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Blog
Alabama voted. Now let’s organize for a better state
Alabama Arise and our members have worked for more than 35 years to push for state policies that improve the lives of people struggling to make ends meet. We advocate for policies to build an Alabama where everyone has the resources they need to reach their full potential. And we’ve always remained steadfast in this [...]
Member Resources
Alabama Arise 2025 legislative priorities
More than 150 Alabama Arise member groups and more than 1,500 individual members choose our legislative priorities each year. This process ensures that Alabamians most impacted by poverty have a seat at the table. Below are the priorities that our members selected for 2025. For a PDF version of this document, click here or click [...]
Personal Stories
From a childhood in the cancer ward to a lifetime in Alabama’s coverage gap
Lary Brooks is a fighter. At just 2 1/2 years old, he was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia, a bone and blood cancer that nearly took his life. Lary survived thanks to the life-saving treatment he received at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. “I was a week from dying when they found [...]
News Releases
Alabama Arise unveils 2025 roadmap for change in Alabama
Expanding Medicaid and ending the state sales tax on groceries will remain top goals on Alabama Arise’s 2025 legislative agenda. The organization also will advocate for state funds to help public schools provide free breakfast to every student. More than 450 members voted in the last week to affirm Arise’s legislative priorities. The seven priorities [...]
Blog
Here’s what Alabama Arise heard in 2024!
Alabama Arise listens because we deeply value the input we get from members, partners and most importantly, those directly affected by the work we do together. We depend on what we hear to help guide our issue work and our strategies. We held two virtual statewide Town Hall Tuesdays this summer, and each featured three [...]
Fact Sheet
What are the benefits of a universal school breakfast program in Alabama?
Alabama should do more to equip schoolchildren and teachers for success. Our state consistently ranks among the bottom five states for educational outcomes. And one essential school supply missing from several Alabama schools would immensely improve said outcomes: universal school breakfast. Below are a few of the positive effects that universal school breakfast would have [...]
Fact Sheet
Universal school breakfast helps Alabama children learn and thrive
School breakfast helps kids learn: Children who start the day with breakfast learn better. They have better classroom participation and are less likely to skip school than kids who don’t get breakfast. But tight family budgets and stressful mornings mean many children arrive at school hungry. School breakfast can help fill this gap. School, bus [...]
Fact Sheet
Expand Medicaid to save moms and babies in Alabama
Where you live shouldn’t impact whether you get health care. But many women face preventable barriers to obtaining maternal health care in Alabama. Closing Alabama’s health coverage gap through Medicaid expansion is an essential part of the solution. Alabama has experienced a steady rate of labor and delivery department closures in recent years, creating several maternity [...]
Fact Sheet
Summer EBT for 2025
A state appropriation for Summer EBT will ensure $40 in food benefits per summer month for more than 500,000 eligible Alabama children ages 5-17. 1 in 4 Alabama children are food insecure. Too many of our children don’t know where their next meal will come from. Because of systemic barriers to food access, a [...]
Personal Stories
Alabama enrollment navigators provide help, but options are limited without Medicaid expansion
As an enrollment navigator for Enroll Alabama, Rebecca Sylvester faces a daily battle with the harsh realities of Alabama’s health care system.