The first time I heard of Put People First! PA was when the Lancaster HRC began organizing around the closing of St. Joseph’s Hospital. At the time I couldn’t participate much, but I started to talk with members and helped put up posters about the action. About half a year later I was finally able to go to a PPF-PA action, and that’s when I started to get more involved. I began attending meetings and went to the Leadership Institute in York. The community is what has kept me.
Lately I’ve continued to take on more roles within PPF-PA – I’ve joined the community care team, and I helped keep our group together during our recent Medicaid March on Penn Medicine Lancaster General Hospital. Life still gets in the way more than I would like it too, but when we talk about a movement of the working class, it’s more than a platitude. I know I have a place here and will continue to be more and more involved in the movement.
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This content originally appeared in Put People First! PA’s semi-annual newsletter, The Keystone. The Keystone is a great introduction to Put People First! PA, our work, and our community. It’s all written by our members for our own communication and education, and for supporters and new relationships to get to know us better. Each issue features reports from our work, news about our victories, stories about the health care system and the other issues affecting our communities, and poetry and artwork. Check out past and present editions here: Newsletter Archive.