Interview with Deborah Volkell Weinstein

Interview with Deborah Volkell Weinstein

Weinstein, Deborah Volkell ; Gashurov, Irene

Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in nonprofits; Harpur College – Alumni in nonprofits; Harpur College – Alumni in health policy; Harpur College – Alumni living in the DC area

Deborah Weinstein is the executive director of the Coalition on Human Needs, an alliance of national organizations working together to promote public policies for low income women and children. Deborah has covered politics, crime, and healthcare policies for various news outlets including Medical Marketing & Media, where she specializes in Obesity, Alzheimer’s disease and healthcare costs.

2018-03-16

In Copyright

Debbie Weinstein.mp3

2018-03-16

Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni

63:19 minutes

Alumni Interviews
Interview with: Deborah Wolkell Weinstein
Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov
Transcriber: Oral History Lab
Date of interview: 16 March 2018
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(Start of Interview)

IG: 00:00
Okay, so we begin by introducing ourselves and tell us who you are, where we are. So state who you are, where we are, what we are doing,

DW: 00:25
Okay. My name is Deborah Weinstein, or Debbie Weinstein, and we are in the Capitol Hilton in Washington, DC, and we are about to do an oral history interview.

IG: 00:40
Okay, so Debbie, tell us the years that you attended Harpur, how old you are, and maybe we can start. Where did you grow up?

DW: 00:53
Okay, I am 69 years old. I attended Harpur from (19)66 to (19)69. I grew up in New York City, mostly Brooklyn, and then Manhattan.

IG: 01:09
So, um, where- so where in Brooklyn, did you grow?

DW: 01:17
Most of the years on Ocean Parkway.

IG: 01:20
Oh, I know exactly.

DW: 01:21
Um, couple of succeeding years before I went off to school in a part of Brooklyn called Mill Basin, but most of the years in on Ocean Parkway.

IG: 01:37
And then in Manhattan, where did you-

DW: 01:40
Well, my parents moved to kind of the outskirts of Greenwich Village, part of Greenwich Village, and I was already at school, but, of course, came home to visit.

IG: 01:53
Okay. And so what we did not mention before is, what is your present role?

DW: 02:01
Okay, I am the executive director of a group called the Coalition on Human Needs, which is a group of national organizations that are committed to making improvements or defending programs for low income and vulnerable people.

IG: 02:25
So thank you. So when you were growing up, what were the expectations of from your family, of going onto your higher education? Who were your parents and what did they do?

DW: 02:42
My parents, Shirley and Joe Volkell, were not college graduates themselves. There were other college graduates, aunts and uncles, but they did not go to college. But certainly the expectation was pretty clear, as early as I can remember, that I would go on to higher education. They did not know much about it themselves, so they could not, you know, offer guidance about where I should go, but that I should go was clear.

IG: 03:19
Right-right. So-so you know, why-why did you how-how did you happen to-to select Harpur College rather than did you apply to other schools?

DW: 03:31
I did. And as I say, somewhat ignorantly, I did not have any clear sense of where I should go, and I went to a large high school in Brooklyn where you were only allowed to apply to three places, and because they did not have the staff to support more transcripts or whatever. But so my family did not have a lot of money, and so we knew that one school needed to be a state school, and and my grades were good. I was not, you know, like the top of the class, but they were pretty good. And so, you know, we looked for a school that had a better reputation, and-and Harpur clearly was that. So I selected that for that reason, and I selected two other private schools. One was Brandeis because I had heard of it and-and the other was Vassar, and that was because I had an excellent but pretty crazy high school English teacher senior year who talked up Vassar a lot. I think it would have been a disaster choice for me, but at any rate, I was, I was accepted at all those schools, but I did not get adequate financial aid in the private schools to make that a possibility. So I went to Harpur.

IG: 05:18
Why do you say I am just curious. It would have been a disaster, had you-

DW: 05:22
Because my own, at that time, Vassar was an all woman school, and my own, in a sense, shyness, which I tried to overcome when I started college. It would have been harder you would have met young men in these very, I would guess, awkward settings of socials where people would troop in, you know, as opposed to the much more relaxed and integrated in your whole life. Atmosphere at Harpur, including my husband and I both were in Whitney Hall, which was our version at that very antiquated time of a co-ed door. But that meant that the two wings, one was men and one was women. But it did allow for, you know, much more. You know, on anxiety producing just inter regular interactions in the common areas and all that.

