Author: Jessica Goshow

DCWA: An ounce of prevention…worth a lot for women.

Posted on by Jessica Goshow

The following is the sixth post in a series covering aspects and angles on the DC Women’s Agenda’s recent white paper, Voices and Choices for D.C. Women and Girls: Recommendations for City Leaders 2007. The DC Women’s Agenda promotes the advancement, equality and well-being of women in D.C. This series of blogs is an extension of a very important proposal of recommendations to city leaders to truly make tangible changes in the Washington metropolitan area.

It is outrageous that the top killer of women in Washington, D.C.–heart disease–can be prevented, in many cases, by simple education about healthy eating habits and lifestyle choices. 

And yet, preventative education is often overlooked as a core strategy in improving our nation’s health care system.  Even Michael Moore’s recent documentary, Sicko, which documents how our nation’s broken health care system is failing its citizens, doesn’t address the importance of preventative education. 

The film addresses the need for insurance companies to cover more preventative care, but neglects to take into account that through preventative education, the likelihood that there will even be the need for care at all–and the costs associated with it–are lessened.

Which is why the D.C. Women’s Agenda’s recent white paper strongly advocates preventative education as a key strategy for improving the health and well-being of our community–with the potential for great impact particularly among our city’s women and girls.

The top health risks of women in our city, as documented in The Portrait Project, are HIV/AIDS, heart disease, teen pregnancy, obesity and diabetes.

All of which are by and large behavior influenced, and in some cases, completely preventable through behavior change.

Yet, according to the 2006 D.C. Mayor’s Health Care Task Force Report, even though 40 percent of all health outcomes are directly related to behavior, only 2 to 3 percent of our resources are spent influencing behavior through prevention programs.

One case in point is diet.  Many children are not being taught proper eating habits. I commonly see kids walking to school eating a bag of chips at 8:30 in the morning.  As we documented in our white paper, only 42.7 percent of schools require a health education course as part of general curriculum. More alarming still, only 16 percent of D.C. schools offer fresh fruits and/or vegetables for purchase in the school store.

To address this, the D.C. Women’s Agenda has recommended, among other things, to be sure that our city’s girls are educated about how to take care of their bodies. Children need to be taught how to eat right so that they do not have to deal with obesity, diabetes or heart disease later on.

Enabling girls to have education about health will ensure that there are fewer deaths related to avoidable causes, and consequentially, less time and money spent on emergency health care.

Providing girls–and all children–with adequate nutritional information and education will enable them to make good choices about nutrition.  It would mean that many of them will be able to grow up to be healthy adults not worrying about diabetes or heart disease, and able to focus on other things rather than health problems that could have been prevented if they had been taught a little about nutrition at an earlier age.

And healthier children and adults mean a healthier community–as funding, resources and efforts once spent battling preventable illness and disease can be directed to other community needs. 

For previous posts on the white paper, please visit:
DCWA: Calling all city leaders! (Intro post)
DCWA: Economic security is key to the city’s health.
DCWA: Safety for women anything but small talk.
DCWA:  White picket fence eludes many, especially women.
DCWA: Achieving balance difficult if you can’t weigh your options.

Jessica Goshow is DC Employment Justice Center’s (DCEJC) legal and policy associate.  Being that EJC and Wider Opportunities for Women are the co-chairs of the DCWA, she was involved in the coordination, writing, and reviewing of the white paper.

The DC Women’s Agenda, DC Employment Justice Center and Wider Opportunities for Women are all Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation.

DCWA: White picket fence eludes many, especially women.

Posted on by Jessica Goshow

The following is the fourth post in a series covering aspects and angles on the DC Women’s Agenda’s recent white paper, Voices and Choices for D.C. Women and Girls: Recommendations for City Leaders 2007.  The DC Women’s Agenda promotes the advancement, equality and well-being of women in D.C. This series of blogs is an extension of a very important proposal of recommendations to city leaders to truly make tangible changes in the D.C. metropolitan area.

One of the main tenants of the American Dream is the little house with the white picket fence.

But the reality is that for most families in the United States, this dream will probably never become reality.  Nationwide, 15.6 million households are paying more than half their incomes for housing. 

This is an astounding number, which hits close to home because of the housing crisis here in D.C., where thousands of people cannot afford the staggering prices of apartments.

Finding quality, affordable housing in D.C. is hard even for those who have good jobs. Finding the same type of housing for someone making minimum wage is virtually impossible.  According to Housing and Urban Development, in fiscal year 2007, a worker earning $7.00 per hour in D.C.  would have to work at least 141 hours per week to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the fair market rate. 

This is outrageous, and a testament to how we desperately need to raise the minimum wage in this country.  (That is another story, however.)

