CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- Concern about the persistence of high poverty rates in Southeast Missouri counties has led the Missouri Association for Social Welfare to launch a new campaign based in Cape Girardeau.
MASW, founded in 1901, is a grassroots citizen organization that provides leadership, research, education and advocacy to improve public policy and programs affecting the health and welfare of Missourians, according to a news release from the association.
Walt Wildman, a longtime resident of Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri campaign organizer, has years of experience in not-for-profit agencies such as Habitat for Humanity, the Boy Scouts of America and Easter Seals, the release said. He also was executive director of an 18-county economic development organization. As the MASW organizer for Southeast Missouri, Wildman will travel through high-poverty counties, educating communities about reductions in poverty that have been won through citizen advocacy in Missouri and other states and enlisting volunteers, the release said.
"One of the most exciting possibilities this year," Wildman said in the release, "is reducing the number of uninsured residents. The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce and the statewide Chamber have endorsed a change in the Medicaid eligibility guidelines that can offer affordable coverage to almost 300,000 Missourians, including many of our neighbors with low-wage jobs. This transformation of the Medicaid program would create employment and put local hospitals and clinics on firmer financial footing."
"We have previously had a small Southeast Missouri chapter and a student chapter in Cape Girardeau, but raising funds for staffing represents a new level of investment and commitment by MASW," Jeanette Mott Oxford, executive director of MASW, said in the release.
Area residents are invited to hear Oxford and Wildman speak about poverty, health care and the MASW at the following venues:
* 6 to 8 p.m. today: United Way, 430 Broadway, Cape Girardeau
* 1:15 to 2:45 p.m. Friday: University Extension office, 222 N. Broadway, Poplar Bluff, Mo.
* Noon to 1:30 p.m. March 13: Cape Girardeau Public Library, 711 N. Clark Ave.
For more information, call Wildman at 579-8626.