IG: 06:34
Right-right-right. Okay, so you, did you go on a regent scholarship?

DW: 06:48
I had a regent scholarship.

IG: 06:50
So had you visited the college before?

DW: 06:54
Yeah, we went on a tour. We visited. It is funny because I have absolutely no recollection of visiting Vassar, but I guess we probably did, but I recall visiting Harpur and Brandeis, so we looked around, but you know, it is very hard. I did not have any easy way of talking to people who went there, so I really felt like I could not have been more ignorant going into I did have a sense that I did not particularly want to go to a school with, you know, 20,000 or more students. Harpur at that time had 3000 which I know is very, very different from now, but that had a certain appeal, seemed about right.

IG: 07:46
Right-right. So, what were your- by the way, did you have, I mean, do you have siblings?

DW: 07:55
No, I am the-

IG: 07:56
You are the only child.

DW: 07:57
Right.

IG: 08:00
So when you first arrived, what were some of the first impressions? Did you feel also, what were your feelings about being on your own, and did you enjoy it? Was it the first taste of freedom?

DW: 08:16
Yeah, I was perfectly confident there, and have very good relations with my parents, but I- they just brought me up to have confidence, so I did not have very much homesickness. I did come- we had moved in Brooklyn when I was going to the 11th grade, and I was very unhappy about the change of high schools, and I sort of grumped around and wasted a year in high school, and sort of got into it a little more in my senior year. But all that did to me is it made me determined when I started college that I was going to jump right into things and not waste opportunities to meet people and do things. So, um, so I came very, you know, sort of primed for that it was crowded then, so they had triples in rooms. So-so I had two roommates, and we got along, and we reinforced each other in that regard that we were going to we were not going to sit in our rooms, we were going to get out there and do things. So I-I enjoyed that very much, and I felt that it was tremendous awakening of meeting people and having a good time and, you know, just kind of doing things, not being too nervous to do things.

IG: 09:58
Right. You just wanted to take a bite.

DW: 10:04
A large number of students did come from the New York metro area, and irritated the students from upstate or central New York, because, you know, we referred to the city.

IG: 10:20
Right.

DW: 10:21
And they felt that there were other cities in the state, but, but we were a pretty big cohort.

IG: 10:29
Do you think that there were, you know, cultural differences that at first kept you away from the students from upstate New York or not at all?.

DW: 10:49
No-no, I did not feel that one of my roommates was from like Dutchess County, I guess in the end, the other was from New York City, we got along just fine. It was really not an issue. And, you know, we did not have as much opportunity as people from other schools, perhaps, to meet people from all over the country. But there-there were some international students. And uh-

IG: 11:24
Do you remember where they were from? Where they were from?

DW: 11:29
I remember a young man from Iran, and I think he came from a pretty privileged family. So in a way, it is, I do not know how he landed in a state university, but, but that is one person I remember. And you know, there was a little bit of a gulf there between my experience and his, but we were friendly. So.

IG: 11:58
Where do you remember whether any students of color at the time or?

DW: 12:03
Not so many, but some.

IG: 12:05
But some. Um, so what was the reputation of Harpur College back then?

DW: 12:16
It had the reputation of being an academically good school. It also, I do not think I was, I know I was not aware of it when I went there. But after while, you know, it had the reputation of being a politically progressive school with, you know, very active anti war um. set of beliefs among the students and-and also a fair amount of at least marijuana use got known for that, I suppose. But that was pretty much it. I mean, when I went there, when I was choosing to go, I was not thinking about it is, you know, the political perspectives, particularly, I knew that it had a good reputation academically, and that is pretty much what I knew.

IG: 13:19
Right. Were you involved in any of the political activity? Were you in any student groups?

DW: 13:28
I was, interestingly, I came to that more slowly. I participated in demonstrations that were held, but I was not active in the groups that organized them. And I had a friend who was, you know, she, I am sure I had one friend, but I remembered that she was involved with SDS, for instance, and they were planning demonstrations. But I was freeloading and not organizing, but I would show up, but there was regularly.

