Editor's Note: Coalitions are building bold solutions for this moment
Listening in on a recent webinar hosted by the Progressive Caucus Action Fund (PCAF), “Progressive Playbook: Messages to Build Power,” I heard strategists, researchers, and organizers respond to the potentially paralyzing fatigue and frustration that untold numbers are feeling amid what seems to many of us like constant policy setbacks. The goal was to help participants create effective messaging for their respective constituents but judging from the comments in the “chat” and my own response, it helped reinvigorate us, too. Presenters shared conclusions based on what resonated with groups they studied, such as:
+We have strong footing for pushing what we believe in.
+People want to hear the bold solutions for seemingly insurmountable problems.
+They liked to hear that there is still so much we can do, with and for each other.
+We cannot stop proposing and advocating for where progressives want society to go.
And, powerfully,
+No one gets to sit this one out because if we do, there is a wave of injustice on our backs.
Presenters shared focus group data from PCAF and HIT Strategies (“the leading millennial and minority-owned public opinion research firm in Washington, DC”) that indicated “bold, progressive argument beats the moderate argument every time in test messages of where we are and where we need to go.” They said that we should not mistake despair for apathy, that people do care deeply about finding solutions for societal problems. They need to know, however, that they are being heard, that there are places for them to experience solidarity and a shared sense of hope, and that there are still policy avenues for making people’s lives better.
In this edition of the Networker, a double July-August issue, we present two powerful initiatives worth learning about, taking heart in, and lending your support to, that stand to make people’s lives better in countless ways. They both model the type of coalition-building for systems change in which SEHN immerses itself. They both have the potential to fast-track health, justice, environment, and climate progress. They offer bold solutions for complex problems that have become deeply ingrained as “business as usual.” They have exceptionally inspiring coalitions behind them, composed of professionals, activists, and others, who have worked out a range of highly technical challenges and are ready to run with what they’ve learned, and plans and policy proposals they have developed.
In “Anchors in Action: Building a Future Towards the Food System We Envision,” SEHN’s Ted Schettler and I describe an initiative to which Ted has contributed that will “harness the economic power of institutional food procurement, dramatically strengthening efforts to reverse the harms of the current global food system.” In “Towards a Rapid Shift to Healthy and Climate Safe Buildings,” Yu Ann Tan of RMI and I discuss efforts moving toward “decarbonizing” our building stock, through an equitable approach that is “a multi-solve of sorts, addressing many urgent interrelated health, environment, and climate problems, all of which have strong justice dimensions.” SEHN’s program, Concerned Health Professionals of New York, intends to increase its commitment to building decarbonization in New York State.
Most simply and immediately: Anchors in Action will mean better food and safer jobs. Building decarbonization will mean homes with improved indoor air quality. Ultimately, both contribute to a more just society and a more stable climate. Thank you for reading!
Carmi Orenstein, MPH
CHPNY Program Director, SEHN
P.S. My graduate school mentor, Dr. John Froines, passed away on July 13, 2022, from complications related to Parkinson’s disease. Over the course of his career in toxicology and exposure assessment, his phenomenal commitment to addressing harmful exposures—from the regulatory level (he authored landmark federal standards for cotton dust and lead) to assisting and literally standing with environmental justice communities in Los Angeles—improved the lives of countless people in countless ways. In 2013 he received the Collegium Ramazzini Award recognizing his global contributions in occupational and environmental health research and policy, and for being a “public health hero.” He was also an anti-war activist and one of the Chicago 7, who stood trial after protesting at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. His memory will always be an inspiration.