Change is Essential

August Newsletter

Imagining What’s Next

By: Chirag Mehta, Director of Policy and Ideas

We have officially reached election season. As the pomp and strange circumstance of the party conventions draw to a close later this week, the races for statehouses and legislatures, control of the U.S. House and Senate, and occupancy of the White House will click into a higher gear. Politico projects that spending will top $6 billion this election cycle–on video advertising alone.

You and I both know the stakes. We know that this is the most important election of our lifetimes (again). But I want to be clear–even a positive outcome is no guarantee for the kind of progressive future that Community Change Action and our partners are determined to build.

As Community Change Action’s director of policy and ideas , I’m helping lead our efforts to build the imaginative power for what comes next. I believe that we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to attack the systemic roots of injustice in this country and build a new foundation for this country that allows all of us to thrive..

The question that we need to answer is what’s next? What is the better world we’re trying to build?

The answer isn’t going to come from the usual suspects or an inside-the-beltway echo chamber. So, we’ve started a body of work we’re calling “Ideas from the Ground Up.” It’s based on the premise that many forms of expertise, including the expertise of lived experience, can be fused together to create a transformational vision for our democracy and economy. We’re thinking about this task as a third Reconstruction described by Dorian Warren and K. Sabeel Rahman in The Nation: a just American Reconstruction that moves the country toward liberation and justice, toward becoming a place where everyone has the freedom to thrive.

That’s going to require power in many forms, including the power of bold ideas. So, even while Community Change Action builds the political power of Black, brown, and immigrant voters, we’re also building the imaginative power of grassroots leaders, organizers, and scholars. We started with a conversation “From a Police State to a Caring Economy” on July 28, followed by smaller group sessions focused on envisioning a true safety net.

Then last Wednesday, August 19, we convened the Taking Power Summit with our partners in the Black Freedom Collective. With scholars like Dr. Darrick Hamilton and Dr. Megan Ming Francis and organizers like Zach Norris and Erica Clemmons-Dean, we created the space for imagination and strategy. Catch up on this powerful conversation, streaming on Facebook.

Another world is possible. Now is the time to build the vision and power to make it real.

What’s Going On? aka Program News

From Protest to Power - The Primaries to Election Day

Community Change Action and our partners are building on rising movement energy. So far this election year, we and our grassroots partners have already reached out to millions of voters by phone, text message, and relational voter organizing tools. Looking ahead, we know that whether we are voting by mail or in-person, our victory is dependent on trusted local messengers continuing to mobilize low-propensity communities of color to show up. And when they do, the nation will continue to shift toward a more progressive future.

Most recently, Community Change Action and our partners with Florida for All had a big night in Florida’s August 18 primary election–in 46 of our 55 primary races, our candidates won or went to run off, and we made history by electing the first Black LGBT representatives to the State Senate and the State House. Florida is one of the states in our Win Justice collaboration. Our joint program included several million phone calls and text messages and yielded over 128,000 direct voter contacts ahead of the primary.

In Michigan, our rising grassroots movement and partners are swinging the state left. We are proud to see Abraham Aiyash, formerly of our partner Michigan People’s Campaign, secure the nomination for State House District 4. Abraham would be the first Yemini-American in the legislature. Ahead of their primary, our Michigan partner organizations sent OVER 1 MILLION personal texts to nearly 800,000 voters, walking them through the mail-in ballot process, which contributed to a record-breaking primary turnout statewide.

Finally, in Arizona, our partner LUCHA led the way to victory in 14 out of 15 contested primary races, including a win for  the first indigenous woman in Tucson county government. LUCHA targeted  low-propensity Latinx  and other voters of color through a successful digital, text, and mail effort, as part of adapting to the “new normal” and learning what works during the pandemic.