IG: 14:04
So what was that like? Where did you, where did you work? I mean, where did you protest?

DW: 14:12
You know, this memory is pretty vague, but I was, but I would, you know, in common areas of the campus. It was on campus, as opposed to, say, going into Binghamton. But they were sedate, you know, demonstrations. There were teachings too, you know, people talking interminably about about the issues,

IG: 14:40
But so there was no resistance from there were, there was no resistance from the community to these-

DW: 14:49
Well, there were, I mean, there was that town gown type hostilities that the- there were. Lot of people in the general community that did not like the idea of anti war protest, but we, you know, we were protesting on the campus, and so they did not care. I mean, they might have cared, but they were not coming there to [crosstalk] I did not, and I have no recollection of that being done, but it certainly might have been done. I mean, if anybody wanted to prompt the, you know, sort of press coverage of conflict, that would be the way to do it. But I was not so engaged at that time that I was going to be in on, you know, the most conflict prone events. You know, if there was something that I could conveniently go to, I agreed with the anti war sentiment, but I was not, I was not a tremendous of- well, I was not any kind of leader or organizer in-in the anti war movement.

IG: 16:10
I see. So you did not. Do you know that any of your friends went to Washington to protest or?

DW: 16:18
Oh, yes, people did and I did not at that time that I- my parents were quite protective of me and that I knew they would just hate it if I went off and did that, And I was not willing to to cause that angst, I just was not so this was not my time for that kind of activism. For me, the awakening was more in a different direction, which was the beginnings of project Upward Bound on the campus, and-

IG: 17:05
Tell us about that. What was-

DW: 17:08
Upward Bound was part of the war on poverty--was a federal program that that reached out to high school students in poor communities, poor high schools called disadvantaged then and brought them onto the college campus for summer programs. They would live in the dorms. They had college students as counselors, tutor counselors, I think they called us and we both assisted in teaching in various ways, but there were also a combination of high school and college teachers who taught them things and-and then, you know, it was summer campus and having other kinds of activities for them. I wound up teaching guitar and singing, sort of, and I even assisted in-in teaching swimming, I have water safety, and so I was just under the supervision of somebody who did, but so did, and of course, was with the students in the dorms, and I did that for three summers, and there was follow up activity in the in the school year. And that was very, incredibly formative for me, because I met young people who-

IG: 18:41
What were their ages? So there were seniors, juniors in high school?

DW: 18:47
[crosstalk] I remember they were not all seniors. I think it was a mix of high school ages. And in fact, I know that was the case because I remember going to their high schools in the school year, intervening, they were not going right off,

IG: 19:06
How ere they selected?

DW: 19:07
A teacher in one or more teachers in the high schools recommended them for the program. That is how they did it and and so there probably was, there were probably a lot of things that were wrong with the program, and there still were not that many African American kids. In fact, they wound up, they were sensitive about that, and they wound up having a group of African American kids from Mississippi be part of the program because they were having a hard time getting the schools in the Binghamton area to recommend African American kids to the program, and there were not really Latino kids to speak of. At that time. So, but these were very poor kids. They absolutely filled the bill in terms of of that. And I, you know, I absolutely saw the lack of opportunity that they had and the promise that they had, so, the unfairness, you know, my-my family was not rich, but I had plenty more opportunities than they had and-and expectations as we started out, so I- that was the beginning of a lifelong commitment to economic justice issues which were more I played more of a role in than at the time I was in college in anti war efforts, although I was, you know, foot soldier, but-but, you know, I met one of, one of the girls in my group had false teeth. She was a high school student, and she had never, you know, been able to have any preventive dental care. And so by the time she was, you know, in high school, she had had to have all her teeth pulled, and that was pretty galvanizing. And this one young girl who was very, very smart, and she, was such a loner and an outsider in her school, and it was, this was the kind of program that was made for somebody like her, because she could go into a place and realize, well, there is a place I could go to. I am not just this weird duck that nobody likes. And so there was a young guy who wrote poetry, and you know, this was very much before the rap era. So nobody was writing poetry, and may was alive to be writing his poetry in terms of the attitude towards that. But so I just, you know, it was an opportunity to see what-what potential there was in all of these kids. And so that absolutely shaped what I did for the rest of my life.

