PUEBLO Education Fund’s immigration committee along with La Casa de la Raza is looking forward to celebrating Santa Barbara’s Immigrant Week.
We would like to invite you to our Immigration forum: “Building America from the Foundation: Immigration Reform, the economy and safer communities.”
It will take place on May 1, 2009 at Presidio Springs, 721 Laguna St. Santa Barbara, CA from 6:30- 8:00pm. This is part of PUEBLO Education Fund’s campaign to create dialogue in our communities about the
complex issue of immigration and the great financial, environmental and human consequences that we face if it continues to be ignored.
Our diverse group of speakers will include UCSB Sociology Professor William Robinson, visiting faculty at UCSB and assistant CSU Northbridge Urban Planning Professor Teresa Vazquez, and experienced Santa Barbara Immigration Attorney Abbe Allen Kingston.
We hope that you can join us on May 1, and join in the conversation in the search for concrete solutions to the challenges that we face as a community and nationwide
Categories:
Tags: PUEBLO, La Casa De La Raza, Immigration, Immigration reform, community dialogue, Santa Barbara events, PUEBLO Education Fund, Teresa vazquez, Abbe Allen Kingston, Professor William Robinson, ucsb
Community Leaders to Hold Press Conference to Oppose Proposition 1D and Press Release from NAMI
Proposition 1E
Community leaders and elected officials unite in campaign to defeat Proposition 1D and Proposition 1E at Press Conference at Santa Barbara Courthouse on April 23, 2009 from 11:30 - 1:00.
Santa Barbara, CA (PRWEB) April 19, 2009 -- The Consumer Advocacy Coalition (http://www.joincac.org/) (CAC) and First 5 of Santa Barbara County (http://www.first5santabarbaracounty.org/index.asp) unite with community leaders and elected officials to hold a press conference to explain Proposition 1D & Proposition 1E and why they oppose them.
The line-up of speakers opposing Proposition 1D and Proposition 1E at the press conference are: 1STDistrict Supervisor Salud Carbajal; City Councilmember Helene Schneider; Executive Director Roger Thompson of CAC; President Linda Phillips of League of Women Voters; Executive Director David Selberg of Pacific Pride Foundation; Executive Director Susan Riordan of Families Act and Executive Director Barry Schoer of Sanctuary Psychiatric Centers.
Honored guests include: 2nd District Supervisor Janet Wolf; City Councilmembers Iye Falcone, Das Williams, Grant House and Roger Horton; Mayor Marty Bloom; representative from Assembly member Pedro Nava's office; Executive Director Jeff Green of the Fund for Santa Barbara; Executive Directors from the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, First Five, Mental Health Association, PathPoint, Phoenix House, the Independent Living Resource Center, New Beginnings and Child Abuse Listening and Mediation, NAMI California.
Proposition 1E cuts mental health care programs demanded by the voters through Prop. 63 by almost a half billion dollars. The Legislative Analyst warns that "local governments would incur added costs for homeless shelters, social services, medical care, law enforcement and county jails." In Santa Barbara County, 10 programs are sustained with $11.49 million in Mental Health Services Act (MHSA) funds. Significant reductions to mental health services are not a question of conjecture, but a question of untenable compromises.
Proposition 1D cuts $268 million per year from children's services like child abuse prevention, immunization and early childhood development, all created by Prop. 10.
Rusty Selix states in The San Francisco Chronicle (http://m.sfgate.com/topic/3549-Politics%20Blog/articles/191067429), "Props. 1D and 1E are deceptive propositions designed by the governor and the Legislature to take-away voter-approved funding for our most vulnerable citizens."
Proposition 1D and Proposition 1E take money out of specific programs required by the voters and put it in the state general fund, where the Legislature and the Governor can spend it with no fiscal accountability. Together they would provide just one-half of one percent of state spending. But Proposition 1D and Proposition 1E would slash services for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. For more information, visit the official No Proposition 1D and Proposition 1E website (http://noprop1d1e.com/). Advocacy and public awareness are more essential than they have ever been - we must defeat Propositions 1D and Proposition 1E.
Categories:
Tags: proposition 1D, 1E, voting, press conference, santa barbara community leaders
As an nation, we spend twice as much per person on health care, than do other wealthy nations. Too many people here are uninsured and those with insurance worry that when they need their insurance for something important, the insurance company will find a way not to pay for the treatment the need. There is always the chance that they will lose their insurance altogether because illness may force them to stop working.
Increasingly, Americans are realizing that our health-care "system" is broken. There are many in our community without insurance at all. Many have inadequate insurance and cannot afford the high deductibles and co-pays for the services they need. When these two groups finally become very ill, the end up at the Emergency Department at a local hospital. The community ends up paying either way.
It seems reasonable that it would be preferable to have a system in which everyone contriubtes, everyone receives necessary care, administration is consolidated and streamlined and in which the system, as a whole, can negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies so that all people can have the care and medicine they need.
In Santa Barbara there is a local chapter of a statewide organization called, "Health Care for All - California" (HCA-CA). Founded in 1995 by a coalition from across California including Santa Barbarans Bill and Carole Marks.
Health Care For All is working to educate and to shed light on our current system and it's failings and to propose something that works better for all people in California. It is a single-payer system which essentially is an improved, complete Medicare for everyone in our state.
Sheila Kuehl's Senate Bill 840, un-amended from the last legislative session passed the Legislature twice only to be vetoed by Gov. Schwarzenegger. This bill has ben re-introduced this past February as Senate Bill (SB) 810, sponsored by Mark Leno and co-authored by Pedro Nava and is endorsed by many local governmental bodies and by local organizatons including:
City Council of Santa Barbara
City Council of Carpenteria
California League of Women Voters
California Nurses Association
Church IMPACT, the lobbying arm of the Cal. Council of Churches
The American medical Student Assoc. (California Branch)
Under this plan every person in the State of California would have access to medical care with:
Free choice of a physician
Complete Benefit Package including Dental, Vision, Hearing, Hospice In and Out-Patient Care and Chiropractic Services.
The Santa Barbara Chapter of HCA-CA has a speakers bureau, sponsors films and events to educate and raise money. They meet the first Thursday of each month at 7:30, at the Santa Barbara League of Women voters office at 328 E. Carillo, Suite A, Santa Barbara,
The government will only respond if we as citizens become active and vocal in our positions on this important issue.
Please check out the following informational sites online:
Come and attend one of our chapter meetings. Help yourself and your neighbors! For further information you can contact Peter Conn at <pconnt43@cox.net>
Categories:
Tags: health care for all, california health care, santa barbara health care, sbopinion
