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Children and families group to fight for social programs

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Members of a group which advocates on behalf of children and families are presenting their priorities to House of Delegates Speaker Tim Miley. Northern Organizer for “Our Children, Our Families.”

The legislative agenda they’re seeking strikes close to home.

“Forty-eight percent of families in West Virginia struggle to make ends meet,” she said during an appearance on MetroNews Talkline. “These are working families that are doing everything they are told to do correctly, but are still finding it hard to make ends meet.”

Wotring would know, she’s one who benefited from many of the state’s social services for children and families during a difficult period of her life.

“Twenty-one years ago at the age of 18 I became a single mom. I was struggling and had to make a choice to stay in a cycle of violence or throw myself into a cycle of poverty,” she shared. “I made the choice to break the cycle of violence.”

She said she was very lucky and was able to take advantage of a number of programs for which she’s now advocating which helped her get back on her feet.

“The great thing about our campaign is this is what democracy looks like,” she said. “We say we are not representing kids and families, we are actually community members, kids, and families that are struggling to do this and coming with solutions and bringing those to the table which we know are working.”

Their legislative priorities come in no particular order:

–Expanding home visiting and early childhood programs statewide

–Talking about minimum wage

— Protecting family support networks

— Promoting 30 minutes of physical activities in schools

— Substance abuse programs (making pseudoephederine a prescription medication and access to pay for it through Medicare)

— The future fund

The group hopes they’ll get the attention of lawmakers and be able to share their first hand experiences. They want to explained the difficult conditions in today’s world and the solutions those programs made in their lives.

 





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