Obviously, there are some people in the district who can afford $1300 for a one bedroom apartment, but many cannot.

Currently, those who need public housing are in an even worse predicament. As the white paper points out, there are more than 52,000 households on the D.C. Housing Authority’s waiting list for Housing Choice Vouchers and/or public housing.  Twenty thousand of those have registered with the housing authority that they are homeless and therefore eligible for a Homelessness Preference for the vouchers.

Most of the households in public housing are headed by women.

This is an issue that hits women especially hard.  Many women have the challenge of providing for multiple children and themselves with no help.

How do they do it?

Most often, they hold down two or even three jobs. In addition, most of these jobs do not provide paid sick days or benefits.

The DCWA white paper makes quite a few recommendations, one of which is a request that the city implement an effort to develop a minimum of 19,000 affordable units, and 6,000 new units which are available to people who are at (or below) 30 percent of the area median income.

If the suggestions in the white paper are acted upon, it would mean that a large number of the District’s families, including many women-headed households, would be able to find housing that they can afford.  This would allow them to spend their money in other ways, such as buying healthy food, finding adequate health care and providing their children with necessary school supplies. 

Not to mention the peace of mind of knowing they are not spending half of their income on housing.

All across the city there are new luxury condos popping up where affordable, or reasonably affordable, apartments once stood.  D.C. prides itself on being a very diverse “state;” however, if people continue to be pushed out because rent is so outrageous, there will only be one type of person who will be able to afford to live here.

What do we want our city to portray?  A place that is only open to wealthy people?

Or a place that has culture, diversity, and welcomes all who want to live here.

For previous posts on the white paper, please visit:
DCWA: Calling all city leaders! (Intro post)
DCWA: Economic security is key to the city’s health
DCWA: Safety for women anything but small talk

Jessica Goshow is DC Employment Justice Center’s (DCEJC) legal and policy associate.  Being that EJC and Wider Opportunities for Women are the co-chairs of the DCWA, she was involved in the coordination, writing, and reviewing of the white paper.

The DC Women’s Agenda, DC Employment Justice Center and Wider Opportunities for Women are all Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation. 

DCWA: Economic security is key to the city's health.

Posted on by Jessica Goshow

In keeping with my promise last week, I’m back with more on the DC Women’s Agenda’s white paper, Voices and Choices for D.C. Women and Girls: Recommendations for City Leaders 2007–and action you can take to encourage city leaders to increase the economic security of our region’s women.

This week’s topic is economic security for women and girls, or, the lack thereof, and how it feeds into a number of other issues facing our city.  Economic security is at the forefront of every issue in the white paper, largely because we can talk about the housing crisis, healthcare, and domestic violence and other safety issues (and don’t worry, we will), but without a good job, these topics are all moot.

An individual must have a job in order to survive, to have basic needs met.  Having a good job is the starting point to all other things in one’s life.

As the white paper details:

Economic security is a critical component of healthy, stable lives. Individuals and families fall apart in the absence of good jobs—ones that pay self-sufficient wages, include benefits such as health insurance and paid sick days, and provide flexibility to balance work and family. The foundation to obtaining and maintaining a job is a quality education and strong skills in areas where there is a need and where good jobs exist.

For women and girls in the District of Columbia, unfortunately, both the foundation for economic security and that security itself are in short supply. The school system fails to adequately educate our young women, and the job training programs that exist inadequately position women to obtain good jobs in strong markets. Even when a woman is able to receive the education and training she needs, the jobs themselves frequently lack the kind of flexibility that is so crucial for balancing work and family.

The large majority of single parent households in the District of Columbia are headed by women, so women are the ones who suffer by the city’s lack of affordable, available child care and the nonexistence of laws requiring employers to provide paid sick days of family and medical leave.

There is no hiding the fact that the gap between the rich and the poor in D.C. is extremely vast. The business community in D.C. is booming, but it is not D.C. residents who are benefiting.  In D.C., employers are required to fill 51 percent of all new jobs with D.C. residents in an effort to ensure that those who live in the city are getting its jobs.

This sounds like a good idea…if it were enforced.  According to a report done by the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, the Department of Employment Services has never fined a business for failure to comply.

In D.C., 30 percent of women-headed families are living in poverty and 11 percent of women are unemployed. This is just shy of double the national rate of unemployment.

There are many barriers that women and girls face when it comes to attaining sustainable employment, the largest of these being education and job training.

The education system in the District is lacking.  By 8th grade, 69 percent of students in D.C. public schools have below average math skills, as compared to 32 percent nationwide. With statistics like that, it is not surprising that many of D.C.’s children are not prepared when it comes time to find a job. 

