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South Side Welfare Rights Organization: 31 Years of Welfare Advocacy

South Side Welfare Rights Organization in St. Louis, Missouri is a 31 year old organization whose purpose is to educate recipients and public officials about the needs of the poor and to enhance the welfare of all people. The organization was formed in 1965 after welfare recipients successfully staged a sit-in in the state welfare director's office to protest steep cuts in permanent and total disability benefits. The state abandoned the cuts. Another successful early protest activity was directed against the local Division of Family Services' refusal to provide restroom facilities for recipients in the agency's new office.

Low income people and other interested people make up both the current membership (which is over 300) and the Board and reflect the group's belief in the importance of involving people from different economic backgrounds in work on issues affecting low income people. The group's education work on welfare is carried out by its sister organization, South Side Welfare Rights Education Association. South Side Welfare Rights also sponsors a support group for the family members of drug users, called Parents and Grandparents of Drug Abusers.

Welfare reform and Missouri's plans to adopt an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) system have been the organization's focus for the past few years. For example, the group organized a 1994 welfare rights conference in St. Louis, "Welfare Reform in the Nineties - Where are the Jobs." Welfare rights organizations from Missouri, Ohio, Massachusetts, Illinois, Wisconsin and Texas, and representatives from national advocacy organizations, including the Welfare Law Center participated in the conference. The conference produced a statement calling for redirected government spending for welfare reform that among other things creates jobs at family wages, guarantees support for children and an annual income, rejects time limits, and provides universal health coverage and quality education and training. Planned follow-up activities included efforts to educate the public in understanding that raising and educating children is work; political action through voter registration and voting campaigns, lobbying legislators, and other organized activities; and efforts to change public opinion about poverty and welfare.

This past fall South Side Welfare Rights held a conference to educate legislators about the real needs of poor people. The conference, which was videotaped, was attended by ten state legislators and well over 100 participants, including welfare recipients, senior citizens, individuals with disabilities, and people from social service organizations. It was an opportunity for recipients to tell their stories to legislators and present their views on how welfare reform would affect them. One of the fears voiced was that welfare work requirements would mean that real jobs will disappear and be replaced with unpaid positions filled by welfare recipients. Participants also urged public hearings on welfare reform implementation to give recipients a voice in the process. Senior citizens expressed concerns about the upcoming EBT system and whether adequate security systems would be in place.

South Side Welfare Rights is currently working with the Reform Organization of Welfare (ROWEL) to develop recommendations to present to the state on implementation of the federal welfare law. The recommendations will address the group's position that poor people should not be deprived of food, shelter, and health care; that there are not enough jobs at decent wages for families; and that poor people need real training for the jobs that do exist in the economy, adequate child care, transportation, and health care. The group has urged the state to seek a waiver of the new Food Stamp time limit for 18-50 year old people. It has also sent a protest letter to the state objecting to posters in welfare offices that give misleading information about time limits.

The group has also worked extensively on EBT issues. Its founder and current President, Eddie Mae Binion, serves on the state EBT Consumer Committee and the federal EBT Task Force. As a member of the state committee, Ms. Binion has helped get the state to agree to train recipients and small retailers on EBT. A few months ago, South Side Welfare Rights held a forum on EBT at which agency officials discussed EBT issues with group members.

-- from the December 1996 issue of Welfare News