Welfare Rights Initiative Oral History Project

The WRI Oral History Project documents the history of the Welfare Rights Initiative (WRI), a grassroots student activist and community leadership training organization located at Hunter College. The aim is to examine, via these oral history interviews, social movement activity at the level of a grassroots organization as exemplified by the WRI, which was developed to aid student welfare recipients to become agents of social change and actively involve them with policymaking. <br /><br />This project documents WRI’s progression from a student and faculty-led grassroots movement to its present incarnation as a student advocacy organization. WRI seeks to serve under-served populations citywide, primarily women and girls, via its outreach programs that are designed to encourage those who are economically disadvantaged to study and obtain higher education and/or job training. This oral history project gives a platform to those who generally have little voice in the public debate on welfare reform: former and/or current welfare recipients- WRI’s founders and membership base. It will also provide students and scholars of social movements with a positive working example of how women from various backgrounds can band together and enact social change.