We’ve had a busy first quarter here at LPNC! We are working hard with the organizing committee to keep building our Local Progress chapter here in North Carolina! We are working on our Duke Energy Campaign, trying to hold the utility accountable for its contributions to climate change. Our Organizing Committee is growing, and we are beginning to plan a Statewide Strategy Meeting for September!!Â
Seriously, if you haven’t yet, get yourself registered for the LP National Convening on July 10-12 in Chicago!! Details are below. You will have FOMO if you don’t go!!
Big things are happening, stay tuned!
As you know, the consequences of climate change are not felt equally. Low-income communities and communities of color often live in areas more susceptible to flooding, exposed to higher levels of pollution from fossil fuel infrastructure, and face greater challenges in recovering from climate-related disasters. The rising costs of energy, driven in part by our reliance on fossil fuels, further strain household budgets already stretched thin, hindering economic mobility and perpetuating cycles of poverty.
Supporting Carrboro’s lawsuit is not simply an environmental issue; it is a matter of fundamental economic and racial justice. It is a chance to hold a major polluter accountable for actions that have knowingly harmed our communities and to send a powerful message that we will not stand by while the health and economic well-being of our most vulnerable residents are jeopardized for corporate gain.
Holding Duke Energy accountable is also a budgetary issue. Regardless of your office, every year brings new budget needs—to improve stormwater drainage, to fix damaged facilities, replace damaged equipment and be better prepared for the next superstorm with the intention of keeping our communities safe and secure. Supporting Carrboro’s suit to hold Duke Energy accountable for its deception and fueling of climate change—whether by launching a lawsuit in your jurisdiction or joining Carrboro’s—is an opportunity to get just compensation for the damages wrought by climate change.
I urge you to join us and other concerned leaders across the state in endorsing the Letter linked below, which amplifies the call for accountability and raises awareness of the disproportionate impacts of Duke Energy’s actions. By adding your name, you will demonstrate your commitment to fighting for a more just and equitable future for all North Carolinians.
At our last Organizing Committee Meeting, Shawn Rush, Alder from the Town of East Spencer, joined the leadership team for our state chapter. Shawn was featured in the last issue of the NC Download as our Member Spotlight. He is an active member of the network and has brought a small-town perspective to the Committee.
WE NEED YOUR LEADERSHIP! The LPNC Organizing Committee (OC) plays a critical role in shaping the direction of our work in the state and in the larger LP network. As an OC member, you will help to recruit new members, strategize with movement and community partners, help set the priorities of our work, and identify opportunities to mobilize members across the state through collective action! The time commitment is about 2-3 hours monthly with 2-3 in-state travels per year.
We are just beginning to plan out the LPNC State Strategy Meeting – save the date for September 12-13, 2025! Local Progress members and partners will come together to strategize on how we can make a bigger impact together than we can alone. Outcomes from this meeting will include providing input for statewide priority-setting that will anchor how we use our collective power as a North Carolina Chapter. Please reserve the date in your calendar, and be on the lookout for the registration link in June! If you have any ideas for sessions or want to lead a session, please reach out to Chad Radock, NC Chapter Manager and LP Associate Organizing Director at cradock@localprogress.org.
Guilford County School Board Member Khem Irby is a native of Brooklyn, New York, wife and mother of six adult children and grandmother of four grandbabies. She relocated to Greensboro 13 years ago. Khem is in her second term of serving on the Guilford County Board of Education. She is also the co-chair of the Dignity in Schools Campaign, a national coalition to end the school to prison pipeline. Khem also is ending her 2-year term as the president of the Progressive Democrats of Guilford County.
Khem believes and was taught that if you see a good fight, then get in it. Khem wakes up thinking about the vulnerable in her community and what she can contribute as well as the importance of self-care, restoration and healing, which has come through serving in leadership with other phenomenal beings in the Women’s Caucus of Local Progress. Khem’s faith walk is what guides her in this important work in fighting for an excellent education for everyone.
🗞️ Amid An Unprecedented Immigration Crackdown, Durham Tries to Hold the Line
“As the Trump administration ramps up deportations and pushes the boundaries of federal law, Durham is contending with the limits of its ability to protect its immigrant community. An organizer, a lawyer, a pastor, and a sheriff try to navigate the new reality.”
🗞️ City of Asheville includes Resilience Hubs in its Disaster Relief Plan
Resilience Hubs, community-serving facilities designed to enhance a community’s ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from various disruptions, including natural disasters, climate events, and other emergencies, have been included in The City of Asheville CDBG-DR recovery funding plan submitted to HUD.Â
The plan includes resilience hubs for emergency response at the street and neighborhood levels. If approved by HUD, the City of Asheville will receive $225-million in recovery funds to begin to address a $1.1-billion gap in funding for disaster recovery after the climate catastrophe of Hurricane Helene.Â
According to Councilmember Kim Roney, “Getting resilience hubs explicitly named in the plan took significant community organizing, centering the Black, Brown, Indigenous, and working-class residents organizing mutual aid before, through, and after Helene.” Resilience hubs could look like solar and battery backups on community centers for when neighborhoods lose electricity, water filtration systems, community gardens, food pantries, evacuation route signage, and emergency planning for flooding, landslides, and wildfires.
