In the past month, we’ve seen and experienced some of the most harrowing violence and attacks on civil liberties and our constitutional rights. We’ve also seen our communities and members stand up against oppression and fight back using legislation, collaborative governance, mutual aid, and organizing. As PA stands in solidarity with Minneapolis, our members are working to push back against authoritarianism and state violence to protect our communities.
This download includes some highlights but so much more is happening and possible. Schedule a meeting with me or email me. I’m looking forward to hearing from you and incorporating your feedback into our statewide plans, while supporting your individual work!
✉️ Message from our Organizing Committee
LPPA is official! The Organizing Committee for Local Progress Pennsylvania is excited to share that we have been certified as an official chapter! To get to this point, our Organizing Committee finalized our Statement of Values, which drew input from over 100 members and movement partners and articulates our shared commitments to civil rights, public safety, public education, infrastructure, economic justice, climate change, housing, healthcare, gender justice, and statewide solidarity. We also finalized our Operating Guidelines (similar to chapter bylaws), which establish a structure for the Pennsylvania Chapter and calls for representation and participation from member-elects across the state.
At the end of 2025, we were excited to welcome Councilmember Nicholas O’Rourke back to the Organizing Committee after returning from paternity leave. (Blessings to Councilmember O’Rourke and his family!)
Now, in early 2026, we are putting our Operating Guidelines into practice and electing our chapter leadership. We are also planning statewide campaigns and opportunities for shared learning and relationship-building to increase our resilience and strengthen our power together.
As always, the Organizing Committee is supported by the kind and powerful Kelly Morton. Shoutout and lots of gratitude to Kelly for jumping into the State Organizer role and shepherding us through this process with patience, clarity, and a commitment to member leadership.
Questions for the LPPA Organizing Committee? Ideas? Want to get involved? Hit us up!
🏠 Housing Guide
The LPPA housing guide will be released in early May and accompanied by a webinar where we will support you in using the guide to ensure housing security in your jurisdiction! Our goal is to share a range of housing policy interventions and case studies from issues such as tenant protections, homelessness, social housing, and home repair programs. We want to make sure this resource addresses your needs!
Send me an email and share what you would like to see in this report. What questions do you have about housing in your municipality? What solutions are you curious about? What revenue streams would you like to see in your jurisdiction?
🤝 Collaborative Governance Academy
Join LPPA members from across the state for a two-day training to support your leadership, organizing, and collaborative governance with movement partners! Fifteen LPPA members attended our first LPPA CGA in Harrisburg in 2024. Members expressed gratitude for the clarifying and transformative experience, and we’re excited to bring that opportunity to all of our members again this Spring! Hotel and meals will be provided, and mileage reimbursed.
Are you interested in joining us for a transformational two-day training? Curious and full of questions? Email me to let me know you’re interested, and we can plan a training that works for our members! Learn more about the CGA.
📜 Introduce a Resolution to Demand: ICE OUT!
Congress has until February 13th to reach an agreement on how and whether to fund DHS, including ICE and Border Patrol. As local elected officials, we must use our power and our voices to turn the pressure up and together say: ICE OUT.
Local Progress members have been calling on Congress to use the power of the purse to stop ICE. Last week, Local Progress member Teresa Mosqueda (King County, WA) introduced and passed a first-of-its-kind resolution calling for funding restrictions and regulations for DHS. We are following her lead and organizing members like you across the country to pass resolutions of your own. We’ve created sample resolutions for cities, counties, and school boards to give you a head start. Will you join our organized force to protect our communities and stop ICE and DHS from wreaking more havoc?
This funding impasse gives us a chance to restrain their barbaric tactics. The resolution calls on Congress to:
- End enforcement surges in places like Minneapolis;
- Prohibit masks and end racial targeting and targeting of daycares and schools;
- Place strong guardrails on ICE including requiring judicial warrants and allowing localities to investigate misconduct;
- End detention center abuses and restore people’s access to bond hearings; and
- Make deep cuts to the $170 billion dollars given to DHS in last year’s funding legislation.
➡️ From Campaigns to Governance: A Partner’s Guide to Building Our Base Together
Do you know someone who won last November? With nearly 1,800 members, Local Progress continues to be the best place for values-aligned local elected officials to be in community with one another. As one member shared in our survey last year, “The support and friendship I have built over the years are what keep me going!” With your help, we can identify new members to join the network and have the community you have come to cherish. Check out our partner’s guide.
