Cities Must Get Ready to Resist

Following last week’s inauguration, we are committed more than ever to ensuring that cities are places where all people – regardless of their race, ethnicity, faith, sexual orientation, gender identity, or ability – can participate, prosper, and reach their full potential. To that end, we are hosting our first installment of several webinars throughout the year on local policies to build equitable cities, beginning with sanctuary cities and spaces. We are continuing to expand our work to empower city officials, community advocates, and other civic leaders with the tools to make racial economic inclusion and equitable growth their reality.

Sanctuary Spaces: Creating Safe Communities For All
In today’s political climate, immigrant families, Muslim residents, and other communities of color face increased surveillance and growing threats to their safety and well-being. Join this webinar on January 30 at 11:30 a.m.- 12:30 p.m. PT /2:30 - 3:30 p.m. ET to learn how state and local leaders across the country can create safer environments for vulnerable members of their communities.

Speakers include:

  • Angela Glover Blackwell, PolicyLink (moderator)
  • Linda Sarsour, MPower Change
  • Angie Junck, Immigrant Legal Resource Center
  • Jorge Gutierrez, Familia Trans Queer Liberation Movement
  • L. Patricia Ice, ‎ MIRA Legal Project at Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance

To register, click here.

Fresno, CA: Health Equity and Inclusive Growth Profile Launched
With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, PolicyLink has partnered with the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, a community coalition that works with negatively impacted communities to advance equity and justice in the San Joaquin and East Coachella Valleys, to produce a comprehensive equity profile. The profile will inform policy solutions for health equity, inclusive growth, and a culture of health in Fresno County. We kicked off the engagement with a site visit on January 12 that included a review of initial data, interviews with community leaders, and a tour of impacted neighborhoods. We will be releasing a report and policy agenda in April 2017.

The Cost of Residents' Financial Insecurity to City Budgets: What Do We Know, and What Can Cities Do?
On February 9 from 10:00 -11:00 a.m. PT/ 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. ET, the Urban Institute will be hosting a webinar sharing their new research on the relationship between financial insecurity and city budgets in 10 cities across the country, including: Chicago, Columbus, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New Orleans, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle. Alexandra Bastien, Senior Associate at PolicyLink, will present on local strategies targeting residents’ financial health, outcomes, and barriers. To register, click here.