NC Justice Center Annual Report 2009

North Carolina Justice Center 2009 ANNUAL REPORT NORTH CAROLINA JUSTICE CENTER • OPPORTUNITY AND PROSPERITY FOR ALL • 224 S. DAWSON STREET • P.O. BOX 28068 • RALEIGH, NC 27611 • WWW.NCJUSTICE.ORG Opportunity and Prosperity for All CONTENTS 2 Mission and Overview 2 Letter from the Board of Directors 4 Letter from the Executive Director 5 The State Budget 6 Education 8 Health Care 10 Consumer Protections and Housing 12 Support for Working Families 13 Immigrants’ Rights 14 Communications 16 Support for Our Work 18 2009 Defenders of Justice Awards 20 2009 ANNUAL REPORT 1 THE JUSTICE CENTER is the state’s leading fair treatment it needs in order to enjoy researchers, attorneys, policy advocates, and research and advocacy organization dedicated economic security. other dedicated professionals. to transforming North Carolina’s prosperity into The Center was founded in 1996 through the Our unique approach to advocacy has helped opportunity for all. merger of two former Legal Services the Justice Center to be extraordinarily Our mission is to eliminate poverty in North organizations. Today, our staff is nearly 50 successful in changing policies in North Carolina Carolina by ensuring that every household in the people strong and includes community to improve the lives of working families. We use state has access to the resources, services and educators, communications specialists, five interconnected strategies in our work: 1 Public Policy Advocacy - Our advocates work with policymakers to secure laws and policies that improve the lives of low- and moderate- income families and to oppose policies that would take the state backward. 2 Research - Our experts analyze policies and 3 Community Outreach - Our educators build challenges that impact low-income North relationships with groups and individuals at the Carolinians, identify strategies for improvement, community level and pursue a two-way process and publish their findings in an array of well- of education and empowerment. respected reports and issue briefs. 4 Litigation - Our attorneys take on high- impact cases designed to protect and expand the rights of low-income groups and individuals, including immigrants. 5 Communications - Our writers and media experts generate commentaries and publications 2 designed to shape public opinion. Public investments in A fair and stable revenue services and programs that system that adequately expand and enhance funds public investments opportunities for economic while fairly distributing tax security responsibility Housing that is safe and Fair treatment for affordable everyone in North Carolina – regardless of race, ethnicity, or country of origin To make opportunity and prosperity for all a reality, we work toward: Consumer protections Public education that that shield hard-earned opens a world of assets from abusive opportunity to every child practices Jobs that are safe, pay a Health care that is living wage, and provide accessible and affordable health coverage and other benefits There was nothing easy about 2009. Throughout North Carolina, workers lost their jobs, North Carolina Justice Center families lost their homes, and many of us lost some of our sense of security as the nation BOARD OF DIRECTORS: struggled through the worst recession in a generation. Co-chairs: A financial crisis that puts the global economy on the brink of collapse can easily push North Carolina’s low-income families over the edge. In such dire situations, it is the safety net of Jean Cary public programs that protects families from ruin. Raquel Lynch But in these tight budget times, many legislators sought to shred that safety net in the name of cutting costs. That is when we all realize how important the work of the North Carolina Justice Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II Center is. Without the Justice Center’s advocacy – at the General Assembly, in our Asa L. Bell, Jr. communities, at the courthouse and in the media – many North Carolina families would be Dhamian A. Blue without the services and programs upon which they depend, and many more workers would be Anita Brown-Graham unemployed. We are honored to be affiliated with an organization that, in 2009, worked with dozens of partner groups to prevent budget cuts that would have devastated people with Christopher T. Graebe disabilities, helped homeowners avoid foreclosure, ensured children were not denied their right Richard Hooker, Jr. to an adequate education, and rallied thousands of people in support of health-care reform. Fiorella Horna-Guerra Kenneth Jerald Jones Just as it is hard to overstate the importance of the Justice Center’s work, it is also impossible to stress too strongly the need for your financial support. Foundation and individual giving are Gene Nichol down for virtually every non-profit in the country, and the Justice Center is certainly not immune Dr. Gregory Moss, Sr. to this side-effect of the recession. The gifts of individuals concerned with the welfare of their Orage Quarles, III neighbors and their state have never been more necessary. Rev. J. George Reed Please contribute to the North Carolina Justice