Thank you so very much for contributing to Northeast Action’s regional meeting last month. At the final count, over 60 leaders representing 25 organizations attended. Since a key goal of Northeast Action is strengthening progressive organizing ties between the national, state, and local levels, it was wonderful to see such synergy between emerging strategies. Many participants walked away with inspired and detailed action plans. These notes highlight meeting accomplishments and regional support needs.

HEALTH CARE AND RACIAL JUSTICE. There was great energy and excitement in the group to make racial justice a guiding force in our state and regional health care campaigns.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Peer Learning. Participants heard from successful racial justice health care campaigns from the Northwest and practiced developing their own.
• State Plans. Participants identified desired outcomes and action steps for their state campaigns (including how they want them to impact the national one), with a focus on coalition building and developing racial justice message frames.
• Upcoming Meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for July 18th. Please contact David Desiderato at ddesiderato@neaction.org for more details.

REGIONAL SUPPORT NEEDS

• Peer Learning and Accountability. Coordinate regional meetings, trainings, and online exchanges for cross-state learning, support, and accountability.
• Action Research. Design reports on racial disparities in health care with local data tailored to the needs of direct action organizing.
• Shared Principles. Coordinate the development of regionally shared principles for racial equity in health care.

CANDIDATES OF COLOR. Building from the 2008 focus group report prepared by Northeast Action, many thoughtful and tangible ideas emerged for building a stronger network of support for new leaders of color aspiring to become politically active.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Civic Engagement Campaign that Addresses Racial Barriers. To address the need to engage potential voters across racial divides within communities of color, Rhode Island participants developed a civic engagement campaign that addresses these racial barriers.
• Leadership Lab. New York participants identified the need for a Leadership Lab that allows leaders of color to practice the skills they are taught before they launch into real life campaigns

REGIONAL SUPPORT NEEDS

• Training and Coaching. Develop a training for trainers program for people of color, with a coaching component, that delivers support to campaign teams in planning, fundraising, message development, and managing decisions.
• Online Resource Database. Develop an online resource database for campaign leadership, message development, and strategy development for candidates of color.
• Fundraising. Provide practical fundraising training and support, including strategies on accessing financial networks and developing a culture of giving and asking within communities of color.

CIVIC ENGAGEMENT. Northeast Action partnered with MassVOTE to test out pieces of our new civic engagement curriculum.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Practical Civic Engagement Curriculum. Northeast Action developed an integrated year-round civic engagement curriculum for this session and trained participants as trainers. (Four groups reported finding the curriculum so useful that they planned to use it in their 2008 civic engagement programs.)

REGIONAL SUPPORT NEEDS

• New Curriculum Posted Online. Continue to revise and refine the core civic engagement curriculum and make it available online.
• Peer Learning. Share and develop best practice trainings and materials, and connect group regionally and to national leading organizations.

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Co-sponsors (a partial list) Applied Research Center, Center for Community Change, Citizen Action of New York, Connecticut Citizen Action Group, MassVOTE, Northeast Action Campaigns, Northeastern University Center for Leadership and Public Life, Ocean State Action, Oiste, Maine People's Alliance, New Hampshire Citizen's Alliance, Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, USAction