Originally posted on People’s World. 

Alongside the research team from Children’s HealthWatch and Revolutionary Healing, we shared key findings from our joint report, “I Didn’t Have to Worry,” with researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University, New York University, and the Minnesota Department of Human Services.

“We have to track what happens in this period, not only in the short-term when these programs work, but also when they are cut back,” said Dr. Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, executive director of Children’s HealthWatch. “And we need policies that work the hardest to reach the most marginalized people, across generations. When we do that, we make policy better for everyone—and everyone does better.”

As we’ve learned from the welfare rights movement and decades of poor people-led organizing, the best policies are anchored in the lives and realities of those most in need of them—those who are intimately aware of what’s necessary to end our suffering.