IG: 22:44
The rest of your life. So just I am curious, how long was this program? A month and a half, two months, three months.

DW: 22:54
It was during the summer. So it probably was six to eight weeks, probably eight weeks. That they lived on the campus.

IG: 23:05
Right. So did you mention that there was any follow up on these young people?

DW: 23:13
There was some we went to the- their high schools during the school year, and I remember not too terribly much, but remember that it seemed their high school seemed like a really forbidding place, you know, you went in there and did not feel like this was a welcoming place or a place that was gonna inspire anybody to go on in school. So I, I do not, I really do not know what happened to the students. It was hard to track them long enough to know, you know, how many of them did actually go on to college. The one, the brightest one that I mentioned, I know that she did, and I sort of kept in touch with her longer than some, um, I even, let us see, I was rooting around. This will be quite useless, because I do not remember anybody's names, but these were, these were students who were in the program. That was somebody who was another counselor. Let us see some of these were.

IG: 24:36
Have you kept in touch with any of them?

DW: 24:39
For a while, as I say, I kept in touch with one, but I have not been for a really long time.

IG: 24:47
Are there any photographs of them?

DW: 24:50
Not in this group. This was a high school teacher where, you know now I know I should tell younger people to write the names down, because you think. You will never forget, but then you will forget, but then each and every one of them. But this was a dorky picture of me and my-

IG: 25:10
Tthat is very cute.

DW: 25:14
So-so these were, you know, it was a wonderful experience for me, and I hope it was useful for them.

IG: 25:28
So you said that this was a formative experience. And did it determine what you were studying at the college to begin with?

DW: 25:39
You know, it did not really, I was a lit major, and I did not change that, and I- in my experiences with social sciences, I felt that they were dry as dust and-and I actually felt that there was more, you know, sort of, if you were thinking about it, from the point of view of counseling. Because I did not initially think that my role was going to be in terms of the more systemic change. I thought in terms of working in, you know, more individually at school or other I was not so sure what I was gonna do but, but I felt that there were more human truths of-of-of how people behave and think through literature than through some of the social science films. Well, there was a role for both, but-but that is kind of where I was at the time. So I was a lit major, and I did go on. I got a master's in social work after-

IG: 26:57
Where?

DW: 26:58
In San Diego State. So I met my husband at Harpur. He was a senior when I was a freshman, and he, when he graduated, went off to study at UC San Diego, and we had a sort of a mail order correspondence romance for occasional get togethers while he was in California, and I finished school at Harpur and I-I finished in seven semesters, and we got married right afterwards. So I was 20 years old, and we- I got a job, you know, not in any area that I would particularly wanted to continue in, and that was motivating to want to go on in school. And at that point, I got a master's in social work. So at that point, I felt more that my schooling should have to do with what I might actually want to do as a career.

IG: 28:09
And so give us an idea of your career trajectory. You lived in California for a number of years and-

DW: 28:19
Right through the end of Mark's schooling, really, because he was in a PhD program; my program, but he was well into it.

IG: 28:30
What did he study?

DW: 28:31
Biochemistry, and he had a tremendously positive experience formative there at Harpur because of that, he- Professor Norcross [Bruce Norcross] was a much beloved chemistry professor there who he was very close with, and really helped him make his decision about whether he wanted to make that a career. So that was his thing. So he he got a PhD at UC San Diego and and I got my master's degree. And when he was done, and I was done, he went to a post doctoral fellow in University of Washington in Seattle, and then we decided after a while to come back East to families, but in terms of my work experiences, as I say, I did not initially think that it would be in the political direction. And so I did study. I had a field placement as a school social worker, because that did seem close to what I had experienced, but I could not get a job. Doing it right away. I wound up being a counselor in a college in San Diego briefly before we moved then, I was a counselor, sort of or a student activities advisor in University of Washington. So that was at the college level. And then when we moved to Boston, I was pregnant and I did not want to get a job right then, and so I started volunteering, and I had to make the decision, should I volunteer in something that was going to help me get a job, or should I volunteer in something that I thought I would never get a job in, but that I thought was interesting. So I thought I was choosing the latter, and I-I was volunteering with a group called Americans for Democratic Action, which was a progressive political organization. It still is, but at that time, it had more chapters around the country, and so ultimately I got to be the sole staff person for that organization. And then from there, I did transition to be the director of a Human Services Coalition in well, it was called the Massachusetts Human Services coalition is quite similar in nature to the work I am doing now. So again, you know, I thought what I was doing was just something I would be interested in that I would never be able to get paid for. But I was wrong about that. So I, so I, that was how I moved into more of the sort of systemic change political policy.

