Our Blog + Latest News

Governing is a Team Sport. Introducing LP’s Leadership Collaborative.

This year we are launching the Leadership Collaborative – a cross-organizational, multi-state, multi-issue, multi-racial space hosted as four convenings over the course of the next three years.

LPNC State Download 🌱 | NC Defend Local Democracy, ARP Cohort, & more! | Spring 2023

Here's some of the latest news and exciting updates from our North Carolina chapter.

The Network Download: Decriminalizing abortion, reimagining traffic safety, school board updates, and more | Feb 2023

Here's a look at some of what's happening across the Local Progress network.

Meet the LP’s newly-formed School Board Steering Committee!

The steering committee will guide the work of the school board cohort moving forward, bringing a diverse range of experiences and expertise to building our shared agenda.

New Resource Helps Local Electeds Welcome and Support New Arrivals with Dignity

Our newly released resource aims to chronicle this roadmap – offering direction for local electeds to follow the lead of communities, and take on this shared responsibility to create a welcoming infrastructure.

Florida legislature must stop interfering with local efforts to lower rents

In what has become an annual tradition, the Florida Legislature is poised to further restrict residents’ freedom to address issues affecting our local communities. In fact, they are taking a sledgehammer to local freedom amid the worst housing crisis in our lifetimes.

Federal Advocacy Roundup | January 2023

Since our last Federal Advocacy Roundup in early December, we’ve seen the passage of an end-of-year appropriations bill, landmark announcements from the administration on protecting tenants and migrant workers, and more!
photo of the rotunda in cleveland city hall

The Network Download: Community-led safety, wage theft protections, and more | January 2023

Here’s a look at some of what’s happening across the Local Progress network.

Localities must reimagine traffic safety. Here’s how.

Across the country, there is already work being done that reimagines traffic safety with the holistic understanding of what people need to move safely and freely within their neighborhoods and communities. This includes, among many things, removing police from traffic enforcement.
headshots of Javiera Caballero and Jillian Johnson

Durham Needs a New Vision of Safety

Durham City Council members and LP members Javiera Caballero and Jillian Johnson call for a new approach to an old problem.

Local governments can and must continue protecting and expanding abortion access. Here’s how.

Today, while we commemorate Roe, we also recommit ourselves to building a world where communities thrive, and people can exercise their full agency and live with dignity. Here’s what local elected officials can do.
Ariel view of The Michigan State Capitol lit up at night.

How Grant Makers Can Help State Policy Makers Advance Smart Approaches

As state legislative sessions ramp up, a new band of lawmakers begins the challenging work of delivering on campaign promises during a period of extreme division and threats to democratic institutions and office holders.

Have a Media Inquiry?

Local Progress is a movement of local elected officials advancing a racial and economic justice agenda through all levels of local government. We are elected leaders who build power with underrepresented communities and fight to reshape what is possible in our localities all across the country. 

Want to get in touch with us for a story? Reach us at press@localprogress.org.

In The News

At Local Progress, we seek to make the aspirational pragmatic by showing how government can be a tool to create just and equitable outcomes and reshaping peoples’ understanding of governing from an institution to a collective responsibility. Here are some highlights of our media coverage:

A construction worker carrying a large piece of wood in the hot sun with their face and body mostly covered up. (Photo courtesy Ivette Carolina Agudelo-Lopez + Yerba Buena Engineering & Construction, Inc)

Cities Want To Give Worker’s Heat Breaks. States Are Stopping Them.

As the climate heats up, LP's LiJia Gong makes the case that abusive state preemption is prohibiting localities addressing climate change.
Small child receiving medical care reaching out from a bed (Photo by Dzulhaidy Abdul Rahim / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

I’m the Mayor of St. Paul. Here’s How Our City Is Erasing $100 Million in Medical Debt.

More and more local governments are using federal funds to relieve residents’ medical debt. Mayor of Saint Paul Melvin Carter explains why it's a simple, straightforward way to meet our communities’ needs.
Congressman Greg Casar speaks to protesters at the Governor’s Mansion against the Death Star Bill on Sept. 7, 2023. The protest was organized by the Workers Defense Project who want to protect the mandated rest breaks for workers outlined in local Austin ordinance. | Photo received from Kevin Kim (The Daily Texan)

Opinion: One Year Later, Local Leaders Must Be Bold Despite “Death Star” Law

July 1, 2024 marks one year since the City of Houston sued the state of Texas over the Death Star law. San Marcos City Councilmember Alyssa Garza makes the case that now is the time to be bold – to advance policies that uplift the very communities our legislature wants to silence.
social housing in Vienna, Austria

Is this European city a model for Philadelphia’s affordable housing? One Council member thinks so

Philadelphia City Councilmembers Jamie Gauthier and Kendra Brooks visited Vienna earlier this year with Local Progress to learn about its housing polices.

press Releases

After Grants Pass: organizing to house all our neighbors

In response to the Supreme Court's cruel decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson, we will continue to organize for housing for all.

Local Progress Condemns Cruel Supreme Court Decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson

In response to the Supreme Court’s decision in Grants Pass v. Johnson, Local Progress put out the following statement.

180+ State and Local Elected Officials Urge Congress to Reject the EATS Act

LP and the State Innovation Exchange (SiX) released letters calling on Congress to protect local and state governments ability to create policy that is responsive to the issues their own communities face in the agricultural industry. 

Local Leaders Denounce Senate Deal That Would Gut Asylum

In response to the Senate’s proposed border deal that would gut asylum in exchange for foreign military spending, Local Progress released this statement.

📬 LP Network Download | Traffic safety, ceasefire, history in Minnesota, & more! | January 2024

Here’s a look at some of what’s happening across the Local Progress network this month.