Blog
We are thrilled to announce the merger of the Center for Popular Democracy with the Leadership Center for the Common Good, to create a significantly larger and more powerful Center for Popular Democracy. The new Center for Popular Democracy will have thirty-five excellent staff, offices in New York City and Washington, DC, and staff in California, Minnesota and Illinois. Importantly, the expanded Center for Popular Democracy will have a strong cohort of eleven national core partner organizations and over seventy state partner organizations in twenty-seven states.
Democracy in Crisis
The United States is suffering an acute crisis of democracy, opportunity and equality. Despite rapidly increasing productivity, workers are earning less and are increasingly insecure. Wage theft is rampant. Too many workers must cobble together irregular, part-time jobs without benefits. Private sector unionization has fallen below seven percent, leaving workers and their broader economic opportunity in jeopardy. The new Center for Popular Democracy will promote equity, opportunity, and a dynamic democracy in partnership with base-building organizations, organizing networks and alliances, and progressive unions across the country. CPD will build the strength and capacity of democratic organizations to envision and advance a pro-worker, pro-immigrant, racial and economic justice agenda. We will help our partners to drive, and win, coordinated state and municipal organizing campaigns, and we will help them to build strong, sophisticated and resilient organizational infrastructure and political muscle.
"The new, expanded Center for Popular Democracy is a vitally important addition to the social justice landscape – building much-needed strength, sophistication and scale in community organizing. The new CPD fills an important void - aggressively innovating and replicating public policies that expand rights and opportunities for workers, for immigrants, and for people of color. We are excited to work closely with CPD to protect and promote the dignity of America’s workers."
Richard Trumka, President, AFL-CIO
Strength, Scale & Reach
The merger of the Leadership Center for the Common Good and the Center for Popular Democracy creates new, and badly-needed strength, scale and reach in the field of community organizing. Sharing successful campaign and policy innovations from one geography and campaign to another, and working to confront the challenges we face beyond and across traditional organizing networks is essential if we are going to build the strength of our field and accelerate its evolution.
We also believe that innovation and scale are essential to enable organizations to build sustainable financing and revenue models; to develop and win progressive policy victories; to push the envelope on what is considered possible; to experiment with and implement organizing, training and leadership development strategies; and to build robust, resilient, responsive community-based institutions and government.
The Center for Popular Democracy and the Leadership Center for the Common Good are both successful, rapidly-growing organizations. We have built high-skilled teams of community organizers, policy experts, and attorneys, as well as experts in technology, political strategy, communications and research. The two organizations both have strong relationships with organized labor and together have a network of field partners in close to thirty states. We complement each other and we will be significantly stronger together.
Building Momentum for National Change
Though CPD’s focus will be local, our ambition is national. Through strategic and sustained local and state victories, driven by strong community and labor partners, CPD will help win tangible improvements in working people’s lives and generate the upward pressure and momentum necessary to refocus national policy on the values of equity, opportunity and democracy for all.
Read More:
Key Allies Celebrate Our Merger
"Instead Of Turning On Each Other, Immigrant And Domestic Workers Unite To Form New Organization" - The Huffington Post
Chris Huang --
In the summer of 2012, President Obama signed a memo deferring deportation for eligible undocumented youth who immigrated as children. This program, called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), immediately resulted in a flood of traffic to community-based organizations around the country, as individuals sought information on eligibility and assistance on the application process from the people they trust the most.
As an illustration of the scale involved, one community-based organization in California initially experienced lines around the block, requiring all staff to pitch in to help. About 120 people were coming into their offices per hour. In the first few months, 70,000 to 80,000 people had come through their doors seeking information or application assistance. Out of this number, 2,000 applications were processed and 2,500 became members. The program is now generating revenue to not only pay for itself but also help support the organization’s other programs. This experience is the tip of the iceberg of what other community-based organizations will face if and when common sense immigration reform becomes law and is indicative of both the enormous potential opportunities and challenges.
The Migration Policy Institute estimates that up to 1.76 million undocumented immigrants were eligible for DACA. Many estimate that up to 11 million people could be affected by the current immigration reform legislation.
The magnitude of this event creates an urgency for community-based organizations to develop the organizational capacity to not only meet the demand for information and naturalization or eligibility screening services, but to also to help build relationships with and drive the millions of immigrants into collective action to fight for the many other civil rights and economic justice issues that affect them day to day and to continue the hard work of social transformation well into the future. With this in mind, CPD has partnered with the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) to launch the Basebuilders Innovation Group (the Get BIG! program), an ambitious project that combines sophisticated organizing and leadership development support with emerging technology and systems to bolster the organizing capacity and internal infrastructure of NDWA affiliates and create the foundation from which they can increase the scale of their organizing. NDWA is powered by 39 local, membership-based affiliate organizations of over 10,000 nannies, housekeepers and caregivers of the elderly located in 14 states, plus the District of Columbia. The inaugural cohort of Get BIG! consists of twelve NDWA affiliates selected to participate in an intensive 18-month organizing and leadership development collaborative that will include in-person trainings, monthly peer-to-peer discussion and coaching, and ongoing technical assistance and support. In addition, participants in BIG will go through a guided process of assessing and revamping their technological infrastructure, database systems and internal workflows to better leverage new technology for membership development and growth.
