The 13th Annual Membership Assembly kicked off in sunny State College, Pennsylvania, on October 17th, 2025. This was Put People First! PA’s largest Membership Assembly to date with over 160 adults and 40 youth in person as well as virtual participants attending on zoom. A third of those in the room were leaders from our broader network, the Nonviolent Medicaid Army, which made this weekend not only a crucial moment for our organizing in Pennsylvania but for our whole network, as we continue to build politically independent, poverty abolitionist movement led by the poor and dispossessed united across all lines of division. Click here for more photos from the weekend!
The Membership Assembly is a key moment every year where a huge number of people experience first hand the Community Agreement “Everyone is responsible for the success of the space.” From housing to Audio/Visual to childcare, the weekend was planned by a 19 member team, who in turn incorporated nearly all participants at the Assembly into “Basegroups” to support in carrying out these divisions of labor over the weekend.
The Documentation Basegroup, comprised of eight leaders from Pennsylvania and three leaders from Georgia and Illinois, reported highlights from the sessions, captured interviews with participants and recorded photos and videos of the weekend. Here’s some of their coverage.
Saturday morning began with participants collectively building a movement altar. Leaders from Pennsylvania, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Montana, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin, and California as well as international partners from Cuba and Brazil, shared an object that reflected their local history of struggle and led the group in a chant. As groups processed, we sang,
Let the Medicaid Army
Shine its light on you
Let the Medicaid army
Shine its light on you!
Well if you ever come to (Appalachia)
They’re gonna walk tall
But the rich and the greedy
Shove their backs against the wall
But with discipline and high morale
We’ll get through this dark night
You find that Medicaid Army
You find that big old light!
– Let The Medicaid Army by John Rowland, adapting Lead Belly
Assembly content kicked off with a session on Hospital Closures & the Political Economy of Healthcare. Gann from North Carolina NVMA and Homeless Union recorded participants’ responses to the question: Why does healthcare matter to you?
“Healthcare is the difference between life and death.”
“Matters to me because my husband needs medications, has worked since age 14 and deserves them.”
“I lost my son because he didn’t have insurance so they let him die.”
“I would be dead of cancer without healthcare. I was denied for so long.”
“The government wants us dead. But we have a right to life so we must fight.”
“My 4 surgeries made me poor because I had to pay out-of-pocket for the right to live.”
“My husband’s treatment was delayed for lack of $35 and he died.”
“We can beat cancer if we allocate resources to it.”
“The insurance industry is PARASITIC and denies care I deserve. Even my employer says worker’s compensation should cover my care but insurance denies me.”
“We are all living under and impacted by the same system. We’re impacted in different ways, but we are united in our fight.”
Watch the “Hospital Closures and the Political Economy of Healthcare” livestream here!
This powerful opening session was followed by workshops on Political Storytelling, People’s Clinics, Medicaid Sign-ups and Appeals and Song leading. Grace from the National Union of the Homeless in Chicago shared these highlights from the Political Storytelling workshop:
Put People First! PA Leaders Harrison, Jeanette, and Rebecca showed us how story sharing is a political act. Rebecca noted that “the ruling class controls the media because they want to control our thoughts…but we can win because we are united around the things that matter: our health, our lives, our families, our struggles.”
Desi from Movement of Immigrant Leaders in PA (MILPA) shared about Radio MILPA, which began two years ago with the goal of using radio to connect people in the immigrant community and to provide them with political education. Knowing that movements begin with the telling of untold stories, MILPA shares stories from the community in Untold Stories of PA. This is particularly important at a time where immigrant struggles are being scapegoated. MILPA also helps community members document abuses from police, ICE, and other agencies.
So many of the trials that people experience as “normal” are important healthcare stories. We can agitate people to help them take action by affirming that their experience matters, asking key questions, and listening deeply to their experiences.
See our series of #MedicaidMondays from the Assembly on Instagram and facebook thanks to Andrea from March on Harrisburg, a sister organization in the PA Poor People’s Campaign.
Saturday night ended as it always does with Arts & Culture Night with participants of all ages sharing stories, songs, visual art, jokes and more. The night was captured by Michele from Put People First! PA Southeast PA Healthcare Rights Committee:
With over 50 participants, Arts and Culture Night was a night filled with music, poetry, drawing, prose reading, and comedy. The talent and vulnerability in the room were truly inspiring. Music and singing led the stage, with members performing popular, resistance, and original songs. Unity Across Language was created in traditional Native American and Brazilian Portuguese songs. Many performers roused the audience to join in and sing along. Heartfelt poetry called out to life, loss, pain, and invisibility. Words dedicated to lost loved ones stirred the crowd, which also held the performers in its caring embrace.
Artists showed their beautiful work, emphasizing how art can be a means of self-expression as well as political messaging. Comedy was offered, both planned and unplanned, leading to lots and lots of laughter. In addition, Root Coordinators Jacob H, Phil, and Kristen were honored for their hard work and mentorship as they prepare to move on to new roles within our broader network. The Indiana NVMA wrapped up the night with an emotional tribute to a fallen leader, Ares. It was a fitting bittersweet ending as the audience came together dancing to “Dance Monkey,” a favorite song of Ares and his partner.
Sunday opened with informal discussion space for participants to come together to strategize our response to SNAP cuts – collectively and individually, what we need to know to keep our food stamps in the face of work requirements – as well as for regions and formations to reflect on the weekend.
The next block of workshops focused on how we embody our key political principle of Leadership across Difference in the Battle for the Bible, Unity Across Language and Housing and Healthcare.
Click here to watch the livestreamed “The Battle for the Bible” panel with leaders Willie Baptist from Georgia, Father Ty Hullinger from Maryland, Minister Tammy Rosing from Pennsylvania, Minister Moses Hernandez-McGavin from Ohio, and international guests!
Click here to listen to the livestreamed “NVMA Housing & Healthcare Panel” Leaders speak to the need for a healthcare system and a housing structure that puts people over profits, and how we’re organizing to make that happen. Panelists include Nijmie Dzurinko of Put People First! PA, Ana Cha of MST, Landless Workers Movement, Michael Coleman of United Workers, Bebhinn McDermott of the Albany chapter of the National Union of the Homeless, Max Ray-Riek of the ACT UP! Philly Homeless Union, and Al and Weber of the Illinois chapter of the National Union of the Homeless.
We ended the 13th Assembly with a closing, bringing us all together in song, appreciation for the space and one another, and an agitation for how we bring forward what we learned from the weekend to make the struggle every day.
Big appreciation to all members of the Documentation Basegroup, Co-Coordinators Tammy (Put People First! PA & National Union of the Homeless, South Central PA) & Jamie (Put People First! PA, Southeast PA), and members Michele (PPF-PA SEPA), Ramona (PPF-PA SEPA), Gann (NUH – NC), Andrea (March on Harrisburg – SCPA), Emily (PPF-PA Southwest PA), Timothy (NUH / PPF-PA SWPA), Emma (NUH-IL), Alfredo (NUH – Philly), Grace (NUH-IL), who took photos, videos, notes and interviews throughout the weekend because movements begin with the telling of untold stories!
- Arts & Culture, Keystone News, Media & Communications, Member Reflections, Statewide Membership Assembly