The motto of Greater NYC for Change is “everyday people for social and political change.” We’re committed to bringing together people from all walks of life around the common aim of building a better society, a stronger tomorrow, and solutions to our most intractable problems.
We’re also committed to an ideal of grassroots leadership–to helping those who can lead us toward social justice and to developing new leaders from the creative collaboration of innumerable activists.
This year, we extend thanks to the numerous anti-fracking activists who led and inspired is in demanding and securing a ban on hyrdrofracking in New York State. We express admiration as well as gratitude to the brilliant young organizers who mobilized New Yorkers and millions nationwide in peacefully demanding justice for Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and others like them, and respect and dignity for our communities of color.
We’re deeply thankful to the many who worked with us on our initiatives and coalition projects in 2014, among them:
- Get Covered New York: Huge thanks are due the 120 volunteers and our partners at Health Care for All New York, who helped insure almost 4,000 people in our city’s medically underserved communities.
- Register New York: Kudos to those who joined us and the New Latino Movement to register hundreds of people to vote in the 2014 elections.
- UPK-NYC Coalition: We celebrate the advocates and volunteers who made universal early education programs a reality for our city’s young children and families.
- Fair Wages for New Yorkers: We applaud the members of RaiseUpNew York, FastFoodForward, and the collective Fight For $15 and a Union, along with our colleagues in the Living Wage Coalition, who helped secure this year’s victory to limit tax-subsidized structural poverty in New York City.
- Protecting New York’s Homeless: Gratitude is due the many who joined us in our important panel on the plight of New York’s many homeless children and the blight of homelessness–and also committed to action. We extend grateful appreciation to Pastor Mark Erson of St. John’s Church for providing a space for discussion and a place for assistance to the many homeless youth (including LGBT youth) in Lower Manhattan.
- The People’s Climate March: Admiration and respect for our colleagues and fellow organizers for the brilliance of the largest worldwide gathering for a secure planet in history, and for their ongoing work for climate justice
- Fair Elections: We thank the many who continue to fight with us in demanding publicly financed elections, with oversight, to limit corruption and strengthen the people’s voice–and to secure the kind of locally reflective, disinterested representation that New York City’s campaign finance reform has provided for all New York residents.
- Get Out the Vote NY: We continue to be awed by all those who joined us in our massive, four-month-long voter contact effort, including multi-candidate phone banks and canvasses, to help attain stronger political representation for the people of our city and state.
We enjoyed working with New York’s many outstanding progressive elected representatives in 2014.
We extend our gratitude to the remarkable organizing groups and institutions we worked alongside this year, including ACT NOW, Brooklyn Young Democrats, Chelsea/West Village for Change, Citizen Action of New York, Community Health Advocates, Democracy for New York City, Health Care for All New York coalition, Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing, Make the Road-New York, Manhattan Young Democrats, New Latino Movement, New York Communities for Change, New York State Young Democrats, Putnam County Young Democrats, Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need, 350.org, 350.nyc, Strong Economy for All Coalition, United for Action, Village Independent Democrats, VOCAL-NYC, Westchester Young Democrats, WFP Manhattan, and more.
New York is the better for all our efforts. We look forward to working together, every day, in 2015! === Dale Corvino, Maki Isayama, Kate Linker, Kim Moscaritolo,Yuridia Peña, Aliya Quraishi, Brett Saffer, Sara Valenzuela, Tasha Williams
