Dear Friend of Solutions at Work,

For the second consecutive year, the Massachusetts Senate is considering investing State funds in our work! We need your help today to ensure that happens, particularly since the amendment calling for funding for Solutions at Work that was filed in the House of Representative's version of the FY15 State budget did not carry.

Senator Sal DiDomenico will be filing an amendment calling for no less than $50,000 for Solutions at Work this week. Please ask your senator to contact Claire Bergstron in Senator DiDomenico's office at 617-722-1650 and indicate that they would like to cosponsor the Solutions at Work amendment. Senators have until 3:00 p.m. this Friday, May 16th to officially cosponsor amendments. Follow this link to find contact information for your senator.

When communicating the importance of this funding to your senator, please feel free to borrow language from this summary of our programs and impact. Most importantly, please tell your senator that Solutions at Work helps Massachusetts residents:

• Achieve permanent self-sufficiency;
• Become more productive members of society; and
• Reduce their reliance on public assistance.

Since its inception in 1989, Solutions at Work has helped well over 100,000 people regain financial self-sufficiency or avoid poverty altogether, but there is still so much more work to be done. A 2013 report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said the number of homeless people in shelters and living on the streets in Massachusetts has risen to nearly 20,000, even as homelessness has declined nationally.