And that therefore job training would be extremely beneficial.

For those who are fortunate to get a job in D.C., the barriers do not stop there.

Half of the city’s private sector jobs do not provide paid sick days or paid family and medical leave.  If an individual is lucky enough to find a decent paying job in D.C., they better not get sick because they do not have the luxury of being able to take a day off with pay.  Most low wage workers are forced to make the decision of staying home to care for themselves or go to work sick.

Many do not have a choice. They have to go to work.

Some even run the risk of getting fired for taking a day off to care for themselves.

Allowing workers to take a day or two to take care of themselves will ensure a shorter recovery time and mean that when the worker is at work, they are working at their full potential and not nursing an illness.

Currently there is legislation going through the DC City Council that would provide full time workers up to 10 paid sick days and part time workers five days.  With these available days, a worker can stay home to take care of themselves as well as a child or other family member if they are sick. The employee can take the days without fear of repercussion.

The DC Employment Justice Center, along with many other nonprofits, service providers and advocates hope that this legislation will provide some relief to already over worked, underpaid D.C. workers.

Talking about topics such as these can be overwhelming and frustrating. It’s hard to know what to do to combat such complex issues. One thing that you can do to help provide the workers of D.C. with some time off to take care of themselves is to contact your councilmember and tell them that you support the Paid Sick and Safe Days Act of 2007. You can also show your support by coming out to the public hearing on July 9 at 3 p.m. at the John A. Wilson Building at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, NW.

Or, if you would like more information about the paid sick and safe days initiative, please feel free to contact me at any time.

For more information on the Paid Sick and Safe Days Act of 2007, see Jack Mahoney’s previous post on how you can help build economic security in an office near you!

Jessica’s previous post on the white paper can be found here.  And there will be more to follow! 

Jessica Goshow is DC Employment Justice Center’s (DCEJC) legal and policy associate.  Being that EJC and Wider Opportunities for Women are the co-chairs of the DCWA, she was involved in the coordination, writing, and reviewing of the white paper.

The DC Women’s Agenda, DC Employment Justice Center and Wider Opportunities for Women are all Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation. 

DCWA: Calling all city leaders!

Posted on by Jessica Goshow

The DC Women’s Agenda (DCWA) is a local advocacy and policy coalition that began in the spring of 2003 and works to promote the advancement, equality, and well-being of women and girls in D.C.–and it is a Grantee Partner of The Women’s Foundation. 

DCWA is a coalition of a diverse group of advocates, service providers, and individuals who work together to address issues of social and economic justice that women and girls face on a daily basis living in our community. The DCWA is co-chaired by the DC Employment Justice Center and Wider Opportunities for Women (also Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation!)

During monthly meetings of the DC Women’s Agenda about current events in the District affecting women and girls, the coalition determined that in 2007, as D.C. brought in a new Mayor and City Council, that it was an important time to build awareness of these issues among our new city leaders. 

Emerging from these discussions is a white paper, "Voices and Choices for D.C. Women and Girls: Recommendations to City Leaders 2007," which outlines for our city’s leaders and citizens the key issues and challenges facing D.C.’s women and girls. 

The paper gives concrete suggestions for what changes are needed and addresses topics such as economic security, housing, health and health education, criminal justice, safety, leadership and accountability and girls.

Each section provides information and statistics about the problem, and gives specific recommendations about what resources and programs need to be created and what must be improved upon that already exists in order for women and girls to thrive in the District of Columbia.

The paper puts all of the information at the fingertips of the politicians.

The white paper was distributed to the Mayor and all members of the D.C. City Council, as well as each member of the DC Commission on Women.  We also sent it to the two Congressmen who are in charge of the Congressional Committee that has oversight of the District (Chairman Henry Waxman and Ranking Member Tom Davis) and to DC’s Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, so that, if they want to, they can hold the Mayor and city leaders accountable on these issues.

The white paper was also distributed to a number of organizations that serve women in the District. It can also be accessed on TheWomensFoundation.org. 

Over the coming weeks on this blog, we’ll be going through each section of the white paper to discuss and highlight key elements and to illuminate what life would be like for women and girls in the District if the recommendations were to be acted upon. 

We hope to create awareness, as well as lively discussion and debate on the important facts outlined in the paper, and what action on the recommendations could mean for the women and girls of this city, as well as the city as a whole.  

Jessica Goshow is DC Employment Justice Center’s (DCEJC) legal and policy associate.  Being that EJC and Wider Opportunities for Women are the co-chairs of the DCWA, she was involved in the coordination, writing, and reviewing of the white paper.

The DC Women’s Agenda, DC Employment Justice Center and Wider Opportunities for Women are all Grantee Partners of The Women’s Foundation.