SOLUTIONS
3204 E. Magnolia Avenue
Knoxville, TN 37914
865-523-8009
fax 865-523-8083
jay@tn-solutions.org
Newsletter
(PDF format)
Solutions is a member of
Current Campaigns: Our
three primary campaigns are low-income housing, child care, and welfare rights. We are responsive to our constituents by maintaining a local issues campaign to address crucial situations that may arise in the community.
The Childcare Issue
Recently, a number of small child care providers in Knoxville were informed by the Knox County CAC that they would no longer be able to receive vouchers from Families First recipients for providing child care. The reason stated was that either they or someone in their family had a criminal record involving violence or drug charges. Around this same time, a number of local child care providers received letters from the Department of Human Services stating that they would automatically lose their license if they were charged with any "serious" violation under the department's new zero-tolerance policy. DHS did not clearly define what a serious violation was.
We at Solutions believe that quality child care with small, home based providers. We believe in the rehabilitation of individuals and feel that criminal records should be judged on each individual case, and that good child care providers should not be automatically disqualified for mistakes they or their family members have made in the pass. We also feel that zero-tolerance policies are appropriate only for larger child care providers. While a large child care provider may lose some money if they are temporarily closed down, a small child care business would almost certainly fail completely. Also, mandatory closings hurt the parents of children in child care, often leaving them without anyone to take care of their children.
We are demanding 3 concession from DHS.
- That they judge criminal backgrounds on a case-to-case basis, and not automatically disqualify individuals based solely on their records.
- That they clearly define what violations fall under the zero-tolerance policy, so that small child care providers can insure that they are compliant.
- That CAC loses their status as a Families First child care voucher broker, due to the fact that they also run a child care program, which presents a conflict of interest.
A Living Wage for Knoxville
Currently, there are many Knoxville city employees earning wages that fall below the Federal poverty line. In addition to this, there are many employees that provide city services through contracts with private companies. These companies can provide services more "efficiently" by paying their employees low service-level wages with no benefits.
We at Solutions cannot accept the fact that our local government promotes poverty through underpaying its employees. Therefore, we are active in the Knoxville Living Wage Campaign, a coalition of organizations, neighborhood associations, and churches. The Campaign presented to the city counsel a proposal that would ensure that all city employees and all employees working for businesses that have contracts with the city are paid a wage of either $9.50 with benefits or $11.00 without. This would be enough to lift the families of these workers above the poverty line. While the original proposal did not pass, the coalition is continuing the fight, and hope to have a similar proposal passed within a year.
