Local Progress 2019 Convening Detroit, MI LOCAL PARTNERS Detroit Action is a Metro-Detroit grassroots membership based organization that fights for economic and social justice for working class people across our region. We are building a powerful movement that will transform our region through issue and electoral organizing, legislative advocacy, and grassroots mobilization. Our mission is to build the political and economic power of low and moderate-income Detroiters of color in order to change public policy and communities for the better. Flint Rising is a coalition of community organizations and allies working to ensure that directly impact- ed people are building the organizing infrastructure and leadership necessary for this long-haul fight for justice and creating the future that Flint families need and deserve. 2 PROGRAM | LOCAL PROGRESS 2019: EQUITY. POWER. JUSTICE. | DETROIT, MI #LP2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS WELCOME • 4 THE AGENDA • 6 ELECTED OFFICIAL ATTENDEES • 24 PROGRESSIVE CHAMPION NETWORK NOMINEES • 32 SPEAKERS • 35 BOARD OF DIRECTORS • 58 POLICY PARTNERS • 63 COLLECTIVE IMPACT ISSUES • 64 DETROIT RENAISSANCE HOTEL MAPS • 67 SPONSORS • 70 #LP2019 LOCAL PROGRESS 2019: EQUITY. POWER. JUSTICE. | DETROIT, MI | PROGRAM 3 WELCOME “ The question really is not whether we’ll be tied to the somethings of our past, but whether we are courageous enough to be tied to the whole of them.” — Ta-Nahesi Coates testimony to the House on reparations LOCAL PROGRESS MEMBERS, busting, redlining and exclusionary zoning: this has There is no doubt that we are in a dark moment in systematically stripped wealth from black families and our country’s history. Each day, a new and seemingly communities of color. Inequality in our public schools more horrifying story emerges from our government: is built on a legacy of local efforts to oppose busing and from the White House and too many of our State Houses. school desegregation. Current voter suppression efforts Children in overcrowded cages, sleeping on concrete rest on a long political history that has—from its very floors. The rights of women under fierce assault. inception through the Jim Crow era to today - sought to We are all called to public service because we have deny full participation to black and immigrant commu- a different vision. We believe in the power of govern- nities to tilt the scales of power in favor of white people. ment as a tool of justice and transformation for our To move past these crises to a new vision for the role communities, grounded in founding ideals of equality of government in our society—one that is grounded in a and inalienable rights. commitment to equity and inclusion, and will require Also grounded in our history and founding of our us as local officials to be simultaneously bold, visionary, country are our most present horrors. Our structures brave, and also self-reflective and humble. and political systems were intentionally designed to Equity, Justice, Power. This is more than just a perpetuate racial exclusion and to benefit the wealthy theme for one convening. It is a call to dismantle sys- few at the expense of the many. tems of racism and oppression that have been created, As we gather together for the 2019 Local Progress enabled, and facilitated through government policies National Convening, we are called to respond to an and programs. It is a challenge to all of us to ground abundance of crises, and not just the ones provoked by our work deeply in equity—a commitment not just to the Trump Administration. We face a crisis of housing equality of opportunity but to fundamentally level the affordability and eviction that threatens the stability of steeply tilted playing fields. It is a call to pursue the our communities. We face a crisis of policing and mass type of transformational change that is only possible incarceration that has made us the most incarcerated when our government truly represents, reflects, and country in the world. We face a crisis of public health includes all of our communities, particularly those most and inadequate investment infrastructure that has left traditionally marginalized. It is an invitation to think children without clean water to drink and communities critically not just about the policy outcomes of our work, without responses to the disasters of climate change. but also about the processes we engage in as we advance We feel the urgency of these crises. But to address progressive change. It is a request to think about the them, we must attend to the history—and the public intersections in all our work—how race, gender, and institutions and decisions—that have created them. class overlap in the lived experience of our communi- Our housing crisis is built on systemic discrimination ties and across the totality of our work across all of our by local, state and federal governments through block- issue areas. 