For the past eight years, as gridlock has frequently halted progress at the national level, hundreds of progressive elected officials have been on the offensive at the city and municipal level.

Progressive elected officials have been working to coordinate campaigns to pass paid sick days legislation and raise the minimum wage, protect immigrant communities, and hold police accountable for true community safety. Cities across the nation have become the center of policy innovation in our country. The work is anchored by Local Progress, a network of hundreds of municipal legislators working together to accelerate these changes across our cities. Local Progress is staffed by the Center for Popular Democracy.

From March 3-5, Local Progress hosted its second annual Local Progress New York conference in Albany, which brought together around 80 local elected officials from across the state.

Just as it had last year, the event lifted up the common cause that exists among leaders with progressive values trying to serve their communities across rural, urban and suburban geographies. The gathering allowed Local Progress members to have real and deep conversations across a diverse array of topics including celebrating the half dozen New York cities and counties who have adopted sanctuary status since the election and discussing how to pass them in more places. Members also discussed police reform, and the challenges smaller municipalities face from underfunded and crumbling infrastructure.

Fortunately, there are hundreds of inspiring progressives in local offices, in red and blue states, in cities and counties and towns, throughout the United States. This past year, more than 19 cities and counties across the country improved the lives of millions of workers by increasing living or minimum wages or implementing paid sick leave policies. Our members led fights for affordable housing ranging from passing rent control in Richmond, CA to creating the first ever dedicated local funding sources aimed at raising more than $150 million over the next decade for affordable housing in Denver, CO. In Seattle, San Jose and New York, members pushed through innovative policies that include supporting the rights of Uber drivers to organize and to advancing fair workweek policies so employees can have greater control over their schedules.

In the coming year, this work will focus on resistance and fighting back against hate and injustice at the local and municipal level.

From January 23 to February 3, CPD's Sustainability Initiative, in partnership with Membership Drive, held its first National Canvass Director Bootcamp in Seattle. Our training team worked with canvass directors across the country to develop the skills and strategies necessary to build dues paying membership canvass drives. The programs are designed to generate significant revenue for participating partners and dramatically increase organization membership over the coming years.

Canvass directors from Working Washington, Take Action Minnesota, VOCAL-NY, Make the Road Pennsylvania, and ACCE participated. The trainees spent a week in the field signing up members for our host, Working Washington. They also spent an intensive week in management training, and workshops on messaging skills, recruitment techniques and statistical analysis.

The goal of CPD’s Sustainability Initiative is to develop canvass programs capable of generating 50% to 75% of an organization's operating budget within five years.

In 2013, CPD worked with our partner Make the Road New York, in coalition with several other local organizations and local legislators, to create the New York Immigrant Family Unity Project (NYIFUP) -- the nation's first publicly funded universal representation program for detained immigrants in removal proceedings. Since then, CPD's partners and allies across the country have been working to replicate NYIFUP in their own cities.

Since the November election, these efforts have moved into high gear. CPD is part of the California Coalition for Universal Representation, which has been advocating for the allocation of state and municipal funds to provide immigrants with lawyers. In December, in response to our coalition advocacy and in recognition of the new urgency to protect immigrant communities, the city of Los Angeles announced the creation of the LA Justice Fund to create a NYIFUP style access to counsel program to serve LA area immigrants. The city has committed $2 million, and the county Board of Supervisors voted in January to commit $3 million to the fund.

The city hopes to supplement this investment with philanthropic contributions. San Francisco has proposed a similar program, to be run in collaboration with the local public defender's office. Outside of California, CPD is working with local organizations in Boston and the DC area to establish programs there as well.

Learn more about CPD’s Immigrant Justice Initiatives on our website.

As Congress rushes forward with its repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), CPD is organizing a major demonstration in Washington D.C., on Thursday, March 23, 2017. It is now clear that Congress intends to repeal the ACA regardless of the shape and form of the proposed alternative and regardless of how many millions of people this will leave without access to health care. Our demonstration on March 23 is our opportunity to resist, to stand up for the millions who may soon lose their coverage and to demonstrate to Congress the sheer scale of opposition across the nation to this attack on our people and our communities.

Join us in Washington, D.C. on March 23. Click here to RSVP!