GET TICKETS: Join Us for the Guiding Light Awards in Brooklyn, NY

CPD’s signature NYC fundraiser, The Guiding Light Awards, is just around the corner on Tuesday, December 3! Over 300 philanthropists, frontline organizers, strategic partners and allies will gather at  BRIC House from 6:30–9:30pm to honor amazing individuals, campaigns, and organizations for their role in supporting the movement. Please join us as we lift up courageous leaders of our community––progressive pioneers and disruptors, champions for racial equity, economic and gender justice, and protectors of a participatory and popular democracy.

We are proud to be honoring an amazing group of leaders including Teresa C. Younger, President & CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women, Nan Goldin, photographer and activist, La June Montgomery Tabron, President & CEO of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and The Campaign for New York Health, with more honorees coming soon! Read more about our special guests here.

We hope you’ll join us to support our network—53 affiliates across 131 cities in 34 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia—to empower and activate the communities most impacted by injustice and inequity. Get your tickets today!

JUSTICE TRANSFORMATION:
Inaugural 'Freedom Lab' Held in Milwaukee, WI

At the start of October, CPD’s Justice Transformation team held the first ever ‘Freedom Lab’ in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In partnership with Law for Black Lives and Policy Link, the two day event brought together CPD affiliates and allies, including including BLOC, LIT and the Liberate MKE campaign––which is calling for a $20 million divestment from the police department and investment into community priorities.

Nearly 25 organizers from Chicago, Madison, Minneapolis, and Detroit joined us to discuss challenges, opportunities, and lessons from ongoing and anticipated campaigns to demand municipalities shift resources away from policing and prisons towards community investments in health and well-being.

Attendees discussed city budget analysis, and had a fishbowl conversation about campaign experiences––in which LIT staff masterfully presented their recent victory at the Milwaukee school board redirecting money from school-policing to trauma care. Read more on our blog.

EDUCATION JUSTICE: Youth Leaders Release Mandate for Presidential Candidates

For more than three decades, Black and Latinx young people, parents, educators, and communities have organized to dismantle the school-to-prison-and-deportation pipeline. Ahead of the 2020 election, Black and Brown young people across the country are demanding that those running to be the next president listen and engage with them on critical education and racial justice issues. Youth leaders are seeking a firm commitment from candidates to permanently dismantle the school-to-prison-and-deportation pipeline by signing on to the Youth Mandate for Presidential Candidates: Permanently Dismantle the School-to-Prison-and-Deportation Pipeline (referred to as the Youth Mandate).  Read and share the full youth mandate here!

The eight-page political mandate, which was developed by the youth organizers and youth leaders at our sister organization CPD Action, and the Alliance for Educational Justice outlines transformative, anti-racist policies to guide the nation towards building supportive and inclusive learning environments for all students and families. It also seeks to redress the harm created by past policies. It has been endorsed by 130 youth-led organizations and allies across the country. Read more on our blog.

LOCAL PROGRESS: First Housing Convening Held in Durham, NC

Local Progress (LP), a movement of local elected officials advancing a racial and economic justice agenda through all levels of local government, held its first convening on Housing Justice in Durham, North Carolina in October. Nearly 50 LP members from Spokane, WA, and Berkeley, CA, to Portland, ME, Austin, TX, and dozens of localities in between, came together for two days of transformative learning and community building with CPD staff and other local electeds across the country.  

Our homes are the foundations for our lives. They are gathering spots, and places where we recharge, and connect with ourselves and our families. But too many people are forced to lay their foundation on shaky ground. Because of outrageous rent hikes, poorly-maintained and underfunded public housing, racial segregation of neighborhoods, increasing urban displacement, and corporate tax and land giveaways, more and more people in this country lack a home to thrive. CPD and our network of state-based affiliates are leading local, state, and federal campaigns to challenge the racist and corporate roots of our housing system, and build a model that works for us all. In the absence of federal leadership, it is local leaders who are at the forefront of ensuring that housing is a human right. Read more on our blog.

AFFILIATE HIGHLIGHT: KOCO is Working to Protect Chicago Residents from Displacement

During the summer of 2016, residents of South Shore and Woodlawn, two historically disinvested Black communities in Chicago, learned the Obama Presidential Center would be built on land adjacent to their neighborhoods. Familiar with the potential risks of displacement and gentrification that all too often come from such high-profile developments, the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) went to work with two partner organizations to co-found the Obama Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) Coalition.

The CBA Coalition effectively spent the last three years engaging and activating their members around this issue––resulting in the political will and public support to introduce a city ordinance. The ordinance seeks to immediately address the rampant displacement of low-income and working families from these communities as a result of ongoing real estate speculation. Through this campaign, KOCO has built a dynamic coalition, and are identifying and igniting new leaders while growing their base of supporters – 91% of impacted residents voted in favor of the ordinance through a local referendum. Read more and take action on our blog.

AFFILIATE HIGHLIGHT: CASA is Leading the Fight for Immigrant Justice

Since the election of Donald Trump, immigrant communities have come under repeated attacks across the country. After a series of executive orders aimed at restricting legal immigration and expanding deportations, the announcement that the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) program–– which provided  temporary relief for over 800,000 immigrant youth––would be discontinued, came as a major blow on September 5, 2017. It was followed in quick succession by announcements of TPS (Temporary Protected Status) cancellation of effectively rescinding temporary legal status given to over 200,000 people from specific countries in central america, africa, and the carribean after natural disasters - some of them for more than 20 years. Over one million immigrants could stand to lose hard fought temporary legal status and work authorization in this country.

On top of this, the Trump administration attempted to further drive immigrants into the shadows by threatening to include a question about citizenship on the 2020 census, threatening to restrict access to legal immigration for those working class families who might be deemed a "public charge," and funnelled money into private prison industries by scaling up detention for families, children, recent border crossers, and anyone else possible. Read more on our blog.