Center in 2010. Your donations will help the Geraldine Sumter center’s staff protect North Carolina’s most vulnerable residents and continue the fight for opportunity and prosperity for all. Sincerely, Jean Cary Raquel Lynch Co-Chair, Board of Directors Co-Chair, Board of Directors 4 NORTH CAROLINA JUSTICE CENTER l Letter from the Board of Directors Despite many years of experience with the Justice Center as a partner and as its executive director, I am still amazed sometimes at the impact this organization has on the lives of families throughout North Carolina. As you read this 2009 annual report, you will see how our talented and diverse staff worked to protect vulnerable North Carolinians while expanding opportunity for the state’s working families. All of these successes were possible only because of the credibility and reputation for integrity that the Justice Center has established over the past 14 years. We built up that clout by getting the research right, knowing the law, and staying committed to our mission to eliminate poverty in North Carolina – year after year after year. In 2010, we will build upon our efforts and victories of the past. Thanks to our long-standing and aggressive advocacy for the creation of a school funding system that better serves low-income and minority students, the state legislature has made sure to include us in the process of reworking that system. We will also be heavily involved with the effort to reform and modernize the state’s revenue system – again, an endeavor for which we have long advocated and which many legislators would not consider undertaking without the input of our experts. Our lobbying efforts in the early part of the decade helped to drive payday lenders out of the state. This coming year, we hope to get a new ruling in our lawsuit to recoup for consumers the illegally high fees charged by payday lenders, a case which has already established new precedents that protect North Carolina consumers. These long-term efforts are what make the Justice Center so effective. The relationships and expertise our staff have built enable us to secure the changes necessary to improve the lives of low- and moderate-income North Carolinians. Your financial contribution is also necessary. It is during tough economic times that the need for a powerful voice to champion the rights and interests of working families and vulnerable individuals is greatest. They need us, and we need your support. With warm regards, Melinda Lawrence, Executive Director Letter from the Executive Director l 2009 ANNUAL REPORT 5 The State Budget Because of the recession, North Carolina suffered an historic drop in tax revenues, resulting in a $4.6 billion budget shortfall – a whopping 20% of state spending. Many state leaders declared they would not even consider raising new revenue and instead proposed drastic cuts to schools, health and wellness programs, and services for the elderly and the disabled. At the Justice Center, we focused the considerable skills In 2009, the economy fell into of our staff on protecting the vital services many North deep recession, unemployment Carolinians depend on to stay in their homes, provide for their families and maintain a decent quality of life. Our soared, and hundreds of organizers brought together leaders from non-profit thousands of North Carolina advocacy groups and service providers to form the families struggled to keep their Together NC coalition, which worked aggressively to convince lawmakers to take a balanced approach to the homes and feed their children. It is fiscal crisis (See Spotlight). Our researchers with the at times like these, when the need Budget & Tax Center analyzed revenue proposals, and legislative leaders called on them for explanations of how is greatest, that the work of the those proposals would impact the state’s most vulnerable North Carolina Justice Center has citizens. Our communications specialists developed common messages for all Together NC members to use, the greatest impact. pushed that message with the media and created newspaper advertisements to influence lawmakers. Our Here are some examples of the legislative advocates worked with state leaders to craft a successes we had in 2009. proposal that would raise new revenue and protect the state’s most vulnerable citizens. In the end, state legislators took a responsible approach to the fiscal crisis, closing about half of the budget gap with new funds and federal stimulus money, thus preventing the most devastating cuts that were under consideration. The Justice Center’s advocacy efforts also helped protect the planned increase in the state Earned Income Tax Credit, which goes up to 5% of the federal credit this tax season and puts money in the pockets of more than 820,000 North Carolina workers. 6 NORTH CAROLINA JUSTICE CENTER l The State Budget SPOTLIGHT: Together NC At the beginning of 2009, the Justice Center, than 2,500 North Carolinians about the need in partnership with the Covenant with North for a balanced approach to solving the state's Carolina’s Children, organized Together NC, a fiscal crisis.

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