On November 17, CPD released a toolkit called Building Identity: A Toolkit for Designing and Implementing a Successful Municipal ID Program that compiles lessons learned and best practices from municipal ID programs all across the country.

Last year, CPD worked with coalition partners including Make the Road New York and elected officials including the Speaker Melissa Mark Viverito, Councilmember Menchaca, and Mayor Bill de Blasio to support the passage of legislation creating New York City’s municipal identification program, ID NYC.

Following the success of ID NYC, CPD has provided technical support to advocates and cities across the country – from Newark, NJ to Hartford, CT to Phoenix, AZ to Austin, TX – interested in passing robust municipal ID programs.

Building Identity provides a step-by-step guide for advocates to create and implement municipal ID programs that are responsive and tailored to the needs of local communities. To commemorate the toolkit’s launch, CPD and other immigrant rights activists held a press conference in front of New York’s City Hall.

Shena Elrington, Director of Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice at the Center for Popular Democracy spoke at the rally and said, “We hope this toolkit will be a resource and powerful tool that inspires advocates and community members everywhere to push for muni ID programs in their communities, showing what is possible when cities and localities take the lead. Now more than ever, when our Congress is dysfunctional and anti-immigrant sentiment is rising, it’s up to cities to take charge and lead the way to send a message of welcome.”