IG: 32:08
Tell us about these organizations and how you managed to work at both, you know, organizing these people and also managing your child.

DW: 32:25
Well, I was very different from an awful lot of people nowadays. I did take more time home with our daughter than many people have the luxury of doing now. And so I was at home with her. I did not start to work part even part time, until she was about two and a half. And, and that was part time. And then I, you know, as she got older, I transitioned to full time work. So that was wonderful that I could do that. And I feel I know that some people choose not to, wanted to stay home longer, but I know that a lot of people might choose to, if it was at all an option for them. So I was grateful for that. So that was how I had done the volunteering, you know, before she was born and and I am sure I did little bits of things when I could after she was born, but I did not go into paid employment until-until she was two and a half or so.

IG: 33:43
So-so what was the nature of your volunteering? What did you do from day to day?

DW: 33:47
Well-

IG: 33:48
The first organization.

DW: 33:49
With Americans for democratic action, we-we took positions on issues in the state legislature, and sometimes went and testified at hearings. I do remember being incredibly nervous about doing that, you know, and and the person who was guiding me sort of laughing, but being supportive, you know, bear in mind, you know more about this than they do, and all of that so and, of course, I have had-

IG: 33:50
What kinds of things did you justify?

DW: 33:59
I was more in the domestic well, of course, state legislature, so human needs, kinds of programs, you know, support for education and social services and cash assistance and those kinds of things. And helping with for Americans for democratic action, we could do a record of roll call votes. It was not a tax exempt organization. We could take positions on candidates so we were. We did, and we recorded their roll call votes. So researching what the votes should be, that was a part of what we did. And we had meetings with the members of the organization, and you get a speaker to inform people about this or that topic. And there was close collaboration with like minded members of Congress, excuse me, members of the state legislature. And in fact, you may know Barney Frank, who was a member of Congress for a long time. Well, he started out as a state representative. Well, he started other things before then, but he was a state representative for a long time, so I knew him quite well then. But anyway, so that is what we did there, and then moving to this Massachusetts Human Services coalition.

IG: 35:55
How did you find that?

DW: 35:58
Well, I think, well, you know, groups know each other, and I may have participated with them some as a as somebody who was with Americans for democratic action, I kind of forget exactly how I got involved with them, but there they were very small staff. There were, you know, I think three staff or something, plus volunteers. And so I did take the executive director job there after a while, and was there for about 10 years.

IG: 36:46
What were the years that you were there?

DW: 36:50
Not too good about this. Let us see. Probably about (19)83 to (19)93 something. Yeah, that would be about right. And, after that, we moved to Washington because of a job that my husband was taking, and his job was at the Food and Drug Administration. He was a biochemist, and he worked in research while he was in Boston, but he was getting kind of tired of that. I think he liked the idea of moving more into the regulatory area. There was a certain research component there too at the FDA, so-so he did that, and we came here, and then I got a job at the Children's Defense Fund, which is, I do not know if you have heard of them, but Marian Wright Edelman is their director--was then too, and founder, and so I worked for them for about nine years on a lot of policy and advocacy areas, with regard especially to income security areas, cash assistance programs, housing

IG: 38:14
So, what would you do? Would you go and testify? Or would you-

DW: 38:19
Occasionally, is more of not as much testifying, but cannot be too hot anymore. But I would go on visits to Hill staff to talk about our issues in when you get to the congressional level, you are not as often meeting with the members of Congress as you would meet with state legislators directly. There was a lot more staff work going on there. So we would meet with Hill staff and try to shape what they were doing. Um, and-

IG: 39:07
How would you do that? I mean, to a novice, to somebody who does not know, would you, I mean, what form of, what was a form that you were lobbying?

