Tag: CCA

News from Mothers & Others for Justice

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by Merryl Eaton, Director of Advocacy and Education Project, CCA

Mothers & Others for Justice (MOFJ) is a New Haven-based grassroots advocacy group sponsored by Christian Community Action. MOFJ believes that the voices of people most affected by an issue should be heard and that their recommendations should help shape public policy.

For more than 30 years, MOFJ has worked across interconnected issues including economic justice, health equity, affordable housing, and child welfare reform.

One of MOFJ’s newest areas of work is child welfare reform. Through its Family & Child Welfare Collaborative (FCWC), MOFJ brings together people with lived experience with the Department of Children and Families (DCF) system, advocates, community lawyers, and community partners. The goal is to advance accountability, transparency, and meaningful reform while ensuring that families directly affected have MOFJ believes families need a child welfare system that protects children while respecting parents, recognizing family strengths, and providing support before crises escalate. Effective reform must be shaped by those who have experienced the system firsthand.

MOFJ’s health equity work follows the same principle. Its HEALTH subcommittee—Helping Everyone Achieve Lifelong Trusted Healthcare—centers the voices of residents who face barriers to care. The group asks practical questions: Can families afford care? Do they have access to providers they trust? Are their concerns taken seriously? How do poverty, transportation, and housing instability affect their health?

HEALTH also focuses on Black maternal health, providing training to equip members to become maternal health champions.

MOFJ also works with community organizations on housing issues and builds leadership and advocacy skills among residents. The goal is not simply participation, but meaningful power—the knowledge, relationships, and confidence needed to influence policies that shape daily life.

MOFJ’s greatest strength is its relationships. Members consistently show up at community events, legislative meetings, rallies, workshops, and town halls. They speak with neighbors, connect residents to resources, and collaborate with partners.

MOFJ believes change happens with communities, not to them. New Haven’s communities hold knowledge, resilience, and leadership. When residents organize around shared concerns, their voices can become a powerful force for change.

We welcome you to join our efforts. Contact Merryl Eaton at merryleaton@ccahelping.org.

Mothers and Others for Justice

by Cindy Miller, intern, CCA

Mothers and Others for Justice (MOFJ), a New Haven grassroots advocacy group sponsored by Christian Community Action (CCA), is welcoming new members to join us in our efforts to enact positive changes around the lack of affordable housing, healthcare disparities, safe communities and other quality of life issues.

Many of the group members are single heads of household women of color who use their individual and collective voices to influence state and local policy and decision-makers to implement solutions that help people to become self-sufficient. Participation in MOFJ has proved transformational for many members as they return to school, serve their communities, work on political campaigns, and run for office.

Many of the members of MOFJ are committed to the HEALTH sub-committee (Helping Everyone Achieve Lasting Trusted Healthcare) in order to identify and advocate for changes in the healthcare system. We recognize that access to safe, affordable housing is closely related to achieving optimal health outcomes.

Over the years, the members of MOFJ have become empowered by sharing their life stories locally and at the State Capitol. In the coming months, the group is enthusiastic about the opportunity to have their stories recorded in a new grant-funded story lab. Like the cliché, a picture is worth a thousand words, one story of a member of MOFJ and his or her unique struggles tells much more than pages of statistics.

MOFJ will co-host a January legislative breakfast where they will have the opportunity to communicate directly with members of the local and state government the areas in which they believe legislation is necessary. Benefit cliffs and affordable housing top the list of concerns, the latter concern being evident at a recent aldermanic meeting where a number of members of MOFJ presented testimony about inclusionary zoning.

During the pandemic, healthcare disparities between low-income people of color and others were starkly demonstrated — further evidence that those whom CCA serves do not have lasting trusted healthcare. In order to better understand the gaps and areas of dissatisfaction, a survey of 200 members of the community is underway, and there is an online town hall meeting scheduled for Monday, January 10, from 7-8:30 p.m. to encourage conversation and possible solutions on ideas where participants feel need improvement. This meeting has been entitled, “Tell ’Em Why You’re Mad!” It is important that the participants be entirely forth-coming as that will enable CCA to plan its advocacy work through which change can be achieved. Furthermore, it is hoped that the participants will bring up areas about which they want to be educated in a five-part “Health Institute” that will be open to the public to be held in the Spring.

MOFJ has monthly meetings on the fourth Wednesday of the month from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in New Haven at which there is frequently a speaker on issues of interest. All are welcome to attend meetings as well as to participate in the upcoming Town Hall Meeting on healthcare issues and the HEALTH Institute.

If there are questions, don’t hesitate to contact either Merryl Eaton (Director of Advocacy and Education at CCA): merryleaton@ccahelping.org) or Cindy Miller: cmiller@ccahelping.org.