CPD is working closely with the 12 NDWA affiliates in the Get BIG! program to evaluate each organization’s base-building opportunities within the context of immigration reform and help them develop the technological capacity and internal processes needed to serve the thousands of new individuals who will be coming to affiliates’ doors seeking assistance related to legalization and, ultimately, to leverage new technologies and systems to connect thousands of immigrants and workers to the NDWA membership, wrap-around services, and advocacy efforts.
Chris Huang, Coordinator of Research & Strategic Initiatives, giving a training to NDWA.
On June 25, the Supreme Court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, which had blocked over 1,500 discriminatory voting laws since it was passed in 1965. Two days after the Court’s decision, sixty elected officials, staffers, and advocates came together for a Local Progress webinar and strategy session about steps cities and counties can take to strengthen voting rights, expand the franchise, and protect our democracy. Below are some of the possible avenues that municipal officials can take.
Cities and counties can implement low-cost programs to register more eligible voters:
Local Progress Board Member Faith Winter (Mayor Pro Tem, Westminster, CO) described her proposal to increase registration among renters (who are often lower-income, young, or black or Hispanic) by mandating that landlords distribute voter registration forms when new tenants move in. The requirement has been successfully adopted in Madison (WI), Ann Arbor (MI), and Berkeley (CA).
Similarly, cities can work with local high schools to register as many students as possible and can ensure that residents are given the opportunity to register at public libraries, community centers, police stations, housing departments, and other government offices. Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center for Justice explained how city and county officials can push for voter registration modernization that will expand registration, eliminate many errors, and reduce hassle for voters and administrators.
Some localities can implement public financing of local elections
As Executive Director Amy Loprest of the New York City Campaign Finance Board explained at the Local Progress webinar, New York City provides six dollars in public financing for every one dollar raised by candidates for city council and mayor. Candidates who participate in the program commit to a limitation on their total spending, which ensures that money will not determine the outcome of the race. Evidence has shown that the program reduces the influence of moneyed interests, permits middle-class candidates to run competitive races and win, and engages a broader segment of the population in the electoral process. The Seattle City Council recently scheduled a referendum for local voters to decide whether to adopt a similar system there.
Cities can expand the franchise to new groups of voters
Local Progress member Tim Male (Takoma Park, MD) described his successful legislative campaign to give 16- and 17-year-olds the right to vote in local elections, on the basis of research showing that voting is habitual and that norms related to political participation in high school have lasting impacts. In addition, some cities can reinstitute the old tradition of non-citizen voting in local elections. Through a referendum, Takoma Park enfranchised noncitizen residents in 1992. In 2010, ballot initiatives were very narrowly defeated in Portland (ME) and San Francisco. In New York City, a broad coalition of advocacy groups, unions, scholars, and elected officials are now advancing a proposal to enfranchise the 1.2 million lawfully present residents.
A new report by the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD), entitled “Fatal Inequality," shows that Latino and other workers of color account for 74% of fatalities from accidents in the New York construction industry even though they represent only 34% of the workforce. Our report was released in collaboration with Make the Road New York.
Our results, compiled from investigations by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), show that 88% of fatal falls in Queens and 87% in Brooklyn involved Latinos and/or immigrants.
“Fatal Inequality,” found that smaller construction companies often have particularly unsafe workplaces, as they tend to be non-union and lack necessary training, proper equipment, and respect for workers’ reports about unsafe conditions. The vast majority, 86%, of Latino or immigrant workers' fatalities from a fall were at sites run by nonunion employers, where workers are often reluctant to report safety violations out of fear of retaliation from contractors.
The findings illustrate that the primary protection for construction workers’ safety, OSHA, is ineffective. Understaffed because of inadequate funding, OSHA is unable to inspect a significant number of construction sites. And, when OSHA does inspect a construction site, the monetary penalties they impose for violations are so small that employers can see them as just an incidental cost of doing business.
Supplemental worker protections are offered by the Scaffold Law in New York State, which requires owners and contractors to provide appropriate and necessary equipment and holds owners and contractors fully liable if their failure to follow the law causes a worker to be injured or killed. Currently, construction and insurance companies are pushing legislation to weaken the Scaffold Law by shifting the responsibility of workplace safety from owners and contractors to the workers. The change would have a dramatic, detrimental impact on worker safety and a disproportionate impact on construction workers of color. The report calls on Governor Cuomo and NYS legislature to resist any attempts to weaken the Scaffold Law.
To download the full report and learn more about Fatal Inequality, click here.
This weekend, Local Progress hosted its Second Annual National Convening in Washington, DC. Close to 60 local elected officials from around the country came together to discuss issues such as voting rights, immigrant integration, housing policy, sustainable cities, and the creation of good jobs. Local Progress is the national network of municipal elected officials co-founded by the Center for Popular Democracy in 2012.