HOUSING JUSTICE IN A HOUSING CRISIS

Housing is a fundamental human right. Yet, it has been out of reach for too long for too many people who struggle to make ends meet, especially people of color. To transform the conditions of homelessness and housing instability, Community Change and our partners are driving three interconnected strategies:

  • People Power: Over the past month, Community Change held a series of webinars and Movement Building Trainings to grow the skills and capacity of four state resident organizing networks: RUN (Resident United Network) of California, RAP (Resident Action Project) of Washington state, ROC (Residents Organized for Change) of Oregon, and Housing Louisiana. Together, we are building a movement powerful enough to win progressive housing policy, and which centers those who have been directly impacted in the strategy to win.
  • Policy Vision: Community Change is collaborating with the Ford Foundation and former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro to create a “Housing Playbook,”  which will be a guide to concrete action for a new presidential administration. As part of the development of the Housing Playbook, Secretary Castro joined leaders from the four state resident organizing networks in a Housing Is Essential Townhall on Friday, August 14. The group of grassroots housing leaders shared their own direct experiences of housing injustice and their vision for solutions that need to be included in the playbook. Facilitated by Tina Shelvin Bingham, community development director for Lafayette Habitat for Humanity, the virtual town hall concluded with Secretary Castro committing to include the leaders’ input into the playbook process and to continue to engage.
  • Narrative Change: The Community Change Housing Narrative partnership was featured in Shelterforce and showcases our in-depth public opinion research as a tool to intensify support for housing justice policies while avoiding housing narrative traps.

Lifting Up Our Voices

FIRM ACTION AT THE #DEMCONVENTION

The Sanchez Family -- Photo Credit: ActionNC
The Sanchez Family — Photo Credit: ActionNC

Last week, Lucy, Jessica, and Silvia Sanchez shared their story at the Democratic National Convention. Members of Action NC, a FIRM Action partner, the Sanchez family spoke to the experience of millions of immigrant families who fear they’ll be torn apart, even in this global pandemic. This is the power of FIRM Action and Community Change Action–putting directly impacted people in the spotlight to share their stories. Lucy says, “I’m voting for my mother, my sister and my daughters. I will vote for a future where all of our lives have dignity and respect.”

MEET THE 2020 DISRUPTOR CHANGE CHAMPION: MOVEMENT FOR BLACK LIVES

We only have two short weeks left until the first-ever virtual Community Change Champions Awards on September 10! We are thrilled to recognize a set of amazing honorees this year–including our 2020 Disruptor Champion, the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL).

Seven years ago, M4BL first brought together Black organizations and leaders to co-create a vision and pathway to a world where Black communities can thrive. In the streets and at tables of influence, M4BL has disrupted the status quo and shaped our national conversation on race, turning the painful realities of the Black American experience into a movement of justice and hope.

Reserve your spot today! Virtual access is included with a donation of $35 or more.

In Case You Missed It

IMMIGRANT COMMUNITIES: CONGRESS MUST MAKE CORONAVIRUS RELIEF INCLUSIVE

Sulma Arias, director of immigrant rights, wrote a powerful op-ed for The Hill outlining how the failure of Congress to reach agreement on another coronavirus relief package is developing into a story of domestic humanitarian disaster and how that relief package must target communities that are suffering the most: immigrants and minorities. FIRM national co-chairs Mireya Reith from Arkansas  and Lawrence Benito from Illinois cast a vision in USA Today for a vibrant immigrant community and a brighter future for the next generation.

BLACK AT THE POLLS

Community Change Action and our partners in the Black Freedom Collective hosted the online conversation, Black at the Polls on August 6. It featured Janiah Miller of Cincinnati, Teesha Miller of Kansas City, and Jazz S. Jordan of Atlanta, and was moderated by Bianca Edwards. Panelists shared their views on the pandemic response, police brutality, education, and other issues that compel them to vote.

Now it’s your turn to share your Black voting story: Why you are voting? What issues are most important to you? Do you have family traditions around voting? And what generational trends are you seeing in 2020?

UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS ARE CRITICAL. BUT FAMILIES NEED DIRECT PAYMENTS TOO 

In Newsweek’s op-ed section, William E. Spriggs, chief economist of the AFL-CIO, and Dorian Warren, president of Community Change, connect the common story of unemployment during the pandemic with the economic policy that our country needs to thrive.

PHILANTHROPY STEPS UP

Community Change received one of 116 grants from MacKenzie Scott (formerly Bezos), as she explains in Medium. We applaud the donors and institutions that are leveraging their resources to begin repairing the harm of the triple crisis we face and long-standing structures of injustice. We will recognize Susan Pritzker as our Change Champion in Philanthropic Leadership, for her work with the Libra Foundation, at the first virtual Community Change Champions Awards on September 10. Support like that offered by the Libra Foundation opens up new possibilities for us to meet the challenges communities are facing now. By investing in our work to build power from the ground up, they have taken us one step closer to our vision of a just, equitable, and inclusive democracy and economy.