During the campaign, our grassroots strategy took us all over Columbus, Ohio -- the city that raised me and gave me a chance to live out my potential. From the Hilltop to the South Side, we heard a loud calling for change due to an unresponsive political system.
And that was before the coronavirus ravaged our communities.
It’s been six months since the pandemic arrived, and devastated the finances of Columbus’s working families. It’s been three months since a grassroots global uprising for Black lives began in our streets. Now people everywhere are waking up to the reality that many have known for generations: our status quo is unsustainable.
That’s why we are launching Columbus Stand Up!
In partnership with local and national organizations--like the Working Families Party, Until We Do It, the Somali Youth Foundation, and Ohio Families for Covid Relief, we have three main priorities:
- Direct Service: Columbus Stand Up! and our partners will provide masks, food, and engage in other efforts to ensure everyone’s basic needs are met. Thus far, we’ve already distributed 15,000 masks.
- Grassroots Organizing: Together, Columbus Stand Up! will host socially distant community events to help register folks to vote and educate them about the voting process. We have already hosted two community events.
- Accountability: Columbus Stand Up! will co-host a candidate forum in October in partnership with FreedomBloc and other organizations to hold elected officials accountable and make sure our neighborhoods get a seat at the table.
For too long, too many in our community have been left behind. Together, with neighborhood leaders across Columbus, we’re choosing to move forward. Change is possible and to make it happen we have to organize, support each other, and demand a better future.
If you can, please donate to help. Every dollar goes to providing masks, food and supplies for events in communities throughout Central Ohio.
Thank you for standing up!
Morgan Harper
