We need a New Deal for Ohio and Appalachia.
We Ohioans like to take care of our own. As citizens, community organizations, and public officials we do what we can. But the problems we face are bigger than we can solve with only local resources, and unmet community needs have only grown during the pandemic. Our communities need safe daycare and recreational options for our children, affordable housing, broadband access, accessible clean energy infrastructure, living wage jobs, drug treatment programs, and more.
Listen to Session One - Topic: A New Deal that Works for Us Oct 3, 2020. Access Passcode: 4Hmfj%Re
The Federal government says, “We can’t fund those needs. It would cause runaway inflation and bankrupt the country.” But after spending trillions, there has been no bankruptcy, no runaway inflation. Our capacity to fund community needs is far greater than we thought. The money is there. We have seen it in the 2008 crisis and now again in 2020.
In dark times, we move toward the light. We question what now appears untrue. We glimpse a new possible, a “new deal.”
A New Possible Future
In 2020, the Federal government CARES ACT supported some community services and supplemented unemployment compensation for millions of people at $600 a week. Great, but what if that had been a federal jobs program, locally administered and aimed at community needs? What real changes could this community investment have created? Safe recreational opportunities for our children, strengthened schools, employment for thousands in rehabbing and building safe affordable housing, extended broadband access, and more.
Can we do all this? Yes. We need to do more and we need to address climate change too. The possibilities, while not unlimited, are certainly greater than anything we had ever imagined.
Explore the possibilities with us.
The Green New Deal is NOT just a solution for climate change. It is a systemic approach to federal funding that invests in our communities, making a better world for all of us.
For four Saturdays in October (the 3rd,10th, 17th, and 24th) we will meet on Zoom from 10 am-12 pm EST. Public officials, economists, students, citizens and community activists from Licking, Perry, Muskingum, and other counties will come together to re-imagine a new community.
We want you to join us in developing a program to educate and mobilize the public to demand investment in our communities, no matter who wins the election. Join in on the conversation!
We hope to see you there!
For any questions or further discussion, please feel free to contact Allen Schwartz with the Newark Think Tank on Poverty at [email protected] or 937 515 6461.
"This program is brought to you by the Think Tanks on Poverty in conjunction with Reimagine Appalachia."