RSVP Today: Membership Assembly 2024, Oct 25-27!

Register here for the 12th Annual Put People First! PA Membership Assembly, Friday-Sunday, October 25-27, 2024!

The Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) Membership Assembly is our largest yearly gathering, open to brand new folks and experienced members. Join us from 5 pm Friday, October 25th, to 12 pm Sunday, October 27th, 2024 at a hotel in Camp Hill, PA. (You’ll receive the exact location after you register). We’re coming together from across the state, the country and internationally to build community and celebrate the year. We will reflect on what we’ve learned from our twelve years, strategize together, share art and culture, and envision the years ahead!

This year Put People First! PA will be holding our 12th Annual Membership Assembly as a fully in person event. More details to come for fully virtual attendance for members and national partners who are not able to attend in person.

The Membership Assembly will provide free of charge meals, snacks, childcare, transportation and housing, well as masks and COVID tests to take before and while gathering in person. We’ll have vans and carpools to transport members from different regions across the state. PPF-PA’s COVID protocols require that all in-person participants be vaccinated and have at least one booster. PPF-PA will provide at home tests for in-person participants to test before leaving for the Assembly Thursday and Friday mornings, as well as Saturday and Sunday morning at the assembly. Anyone who is exposed to Covid in the week leading up to the assembly (whether symptomatic or not) is required to contact the Covid safety team. Masks will be provided and are optional. If you have any questions or concerns about this policy, please let us know in this registration. These protocols will be sent to everyone who registers to review.

Register here TODAY! Registration deadline is Saturday, October 1st!

Please review the following agreements for the Assembly – and note that the assembly is an alcohol and substance-free space.

Community Agreements https://bit.ly/NVMACommunityAgreements

Covid safety protocol: https://bit.ly/PPFCovidSafetyMA2024

The Membership Assembly is FREE to attend. Donations are welcomed to offset the costs of this gathering. Remember, Put People First! PA is a member-led, staff free organization and all of our labor takes place on the basis of commitment, not compensation, including the extensive and time-consuming fundraising that allows us to hold the Membership Assembly. We recommend that everyone contribute at least $5 as you’re able. The actual cost is about $366 per person. Click here to donate: https://bit.ly/PPFDonationLink or via venmo: @UWATreasurer which goes to our fiscal sponsor, United Workers. Please note PPF-PA MA 2024 on your donation.

Forward together,

The Membership Assembly Planning Team

Nijmie + Jamie – Co-coordinators

Kiki – Central Appalachia

Briann, Jeremiah – Southwest

Carly, Jason, Matt – South Central

Nichole, Tara – Northeast

Madi, Jeanette, Steph – Southeast

Nonviolent Medicaid Army (NVMA) Week of Action, Sept 21-30, 2024

Take action with Put People First! PA and the PA Poor People’s Campaign to demand the PA Legislature Restore the Adult Dental Benefit in Medicaid NOW!

Join us Monday, September 30th in Harrisburg! Register here: https://bit.ly/WOARegistration2024

We need our teeth! Our teeth are NOT luxury bones!

Are you sick OF being denied dental care? Are you sick FROM being denied dental care?

Put People First! PA is taking action Monday, September 30th on the front steps of the Capitol located at 501 N 3rd St, Harrisburg PA 17120, at 12pm as part of the National Nonviolent Medicaid Army Week of Action.

CLICK HERE TO RSVP & Share on Facebook!

What is the Nonviolent Medicaid Army?
The Nonviolent Medicaid Army of the poor is a growing militant force of the poor and dispossessed, united across identities, regions, races and issues, modeled after MLK’s ‘nonviolent army of the poor’ from the first Poor People’s Campaign of 1968. We are currently active in states like Wyoming, Wisconsin, Texas, Indiana, Georgia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina and Vermont. We are a member-led, staff-free network of organizations and committees that understand healthcare to be a strategic front of struggle to unite the working class.

https://nonviolentmedicaidarmy.org/

Put People First! PA is fighting to restore the Adult Dental Benefit back in Medicaid that was cut in 2011 which would improve the lives of over 3 million working people in Pennsylvania.

A bill passed the House but is stuck in the Senate!

Join us in Harrisburg September 30th at the Capitol! We won’t be silent anymore!!! Register here: https://bit.ly/WOARegistration2024

Want to learn more? Join us for our September 2024 Saturday School of Struggle, “Prep Rally” for the Nonviolent Medicaid Army Week of Action (September 21-28) RSVP on Facebook here and RSVP for the zoom link here!

The KEYSTONE: SUMMER/FALL 2024 EDITION

Hot off the press: Put People First! PA’s bi-annual newsletter, The Keystone SUMMER/FALL 2024 edition.

Click here to read the Keystone: https://bit.ly/KeystoneSummerFall2024

This newsletter is put together by all volunteer members of the Media & Communications Team of Put People First! PA (PPF-PA) with contributions from members of other PPF-PA teams and Healthcare Rights Committees. We have the honor of several pieces from our broader network as well.

We share highlights of our organizing drive to fight the Medicaid Cut-offs including our base-building and medicaid cut off appeals as well as updates on our campaign for the Public Healthcare Advocate. We share lessons from the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival and sister organizations report on how they’re building the Nonviolent Medicaid Army in their states. We share poetry, videos and member reflections.

Share the Keystone! https://bit.ly/KeystoneSummerFall2024

We hope our stories show you why we must unite and organize ourselves to overcome division and transform society. We invite you to become involved in this struggle! — The Put People First! PA Media & Communications Team

Questions or comments? Please contact Jamie @ Jamiebokanblair [at] gmail.com

Arts & Culture: Products of Empire

Products of Empire is the latest painting from working class artist and organizer, David Greene, member of the Put People First! PA Southeast PA Healthcare Rights Committee.

David writes, “My most recent painting about the many attacks on our working class. Like the poor and working people before us, millions are suffering the consequences of a capitalist system. Victims on these crosses represent low wage workers, the poor and homeless, the Palestinians the disabled, those without health care and millions more just trying to survive. I tried in this effort to illustrate how we are all being crucified for profit.”

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