Advocates for low-income workers in the Commonwealth said today is a reminder of the need to continue to advance Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream of economic justice for all, including an increase to the minimum wage and more affordable housing.

The Poor People's Campaign was mobilized by Dr. King in 1967 and helped low income workers in cities like Boston to demand better wages, unemployment insurance and education.

Shailly Gupta-Barnes, policy director at the Kairos Center and the Poor People's Campaign, said Massachusetts has seen decades of little progress, and still has a long way to go.

"People are living in the state of almost constant, precarious insecurity, and that's about two-and-a-half million people in the state of Massachusetts," Gupta-Barnes pointed out.

Gupta-Barnes argued lawmakers need to renew the successful pandemic-related programs that led to a dramatic decline in poverty in the Commonwealth, including the expanded Child Tax Credit.

In his 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, King said, "There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we have the resources to get rid of it."

Gupta-Barnes sees last year's passage of the Fair Share Amendment, which created a new tax on million-dollar incomes to pay for public education and transportation, as one example of those resources, and the organizing efforts it took to make it happen.

"Building up the power and organizing, and the leadership of poor and low-income people, and becoming the kind of force - what he called a 'new and unsettling force' - to wake this nation up," Gupta-Barnes urged.

Gupta-Barnes added Dr. King was ahead of his time in uniting various communities to work for economic justice and equity, and today the Poor People's Campaign works to continue his legacy.

Massachusetts groups will be part of a new federal pilot program to help low-income families ensure they have the diapers they need to keep both babies and parents healthy.

Studies show a lack of diapers for their babies as the top predictor of postpartum depression in new mothers, while 60% of American families report missing work or school when they cannot bring diapers to child care.

Liz Berube, executive director of the group Citizens for Citizens, one of several Massachusetts agencies selected for the program, said the need for diaper assistance has been growing for years.

"Hopefully this will relieve some of the burden for them and take some of the stress off the family, but folks are ecstatic," Berube observed. "They actually can't believe it and think it's a dream come true."

Berube pointed out her agency alone will supply 100 children with 100 diapers each month over the next two years, but as any parent knows, it is just a fraction of what is required.

The Massachusetts Association for Community Action, a coalition of more than 20 community action agencies in the state, was awarded more than $1 million in new federal aid to distribute diapers via several hubs across the state and Western Connecticut.

Colleen Cullen, director of grants management and compliance for the association, said until now, there has been no federal program to help families with such a basic need.

"This is getting families through that last two weeks of the month that people really struggle to afford," Cullen explained. "By providing support with diapers, we'll be allowing them to focus on other expenses, such as housing and food."

More than one-third of Massachusetts families say they cannot afford enough diapers for their children.

The association will work with Children's Health Watch in Boston to gather data on the diaper program's effectiveness at improving families' financial security and well-being.

Janet Stolfi Alfano, executive director of The Diaper Bank of Connecticut, said even having the proper medications to prevent diaper rash reduces stress on both child and parent.

"So much of the brain growth happens in those first three years, almost 80%," Stolfi Alfano noted. "We know creating an environment where basic needs are met will have lifelong benefits on that child."

Stolfi Alfano emphasized the goal is to make the funding for diaper distribution permanent. She added agencies are working to have diaper supplies for infants and toddlers covered through Medicaid, designating diapers as essential as food and nutrition.

The U.S. Census Bureau is out with new findings showing that the nation's child poverty rate has more than doubled, to 12%. Policy experts say a key decision by Congress is the main factor, and reversing it isn't the only action that could turn things around.

The dramatic increase in the 2022 child poverty rate came just one year after it reached a historic low of 5%.

Samantha Waxman, deputy director of state fiscal policy research with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said things such as inflation likely contributed -- but there was a much bigger force at play.

"The number reflects the expiration of pandemic-assistance programs," she said, "including the expanded Child Tax Credit."

Under the American Rescue Plan, the credit was temporarily expanded to $3,600 for children age 6 and younger and $3,000 for older kids. However, negotiations failed in making it permanent. Some states are now adopting their own similar credit, although North Dakota isn't among them. Other analysts say states can boost their minimum wage to help families. North Dakota's is still at $7.25 an hour.

North Dakota lawmakers won't meet again until 2025. This past session, they did expand access to free school meals. Poverty-fighting groups have said it was a positive step, although not as much as they wanted.

Meanwhile, Waxman said the Child Tax Credit isn't exactly a "red-state, blue-state" issue.

"For example, this year in Utah, they created a new Child Tax Credit," she said, "so I think there is [a] possibility around the country."

A handful of other conservative-led states, such as Oklahoma, have their own version of the credit, in addition to several other traditionally "blue" states. As for the Census data, its report also notes that median household income fell by more than 2% last year. It's now just about $74,500 a year.


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Massachusetts is on track to become the eighteenth state this year to enact targeted tax credits to help alleviate childhood poverty.

New polling shows nearly 80% of residents support an expansion of the Child Tax Credit to $600 per dependent over the next three years.

Pedro Morillas, state campaign director for the Economic Security Project, said the policy has strong bipartisan support, and lawmakers should capitalize on it.

"Bigger is better," Morillas asserted. "As the Massachusetts Legislature is considering what to do this session they should really push to make this as generous and as expansive of a credit as they can."

A temporary expansion of the federal Child Tax Credit during the pandemic helped cut childhood poverty nearly in half.

Parents said the tax credit helped cover their most basic needs, like paying for rent and child care, even buying diapers or food.

Sindy Thomas, a stay-at-home parent in Boston, said the cash she received was life-changing, allowing her to purchase a used car to drive her four children to school and doctors' appointments.

"Sometimes one of them gets sick and is in the hospital, so it's hard to leave there, like, late in the night and to get a bus to come home," Thomas explained. "Just being able to get around more freely."

Thomas added she was even able to take her kids to Six Flags for the first time. More than 100 community organizations and institutions in the Commonwealth have called on lawmakers to prioritize children by advancing the $600 Child Tax Credit, and increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit to help hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers.


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