Put People First! PA

Who we are

Put People First! PA gives voice to everyday people who are struggling to meet our basic needs. We define our basic needs as things we need to live healthy and fulfilling lives — things like education, housing, health care, jobs at living wages, food, and a healthy environment. We’re a membership organization made up mostly of people who know from our life experience that poor and working people need to unite and have a voice. No one else is going to do it for us. We’re building, county by county, all across Pennsylvania. We’re urban and rural. We’re multiracial. We’re politically independent. Until we unite, we don’t have the power to change things.

Our history

PPF-PA was founded in June 2012 by a group of Pennsylvanians from rural, small town and urban areas who have a long history of bringing people together to find solutions to the problems that we face — in the school system, in the workplace, or in the effort to make ends meet. The founding members were also rooted in struggling communities across the state, and saw an absence of organizations committed to building enough power in PA to fight for and win changes on a statewide level. We started by making a spreadsheet of everyone we knew in all 67 counties in the state and by having dozens of conversations. Everyone we talked to told us that a movement to unite across the state for our human rights was absolutely necessary, which gave us the courage and resolve to move forward.