Blog
Last week, Mayor de Blasio and the New York City Council unveiled this year’s final budget which included a $4 million initiative to bring more guidance counselors and social workers into New York City schools. For years, CPD partner Urban Youth Collaborative has been leading the fight to ensure that more guidance counselors and social workers are hired to support young people. When the initiative was announced, Chair of the Education Committee Council Member Treyger acknowledged UYC’s advocacy, stating: “Our students, including @UYC_YouthPower, have been advocating for more social workers and guidance counselors. Your voices were heard. There’s $2 million for guidance counselors and $2 million for Bridging the Gap social workers.”
In April 2017, through a report co-authored with CPD, UYC released the Young People’s School Justice Agenda – a vision for safe, supportive, and inclusive schools developed by youth leaders organizing to transform their schools and communities. Their agenda centered supportive approaches to improving school climate. These approaches are proven to be more effective at helping students address the root causes of conflict and reducing school infractions, thus actually creating safer schools than punitive policies such as suspensions and policing.
UYC continued its advocacy by releasing a Policy Brief with CPD to support their calls. That brief showed that guidance counselors and social workers provide critical services to create safe and supportive schools. The current ratio of students to full-time guidance counselors is 1:407. As a point of comparison, the ratio of students to New York Police Department School Safety Division personnel is 1:207. Students attending middle schools with comprehensive counseling programs reported feeling safer in their schools, better relationships between students and teachers, greater satisfaction of students with the education they were receiving in their schools, and earning higher grades. Read more about UYC’s work in an op-ed here.
Young people organizing with UYC expressed a vision for their future filled with hope. Their vision prioritized deep investment in guidance counselors and social workers. While there is still far more work to do and progress to achieve, this $4 million investment in young people’s priorities is a critical step forward for all New York City young people and is a testament to the fundamental importance of sustained and strategic youth organizing to transform our schools and education system.
At a standing room only summit on June 13, elected leaders expressed new support for policies championed by more than a dozen progressive partners and allies including CPDA, CPD’s sister organization. We The People 2018 was an historic summit to advance an agenda of racial, environmental, and economic justice in conversation with five U.S. Senators and Members of Congress. The summit featured the faces and voices of members of grassroots community based organizations around the country. Community members and leaders directly impacted by the issues took the opportunity to directly address their elected officials, making clear the case for bold and progressive policy change. In their answers, electeds expressed new support for policies like Medicare for All and the Financial Transaction Tax. We The People was covered in USA Today, MSNBC, The Washington Post, CBS News, The Hill, and Common Dreams.
As a network of people’s institutions, it was imperative to hear Congressional leaders speak productively on issues central to CPD’s work, and to project a bold and transformative vision rooted in multi-racial, pro-worker, and progressive populism. We The People elevated the core issues the CPD Network cares about, changing and grounding the national conversation in the values held, and the lived experiences of, our affiliates and their members.
Ana Maria Archila, Co-Executive Director of CPD Action and Heather McGhee, President of Demos Action, facilitated the day, which included speeches from leaders like Senators Booker, Warren, Sanders, Gillibrand and Harris and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Congressman Luis Gutierrez. The Senators each took multiple questions from activists in the room on key topics including Wall Street reform, healthcare, race, mass incarceration, workers’ rights, unionization, money in politics, immigration, reproductive rights, voting rights, and climate.
The organizations involved included Care in Action, Communication Workers of America (CWA), CPD Action (CPDA), Demos Action, Faith in Action Fund, Indivisible, MoveOn, People’s Action, Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Sierra Club, United We Dream Action, Working Families Party (WFP), 32BJ SEIU, and 350 Action.
Toys R Us workers are standing up and taking action as over 33,000 workers and their families lost the jobs they love last week. Over 100 Toys R worker leaders have protested Wall Street private equity funds, stood with members of Congress, and taken action in their stores calling for both the severance pay their families need and new rules for private equity funds destroying jobs. Thousands more are speaking out online and more are getting involved every day through OUR’s Rise Up Retail campaign. This fight for workers has received significant national media coverage in the Washington Post, CNN, CBS, The Atlantic and The Nation, and their first-ever appearance on CNBC's Squawk Box.
“I was holding my 2-year-old son and speaking in the lobby of Bain Capital’s office when a security guard pushed me and tried to silence us,” said Alisha Hudson from Lexington, Kentucky. “I was scared at first, but then I got mad, and I decided I wasn’t going to back down. And that’s what we need to do right now. We need to stand up, speak out and not give up.”
