Alabama Families Join Thousands of Others to Vote on a National Family

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., May 16, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- "It's time for people who have not had a voice, not had opportunities, to have a chance to speak up," said Myeisha Hutchinson, 28, a patient advocate at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital.

On May 20, Hutchinson will join thousands of families across the country to vote on the 2012 Equal Voice for America's National Family platform.

Digital technology is the last frontier for poor Americans. The Internet, the Web, social media – those are the last places many would expect poor families and communities of color to show up in any kind of numbers that could effect change – let alone transform their lives.

That will all change on Sunday.

While political candidates pour billions of dollars into the 2012 campaign, thousands of America's poor families will gather at churches, community and convention centers, homes, restaurants and coffee houses to use Twitter and Facebook to discuss and vote on a national family platform that reflects their issues and concerns.  Their message to policymakers: Every issue is a family issue.

More than 600 will participate in Alabama. They will give up their Sunday afternoon to make sure that issues such as education, jobs and food security are reflected in the 2012 Equal Voice platform – and in the upcoming elections.

Equal Voice 2012 will use a Livestream application – designed especially for the convention – that allows a participant to view the convention live; chat and vote on platform issues online or by SMS text. The event will be live-streamed from Birmingham, Ala., McAllen, Texas, and Seattle. Youth from Los Angeles, to Chicago, South Texas and Mississippi have been trained as social media captains.

Families – not rock stars or movie stars – will be the featured speakers.

Speakers like Star Paschal, a young mother from Alabama; young Marcelas Owens, who stood next to President Obama when the healthcare bill was signed into law; Michael Seifert, an organizer from South Texas, and Ramona Casas, cofounder of A.R.I.S.E, a grassroots organization led by women of the Rio Grande Valley.

Nearly 49 million people in America struggle every day to meet the basic needs of their families. They are families that work hard, sometimes two or three jobs that pay minimum wage, and can't make ends meet.

Momentum for the May 20 Equal Voice Online National Convention has been building since 2008 when the Marguerite Casey Foundation and its grantee partners brought together 30,000 poor and low-income families to create a comprehensive platform policy recommendations by and for families.

"You think poverty doesn't have anything to do with you? Well, that can all change in a blink of an eye," said Hutchinson, who lives with her mother and grandmother in Birmingham's low-income Woodlawn neighborhood.

Families will speak out on May 20.  Whether decision makers will listen to their voices remains to be seen. For more information, go to http://www.equalvoice2012.org/ #equalvoiceforfamilies  #equalvoz