POWERDOWN Media Project

Click play and listen below to an audio collage brought to you by POWERDOWN

POWERDOWN Voices by POWERDOWN

What Is POWERDOWN?

POWERDOWN stands for Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights Developing our Own Welfare Narrative. This is a project of POWER (Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights) members and volunteers. Our project will enable people who have or currently do receive welfare benefits to collect stories from themselves, their families and friends. The audio pieces will be hosted on this website and provide both a real narrative from low-income families in the State of Washington and be used as a resource for people needing to access this information to protect their rights.

In our state recently there was an investigative journalism flood over cash assistance being withdrawn from ATMs at strip clubs, and food stamp benefits being handed out in exchange for drugs. This is just the most recent example of the media being used to assassinate the character of those in poverty. They call into question whether people deserve to have their basic needs protected by our government. Depictions such as these can be equated to the racist and classist portrayal of the “Welfare Queen” during the Reagan Era. This is how the mainstream media portrays the poor in this country. These direct attacks on the families we are, whom we advocate for, and inform about welfare rights, real people worthy of respect and life.

POWERDOWN is a project that seeks to reclaim reality on behalf of our community and organize families in poverty and on welfare to challenge crude depictions. In addition, the audio clips we collect as a community will provide a listenable tool to inform families about their welfare rights.

Click here for pieces recorded by Community Journalist Mary Vent

Mary Vent and her son

Click here to hear past stories from POWER members

Click here for pieces recorded by Community Journalist Erika