Local leaders aren’t just passive participants in change, they actively create it. This past weekend, over 50 local elected officials and partner organizations committed to shared power convened in Milwaukee to learn real strategies on how we can mobilize change at the ground level at our third-annual Leadership Collaborative!
The Leadership Collaborative is a convening specifically designed for our member leaders – the heart and soul of our network spanning state organizing committees, issue steering committees, and caucus leadership committees. It’s a cross-organizational, multi-issue, multi-racial space consisting of four convenings focused on key pillars of our strategic framework:
- Racial Justice as a Beacon for All
- Collaborative Governing to Build Power
- Adaptive Change from the Ground Up
- Elected Officials as an Organized Force
Our very first Leadership Collaborative focused on Elected Officials as an Organized Force, and last year, we learned more about how Collaborative Governing Builds Power. These experiences build on one another, with local leaders and partners bringing these lessons back to their communities and back to future Leadership. In Milwaukee, we spent two amazing days learning from one another about how we can create change from the ground up. Creating durable change at this level can be difficult, especially in today’s political environment, but by learning strategies together, local officials can do incredible things.
We kicked off our weekend hearing from one of our amazing board members Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson. Taking us through her organizing journey, Marcelia showed us how everyday people can draw on the movement allies to enter office and create transformative change. From her time as a teacher to leading the board of county supervisors in Milwaukee, Marcelia had these inspiring words for us.
“I knew that no matter how hard I worked in the classroom, real change had to come from the top—from the policies and decisions being made about our communities without us at the table.”
After that, we got back to the basics of narrative change – role-playing real-life difficult conversations that so many of us have on issues ranging from immigration to housing. Through this scenario-based exercise, we not only learned new tactics to counter misinformation and right-wing talking points, but took the opportunity to lean into listening with compassion and understanding. None of this work is easy, but it’s critical to creating that ground-level change we know is so important.
Afterwards, we travelled across Milwaukee for our site visits to see how movement history continues to live in the infrastructure and people of this amazing city. Half of us visited Concordia 27, a neighborhood community development project that took the old County Hospital and turned it into community space, site for small business, and gathering spot for community members. It was inspiring to see in-person how local governments can transform historical buildings into vibrant community spaces.
The other half of our group went to three unique sites across the city – first visiting the old German organizing institution known as Turner Hall. This community space, once slated for demolition, was revitalized and turned into a concert hall, community center, and training space for deescalation and community bonding.
From there, we went to Voces de la Frontera, a local immigrant rights organization that has been on the frontlines of our first for justice for decades. They took us through their work and how they’re continuing to build local power despite threats from the state and federal level. Lastly, we went to the site of the infamous Bay View Massacre, where over a century ago working people were murdered by state troopers for demanding their rights. We learned that these sites aren’t frozen in time, but our living reminders on how movement history lives on in the infrastructure, strategy, and people of this city.
On our last day together, Local Progress staff led some incredible sessions on how creating change can be scary, but it requires us to be brave. First, we had an informative panel hearing from our partners and members about the challenges they’re facing on the ground each and every day. As abusive state preemption and federal overreach ramp up, our members and partners know, no more than ever, that creating change requires bravery.
But, as one of our partners, Ida Eskamani from the State Innovation Exchange, put it, “shared power is the antidote to authoritarianism.” We reaffirmed this weekend that local government is not only the laboratory for new policy ideas, but also a critical space for defending democracy against increasing authoritarian threats.
For our final session, we took our lessons on bravery and applied them to scenarios based on real legislative fights our members have been in both in Florida and in New York. It was amazing to see the imagination, determination, and expertise of our network in real time.
We closed out with a goodbye from one of our board members, Philadelphia Minority Leader Kendra Brooks, leaving us with the following.
“Hold on to the why – why you do this work and why you are here – that is what is important during these difficult times. Adapt to the ebbs of flows of this moment; things might be uncertain right now, but we need to be able to continue to grow. Finally, when you take risks, do so at your own discretion. This is a team sport and we can all rely on each other.”
We’re in awe of this inspiring group of LP member leaders who are committed to building power and adapting to the challenges along the way.