🎙️ Listen to the Preemption Download
Across our membership, nearly every local official has faced some form of preemption or encroachment on local control. From state capitals to D.C., state and federal representatives continue to pass new laws that strip local governments of their powers. But across our network of nearly 1,800 local officials, there are many incredible stories of resistance and new strategies for fighting back.
Local Progress is proud to launch our new audio series, “The Preemption Download”! Over the course of ten episodes, we’ll introduce you to ten local elected officials who have faced preemption and came away with a stronger understanding of how to fight it. For our first episode, we spoke with Tallahassee City Commissioner Jack Porter about the everyday preemption battles she faces as a local elected official in Florida. You can listen here on our Instagram.
🏫 School Board Networking Event
Calling all School Board Directors! Join LPPA’s quarterly school board networking event on February 19th at noon. Our quarterly meetup is a space led by LPPA School Board members. Every meeting will include intentional time dedicated to learning about what other Board directors are facing in their districts and to sharing resources and ideas. In this quarter’s meeting, we’ll have three 30-minute breakouts: one on protecting Immigrant students, one on protecting Transgender students, and one for a Q&A with newly elected School Board members.
💸 Tax Billionaires, Fund PA Coalition Webinar
LPPA has joined the statewide coalition ‘Tax Billionaires Fund PA’ along with dozens of grassroots organizations. In Harrisburg last November, allies held a rally and announced upcoming legislation aimed to increase state revenue by closing all corporate tax loopholes (HB1610 and Senate Co-Sponsorship), passing a digital ad tax (HB1678 and Senate Co-Sponsorship) and taxing PA Billionaires (House co-sponsorship memo and Senate co-sponsorship memo).
Partners from our coalition will be hosting a webinar for LPPA members on Monday, March 23, at noon. Learn about the PA tax system, Progressive Tax Revenue policies for municipalities, and ways you can take action in this campaign with our movement partners!
🏡 Your One Stop for Caucuses
Trying to remember when the next Nuestro Caucus General meeting is? Want to join the Black Caucus signal group chat? Or find your caucus playlist? Look no further! Your one stop shop for all things caucus is right here!
📨 Help Us Find the Next Collaborative Governance Academy Director!
With our recent re-launch of the Collaborative Governance (CGA), formerly known as Progressive Governance Academy or PGA, we are looking for a deeply collaborative and strategic leader to evolve and elevate this joint initiative, both as a model for progressive leadership development and as a model for collective impact. The CGA Director will bring their vision and expertise to shaping and formalizing the CGA as an enduring program by setting a renewed strategy with a focus on scaling for impact. Click here to share the posting!
⚡️ National Convening Registration is now OPEN for Members & Alumni Leaders!
Are you ready for this year’s convening? We can’t wait to see you in Baltimore, MD on July 9-11! Over the past year, the community care amongst the incredible Local Progress network in this moment makes crystal clear what we’ve always known – that even in the midst of relentless attacks on immigrants, Black and Brown folks, LGBTQ+ people, workers, youth, and our communities – localities are not only at the forefront but serve as the bedrock of transformative change. It is this movement of local elected officials leading fearlessly to build a world where all of us can be grounded in our joy and freedom that inspires our 2026 theme: Fearless Leadership * Joyful Liberation. Check your email for your personalized invite link and register today!
✨ Meet Philadelphia City Councilmember and LPPA Organizing Committee member Nicolas O’Rourke
Councilmember O’Rourke ran for office to materially improve the lives of working people. He believes public office should use the force of law to make people’s lives better, not just in theory, but in real, tangible ways. He first heard about Local Progress through Philadelphia City Council Minority Leader Kendra Brooks, who also serves on Local Progress’ national board. He cites her leadership and encouragement as major reasons he got involved with Local Progress. A major highlight of his engagement with Local Progress was the passage of his rental algorithm price-fixing legislation.
In the next six months, he’ll be working to pass the Safe Healthy Homes Act. This set of bills aims to establish a proactive rental inspection program, hold bad landlords accountable, and expand tenant protections against landlord retaliation and for tenant organizations.
He has also launched an initiative in Philly called Affordable Philly Now! He’s working with experts across fields such as healthcare, groceries, and utilities to create and release a report on the Cost of Living in Philadelphia. This work will help identify real, data-driven policy solutions to bring costs down for working families. In the short-term he’s also hoping to pass the Transit Access Fund, which is part of the Affordable Philly Now initiative. This bill would set aside 0.5% of the city’s general fund to support free transit passes for low-income Philadelphians and support small businesses with grants to offer transit benefits to their employees.
Fun fact about Philadelphia: The city’s history as a port town with vast railroad networks literally fueled the Industrial Revolution by moving Pennsylvania Coal!