DW: 39:18
Well, you know, in our view, there was, there was a combination of things that have has to happen. You need the policy expertise to bring a specific set of proposals to them. And so we would, you know, be doing the writing and the evidence and all of that. But we also-

IG: 39:41
How did you collect the evidence?

DW: 39:44
Sometimes there was really just kind of like writing research paper, some we had on staff analysts who would be able to take a look at the say acensus poverty data and be able to show disproportionate poverty-poverty among, of course, communities of color, or point out how younger children were more likely to be poor than older children, and therefore we need to train a set of policies for the youngest children, or, you know, so the that, as well as policy experts looking at programs that work that might have been tried in a given area, and bringing that to members of Congress. So-so there was that, but there was also a keen understanding that you need constituents to be saying, we support this or we oppose that. So the other part of our work would be educating people around the country and encouraging them to take action. And so that was part of-

IG: 41:01
So, educating people around the country, did you travel?

DW: 41:05
I did more at CDF than in my work now, but so yes, we would do that. There was also a big concentration of effort among African American leaders and community leaders, faith leaders, at the Children's Defense Fund, and there was, and is what they called a black community Crusade for Children. And they had a lot. They had some offices based in the south, and they would have meetings in black churches or in group settings of various kinds. And I, as a staff person knowledgeable in particular areas would go, and that was an educational experience for me, and I hope for them too, but so that was fun and but that was way of bringing the information to people who were out around the country to say, you know, here is what is at stake. Here is what Congress is trying to decide. You have got to speak out and tell them you do not want this or you do want that.

IG: 42:29
So what was the way that you measured your success?

DW: 42:32
Well, did we stop a bad bill from passing? Did we get a good thing from passing? That was one way. But then interim goals are, did you reach more people? I mean, now nowadays, the metrics are easier. There was not as much internet when I was first at CDF. So now, of course, you really can measure pretty accurately how many people you are reaching, but we did measure it in terms of sometimes we could gage, because we would have toll free telephone numbers, how many people called Congress through a toll Free number, and if that number was up or even just gaging, we successfully got Reverend so and so to get an op ed in the local paper.

IG: 43:30
I see, did you, did you help the Reverend pen this editorial, sometimes-sometimes?

DW: 43:40
We tried a mix of maybe writing a first draft with holes in it for them to put in their personal stuff, and then they would edit it some more, I think, until they were satisfied that it accurately reflected them.

IG: 44:00
So-so, and how did you come to form your current organization?

DW: 44:07
Well, I did not form it. In fact, when I was at the Children's Defense Fund, I was a board member of this coalition on human needs, which was formed in the Reagan years to protest or try to fight against efforts then made to cut and block grant various human needs programs. Well, there are a bunch of social services programs that used to be separate with specific goals, and they were combined, for instance, into something called the Social Services Block Grant. And that, to us, was one example of why you never want to be block granting programs because, or often do not want to because while they would tout it as a wonderful way for states to have flexibility that first of all, they cut all the programs when they combine them into this thing-

IG: 45:12
I see.

DW: 45:13
-with the deniability they, Oh, you like this youth something or other program. Well, we did not cut it, you know, we just put it into this pot. But of course, the overall dollars were less than before. Some something had to give. And then the very diffuseness of the programs-

IG: 45:36
How so?

DW: 45:36
-of the overall block grant, because it was for a whole lot of things. It was not just for youth programs, so and so, caused them then to say, well, this does not have a very defined purpose. That was the whole point of it, not to have a defined purpose and to give flexibility to the states. But once it did not have that, then they did not make it a particular priority to fund it. So it was cut and then flat-funded for 20 years, 30 years and more than that by now. So-so it has eroded tremendously, and of course, in the current climate, both the Republicans in the in Congress and the President have proposed eliminating it all together. So-so that is just an example of the kind of thing that we wanted to oppose and did not succeed in every instance. But then the coalition, well as it was formed, it was a mix of faith groups and sort of umbrella organizations for human services providers and policy experts and labor and other advocacy organizations.

