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Blog
Arise legislative update: Week of Jan. 19, 2026
Arise's LaTrell Clifford Wood focuses this week on one of our key hunger relief priorities: no-cost school meals. After the Legislature increased state funding for school meals last year, Alabama public schools served 2.8 million more breakfasts to our Alabama students in fall 2025. Greater access to school meals improves learning outcomes, and Arise is [...]
Blog
Arise 2026: How we’re working to build a better Alabama
Alabama Arise believes in dignity, equity and justice for all. We believe in an Alabama where everyone's voice is heard and everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential. And we believe better public policies are the key to building a brighter future for our state. Below, we'll share some details of that vision [...]
Fact Sheet
Closing the health coverage gap: Alabama must enact policies to save lives
By Jennifer Harris, senior health policy advocate, and Debbie Smith, Cover Alabama campaign director As Alabama enters the 2026 legislative session, Medicaid expansion and maternal health will be central to the state’s health equity conversations. Recent federal policy changes have made these conversations more urgent and more complex. Alabama Arise will continue to support health [...]
Resources
Building on our momentum for the new year
As we close out 2025, Arise members and member organizations can reflect on a very successful year. Reducing the state sales tax on groceries from 3% to 2% and guaranteeing more students in public schools get a free breakfast with a $7.3 million budget appropriation were two of the biggest highlights worth celebrating. Improvements were [...]
Blog
Long federal road ahead for SNAP, health care
By Carol Gundlach, senior policy analyst, and Debbie Smith, Cover Alabama campaign director Alabama Arise believes that society should care for the most vulnerable in our nation—children, the elderly, those who are disabled and those who have fallen on temporary hard times. Since the Great Depression, Americans have been assured that, no matter how hard [...]
Resources
Las prioridades legislativas de Alabama Arise para 2026
Más de 150 grupos miembros de Alabama Arise y más de 1,500 miembros individuales eligen todos los años nuestras prioridades legislativas. Este proceso garantiza que los habitantes de Alabama más afectados por la pobreza participen de las decisiones. A continuación se enumeran las prioridades que nuestros miembros eligieron para 2025. Para obtener una versión de este [...]
Member Resources
Alabama Arise 2026 legislative priorities
More than 150 Alabama Arise member groups and nearly 2,000 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 2026. For a PDF version of this document, click here or click the [...]
Blog
What Alabamians need to know about Healthcare.gov tax credits and open enrollment for 2026
Hundreds of thousands of Alabamians will face higher health care costs if Congress does not act to extend the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits (ePTCs) that make Healthcare.gov coverage more affordable. These tax credits reduce monthly premiums based on how much money a family makes. That helps families who don’t have access to health insurance through [...]
Blog
What Alabamians need to know about SNAP during the federal shutdown
People should not have to choose between food, health care and other basic needs. But the White House’s decision to delay issuing food assistance benefits means millions of struggling families are about to be forced to make exactly that choice as the holidays approach. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week officially notified Alabama [...]
Personal Stories
‘I will leave this world better than I found it’
Angel’s experiences have forged her into a fierce advocate of programs that have allowed her not just to have daily necessities, but also to maintain a high level of independence.