For the past three decades, Washington politicians and their benefactors have broken their promises of jobs and economic relief to struggling working families. Instead, they have turned the “American Dream” of health, education and success into an American Nightmare of poverty, foreclosures and a loss of stability and dignity.

Now, they’re coming for our Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, all to pay for more tax cuts for the rich and sweetheart deals for big corporations. The upper one percent of Americans currently control over one third of the private wealth in America, and instead of paying their fair share, they now want to take the programs that we have spent our entire lives working to build. It’s our money and we’re not going to sit back and watch them take it!

Joining our staff, coalition partners, and concerned supporters were President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt and his wife Elanor Roosevelt, who oversaw the implementation of The New Deal, an economic overhaul in the 1930s that stimulated the recovery of the economy after the Great Depression and provided jobs and stability to thousands of working families. Arriving in a stately Studebaker, the elegant couple added an air of prestige and elegance to our caravan.

The Caravan commenced at Kleinhans Music Hall, a world-class venue that was made possible by Roosevelt’s New Deal. It was a fitting location to start off the procession and a testament to the ability of government to provide jobs and security instead of preying upon vulnerable working families.

Many citizens spoke about the need to restore the American Promise. Speakers included elderly people that rely upon essential services in order to pay for medication, disabled parents that rely upon the safety net in order to provide for their children, and concerned adults that have to care for their parents, among many others.

Meeting at 11 different locations across New York State, our Caravan garnered thousands of demonstrators, a myriad of press coverage (click here to read a list of articles) and supporters from different political parties (including Republicans!). America’s true majority came out to express their disbelief at the immense greed required to strip America’s social safety net.

Organizations participating include Alliance for Quality Education, Citizen Action of New York, New York City Coalition for Educational Justice, Long Island Progressive Coalition, Make the Road New York, New York Communities for Change, VOCAL, Push-Buffalo, Right to the City New York, Real Rent Reform New York, Community Voices Heard and also New Deal for New York , The Save Our SUNY Coalition, Strong Economy for All and Growing Together NY.

We’ll be covering the event live, using the stream below. If you can’t make it to Albany, come back here on 3/30 between 2pm and midnight for full, live coverage of the events at the Capitol.

Justice Works: A Conference for Progressive New York – is a new event like none other in New York.

For those of you who have been to a Citizen Action annual leadership conference in the past: This event is going to be bigger and better than ever before. We will have at least double the number of attendees, nationally renowned speakers, and, most importantly, we’re opening registration and inviting dozens of other organizations to participate. This is no longer an event just for Citizen Action’s top volunteers. It’s an event designed to strengthen and unite New York’s progressive movement.

For those of you who are asking, “what’s a Citizen Action annual leadership conference?” : We’re bringing together hundreds of New York’s progressive population for an intense two-day conference complete will workshops on issues and skills and plenary discussions on big questions facing our communities, our state, and our nation. We’ll also have some top notch keynote speakers to help put it all into perspective.

Justice Works will be held at the beautiful (and unionized) Crowne Plaza Hotel in historic downtown Albany, New York, just two blocks from the Capitol. It’s easily accessible by plane, train, bus, car, and, well, being just two blocks form the Hudson River, boats too. The hotel will offer free shuttle service to and from the airport and train station. With your registration, you’ll also get free covered parking in the hotel garage. There’s a lovely swimming pool, and all the guest rooms have flat panel TVs. But, you’re not going to want to watch TV…

We’ll have workshops on organizing skills, health care, education, green jobs, the economy, the arts as part of progressive change. And there’ll be some great entertainment on Saturday evening.

Now that you know why you have to be there, here’s some details about registration:

1. Early registration is from now until April 1st. We strongly encourage you to take advantage of the cheapest rate by registering today!
2. Scholarships are available. Applications for scholarships are due on March 18th. Get yours in today.
3. Sponsorship is available. If you’re from an organization, and want some good promotion at the progressive meet up of the year, become a sponsor of Justice Works. Details are here.

Once you’re registered, be sure to let your friends know about Justice Works. And be sure to “like” the Justice Works Facebook page to stay up to date on the conference agenda, speaker announcement, and other details.

