June 29, 2025 by pbcnow

Urgent update from Florida Decides Healthcare

Hello DWC members and friends, here is an urgent update from Florida Decides Healthcare, the sponsor of the Medicaid petition.
We’re presenting the complete update as received.

On July 1 EVERYTHING changes, even the mailing address.
Please follow these instructions, as the campaign can incur heavy fines for any violation!
———————

“Florida Decides Healthcare Volunteer Newsletter: Important Procedural Updates

Thank you for your incredible efforts this month! We are committed to bringing affordable healthcare access to Florida, but due to HB1205 our process is changing July 1. Please read below to ensure you are in compliance.

New Petition Process Starting 7/1

As a reminder several of the draconian provisions of HB1205 – the new law limiting citizen-led amendments by creating hurdles that make it harder and costlier for communities to come together and make change – goes into effect July 1, 2025. Here’s what you should be aware of regarding the July 1 changes:

The petition form will change 7/1. All blank copies of the previous form should be disposed of by 6/30 and everyone should switch forms starting 7/1. We will provide copies of the new form as soon as we have it.
Blank petitions will be available. Anyone can print, store, sort, and distribute the new blank petition forms.
However, no individual may gather more than 25 signed petitions without being a registered petition circulator.
Starting 7/1 until further notice, we will shift to distributing petition forms rather than collecting them; that is, you must not collect any petitions signed by voters starting on 7/1 and signed petitions must not be returned to hubs.
Instead, you can pick up pre-addressed postage paid envelopes and should provide these envelopes to voters to submit their own completed petitions. Envelopes will be available at all hubs by the end of day 7/1.
- Voters should mail petitions to:
  3948 3rd St S #26
  
  Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250
If you are not a registered circulator, do not touch any completed petitions (even if enclosed in envelopes).
While anyone can distribute petitions, no one should collect petitions unless: (i) they register as a petition circulator, and (ii) are FL residents, US citizens, and do not have a felony conviction.
Starting 7/1, petitions signed by voters will not be accepted at hubs.
If you are not registered to circulate petitions, do not touch any signed petitions.

Please be aware this process may change in the future, as we filed another preliminary injunction and the hearing is scheduled for June 30th. We are optimistic about what comes next, both for the remaining parts of HB 1205 that we’re challenging and for the future of citizen-led democracy in Florida, and will advise if there are any changes. No matter what happens with the litigation, our petition operations will continue.

Training

If you haven’t already joined a Volunteer Training Call or watched our quick Volunteer Training On-Demand, I encourage you to do so to find out more about the many ways to support the Medicaid Expansion effort. The training has been updated to reflect July 1 changes.

Additional Volunteer Opportunities

There are many community events happening daily throughout the state where we can distribute petitions. If you are aware of any upcoming opportunities, please let us know either by responding to this email or by submitting an event. Find a running list of all of our and our coalition partners’ events on Mobilize.

Find a Petition Distribution Opportunity Near You!

Please Note: Unless you already have petitions and envelopes on hand, you will need at least a day (ideally 2-3) of lead time to ensure you can pick-up petitions and envelopes.

We also need help with follow-up calls to voters whose petitions have been rejected. You can call these voters from anywhere at any time—just a few calls a day go a long way. No previous phonebanking experience is required.

Phonebank for Petitions on Your Schedule

Finally, it is important we keep Medicaid Expansion on the radar of Floridians and encourage engagement through social media and by sharing the stories of individuals who will benefit from this crucial legislation. If you are interested in joining our social media team and/or sharing your story, please let me know!

Join Our Social Media Team

Share Your Medicaid Story

No matter how you’re able to engage, your hard work is what will ensure Medicaid Expansion is on the ballot in Florida in 2026.

If you have any questions, or are looking to get involved but aren’t sure how to get started, please reach out to anachristina@floridadecideshealthcare.org. Thank you for your commitment to improving Florida healthcare!”

Copyright © 2025 DWC of PBC, All rights reserved.
Meetings and Conferences related to the Democratic Women’s Club Of Palm Beach County

Our mailing address is:

DWC of PBC

2600 N Flagler Dr apt 207

West Palm Beach, FL 33407

June 20, 2025 by pbcnow

Introducing SPLC’s new Education Justice series: Learning for Justice Podcast

CELEBRATE JUNETEENTH WITH A COMMITMENT TO DISRUPT THE CONTINUUM OF HARD HISTORY

Learning for Justice is relaunching the Teaching Hard History podcast series with host Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Ph.D., to resist current efforts to erase and alter our nation’s history. As we celebrate Juneteenth, we uplift liberation and Black joy and culture. And we commit to learning and teaching the hard history that is foundational to the United States and the ongoing movement for freedom and equality.

Teaching Hard History begins with the long and brutal legacy of slavery and reaches through the victories of and violent responses to the Civil Rights Movement and Black Americans’ experiences during the Jim Crow era to the issues we face today. This is American history that we all need to know and that should be taught in schools and in communities.

Learn more with the updated Season 1, Episode 1: Slavery and the Civil War, Part 1. And join us each week as we highlight an episode from the series and include a new resource page with essential ideas and teaching recommendations from the conversation and updated resources.

