Tireless Leader in Local and National Welfare Rights Movements Dies at 59

Jean Colman – a longtime leader in the national movement for welfare rights and dignity and fair treatment for low income women – died early Friday, May 8 after a 10-year battle with breast cancer.

In 1984 Colman took a job as an organizer with fledgling Seattle-based Welfare Rights Organizing Coalition (WROC). She became WROC's first Executive Director in 1987 and remained there until her retirement in 2007, helping thousands of low-income women make their voices heard and winning progressive policy changes that benefited poor families.

Under Colman's leadership, WROC won improvements such as increases in monthly welfare grants to help families keep up with inflation and higher education opportunities for welfare recipients. WROC also led smaller community organizing campaigns such as a 1984 effort that led to the installation of a children's waiting area and infant changing tables in the restrooms of the Rainier Valley Welfare Office.

In an interview at her home last week, Colman described her work to improve conditions for poor women and their families in humble terms, "Parenting is work. I learned this from the parents I worked with. What I did was take their lead and take their messages to places that hadn't heard it. And I made sure they had the confidence and skills to say it themselves."

Naomi McCoy was once a low income parent who later returned to chair WROC's board of directors from 2001-07, "Jean offered me and thousands of others knowledge, dignity, courage and respect when the rest of society had a dislike for us because we were 'welfare moms.'" "With Jean's help, we were able to collectively modify our own lives... we learned to be leaders, advocates, and good citizens."

Upon Jean's retirement in 2007, Colman helped a group of former WROC staff members and grassroots leaders form a new organization based in Olympia. POWER – Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights, continues the work that Colman began. Higher education for women on welfare remains a key goal of POWER's organizing.

"Jean passion for women's rights and welfare rights was unending. The highest tribute we could pay to Jean would be to continue working toward a world where parents and children are valued and poverty is eradicated," says POWER director, Monica Peabody.

Jean's community reach extended beyond the social change communities, however. She was a platinum pass holder at the Seattle International Film Festival for more than 20 years, and a familiar face at film previews and exclusive screenings around town. A lover of music – in particular Blues, Rock and Roll, Jazz and Flamenco. Since 2002 she was an active member of the Gilda's Club Tuesday night Wellness Group for women and men with cancer on Capitol Hill. And she is a practitioner of Qigong.

Jean leaves behind her husband, Mike Wall, father, Al Colman, sisters Laurie, Diane, and Susan, a large network of fabulous friends, and her faithful, though fickle cat, Morgan.

Memorial gifts may be made to POWER – Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights in Olympia.