September 2024 | Vol. 27, No. 3

The Arise Report - September 2024

This is an electronic version of the September newsletter that will be mailed to Alabama Arise members.

Join or renew your Arise membership today to ensure you get the next print edition in your mailbox!

Click here to check out the full online version.

A note on this year's Annual Meeting voting

For this year's Annual Meeting, we didn’t receive any new proposed legislative priorities to add to our agenda. Rather, several groups have proposed adding new strategies under our existing priorities.

We still value your feedback and participation in setting this agenda. But this year’s voting will look a bit different. During the Annual Meeting, our staff will update you on the strategies and bills we have pursued under each of our current legislative priorities. We will send you an electronic ballot to endorse the current legislative agenda. We’ll also ask you to rank the individual bills and strategies under each issue that you would like to see Arise priorities.

Annual Meeting to chart Arise’s course for 2025

Grassroots democracy will be on display when Alabama Arise members help shape our 2025 legislative priorities at our Annual Meeting on Saturday, Sept. 28. There will be options to meet both in person at the Legacy Annex in Montgomery as well as online via Zoom.

We hope you join us as we gather to renew our shared commitment to building a better Alabama for all!

Review our legislative priorities

Our latest newsletter breaks down everything you need to know about Arise's legislative priorities. Take a look for updates on:

• Adequate state budgets
• Tax reform
• Criminal justice reform
• Death penalty reform
• Maternal and infant health care
• Public transportation
• Voting rights

Pres Harris celebrates three decades of organizing and community involvement

When organizing director Presdelane Harris started at Alabama Arise in summer 1994, she had no idea what the next 30 years had in store. In our latest Staff Spotlight, Pres talks about how Arise has grown during her time here, the vision that drives her work and what she's still interested in doing in the future. 

How Alabama can build an economy that works for workers

Working people – and the unions that workers form to build power together – have made enormous contributions to the well-being of all Americans. These contributions include overtime pay, a five-day workweek, child labor protections and workplace safety standards.

These advances didn’t come easily. Workers won them through strikes, pressure and solidarity. And the fight continues. By investing in a high-road economic structure that uplifts workers — including removing barriers to child care, health care and public transportation — we can build an Alabama we’re all proud to call home.

Expand Medicaid to save moms and babies

Where you live shouldn’t impact whether you get health care. But many women face preventable barriers to obtaining maternal health care in Alabama. Closing Alabama’s health coverage gap through Medicaid expansion is an essential part of the solution.

Alabama has experienced a steady rate of labor and delivery department closures in recent years, creating maternity care deserts. More than one-third of Alabama counties are maternity care deserts, with some people having to drive up to 100 miles to reach the nearest labor and delivery department. Since October 2023, at least four hospitals have closed their labor and delivery departments.

Diverse membership is our power

As an Alabama Arise member, you use your power to help create a more equitable Alabama. Every year at our Annual Meeting, our members choose our legislative priorities and fuel our advocacy efforts.

Because you are so important to our work, we want you to know who your fellow members are. We have more than 1,700 members across the state in more than three-quarters of Alabama counties. And we have set goals to diversify our membership to be more reflective of Alabama’s demographics and the concerns of folks living paycheck to paycheck. 

Arise empowers advocates through Think Big Alabama training

Alabama Arise partnered with Alabama Values this summer to launch Think Big Alabama: Empowering Voices for Change. This four-part grassroots advocacy training program equipped participants with skills in media, public policy and organizing. Members of the inaugural cohort completed action plans for their efforts to drive change on numerous community and statewide issues. Above: Arise’s Pres Harris and Chris Sanders (back row, first two on left) pose with Think Big Alabama participants and staff from Alabama Values and the National Park Service after the final training session Aug. 24 at the Montgomery Interpretive Center on the Alabama State University campus. (Photo courtesy of Alabama Values)

Alabama Arise

P.O. Box 1188, Montgomery, Alabama 36101

(334) 832-9060  ·  [email protected]

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