The convening heard plenary speeches by American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten, Congresswoman Donna Edwards, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Secretary Treasurer Mike Fishman, National Education Association (NEA) Executive Director John Stocks, incoming Democracy Alliance President Gara LaMarche, and Georgetown School of Law Professor Peter Edelman. The convening was a unique opportunity in which local elected officials and key advocates came together to build important infrastructure, deepen their relationships, and discuss local policy solutions that will yield lasting progressive change.
To learn more about local solutions to national issues, visit Local Progress’ new website: http://localprogress.org.
The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) is thrilled to be collaborating with Accelerate Change, the Center for Community Change, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) to develop a national association for immigrant communities.
The national association will provide a range of services, including remittance and other discounts, online support networks, and financial and legal services to newly arrived, longtime, and naturalized immigrants. The new association will leverage the combined power of participating individuals and grassroots organizations across the country to negotiate for lower benefit costs from providers.
As the foreign-born proportion of the the United States population continues to grow (currently at 40 million, 22 million of whom are not naturalized) and immigration reform affecting 7-11 million people looms on the horizon, there is an increasing urgency to be able to deliver vital services that can provide stability and open up economic opportunities for new Americans. In addition to benefit negotiation and delivery, the Association will engage members on issues concerning the immigrant community, and encourage members to become more active in civic life.
Technology will play a vital role in helping the Association manage the challenge of reaching the scale necessary to serve thousands of new members. CPD is building the technological infrastructure of the new Association, and designing the database systems and processes that will support large-scale, efficient benefit delivery and member communications.
CPD is also assisting with the development of the benefits program, helping to test different benefits and services such as discounts, financial services, and legal services in various markets to identify and shape services that will provide the most impact for immigrant communities.
Huge congratulations go out to our friends at the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA). After seven years and two vetoes, the NDWA was finally able to celebrate the passage of a Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights in the State of California. The Bill is the third-state level measure to protect domestic workers in the country, following New York and Hawaii. Under the new Bill, domestic workers will be entitled to overtime pay if they work for more than nine hours a day or 45 hours a week.
“Guaranteeing daily overtime for all domestic workers is a momentous win for us,” said Marcela Escamilla, a domestic worker from San Francisco. “This is a big step for respecting and recognizing domestic work as real work, and the fight doesn’t stop here. The fire for this movement will now burn brighter for domestic workers across the country fighting for the same recognition.”
The NDWA, a core national partner organization of CPD, is now moving the fight to establish basic labor protections and work place rights for domestic workers to Massachusetts.
"There’s a lot of things that can make the community safer,” says former Police Officer Adhyl Polanco. “Stopping and harassing innocent people is not going make the community safer.”
Polanco’s testimony on the dangers of stop and frisk policing tactics can be seen in the latest installment of the powerful Where I Am Going documentary series launched by Communities United for Police Reform (CPR), a coalition in which the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) has been actively involved.
Polanco’s video shows the institutional pressure placed on officers to harass innocent community members, many of whom are immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ, and homeless individuals. After the "1 arrest / 20 summons / 5 stop and frisks" monthly policy was mandated by the NYPD in 2009, Polanco reached a turning point in his career compelling him to choose between his career and his morals.
“This is not what I became a cop for. This is not what I wanted to do,” he says after describing being ordered to arrest an innocent 13-year-old boy.
Other video testimonies in the Where I Am Going series include accounts from a teenager and a member of the clergy.
In August the New York City Council overrode Mayor Bloomberg’s veto of the Community Safety Act, the bill which reforms NYC's abusive stop and frisk tactics. Since then CPD has been sharing best practices from the successful campaign with partners in other states across country in an attempt to replicate this important victory.
Join the campaign and share this video.
On October 5, thousands of immigrant justice groups and advocates across the country took to the streets at more than 150 sites in 40 states to demand Congress pass comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship. The Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) was proud to help coordinate the efforts for the National Day of Action for Immigrant Dignity and Respect in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
The New Jersey and Pennsylvania rallies contributed to the powerful national movement demanding immediate action to reform our broken immigration laws. With tens of thousands of participants from around the country, the National Day of Action for Immigrant Dignity and Respect showed lawmakers that comprehensive immigration reform is overwhelmingly supported by the U.S. public.
Congratulations to our partners at Take Action Minnesota for their momentous state and national victories for community justice. Take Action's impressive three-year campaign to "Ban the Box" on employment applications moved Target to ultimately join in with the campaign to make Minnesota the third state in the nation to ban the question regarding a criminal record on job applications. Target has now committed to eliminating the box in its stores nationally.
Banning the box legislation gives people with criminal records a better chance at getting a job. Individuals with criminal records, who are disproportionately people of color, are often excluded at the beginning of their job search regardless of their qualifications because of the checked box. Minnesota, in particular, has the nation’s worst racial jobs gap.
Take Action MN deployed an inspiring campaign that involved a 400 person public meeting, a 200-person public action in the lobby of Target’s headquarters, a hundred individuals with past records filing job applications at Target and being rejected, a visit to Target’s shareholder meeting and numerous meetings, e-mails and phone calls with Target executives.
