Happy 2010, everyone. The Voices Project blog has some exciting new features coming down the pike this year that I can’t announce just yet. ;) I hope you’ll come back often to check out our new content. Don't forget to sign up and start blogging! Read more

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It’s been an exciting week for advocacy at Crittenton Women’s Union. We attended and participated in a rally yesterday to support TAFDC for families headed by a parent receiving SSI. The governor recently reversed a cut that would have left almost 9,000 families with a reduced TAFDC grant or without any assistance at all. It was a huge success to have the funding restored but we now move on to ask for continued funding in FY11. The event yesterday highlighted the importance of the TAFDC program to families with disabilities. Read more

 I recently blogged about my experiences with a program similar to Toys for Tots or Globe Santa. Since then I've been thinking about such organizations and how they must be doing in such a tough economic time. I found a few news articles that confirmed what I assumed: that more people than usual are asking for assistance this year.

According to the Boston Globe, 60,000 kids will receive presents from Globe Santa this year. While more people are asking for assistance this year, however, fewer seem to be financially able to donate. Read more

My daughter, who I call Bear, is 15 years old and, I’m sure, does not believe in Santa anymore. However, she is not going to admit that to Mom.

You see, when her dad and I were married, we decided to prove that, because there really was a Santa, we had to give her gifts from us, as well as from Santa.(My parents’ tradition of just giving us Santa gifts and the heck with “proof” was outvoted by the now-ex. (Of course it was, because it was the cheaper way to go, but let’s not get into that particular argument.)) Read more

My favorite holiday memory stems from the time when my mother was alive. She was big on tradition so the celebration was always at our house. She always had to have a real tree, never artificial with all the garlands and bulbs and an angel on the top. The meals were always lavish – from the golden brown butterball turkey to candied yams with marshmallow to minced onions. The preparation of the meal was a two day event. The partial cooking of the ham and turkey the night before as well as the making of the pies. Read more

this my dream to move to my own house, let me describe for you: is two levels, my daughter lives upstairs with her husband and my grandchild. I live downstairs, there is a big back yard, with a garden that I enjoy so much. I work in the office. It+ is a very nice place.

A typical day with me begins at 6:30 am. I wake up my daughter to get her ready for school. I start by washing her face and brushing her gums, making sure any milk wasn’t left on her face throughout the night. While she sits on the bed and watches me I sing her lullaby’s while choosing her something to wear. After I get her dress I make her a little breakfast snack before putting on her coat, just enough to last her to school for the big breakfast. After her coat and hat is on I grab her bag and immediately go down stairs and wait for her van. Read more

My favorite holiday memory is when I was  a little  girl and its Christmas Eve. My parents have the Christmas carols playing  we are listening to the Jackson 5 , Charles Brown and others its  now time for bed. My brothers and sisters  and I are excited at the thought of what we are going to get from Santa. We go to bed knowing that we are not going to get much sleep and it will be the longest night of the year. Somehow we manage to get some sleep  we wake up and its 6 am. Read more

Food stamp program change to SNAP program

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This year I look forward to the winter season. Throughout all this years I have looked at it as the worst season, I been very negative about it. I'm growing in my way of thinking and I now realize that the way I look at things can be positive or negative. This also affects my surrounding, others and self. I decided to be positive enjoy winter and all of its beauty.

 In five years I hope to have my bachelor’s degree in Accounting and to be fluent in Spanish. My goal is to work in a nonprofit organization that helps immigrants learn more about financial literacy. Ultimately, I want to be the controller or CPA of the company I choose to work for. I am proficient in French but want to be fluent in French and Haitian Creole as well. Read more

Hello to all those clickity clackity fingers and swirly twirly eys out there I'm getting ready to graduate the women to women progeam next week and for one of my advocay classes i was to pick a topic, any topic I felt needed to be voiced and write abouit it.

I decided to write out a petition to the governor in his time of budget cuts, just as a reminder as to where not to cut from, but as to where i believe he should add funds to. Read more

When I was seven years old I assumed my mom believed in Santa Claus. It wasn't only because of her excitement over leaving cookies for him or her eagerness to get me and my two brothers to bed early so that he would visit, but because on Christmas morning when we opened our gifts she delighted in what we unwrapped just as much as we did, as if the mermaid whose tail changed colors in the bathtub or the matchbox cars decorated in fancy metallic colors were truly the greatest things she had ever seen.

Years later I learned the very simple yet impressive truth. Santa Claus does exist. Read more

Things seem to be looking up a bit as it has recently been reported that the unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped from 10.2 percent in October to 10 percent in November. Many economists even think that the US will start generating jobs as early as the first quarter of next year! Since 2007, 2.7 million jobs have been lost, so this small improvement is quite significant. Read more

When it comes to discrimination, so many things happened to me that I feel I am a target of it, and I totally disapprove in a big and free country like America where every day you hear the same song "Equality, Liberty and Justice for All" things like this are still happening. Even if I can recall every single thing, I can’t unfortunately talk about them all, but I can state this one which I think is very important for people to know so we can do something about it. Read more

As a recent college graduate, I've entered the "real world" at a relatively scary and inopportune time. I hear the words "recession" and "health care reform" too many times to count in any single day, and the longer I spend searching for a full-time job, the more I realize how closely these two issues are actually related. I just read in the Huffington Post that women are 40 percent more likely than men to be poor. Read more

It's my first week as the Marketing and Communications intern at CWU, and I can't think of a more empowering time to start than October. This is truly a month for women.

Most of us know that October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, as the commercialization of the pink ribbon is inescapable. From t-shirts to travel mugs, the country is showing its support by toting all kinds of rosy-colored items. Many peple are even walking to raise money for research in the fight against breast cancer. Read more

Business and union leaders, higher education advocates, elected officials and students were among those who gave their unqualified support of the CWU-initiated Workers' Pathways to Self-Sufficiency Act at a recent legislative hearing in September.

"As an employer, it is particularly frustrating to have employees who have the potential to advance to higher paying positions and who have the desire to advance to these positions, but who lack the requisite skills necessary to do the job," testified Edward Lappen, chief executive officer of Lappen Auto Supply Co. Read more