Toys R Us workers are educating the American public about what happens when Wall Street becomes your boss with a video of their meeting with Sen. Bernie Sanders that has garnering over 3.6 million views. Members of Congress are sending letters to KKR, Bain and Vornado in support of severance pay for Toys R Us workers and pledging financial reform to protect working families from Wall Street greed. These corporations saddled Toys R Us with $5 billion in debt while pocketing $470 million in fees and interest, draining the company of much needed capital to compete in today’s retail economy and landing it in bankruptcy.
The NJ Congressional Delegation including Senators Cory Booker, Bob Menendez, and Representative Bill Pascrell, launched a week of actions this month with Toys R Us workers in New Jersey while the Congressional Progressive Caucus, led by Representative Keith Ellison, spearheaded a letter of support. CPD affiliates and partners like Make the Road New Jersey, New York Communities for Change and NJ Citizen Action all joined worker actions this month.
Momentum is growing as workers take their demands to state pension funds across the country who invest public employee retirement dollars into KKR and Bain Capital. Already Minnesota’s Governor moved the state to halt new investments into KKR last week and workers are pushing Washington, New York City, California, Ohio and Michigan to invest responsibly in funds that don’t hurt working families.
Toys R Us workers and their families are emerging as new leaders to push for the next wave of financial reform which stops Wall Street from playing games with our jobs.
Walmart drives working conditions in retail. Their size is unparalleled: with 1.5 million American workers, the company is the largest corporate employer and the largest low-wage employer in the country. Walmart employs one out of every 100 private sector employees and one in 10 retail workers. Walmart sets industry standards, profoundly impacting local economies, working people, and their families. When Walmart takes the low road, its bad practices are often mimicked by other retailers. But when Walmart does the right thing and leads by example, the industry also often follows suit.
Walmart claims its promise of a “ladder of opportunity” is a cornerstone of the company’s identity,mission, and vision. Yet no matter how hard hundreds of thousands of Walmart associates work, there is simply no way to climb up. Walmart’s vision for associate advancement is fundamentally incompatible with the company’s policies, particularly its increasing reliance on part-time labor. For Walmart’s more than 500,000 part-time hourly associates, the pathway to build a better life simply does not exist. Walmart associates work hard each day with the hope of getting ahead, but soon face a sobering reality: what the company has promised is actually a phantom ladder of opportunity.
In an effort to better understand the experience of Walmart’s massive workforce, CPD affiliate OUR Walmart, surveyed over 6,000 Walmart associates currently working at the company, representing all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The survey data sheds important light on the crisis of underemployment, low wages, persistent earnings limitations, and lack of opportunities for Walmart associates. Read the full report on our website.
On June 11, CPD launched its newest initiative, Creating Action Movement and Power, better known as CPD CAMP. Held this year in Washington, DC, CPD CAMP brought together 40 CPD affiliates from across 26 states and Puerto Rico for a week-long, multi-track training program. CPD CAMP provided 125 executive leaders, organizers, communicators, politics and development staffers with opportunities to grow as leaders, strengthen their organizations, and enhance our ability to create change as a movement.
Created in collaboration with CPD Network leaders, CPD CAMP consisted of six tracks focused on New Organizers, Lead Organizers, Development and Fundraising, Politics, Communications, and Emerging Leaders. The convening was grounded in a framework we refer to as the 4Ms - Members, Model, Movement, and Money. Our organizing and capacity building philosophy points to these elements as vital stats that cultivate successful and complete organizations. Each track ensured participants gained hard skills to expand their base of directly-impacted members, allies, and supporters (members), strengthen their organizations and/or deepen their organizing work (model), advance campaigns that maximize movement-building opportunities (movement), and position their organizations to generate financial resources and support (money). Participants explored a wide variety of topics from sustainable fundraising to using research and data to drive strategic campaigns to learning how to pitch reporters and have a strong social media presence, and to peer-to-peer coaching and leadership development across affiliate organizations.
As an example, the Emerging Leaders track was incredibly meaningful to attendees. This program specifically focused on investing in the leadership and capacity of the CPD Network in order to build grassroots, people’s institutions grounded in scalable and visionary community organizing practices. Eighteen leaders from sixteen CPD affiliates -- most of whom identified as women and people of color -- gathered to explore their personal leadership styles, clarify their visions, and collectively articulate a theory for how to build a powerful grassroots movement. Leaders in attendance deeply valued the thought partnership, camaraderie, and space for reflection. Participants headed back to their communities energized, grounded and ready to lead boldly and authentically.