Shanna Goldman, our Organizing Director, and Chris Scoville, our Capital District Organizer, opened the conference with a dynamic discussion on far reach of economic concerns. Leaders then chose among 3 workshops that were divided into 2 days. Jess Wisneski, our Legislative Director, and Cynthia Ward, Northeast Action Executive Director, moderated the health care workshop. Cleo Oliver, Citizen Action Campaign Coordinator, and Carin Schiewe, Northeast Action Field Director, moderated the civic engagement workshop. Karen Scharff, our Executive Director, managed the education workshop.

Citizen Action staff loved the level of engagement–especially since we all put so many hours into organizing the conference.

The engagement, though, reached into the Internet this year. We live-streamed portions of the conference and actively used Twitter and Facebook. Leaders especially loved the Twitter projection. Be sure to click on the link to see what the buzz was all about.

We ended the conference on a riveting and uplifting note. William McNary, President of USAction – our national affliate-, brought everyone to their feet and some even to tears. Luckily, in yet another example of technological versatility, Charlie Albanetti, our Communications Director, captured this provocative engagement on video.

Here is a collection of photos that highlight our very active weekend:

We’re also embedding the informational binder that each attendee received. The pages highlight our major projects and is chock full of useful summaries. Please take a look!

2010 Leadership Conference Binder Docs

It appeared that the Administration we worked so hard to elect was backing away from our strongest mandate – true health care reform through a strong public option.

But every cloud has a silver lining!

My group in Buffalo, BuffalObama, that worked so very hard from March of 2007 until election day and after, is re-energized.  And it’s not just Buffalo, across the state the grassroots organizers who have been continuing to meet, open offices, make phone calls and support health care reform initiatives are ready to speak up.  We are not going to lose this fight!

So, if you were involved in the campaign – knocking on doors, making calls, holding signs, sending in money – it’s time to do it again!  Let’s not waste the significant time we put in during the election with inside the beltway politics and insurance company money.  We proved we could overcome all of that during the election – we can do it again!

Call your Citizen Action office right now and ask what you can do – we have LOTS of events happening and each one is important to show that our support for a public option is louder and larger than the voices of the right wing crazies.

The City of Poughkeepsie is the County seat and has an interesting and prominent place in Dutchess County History. Once considered the “Jewel of the Hudson,” the City has suffered the ill effects of economic decline, crime, and poverty since the 1950s. Local political and community leaders have worked hard to bring Poughkeepsie back, and promising changes are being seen. Parts of Main Street are home to new shops and successful restaurants. The waterfront also has been revitalized with art sculpture, refurbished parks, a public walkway, and private facilities.

The population of the City of Poughkeepsie is close to 31,000. The City’s population is approximately 51% white, 37% Black, and 11% Hispanic, according to 2000 census data. There are several outstanding community agencies in Poughkeepsie. Perhaps the most well known is the Family Partnership Center, an umbrella organization of over thirty non-profit and human services organizations. The FPC was co-founded by the late beloved Poughkeepsie community leader Lateef Islam. Among the trusted organizations FPC houses are Dutchess Outreach, Hudson River Health Care, The Living Room, and the Sadie Peterson Delaney African Roots Library. The Catherine Street Community Center is another trusted organization in the City that offers AIDS awareness and prevention education, after school and summer programs, and a boys choir program.

CAHV held a public hearing on health care at the FPC on Monday, October 29th. The hearing was modeled after the Partnership for Coverage panels the Spitzer administration has been holding around the stated. The panelists at the Poughkeepsie forum were Poughkeepsie County Legislator Barbara Jeter-Jackson, Spitzer Administration Regional Representative Tara Sullivan, and Partnership for Coverage panelist Mark Scherzer. Over forty people attended the meeting and many gave testimony about the challenges they have faced accessing health care. Representatives from the American Cancer Society and Union organizations also spoke about the plight of people who have inadequate health coverage. The hearing was held in Poughkeepsie by CAHV in the hopes of recruiting more members of the Poughkeepsie community to Citizen Action’s statewide health care campaign.

CAHV is interested in involving more people from Poughkeepsie in the health care campaign and other important campaigns. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact me at (516) 749-1995. We need your energy, activism, and leadership. Don’t wait another day to advocate for yourself, your family, and your community – become an active member of Citizen Action today!

-Stephanie Ruggiero, CAHV Steering Committee Member