Learning for Justice

June 19, 2025 by pbcnow

Your next Easy A: Watch and lift up the trans community

There are two pieces of breaking news this week that are devastating to transgender kids — the Trump administration officially announced they are ending a specialized LGBTQ+ suicide prevention service, and the U.S. Supreme Court upheld bans on healthcare for trans kids. Our hearts are with the families who are hurt by this news.

WATCH THIS: SUPPORTING THE TRANSGENDER COMMUNITY

Attacks on transgender people’s rights are increasing, while at the same time, companies and organizations are pulling back their support of Pride Month. But not Red Wine & Blue! Watch this one-minute video about why seeing and uplifting our trans friends, family, and neighbors is so important right now.

WATCH

June 19, 2025 by pbcnow

Block the Bill: Tax Trouble!

Your Activist Homework, Day 2

SOUTH PBC INDIVISIBLE

JUN 18

To Our Strong and Courageous Members!

Rolling with our #NoKings energy, we are continuing our Block the Billcampaign, calling on you, our Indivisible Members, to put pressure on Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody to vote against the budget reconciliation bill. Urge them to oppose the House reconciliation bill, H.R.1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act. Please commit to calling at least twice a week up until July 4. There are so many bad things hidden in this bill, that you could call even more often, and have something different to say each time.

Washington DC Phone Numbers:

Senator Rick Scott – (202) 224-5274

Senator Ashley Moody – (202) 224-3041

There are currently 1,199 of you on our mailing list, and our goal is to have at least 5% of you commit to making these calls – that’s 60 people. Please be one of our callers! We’d love to have you share your calling achievements by leaving a comment!

Block the Bill, Day 2

Robbing the Poor to Give to the Rich

The Senate plans to vote on Trump’s horrific “Big Beautiful Bill” by July 4.Up until then, Congress Callers and South PBC Indivisible will be posting twice-weekly Block the Bill messages about different problems with the bill, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Day 1 of the Block the Bill campaign helped you call your Senators to defend your healthcare.

TODAY’S ISSUE: TAXES & WEALTH REDISTRIBUTION

The bill is designed to give massive tax breaks to corporations and the ultra-rich, offset by cutting services that most Americans rely on and raising costs on less wealthy families. Even with extremely harsh cuts, the budget cannot be balanced and the bill would result in a huge deficit.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities says “The House Republican reconciliation bill would give huge tax breaks to wealthy individuals, businesses, and large corporations while leaving behind or raising costs for millions of working families.” Additionally, the tax provisions would raise the federal deficit to nearly $4 trillion.
The Congressional Budget Office’s analysis shows the massive redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top.
Penn Wharton says “The top 10% of the income distribution receives about 70 percent of the total value of the legislation…. Lower-income households and some in the middle class are worse off, despite positive economic effects. All future generations are worse off.”

CALL TO ACTION

Call your Senators (find their contact info HERE) and urge them to oppose the House reconciliation bill, H.R.1, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act.

SCRIPT

Hello, my name is [FIRST & LAST NAME] and I’m a constituent from [CITY, ZIP].

I’m calling to urge [SEN NAME] to oppose the budget reconciliation bill, known as the “Big Beautiful Bill.” This bill gives massive tax breaks to billionaires and wealthy corporations while cutting our health care, nutrition, and education to pay for them, and will still blow up the deficit. There is no scenario in which this is fair to your constituents. Congress should keep its promises to voters, to lower costs for everyday people, by making the wealthy and corporations pay their fair share. Please protect your constituents by voting NO on the budget reconciliation bill.

Vote for FREE @ NOW National Conference via Zoom

Dear NOW members,

We’ve heard you. We’ve shared your frustration about the registration information listed on the National Conference page on the NOW.org website.

Although it has been long-standing policy that NOW does not require members to pay to attend NOW business meetings and national conferences, there has been confusion about the online registration wording and payment format. One member even commented to us that they considered paying a fee to vote at a NOW conference as a “poll tax.”

We reached out to the National Action Center to request that they edit the online registration page to make it clear that you do not need to pay to register to vote at the conference.

We’re glad to report that at our request, the NOW conference page has been revised with the following information:

*NOW’s bylaws allow for members to participate in membership meetings without a fee. Please contact Vice President Bear Atwood (at vp@now.org) if you would like to register under that provision.

The last thing we should be worrying about as we craft ACT NOW’s action plan to STOP the SAVE Act is voting at our own national conference for our executive officers.

Thank you for reaching out to us with your concerns. We’ll continue to listen and take action for you.

For NOW,

Kim Villanueva and Rose Brunache

ACT NOW candidates for President and Vice President

Learn more about ACT NOW here: https://linktr.ee/KimRoseNow2025

Join our list of endorsers HERE or email your endorsement statement to kimrosenow2025@gmail.com.

Are you registered for the 2025 NOW Conference? You must have been a NOW member for 90 days prior to the conference in order to vote in the 2025 NOW officer elections. Voting will be electronic for both in-person and virtual attendees.

ACT NOW: Grassroots action = National impact

Kim Villanueva, Candidate for NOW President

Rose Brunache, Candidate for NOW Vice President

Website: linktr.ee/KimRoseNow2025

Paid for and authorized by ACT NOW Susan Bramlet Lavin, Treasurer

415 Adelia, Springfield, Illinois * KimRoseNOW2025@gmail.com * 217-971-5602

Advocating for Women & Girls