What does a broken arm
mean to you,
or a car that suddenly won't start?
Does it mean the start to a bad day,
or a bad year?
For thousands of Coloradans living paycheck to paycheck, these
unexpected expenses are the start of a bad year. A sudden illness is
the beginning to a debate over which bill will go unpaid, or how much
food one can afford at the grocery store. For many of our neighbors,
there
is no expendable income, and their margin of error is extremely
small. Losing a paycheck can happen to any of us; how many of us can
truly
recover from such a loss?
Identifying Barriers
Every community is impacted by this reality – be it lack of tenant protections, lack of affordable housing, elimination of school breakfasts,
lack of job opportunities that pay a living wage, or refusal by physicians
to take Medicaid, Medicare, & Workers’ Compensation. The Paycheck
Away Project is gathering first-hand, personal experiences from each community on the issues of homelessness, hunger, and inadequate
health care access.
Identifying Solutions
The Paycheck Away Project was created to identify solutions to the
extreme challenges many Colorado consumers face when trying to
break
the dangerous cycle of living paycheck to paycheck. The creation
of lasting, sustainable solutions is, by its very nature, also the creation
of healthier and stronger communities.
We are holding town hall meetings throughout Colorado to listen to
the personal experiences of community members, local service
providers, advocates, and experts to assist in the creation of sustainable solutions to stop the cycle of living from one paycheck to the next.