đź“ť Share Your Story: How is the Trump Administration Impacting your Community?
Local Progress is rolling out a new tool to measure how the Trump Administration is impacting our communities. Our new storybank form is collecting on-the-ground accounts from local officials across the country to accurately map the impact of the federal government’s actions on local communities. These stories will help our network illustrate how federal policy actions are shaping people’s day to day lives and strategize how to fight back against the Trump administration’s divisive agenda, as well as assist our press work in telling the story of our collective resistance. We’re interested in everything from how teachers may have been shut out from Head Start programs to proactive actions your legislative body has taken to affirm the rights of immigrants in your community. Check out the form here and don’t hesitate to reach out with questions!
🧰 Tools to Interrupt Criminalization
The federal administration has escalated its use of criminalization to target immigrant communities and suppress dissent. In the past few weeks alone, over 300 student visas have been revoked on political grounds, and more than 200 immigrants—like Maryland father Abrego Garcia—have been deported to a notorious torture facility in El Salvador in defiance of court orders. These acts are part of a broader strategy: using criminalization to silence opposition and enforce policies that consolidate right-wing power. Local governments have the ability—and responsibility—to push back.
Here’s how we can act:
- Anchor our messaging. Use LP’s updated guides–Protecting Immigrant Rights Under a Hostile Federal Administration and Let’s Talk Real Safety–to align around a strong, consistent narrative. New content includes Best Practices for messaging on immigration and guidance on Responding to a Raid in your Community; and Addressing Public Suffering and Ending Harm and Surveillance, emphasizing the urgent need to move away from carceral solutions and toward real investments that address the root causes of harm.
- Interrupt policies that criminalize residents. Reach out to Interrupting Criminalization’s Help Desk for 1:1 assistance with any organizing, policy, budget, or litigation strategies.
- Strengthen community defense. Invite a local partner organization to sign up for National Immigration Project’s “Removal Defense for Community Defenders” training from May 15 through July 17.
đź“š Calls to Action for Public Education
The federal government is poised to pass a billionaire-backed national voucher program that would defund our public schools and harm our students. It’s key that federal officials hear from folks on the ground about the harmful impact this defunding mechanism would have on students and the public education system. This toolkit from our friends at the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools and NYU Metro Center will help you join the ranks of fellow LP members reaching out to their representatives in Washington — it’s powerful for elected officials in D.C. to hear from local electeds!Â
Do you want to pass a resolution in your district about protecting public education? Do you want to connect with organizers who could work with you to advocate for this? Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch to support with a draft resolution and an organizing toolkit from our partners at Public School Strong.
Our partners at Popular Democracy are convening Hands Off Our Schools organizing calls – the next two are May 14 and June 11. Want to sign up? More here.
🌍 How to Protect Communities Before and After Climate Disasters
Local elected officials need to know how to protect the communities they serve in the lead up to and before a climate disaster. Hurricanes, wildfires, and floods not only destroy people’s physical and emotional well-being but also can cause families to get to the brink of financial crisis. Working with community disaster recovery organizers, insurance consumer protection advocates, disaster response attorneys, and housing counselors, the Equitable and Just Insurance Initiative released a report that details how state and local governments can protect people’s financial well-being before and after climate disasters. The report details policy recommendations state and local governments can implement from protecting renters and homeowners to helping people avoid scams and holding fossil fuel companies accountable. Read the report here!
🏡Apply by June 9: Advance Tenant Screening Protections
Every year, approximately 3.6 million individuals facing eviction assume an additional concern for their future: the challenge of finding a new home with an eviction on their record.
Results for America, in partnership with PolicyLink, National Housing Law Project, National Consumer Law Center, TechEquity and Upturn, invites place-based teams to apply for an 8-week Solutions Sprint, Unlocked: Opening the Door to Housing Access Through Tenant Screening Protections. This free learning series will provide teams with the knowledge, tools and strategies needed to design and implement policies that prevent the harms of eviction records and tenant screening practices—and expand access to affordable housing.
🏡 Stay Connected to our Caucuses
Your one stop shop for caucus resources! Trying to remember when that next Women’s Caucus meeting is? Looking for the link to complete your Pride Caucus Survey? Want to join a caucus signal chat? Look no further! This link will continuously be updated with all upcoming Caucus events and asks so that you can constantly refer to it and make sure you’re up to date on when your next caucus meetings are.
Also, Local Progress is seeking a Healing Justice Consultant (or a team of consultants) to curate and facilitate healing spaces for our members in-person and remote spaces. The consultant will work in collaboration with LP staff and LP members to design and lead grounding and healing experiences rooted in trauma-informed practice, with an emphasis on multiple modalities, such as but not limited to, journaling, somatics, breathwork, verbal processing, sound, and movement. Please share with your network.
⚡️️ 2025 National Convening
We have less than 10 days until registration closes for our 2025 National Convening and we are almost at capacity! In July, we will gather local elected officials, movement partners, and donors who believe in the strength of bringing together people from different backgrounds and communities to build a country – city by city, county by county – where each of us can thrive. Join us in Chicago on July 10-12 to strategize toward this vision with a community of values-aligned peers and partners! Check your email for your invite and register by our May 21 deadline!
