Washington Appleseed and sister centers across the country continually tackle the tough issues in social justice and publish policy papers, legal analysis, know-your-rights guides, and more. Here is a chronological listing of publications from across the Appleseed Network.
MAY 2010 - Craniofacial medical conditions have complex treatment plans and equally challenging insurance reimbursement requirements. Often, families have trouble getting their children the comprehensive treatment required to live normal, healthy lives. Washington Appleseed is working to create a guide to help parents successfully navigate insurance policies to achieve proper treatment.
Due Process and Consumer Debt: Eliminating Barriers to Justice in Consumer Credit Cases
MARCH 2010 - Burdened by continual unemployment and an ailing economy, more and more consumers are facing debt litigation in New York courts, and few have the knowledge or means to protect themselves from unfair judgments or settlements. Nearly 300,000 consumer debt cases were filed in New York City in 2008, with more than 98 percent of litigants going unrepresented, leaving them unaware of their legal rights and options. This report identifies and proposes solutions to the many problems with consumer debt litigation: default judgments, “sewer service,” undeliverable summons, and above all, lack of representation for low-income defendants.
Protecting Assets & Child Custody in the Face of Deportation
DECEMBER 2009 - The U.S. deported more than 358,000 immigrants in 2008, the sixth consecutive year of record-high deportations. Whether or not someone has a right to stay in the country, or an ability to enforce that right, he or she is entitled to a final paycheck and is not by law stripped of all financial rights or child custody. In fact, persons being deported not only often lose their U.S. community and family security, but also the assets they have built up and to which they are entitled. This manual guides volunteer lawyers and non-lawyer practitioners through important financial and family rights threatened by the deportation.
Assembly Line Injustice: Blueprint to Reform America's Immigration Court System
JUNE 2009 - The result of 15 months of research and analysis, including more than 100 interviews with experts in the field, this report documents numerous problems with the immigration court system. To redress these issues, Appleseed lays out a slate of practical recommendations to promote accuracy, legitimacy, and efficiency in the courts. These proposals, both large and small, will help ensure that all immigrants receive a fair and impartial hearing, as well as an accurate ruling.
FEBRUARY 2009 - This comprehensive report reveals the myriad problems faced by consumers with thin credit histories, emphasizing the need to pursue alternative models of credit scoring. Such models would take into account an individual's timely, reliable payment history for such things as rent, utilities, insurance, and telecommunications service. Alternative scoring would also benefit the market, as an estimated 50 million U.S. consumers have either thin or no credit.
Remittance Transparency: Strengthening Business, Building Community
FEBRUARY 2009 - Documenting the results of a pilot program in which remittance fees and exchange rates were posted in banks and MSBs, this report reveals strong consumer demand for such disclosures. Increased transparency would therefore help the industry capture a larger share of the multibillion-dollar remittance market, while helping immigrants build financial assets for themselves in the U.S. and for their families abroad.
Know Your Rights: A Legal Guide for Individuals Living with Multiple Sclerosis
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a disease that affects many areas of an individual's health and well being, and few comprehensive resources exist to assist individuals living with MS. Washington Appleseed set out to create this comrehensive resource that would address five key areas: employment law, insurance law, family law, SSDI, and finding legal resources.
Forcing Our Blues into Gray Areas: Local Police and Federal Immigration Enforcement
MAY 2008 - Asking state and local law enforcement to don a second hat as federal immigration officers is poor public policy, according to a recently revised Appleseed report. “Forcing Our Blues Into Gray Areas: Local Police and Federal Immigration Enforcement” contains legal and practical guidelines to combat local anti-immigrant ordinances. It also describes troubling legal and political efforts to involve local police in federal immigration matters, which leads to improper enforcement and a diversion of local safety resources.
Funding the Future: States’ Approaches to Pre-K Finance: 2008 Update
FEBRUARY 2008 - Washington Appleseed and Pre-K Now compiled a series of reports examining the range of different financial approaches states employ, how effective they have been in identifying funds, how sustainable those funding sources are, and how investments can be increased to improve pre-K quality and expand program access. The analysis encourages policymakers to think creatively about ways to supplement and sustain current funding streams for pre-K programs in their own states.
JANUARY 2008 - Appleseed released a first-of-its kind guide to assist banks and other financial institutions to better serve the growing remittance market. Immigrants living in the United States sent $45 billion to Mexico and Latin America in 2006, according to recent estimates. In addition to providing a detailed market overview, “Banking in a Global Market” offers a comprehensive hands-on approach to setting up transparent and efficient remittance services, drawing on the experiences of large and small financial institutions throughout the United States.
It Takes a Parent: Transforming Education in the Wake of the No Child Left Behind Act
SEPTEMBER 2006 - This report documents an effort to combine practical, on-the-ground perspectives, based upon interviews, and on federal, state, and district policy research, with current social science research on key parental involvement issues and effective practices. Mostly, it reflects an effort to assemble and analyze what we know as a matter of practice and as a matter of research in framing an action agenda promoting more effective parental involvement practices by schools, districts, and states.
AUGUST 2006 - This report, prepared by the Appleseed regional offices in Alabama, Nebraska, South Carolina, and Washington, examines the supportive services available to low-income workers in those states and provides an overview of the eligibility requirements, benefits, and application processes for each program.