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Currently, CHIP provides free or low-cost health insurance for more than 180,000 children in PA and approximately 9 million kids nationwide.
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PA launches "CHIP Strong" public awareness campaign
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Using federal funds, the PA Department of Human Services launched a new statewide Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) public awareness campaign called "CHIP Strong". It encourages Pennsylvanians to enroll their kids in the program which includes dental and vision coverage.
Currently, CHIP benefits more than 180,000 kids across our state and is available on a sliding fee scale for families over 133% of the federal poverty level.
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United Way ALICE project released data on poverty, ALICE households
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On Thursday, May 17th the ALICE project hosted a media event at the Press Club in Washington, DC to release two summary pieces of data about financial stability for every state in the country: how many households live below the poverty line, and how many households live below the ALICE threshold.
The ALICE threshold is based on the household stability budget developed by the project, which estimates how much a household must earn to satisfy basic needs for food, shelter, healthcare, transportation, and to save a little bit for the future. In Pennsylvania, 42% of households have earnings below the ALICE threshold (including below the poverty level), while 12 percent of households live below the poverty level. The national averages are 43% for ALICE households, and 13.5% of our country's population lives at or below the federal poverty level.
UWP's Board of Directors has made the commitment for Pennsylvania to become the 18th state to join the ALICE project. Local United Ways who financially support the ALICE project will have access to a learning community which will help them come up with ways to use the data in support of their community impact and resource development work in order to move ALICE along a path to financial stability.
Here is a sample of news coverage from the national ALICE release:
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Proposed Farm Bill fails in House vote
Early on May 18, the US House voted against passage of H.R.2, which contained the House version fo the Farm Bill proposal. The vote was 198 - 213, and a significant number of House republicans joined democrats and others with substantive concerns over the provisions of the legislation in order to make a statement to their leadership about dissatisfaction over lack of opportunities to vote on immigration reform.
United Way has been advocating for a bipartisan Farm Bill that protects and strengthens SNAP. The goal is to create a bill that promotes access and facilitates enrollment, rather than forms roadblocks. Unfortunately, the House Farm bill did not meet those principles and United Way leaders around the country raised concerns that the bill would have cut access to food for millions of Americans including working families, children, individuals with disabilities, older Americans, and veterans.
UWW is expecting a Senate Farm Bill proposal in the near future and there are encouraging signs of a bi-partisan approach emerging.
There will be a significant amount of work on the Farm Bill in June, so stay tuned for more updates from UWW and UWP.
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Pre-K reduces corrections cost
"Pay for high-quality early education programs now, or pay far more later for the costs of crime and lack of educational success".
That's the conclusion of a recent report from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids which discusses many ways Pre-K programs can help reduce crime and keep at-risk children in school. The report, entitled, "Pre-K Key to Cutting Pennsylvania Prison Costs and Boosting School Success", explains statistical findings, from the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, which connect lack of education with an increased chance for incarceration. For example, 26.3% of current state prison inmates have less than a 12th grade education.
Pre-K programs can help cut the current spend of $3.2 billion each year on state and local corrections in Pennsylvania. Because individuals who do not graduate high school are more likely to commit crimes, programs providing at-risk kids with high-quality early learning can help kids stay in school, and reduce the crime rate.
United Ways encourage all Pennsylvanians who understand that high quality Pre-K and Head Start are beneficial for our kids and our economy to do two things: 1) become supporters of the Pre-K for PA campaign
here
and contact your state legislators (find yours
here
) to urge them to support $40 million in the 2018 -2019 state budget so that another 4400 of PA's at-risk kids will have access to high quality early childhood education next year.
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Ready to learn something new this summer? Check out UWP's 2018 Webinar Series Summer lineup!
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United Way of Pennsylvania is glad to kick off a summer of learning. We will be hosting four webinars through August relating to relevant and timely topics for our local United Way members.
The webinars are open and free of charge to all our members and their volunteers. If you are interested in a webinar, please register by clicking on the webinar's name below.
June 29th 3:00pm: United Way of PA State Budget Overview
If you have any questions about the webinars, or would like to request a specific topic, please reach out to Amanda Barbarich via
email or by calling (717) 238-7365 x206
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Voting Reminder for UWP Board
On Monday May 7th, the ballot for Board of Directors was sent to our Member United Way CPOs. If you have not yet, please fill out the ballot, sign it and send it back to Brandie Trostle by email: brandie@uwp.org.
If you did not receive a ballot or need a replacement, please email Brandie and she will send one over asap. Ballots are due no later than June 12, 2018 and the results will be announced at the June 20th annual meeting. Thank you for your cooperation!
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| 2018 United Way Worldwide Annual Meeting
United Way Worldwide will be hosting the annual meeting in Arlington, VA. The meeting will start at 9:00am at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City at Reagan National Airport. United Way Worldwide will have a state of the organization overview and will vote on board members. All United Ways are encouraged to attend.
If you are unable to attend, you may vote by proxy. Patricia Turner, UWW's general counsel, will be the official designated person for all proxies unless otherwise stated. If you would like to submit someone else as your proxy, you will need to submit
this form via fax or mail by 5:00pm on Tuesday, June 26th.
You may also submit your votes by proxy online using
this link if you are the CEO/Board Chair. If you have any questions, please reach out to Tyrone Jones at (703) 683-7823 or via
email.
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Cost of Child Abuse Clearances to Rise in July
The Department of Human Services has notified stakeholders that there will be an increase in cost for child abuse clearances. The cost will increase from $8 to $13. Fees for volunteers will continue to be waived one time within a five-year period.
The increase is to assist in covering the cost of processing child abuse clearances. Individuals who require clearances include almost anyone who is employed to work with children or adults with disabilities or anyone who volunteers with those populations. In 2016, DHS received over 950,000 applications for a child abuse clearance and identified over 2,000 substantiated or alleged perpetrators of child abuse.
If you have questions or need additional information on background check requirements, please visit KeepKidsSafe.pa.gov
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