Throughout the weekend, the Local Progress members and community leaders forged new relationships, made strong commitments to racial justice and equity work, walked away with new ideas, and shared tools to strengthen our communities.

Of particular note were discussions over the Center for Popular Democracy report on The Freedom to Thrive that outlines the impact of shifting resources away from police and prisons towards communities, as well as enthusiasm for replicating the “Right to Know Act” around the country. You can find the Albany, NY ordinance language here for your reference and the original New York City legislative language here. Here is a fact sheet about the legislation as well.

To learn more about how Local Progress members are pursuing racial justice and equity initiatives, check out the report we unveiled at the Strategy Summit — A Closer Look: Racial Justice in Our Communities.

As the Local Progress network continues to develop its work on racial justice, stay tuned for a resource page on our website in the coming weeks. Please continue to check www.localprogress.org for updated policy briefs, event information, and resources.

To those of you who attended the Summit and to all of you working hard to advance this work in your communities, thank you so much. You all have made a huge impact on our network and influenced the work we will move forward together in 2018. Our resistance is working because of strong elected leaders like each of you. The time is now for us to achieve equity for our communities and to beat back white supremacy in all its forms.