CPD CAMP generated stronger bonds and fueled the collective responsibility of our network to continue fighting for our communities. This inaugural convening enables the CPD Network to ground itself in a universally applicable approach to building powerful and sustainable people’s organizations that are centered in the values held and the lived experiences of our affiliates. CPD CAMP provided a space for participants to deepen their personal leadership while building strategic and tactical capacity to strengthen our growing network of resilient people’s organizations, moving our communities beyond this political moment towards a more progressive reality.
This important work allows us to catalyze and support the upsurge of resistance energy and activity, to protect vital victories of the past, to win new progressive change, and to elevate our collective voice and vision for justice. Without your support, this work is not possible. Please help us continue to mobilize and empower communities most impacted by injustice and inequality by making a donation today.
On June 12, Make the Road Nevada (MRNV) members, including immigrants and survivors of the deadly shooting that took place on October 1, 2017, in Las Vegas, gathered outside police headquarters to meet with Sheriff Joe Lombardo of Clark County. This shooting marked the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the United States which left 58 people dead and more than 800 injured.
For the past eight months, shortly after the Route 91 country music festival shooting occurred, MRNV, together with other partners and allies in Las Vegas, have supported more than 70 immigrants that were working the event that tragic evening. MRNV has made sure to provide Spanish resources to the those who need them alongside others like Bilingual Behavioral Services (BBS) Counseling Center, Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada, the UNLV Thomas & Mack Legal Clinic, La Alianza Comunitaria Transnacional, and the Arriba Las Vegas Workers Center. From providing emotional support to legal assistance, MRNV also took action to support its members, pushing for a U-Visa Immigration application process with the hopes that something positive could result from a tragedy that has marked the rest their lives. This process is set aside for victims of certain crimes who have suffered mental or physical abuse and are helpful to law enforcement or government officials in the investigation or prosecution of criminal activity.
Outside police headquarters, 4 MRNV members shared their stories exactly as they lived them last October. In the meeting was also North Las Vegas City Councilman, Isaac Barron, who has advocated for the victims of the shooting. The survivors were in different places at the venue--some were cleaning the restrooms, others at the food stands and many were behind the stage. Sheriff Lombardo actively listened to the horrifying stories and announced to the group his department’s move to add more staff capacity to review the U-Visa applications from the victims of the shooting in order to clear up the backlog. Receiving such certification from the police department is necessary in order for MRNV members to move forward with their U-Visa applications.
MRNV sees this has an important victory for its members and many others working to help this group obtain justice after the tragic events of October 1, 2017. Even though it’s a huge step forward for victims and the organization, they will both continue to hold authorities accountable on their promise to review the victim’s applications.
Last week, CPD partner Leaders Igniting Transformation (LIT) defeated a dangerous Milwaukee Public Schools' (MPS) discipline policy that would have further entrenched the school-to-prison pipeline and put undocumented students at severe risk.
On Tuesday of last week, young people organized through LIT found out that the Board of School Directors planned to vote on new policies two days later. These policies proposed forcing police into schools for normal youthful behavior. As we have seen, time and time again, in Milwaukee and other places, it is Black and Brown students and students with disabilities, that would bear the brunt of this policy. For example, (even without the policy amendment that was proposed) in the 2015-2016 school year, Black students accounted for more than 80 percent of all students referred to law enforcement in Milwaukee, yet were only 53.3 percent of the student population.
Young people quickly mobilized to defeat this draconian plan.
In partnership with CPD, LIT responded immediately. Along with other steps, LIT sent a letter to the Board of School Directors and Acting Superintendent drawing their attention to the harmful provisions and the need for genuine youth engagement to develop evidence-based solutions to the school discipline code. Several youth leaders spoke with media outlets before the hearing to share their stories and raise public awareness about the danger this policy would have created.
In a surprise move, the Acting Superintendent proposed, and the Board accepted, the removal of the worst part of the policy that would have required even more police involvement in schools. During the meeting, a Board member noted: “this is a good example of democracy at work... this language is something we should have caught before it got to this point, but it was community people that caught this and brought it to our attention.” Those community members were young people with LIT. See coverage of the meeting here.
In defeating this proposal, LIT prevented countless young people from being put on the school-to-prison or deportation pipelines.
