Dear ROPnet,
This message comes to you from Bill Whitaker (Union County) and Rosalie Pedroza (Marion County) – ROP Board Members, Human Dignity Leaders, and leadership with the Healthcare for All Oregon campaign. Read on to learn more about the campaign and to join ROP and other human dignity groups in this movement!
Warmly, Cara
Dear ROP Human Dignity Group Advocates,
The Rural Organizing Project is a proud member and leader in Health Care for All—Oregon, a statewide coalition of 60 (and growing!) member organizations. The ROP board is encouraging all ROP Human Dignity Groups to consider how you will become involved in this exciting campaign.
Information about the work of Health Care for All—Oregon is available on the HCAO website http://hcao.org/ . We encourage you to check out the website.
ROP in cooperation with other HCAO members is working to build a massive, powerful social movement focused on Health Care as a Human Right that will amend Oregon’s Constitution to ensure health care coverage for everyone in Oregon without exception—Everybody in, Nobody out!
Today fifty million Americans and 600,000 Oregon residents have no health insurance. Each year an estimated 44,000 Americans and 558 Oregonians die needlessly because they lack that insurance. Helping prevent these unnecessary deaths is key to ROP commitment to social justice. We hope your human dignity group will make health care for all Oregon a priority in your work
In May 2011, following three years of human rights based grassroots organizing, Vermont became the first state in the nation on course to achieve a universal health care system.
We have the passion and expertise here in Oregon to be the next state on the road to universal health care.
In January this year, a new coalition of thirty organizations —Health Care for All– Oregon—was formed to campaign for a comprehensive, publicly funded, high quality system of health care serving everyone in Oregon and the United States. HCAO has now grown to 60 member organizations with new organizations joining every month.
We are organizing a multiyear campaign to build a movement that will be strong enough to succeed in spite of the millions of dollars that insurance and pharmaceutical companies will spend against us to defend their enormous profits.
Our initial goal is to convince the Oregon Legislature that Health Care is a Human Right that should be available to everyone. Our statewide campaign is using house parties, petitions, photo petitions, presentations to the public, surveys and stories to build the health care for all movement throughout Oregon.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR! On February 4, opening day of the 2013 legislative session, the Oregon campaign for Health Care as A Human Right will be formally launched with a massive rally in Salem on the Capitol steps. We hope to have hundreds of people there wearing red “Health Care is a Human Right” t-shirts to put our legislators on notice to get aboard.
Just think, if each of the 60 HCAO member organizations brings only 83 supporters to the rally, we will have thousands of people there. If each of the 50 ROP Human Dignity Groups brings 20 supporters, ROP alone will bring 1,000 supporters to the rally. Some will bring more and some will bring less but the main goal is that each Oregon community is represented so the legislature knows this issue reaches statewide.
Tool Kit
We have developed a tool kit that makes each of these tactics easy to carry out. That tool kit will be available on the ROP website https://rop.org/ and on the HCAO website http://hcao.org/.
Here, briefly, is a description of each tactic:
1. February 4 rally in Salem. (described above)
2. House parties—a gathering of 8 to 12 of your friends and neighbors in your home for 2 hours of fun–education, organizing and fundraising. We will provide everything you need to plan and host the event, all materials, and a speaker or brief video you can use.
3. Written petitions—forms to be circulated for signers stating “Every person in Oregon should have equal access to medically necessary health care as a human right.”
4. Surveys—brief questionnaires that can be completed in 30 minutes by interviewer documenting someone’s personal experiences with health care and identifying powerful stories to be considered in our stories project.
5. Stories project—creation of 2-3 minute, powerful videos documenting experiences with health care or lack of it.
6. Photo petitions—digital photos organized by zip code of thousands of people throughout Oregon holding signs affirming Health Care is a Human Right.
For each of these tactics the tool kit includes everything you need for success—description and step-by-step procedures, HCAO contacts, forms and rap sheets.
See below a response form your Human Dignity Group can use to join with the Rural Organizing Project in the campaign to bring universal health care to Oregon.
If you have questions or would like to have a presentation for your group, contact:
Rosalie Pedroza, ROP Board Member 503-743-4591 email: redped@earthlink.net
We are looking forward to working with you. Everybody in, Nobody out!
ROP/HCAO Health Care Reform Campaign
Human Dignity Group Commitment Form
Yes! We want to be part of the campaign supporting health care as a human right and a comprehensive, publicly funded, high quality system of health care serving everyone in Oregon and the United States. Count us in!
Human Dignity Group __________________________________________ Location __________________
Contact person: __________________________________________________Date ______________________
Address: ______________________________________________________________________ zip ___________
Phone: __________________________ Email: ______________________________________________________
_______ Our group would like more information
We are especially interested in supporting:
______ February 4 rally in Salem at the Capitol
______ House parties
______ Written petitions
______ Surveys
______ Stories project
______ Photo petitions
______ Other (specify) _______________________________________________________
______ Our Human Dignity Group would like to have a presentation in our community or for our group
______ Our Human Dignity Group is interested in becoming a member of the HCAO Coalition. Please send us the member application.
Please email or mail this form to Rosalie Pedroza POB 12261 Salem OR 97309
—
Cara Shufelt- cara@rop.org
Rural Organizing Project
PO Box 1350
Scappoose, OR 97056
503-543-8417 * www.rop.org