Benefit Program
Eleven-Point Benefit Program
Western Service Workers Association (WSWA) self-help Eleven-Point Benefit Program is conducted year-round, free of charge, by and for WSWA members. The program helps meet immediate needs while we pursue solutions to the cause of low wages, lack of benefits and unsafe working conditions. It includes Emergency Food, Clothing, Preventive Medical Care, Non-Emergency Dental Care, Legal Advice, Information and Referral, Association Newspaper, Financial Advocacy and more. The primary purpose of the Benefit Program is to make it possible for us to organize to eliminate the cause of our problems – poverty – at its root.
These resources enable members to take a leadership role in our organizing drive and the fight for living wages and long-term solutions to entrenched poverty faced by low-income workers. With your volunteer participation, WSWA members can win the fight to determine our own fate and future. Your participation is needed to make that hope a reality!
Budget-Saving Benefit Plan II
Benefit Program staff will suggest to members making repeat requests for emergency food, for example, that they apply to WSWA’s budget-saving Benefit Plan II. Volunteer caseworkers interview applicants and develop individualized budget plans and ask members to commit to volunteer on organizing activities. A plan is for a minimum of six months to a year, and targets ways to narrow a chronic household budget gap, freeing up income to cover other bills.
Benefit Plan II members join weekly supplemental food distributions of fresh produce and baked goods. Seasonal campaigns zero in on predictable spikes in expenses with Back-to-School new and like-new clothing and school supplies distributions, Holiday Campaign distributions of toys for parents to give to their children, and holiday food baskets for Thanksgiving and Christmas. An annual Winter Survival Campaign includes blankets and warm clothing distributions. The approach promotes the strength of independent organization operating under membership control.
