March 2023 News Roundup
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Team, your March Groundwork Project newsletter is here!
Spring has only just started and we’ve already been very busy! We started the month in Boston hosting The Organizing Accelerator’s first in-person weekend with our partners at NAACP. Joe and the team joined NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson to launch our new 20-week training and mentoring program with the first cohort of 16 talented organizers from 11 states. Read more below.
Also this month, we opened applications to our Organizer Grant Program (OGP) in our home state of Massachusetts! Through the OGP, Groundwork offers unrestricted, multi-year general operating grants to emerging leaders and organizers to support and scale their efforts. Click here for more details and see if your project in MA would be a good fit.
Read more below from Groundwork’s partner states and organizations!
Anthony
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Anthony Davis (he/him)
National Organizing & Programming Advisor
Groundwork Project
News You Should Know
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Fellows participating in The Organizing Accelerator met for the first time in person in Boston this month. We were thrilled to meet these transformative organizers face to face and discuss the power of local organizing. You can read more on our in-person weekend at the Kennedy School from the Boston Globe here.
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Groundwork grantee and founder of West Virginia Black Voter Impact Initiative, Dr. Shanequa Smith, spoke with WV Can’t Wait about organizing and advocacy in Appalachia. You can listen to the entire conversation here.
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The Jackson Women’s Health Organization was at the center of the legal battle that overturned Roe, and now the only abortion provider in the state has shut its doors. Michelle from SHERo (Sisters Helping Every Woman Rise and Organize), a Groundwork grantee, explained the challenges Mississippians face in seeking abortion care:
“People are still needing and wanting abortion services. It’s just making it harder for Mississippians. It’s more expensive having to travel farther and take longer periods off of work. Some folks have had to fly to either Florida and New York. Some of these people are experiencing their first time being on a plane.”
-- Michelle Colón
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Dr. Adia Winfrey of Transform Alabama, a Groundwork Project mini-grantee recipient, challenges us to resist and rise up against persistent attacks on the rights and liberty of Black Alabamans whenever and wherever we can — read more of her opinion piece here.
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Following the firebombing of a bar planning a drag event in Tulsa, OK last October, LGBTQIA+ rights activists called on their community to do more. The Tulsa City Council passed a resolution to stand against hate in their community. You can read more on the resolution and the opposition from certain conservatives here.
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Take Action
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The Organizing Accelerator cohort has been working hard and there is a lot to explore over on Instagram after our first in-person weekend! Be sure to follow and don’t miss a thing!
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