Progressive Coalition Organizes State and Local Week of Action to Push for Bold, Equitable Public Investments
ProsperUS coalition will demonstrate the real-world impact of public investments on people across the country
Each day will focus on five urgent issues: Climate Justice, Education, Public Health, Housing Justice, and Care Work
Washington D.C. — This Monday, August 9, progressive coalition ProsperUS will be launching a five-day virtual storytelling campaign to keep the pressure on federal, state, and local lawmakers to deliver significant and sustained public investments in infrastructure. The Justice in Recovery State and Local Digital Week of Action will feature stories from people across the country to ensure lawmakers are listening to what they urgently need and are held accountable for delivering these desperately-needed investments.
“Organizers, community leaders, and workers on the ground understand the stakes better than anyone,” said Azza Altiraifi, senior program manager at Groundwork and one of the organizers of the ProsperUS Week of Action. “Through the power of storytelling, we are committed to ensuring federal investments reach the local communities who need these supports most. Securing these life-sustaining investments is core to stamping out the injustices that impede a full and equitable recovery.”
The themes for the Week of Action (8/9-8/13) are as follows:
Monday, August 9: Climate Justice
Tuesday, August 10: Education
Wednesday, August 11: Public Health
Thursday, August 12: Housing Justice
Friday, August 13: Care Work
Storytellers include community members directly impacted by these issues as well as organizers leading local and state campaigns across the country. These stories will be accompanied by calls for others to share their own stories and engage in conversation on Twitter using the #ProsperUS hashtag from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET throughout the week. A digital toolkit with sample tweets and graphics can be accessed here.
Launched in February 2021, ProsperUS represents 80+ movement groups, labor organizations, think tanks, small business groups, and advocates across the country fighting for robust and equitable investments to tackle the climate crisis, care for loved ones, and getting people back to work. The State & Local Week of Action builds on a six-figure ad buy, first reported in Politico’s Weekly Shift, which called on Congress to put people and communities first.
Select quotes from state and local groups in the ProsperUS coalition engaging in the State & Local Digital Week of Action
Amy Hanauer, Executive Director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy
“If we want our communities and people to thrive, we need to make crucial investments to green our economy, school the next generation, protect public health, provide affordable housing, and care for our families. We can easily afford that better society by levying adequate taxes on the wealthy people and corporations that are gaining so much from our economy. It’s time to do that so that our economies work for all of us."
Treasure Mackley, Executive Director at Invest in Washington Now
“We came together in Washington state to demand that legislators start to balance our upside-down tax code and, after 12 years of fighting for it, lawmakers finally passed it this year, but those with the most are still not paying their share in taxes. Washington state’s tax code is the most regressive in the country, which means those with the least income are paying the highest share of their earnings in state and local taxes. So we’re going to keep working together to demand that everyone pays their share so that all our communities have the resources we need to thrive.”
Blythe Kim, Communications Director at Detroit Disability Power
“Nearly every person encounters the experience of disability, personally or with a family member. We feel the frustration of a system ill-equipped to support us because the system doesn’t consider us. When you consider and care for the disability community, you consider and care for everyone. DDP works to ensure that when decision-makers strategize about large-scale equitable investments in infrastructure, climate, HCBS, or public health, they consider our disability community’s needs and our political power, ensuring all our futures.”
Select quotes from storytellers engaging in the State & Local Digital Week of Action
Valerie Novack, Disability Policy Researcher | Logan, Utah
“Many of us are one missed paycheck, bad accident, or misstep away from losing housing indefinitely.”
Sarah Jimenez, Senior Researcher | Boston, Massachusetts
“Our society’s failure to invest in child care hurts everyone. The constraints on working parents drag down our economic productivity. The contribution to poverty rates burdens our government. We sacrifice the fullest potential of all our children.”
Ramiro Alvarez, Community Organizer | Detroit, Michigan
“Disabled people are experts in letting us know which public systems/buildings/resources are the least accessible and most poorly designed. The lived experience and resulting wisdom reveal the biggest holes in our infrastructure. The consequences of ignoring our warning calls and calls to action are severe for all of us.”
Yvonne Wichman, Part-time faculty | Fulton County, Georgia
“Policymakers, employers, and the general public need to realize that not everyone receives a paycheck 52 weeks a year. Many of us work part-time, so our pay is sporadic. This can be both frustrating and life-threatening.”
David Li, Social Impact & Policy Officer | Chicago, Illinois
“As a second-generation Chinese American living with depression and anxiety, help’s everywhere and nowhere. The problem is a broken mental health system that’s failed to account for our stories right from its conception.”
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About ProsperUS
ProsperUS is a coalition of major progressive labor, grassroots, movement, faith-based, small business, and policy organizations at the state, local, and national levels. We’re coming together to ensure the government at all levels hears the demands of the people, meets the historic nature of the crises we face with bold ideas, and fearlessly commits the public resources needed to implement them. Learn more at ProsperUS.org.