4 PROGRAM | LOCAL PROGRESS 2019: EQUITY. POWER. JUSTICE. | DETROIT, MI #LP2019 This is hard work and will require us to be both Our convening is always an opportunity to cele- audacious in our goals and reflective in our practice, brate our hard-fought victories, strategize about the but we know that our network is a place that this change year ahead and build a community of mutual support to can take hold. We see it in your work every day, especially bolster us in our work. This year, we are challenging each in the fierceness with which you fight for policy outcomes other to spend time in reflection and honest conversa- that reverse decades-old racial disparities. tion with a focus on racial equity in all our work—and to • In Minneapolis, through a historical process that push ourselves to imagine the type of transformational eliminated racially exclusive single-family zoning change necessary to chart a new path forward. laws. In the ways our members have organized together with fast-food and domestic workers, Sincerely, predominantly women of color. LOCAL PROGRESS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE • In newly-elected, decarceral prosecutors committed to ending mass incarceration and replacing it with Councilmember Kris Burnett truly restorative justice. (Baltimore, MD) • We see it in the ways in which our members are building inclusive governance coalitions for long term power—like in Texas where workers, low- income communities of color and Local Progress members from across the state collectively beat all odds and won Paid Sick days for over a million people. Councilmember Greg Casar • We see it through the ways that members are (Austin, TX) organizing and partnering to shift the priorities of our government, like in Durham, North Carolina where organizers and activists worked hand-in- hand with the city council to ensure that funds to promote community safety were put into increasing wages for low-wage workers rather than policing, Councilmember at-Large criminalization and incarceration. Helen Gym (Philadelphia, PA) This type of change is only possible when we em- brace a new way of governing and new models of public leadership. We can see it in the hundreds of inspiring candidates—young people, people of color, women, LGBTQ candidates... a coalition of people until recently considered “unelectable”—running and winning on bold platforms and governing in new ways grounded in their Councilmember Brad Lander (New York, NY) own lived experiences. The work you are doing helps us imagine what new models for equitable, inclusive, and transformative governance might look like and achieve. Added up together, it points the way through this dark moment. #LP2019 LOCAL PROGRESS 2019: EQUITY. POWER. JUSTICE. | DETROIT, MI | PROGRAM 5 THE AGENDA Event Summary PRE-CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES • WEDNESDAY, JULY 24 9:00am–3:00pm Progressive Governance Academy: New Elected Richard Officials Training 11:00am–4:00pm Local Progress Board Meeting 3:30pm–7:00pm Women’s Caucus: Skills Workshop THURSDAY, JULY 25 8:00am–2:00pm Women’s Caucus: Policy Solutions to Address the Nicolet Reproductive Justice Crisis (*Open to all members who identify as women and prior RSVP required) 2:30pm–6:00pm Local Site Visits 8:00pm ‘Dolores’ Movie screening FRIDAY, JULY 26 8:00am–9:00am Breakfast & Registration 9:00am–10:00am PLENARY: Welcome to Michigan • Moderator: Councilmember Raquel Castañeda-López (Detroit, MI) • Commissioner Betsy Coffia (Grand Traverse County, MI) • Branden Snyder, Executive Director (Detroit Action, formerly Good Jobs Now) • Nayyirah Shariff, Director (Flint Rising) 10:00am–10:45am PLENARY: State of the Network: A Year in Review Mackinac Ballroom • Moderator: Councilmember At-Large Helen Gym (Philadelphia, PA) 10:45am–11:30am BREAK & GROUP PHOTO 6 PROGRAM | LOCAL PROGRESS 2019: EQUITY. POWER. JUSTICE. | DETROIT, MI #LP2019 11:30am–1:30pm PLENARY: Equity, Justice, Power: Our Leadership, Mackinac Ballroom Our Responsibility • Opening Remarks: Councilmember Brad Lander (New York, NY) • Moderator: Kim Freeman-Brown, President (KFB Consulting, LLC) • Councilmember Phillipe Cunningham (Minneapolis, MN) • Commonwealth’s Attorney Stephanie Morales (Portsmouth, VA) • Ariel Guerrero, Co-Founder & Principal , Trainer, Facilitator (O&G Racial Equity Collaborative) 1:30pm–2:30pm LUNCH Mackinac Ballroom 3:00pm–7:00pm Taking It To The Streets: Detroit’s Fights Are All Of Our Fights! Action and Block Party (Attendance optional, meet outside of Mackinac Ballroom to walk to action) 2:30pm–4:00pm Breakout sessions #1 • Governing From The Minority Joliet A • Immigrants Under Attack: Localities as a First Line of Defense Joliet B • Building Progressive Power Across Your State Marquette A • Proactive Strategies to Preserve and Produce Affordable Housing Marquette B 4:00pm–4:30pm BREAK 4:30pm–6:00pm Breakout sessions #2 • Getting On Your Count for 2020 Joliet A • School Safety: From Student Vision to District Policy Joliet B (** for school board members) • Policies for Gender Equity Marquette A • Building Organized Power with Working People Marquette B • Budgets as Moral Documents Nicolet A 6:30pm–8:00pm Local Progress Reception Cadillac 8:00pm Dinner on your own Explore the charms of Detroit on your own, or join an informal caucus dinner.