Speaker 1 46:48
If you were to do it all over again, and what would have been a strategy to prevent some of the obstacles that you encountered early on?

DW: 47:18
Sorry, some of the the strategies are right, in the sense that, again, you need a combination of message and messenger, so you need accurate information. We still believe in that and but you need a very active participation by constituents that-that is crucial, and so we do a mix of things. Now, for instance, we-we are a tax exempt organization. There is- we cannot spend all of our money lobbying, but we spend the allowable part of it lobbying and educating people out around the country about when various things are about to happen in Congress, and encouraging them to weigh in. So we-

IG: 48:23
What do you do this outreach? Do you do it through writing, or do you actually visit? For example, you said faith based organizations. Do you visit places of worship and talk to communities-

DW: 48:40
In my, in my current role, I do not travel quite as much because the organizations we work with often do not have the budget to pay for it, and we have not had the budget to do it. But we-we do a lot of webinars and conference calls and so ways of reaching folks around the country, we work through, to a great extent, advocacy organizations, and hope that they then funnel the information out to their own networks. And so we- there is a combination of writing and presenting in this way. We partner with organizations in states, for instance, every year when the census poverty data comes out, we partner with 10 or a dozen organizations in that many states to co write a report. In their state, it is going to be, you know, the. What the situation is in New York or in Ohio or someplace. And we write a national report as well. So then those groups release it there, and we try to encourage press coverage there. So, you know, we do multiple routes to try to get more activism on the part of state groups, and we reach out both directly through our own lists and because we are a coalition through all these different groups lists to encourage people you know straightforwardly to contact their members of Congress at the right moment, or these other forms of getting into the press, a response. And you know, sometimes we have been in times when we have been able to make real expansions in services, for instance, during the- after the Great Recession, Obama administration and Congress were looking for ways of making investments spending money that was going to boost the economy, and we played quite a role in bringing proposals from a lot of different human needs areas so that it was not all infrastructure, you know, building roads or something that kind of seen as the typical way. But we helped people to understand that when you give poor people money, for instance, or in kind like SNAP or food stamp benefits, they are going to go out and spend it right away. They are not going to save it the way a richer person will. And that moves the economy in. There were economists saying that so that helped, and so in those kinds of times, we could play a role in increasing the amount of money that was spent on food stamps, on child care, on unemployment insurance, on housing. Various employment programs, you know, quite a lot of programs. That was a big good time. And I mean, it was a recession, or that was a horrible time, but we were able to get some improvements that help people. And of course, there have been times when we have been fighting against cuts like now.

IG: 52:46
So how has your strategy changed under the current administration?

DW: 52:52
Well, we certainly we are not getting in to visit with them. They are not responsive at all, but we have just redoubled our efforts to include constituents in-in both meetings. We might have group meetings with representatives from a number of different groups here on the hill going to a congressional office, and we will have one or two constituents on by phone to demonstrate that we are connected to their constituents. And that is been really quite effective. And then more, you know, larger efforts of reaching out to get lots and lots of people either to send emails or call, and that is been working. And then the other strategy, we are a non partisan organization, but we recognize that by identifying those who are supporters and who are not Democrats, largely in this political environment, have been willing to fight for the issues that we fight for, and the extent to which they do have leverage, like when you need 60 votes in the Senate, and Republicans do not have 60 votes. So if they want certain things to pass, they have to go along with things. And even in this awful climate, we have been able to have some successes. For instance, an increase in child care dollars recently was approved that I never thought we would have in this climate, but that was terrific and as well as increased funding for opioid use disorder. So but an awful lot of what we are doing is just trying to stand in opposition. Addition to awful things that they want to do. And, you know, the Farm Bill has the SNAP or food stamp program, and I do not want to go on too much longer, but the- and they want to make cuts in that to deny millions of people assistance. And we are working with Democrats to refuse they cannot pass a farm bill without Democratic votes because they lose too many Republican votes for other reasons. And right now, our strategy is, delay, stop it, and we are making headway. So you know, sometimes the gage is, can you stop something awful from happening? And sometimes the gage is, can actually make something good happen, and so we have been in on some of both of that.

IG: 56:07
So what are your biggest victories? Do you think with this organization, with the Coalition for Human Needs, I mean, experiences? What do you think? What are your fondest achievements?