While the revision will have a huge impact on the daily lives of students, it merely prevented MPS’ discipline policies from being worse than they started. In January 2018, the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) concluded a three year investigation of MPS that revealed rampant racial discrimination being fostered through MPS’ school discipline policies. Accordingly, OCR required MPS to revise its discipline policies by June 18, 2018. The policies proposed last week were ostensibly meant to come into compliance with federal civil rights law, but instead went in the wrong direction.
Milwaukee still has an opportunity to transform its approach to discipline and end its discriminatory school discipline practices. To create a progressive shift in its approach to school discipline - to one which values and respects the dignity of students - Milwaukee must center the experiences and expertise of young people in developing policies that can instead provide them with support, opportunities and the freedom to thrive. Young people at LIT have developed several solutions in their Youth Power Agenda, which are published in a report co-authored by CPD and LIT. Young people are eager to continue working in partnership with the Acting Superintendent and the Board of School Directors.
We only have two weeks until the new policies are due. Young people need your support to make sure MPS lives up to its promise to return revised policies that actually address young people’s concerns.
Show your support by signing our petition to tell MPS to follow the Youth Power Agenda!
Kosoko Jackson, a Maryland native, is the author of A Place For Wolves, a diverse historical thriller Young Adult Novel, coming out Summer 2019 by Sourcebooks Fire, that advocates for an increase in diverse authors and characters within the YA literary canon. Kosoko will continue championing literary diversity by using the Rising Stars Grant to create a mentorship program for queer authors, who can learn from a published queer author about craft, brand management, and the world of publishing for two months, culminating in a pitch event to literary agents & sponsored attendance at a literary convention.
GLAAD’s Rising Stars program empowers and invests in the next generation of LGBTQ change makers, whose advocacy is changing their local communities and the culture at large. Grants are awarded annually to LGBTQ youth and support initiatives that champion intersectional LGBTQ issues, including racial justice, immigration rights, transgender equality, and more. Please join us in congratulating CPD’s own Kosoko Jackson!
On May 9 CPD, in partnership with the National Immigration Law Center and the Vera Institute for Justice, hosted an all-day gathering of organizers and advocates fighting to expand access to justice for immigrants around the country. Over 100 participants from 30 states came to New York City to take part in "Blazing a Trail: A National Movement towards Universal Representation for Immigrants Facing Deportation." The purpose of the conference was to allow those currently working to expand public funding for deportation defense programs to share their experiences with one another, and to begin to develop a shared strategy for the creation of a nation-wide public defender system for immigration court.
Organizers from CPD affiliate Make the Road New York kicked off the event with the inspiring story of their campaign to create and grow the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project, which is now the first statewide universal representation program for people in immigration detention. And speakers from places as diverse as Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Denver and Houston shared stories from their successful campaigns to win public funding for removal defense in their cities. The day also featured workshops on messaging and media strategies, using data to support advocacy, and the importance of community-led campaign models.
Studies of the impact of NYIFUP and of other deportation defense initiatives around the country have demonstrated the drastic due process gap for people facing deportation: having a lawyer in immigration court increases a person’s chances of winning their case by as much as 1000%. At a time when immigrant communities are increasingly terrorized by rampant federal enforcement, local investment to increase capacity to fight mass deportation through the courts is necessary not only to save the individual lives of those targeted by the Trump administration, but as a way to build resistance to an increasingly oppressive and exploitative immigration system.
During the week of April 20, the CPD Network organized a set of actions focused on impacting federal housing policies for Puerto Rican families living in the US. These actions came at a crucial moment as FEMA threatened to cut funding for hotels vouchers for Puerto Rican refugee families affected by Hurricane Maria and the Puerto Rican government did not request an extension.
CPD affiliates involved hustled to organize over 10 actions happening in one week. Affiliate Organize Florida led the way with more than six actions, member meetings with elected officials and intense lobbying in Orlando and Kissimmee. Make the Road in Connecticut and New Jersey held local lobby days to support local and nationwide legislation on housing. In New York, Make the Road New York and New York Communities for Change (NYCC) showed up at city hall to demand FEMA continue supporting refugee families. Finally, Make the Road Pennsylvania held actions in Allentown and Reading to advocate for families in their communities.
Thanks to the advocacy of our partners, FEMA granted an extension for housing vouchers until June 30. This extension will support thousands of refugee families in the US still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria. In May, our partners will begin a "Summer for Puerto Rico" campaign to engage Puerto Ricans living in the US to use their political power to fight for the rights of Puerto Ricans on the island and on the mainland. If you’re interested in getting involved with the Summer for Puerto Rico, please contact Julio Lopez.
