & action, including several Poor People's Candidate Forums & single-issue forums (such as our Public Forum on Healthcare Justice). Together we protest, document, & educate that poverty violates our human rights!
Based in Southern Maine, POWER is a grassroots anti-poverty community organization that is led by poor and low-income people. Together with all those who support our mission, we are building a local movement to win economic rights for all, end economic oppression, and abolish poverty. While POWER has a leadership base of poor and low-income people, our membership is open to people from all walks of life who care about ending poverty & includes people from all walks of life, income levels, economic classes, geographical locations, etc.
As part of our mission of abolishing poverty, POWER members advocate for the basic means of survival that we ALL need and deserve, including food, healthcare, housing, education, living wage jobs, and education. Each of these is an example of what are called economic human rights, which are outlined in what is called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights -- the international standard for human rights. We demand safe & affordable housing! Quality health care! Jobs at living wages with decent benefits & workers' rights! Access to all levels of education! Safe & affordable childcare! Adequate social benefits for all those unable to work! Fairness & dignified treatment by social service agencies! An end to unjust child removal! An end to the criminalization of poor people!
As part of our ongoing work to end poverty, POWER has organized countless events & activities throughout the community & beyond. Some examples of these activities include: documenting economic rights violations; hosting local Truth Commissions (such as our Healthcare Truth Commisison) to expose some of the many economic rights violations happening right here in our community; creating our own videos on issues of poverty & economic justice - many of which have aired on our local public access television stations; holding demonstrations, rallies, & marches to protest & call attention to various injustices in our community, including around issues of housing, healthcare, wages & working conditions, government benefits, and child welfare; hosting presentations, educationals, & trainings around economic human rights, myths & facts about poverty, & other key issues; and holding community public forums for social & political education & action, including several Poor People's Candidate Forums & single-issue forums (such as our Public Forum on Healthcare Justice). Together we protest, document, & educate that poverty violates our human rights!
Questions?
Wanna
learn more? Contact
us!
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Part of a national movement
The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign
Portland Organizing to Win Economic Rights (POWER) is a proud organizational member of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC). This is a national campaign made up of 100 organizations (and counting!) from states all across the country. Together we are working to build a new movement to abolish poverty. As its mission states, this campaign is committed to "uniting the poor across color lines as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty. We work to accomplish this through advancing economic human rights as named in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights- such as the rights to food, housing, health, education, communication, & living wage jobs." For more information please visit: www.economichumanrights.org.
The
University of the Poor Part of a national movement
The Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign
Portland Organizing to Win Economic Rights (POWER) is a proud organizational member of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC). This is a national campaign made up of 100 organizations (and counting!) from states all across the country. Together we are working to build a new movement to abolish poverty. As its mission states, this campaign is committed to "uniting the poor across color lines as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty. We work to accomplish this through advancing economic human rights as named in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights- such as the rights to food, housing, health, education, communication, & living wage jobs." For more information please visit: www.economichumanrights.org.
The University of the Poor is the educational arm of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign and is concerned with the unity and development of the leaders of a growing movement to end poverty. Since its inception, the University of the Poor has shared education tools with grassroots anti-poverty groups across the nation, has helped link media professionals, performing artists, social workers, members of the religious community and labor organizers with the movement to end poverty, and has facilitated the exchange of knowledge between poor people and their allies across the globe. For more information please visit: www.universityofthepoor.org.
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"There
are
millions of poor people in this country who have very little,
or even
nothing, to lose. If
they can be helped to take action together,
they will do so with a
freedom and a power that
will be a new
and unsettling force in our complacent national
life."
-- Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 1967
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Portland
Organizing to Win Economic Rights = POWER! Contact POWER Winning our economic human rights; Putting poverty on trial; Building a Maine that truly is the way life should be - for ALL of us!!! |
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