DW: 56:25
I would say that what I described during the recovery from the recession period where we were able to encourage the thinking that part of economic recovery required assistance to low income people and very concrete, tangible forms of assistance. The fact that so many of those things were incorporated, I would say, was one of our biggest successes, another big success we have interested ourselves in tax matters, both low income tax credits that put money in the hands of low income people, as well as the broader topic of not wanting to see revenues cut that where the benefits go, largely to upper income corporations, and therefore losing revenues that could be spent on investments. But at any rate, we-we worked quite a lot on expansions in the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, which are low income tax credits extremely beneficial to low income families, and we also have played a role in so far, but I do not know how long we can keep it up, preventing cuts in the child tax credit that will exclude some immigrant families. So on a number of times we have been part of an effort that stopped them from doing that. But right now, I do not know. We will see if we can keep it going.

IG: 58:09
It sounds like wonderful work. I would like to know if, for the students who listen to these tapes now and in the future, do you have any messages about how to think about their undergraduate education?

DW: 58:38
Well, I would say when served you, my advice is that your education includes many parts. It includes allowing yourself to blossom in all kinds of ways. And of course, it includes learning things academically. I think you do not have to, in many instances, make all your decisions too early. You know, as I say, I was a literature major. I never regretted that. I understand that if you want to go into a career in sciences, you really have to have that background. But even, you know, my husband took a lot of literature courses, and was not sure whether he should go in the sciences or literature. He never regretted the number of courses he took in areas that were outside of the sciences. I think there really is a reason to have a liberal arts education, and that it gives you a breadth of view that stands you in good stead in all your life. But there, there is, there are so many opportunities on a college campus to learn all kinds of things that you never were exposed to before, and people should take advantage of those because they do not know which of those things might open up worlds to them. And you know, for me, of course, I have described how the opportunity to be in an Upward Bound program. I wanted to be a singer when I was in started college, I had no thought of social activism or anti poverty, economic justice work, but my eyes were open because of an experience that I had on the campus that I will be forever grateful for. But also, you know, there are other experiences. We could the Guarneri String Quartet was in residence at Harpur in our days, and you could go to a concert for 25 cents. And and we went and, and I have a and my husband have a lifelong love for classical music, and we did not have so very much exposure to it before that. So, you know, I imagine there are still those kinds of opportunities for people to get outside of what they already know, and they should take advantage of them.

IG: 1:01:31
Any concluding remarks.

DW: 1:01:34
Well, you know, I thought you were going to ask more about what I, you know, experiences at the school, so, but what you said is, it is true the other part of it that I was there at a very interesting time when I started, women had a curfew. You may have heard this from plenty of other people, and men did not. And as I said, the the wing we were in the progressive dorm because it was co ed. But the wings were separate, of course, and only the common areas were together. And after the curfew, the men could not go down to the basement area where the food machines were, and so the women who could go down there would throw up, you know, a Snickers bar to them if they threw down the change. But by the time, by the end of my time, a lot of that had opened up. They were starting to build the sweet dorms and and the curfew for women was a thing of the past. So it was quite a time of transition in people's attitudes. And it is good thing, good thing, to get away from that. And so I was, you know, the study of the (19)60s is worthwhile because of all the, you know, that was only the little inkling of, of course, much more large societal changes going on. But I felt like I was kind of a part of it.

IG: 1:03:17
Thank you very much.

DW: 1:03:18
Sure.

(End of Interview)

2018-03-16

Irene Gashurov

1969

Deborah Volkell Weinstein

Deborah Weinstein is the executive director of the Coalition on Human Needs, an alliance of national organizations working together to promote public policies for low income women and children. Deborah has covered politics, crime, and healthcare policies for various news outlets including Medical Marketing & Media, where she specializes in Obesity, Alzheimer’s disease and healthcare costs.

Audio

Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in nonprofits; Harpur College – Alumni in nonprofits; Harpur College – Alumni in health policy; Harpur College – Alumni living in the DC area

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Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in nonprofits; Harpur College – Alumni in nonprofits; Harpur College – Alumni in health policy; Harpur College – Alumni living in the DC area