March 9, 2004

Teach-in takes aim
at cuts to social services

Elected leaders and activists worried about proposed social services cuts to the state budget will gather at California State University, Sacramento from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 17.

The “SOS Teach-in” will be held in the University Union Redwood Room. It will include talks on the current budget situation as well as break-out sessions focusing on training in: community organizing, lobbying legislators and working with the media. There will also be testimonials from people facing cuts to their health, welfare and other services.

Speakers will include Assemblyman Darrell Steinberg, Sacramento County Supervisor Illa Collin and Janlee Wong, executive director of the California chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

“There’s so much in the governor’s budget as far as cuts to services for the most vulnerable that it can be hard to keep up with,” says Dale Russell, a CSUS Social Work Faculty and one of the event’s organizers. “We want to educate people about what’s happening, and leave them knowing that there’s something they can do. We want them to be able to get involved, rather than just being frustrated about how bad things are.”

The event is free and open to the public. Russell says he expects 300 to 500 participants.

More information is available by contacting social work professor Dale Russell at (916) 278-7170 or russelld@hhs4.hhs.csus.edu or social work professor Joan Dworkin at (916) 278-7067 or jdworkin@csus.edu. Professor Manny Gale or the Social Work Division.

Media assistance is available from CSUS public affairs at (916) 278-6156.

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