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Advocacy

Madison Action Day 2023

Date: 
Thursday, April 27, 2023 (All day)
Location: 
State Capitol, Madison

Register Now for Madison Action Day 2023

Ride and Rally for Reform!

Ride . . . . .     the bus to Madison
Rally . . . . .    on the Capitol Steps
Relay . . . . .   your views and values to your legislators
Reignite . . .   your fire for justice!

Register Now: MAD2023 Registration cost is $25, + optional t-shirt order is $10.  Your bus ride is free!

We are excited for Madison Action Day 2023 on April 27! We will gather at the Wisconsin Masonic Center, 301 Wisconsin Ave, Madison at 9:00 am and then make our way together to the Wisconsin State Capitol Building. Event in Madison ends at 3.Two buses have been reserved to take us to Madison--3 locations and departure times to be announced.

A time to share state budget priorities.  Madison Action Day is especially important this year since each of the Joint Finance Committee Budget Hearings are located much further from most of population centers---April 5, Waukesha, April 11, Eau Claire, April 12 Wisconsin Dells, and April 26, Minocqua.  Madison Action Day gives us an opportunity to share our budget priorities.  We will be making recommendations regarding more funding for TAD, Driver's Licenses for Immigrants, funding for lead abatement and expanding Badger Care. That is the focus of the visits.  The morning Plenary includes speakers to renew our energy and focus.  We also will hear about costly reconciliation, radical inclusion, Living for the Seventh Generation, and Brothertown.

Please register by April 6 so we can begin to organize our visits to legislators.  A booklet outlining our budget priorities will be provided to each participant prior to Madison Action Day to help with preparations for our visits. Each legislator will also receive a copy of the booklet.  At each district visit, we need a facilitator and someone to speak for each budget priority. You can volunteer to speak or come along to show support for these recommendations. 

These trainings are available:
​March 23, 6:30 Working with legislators. Register at  Spring Trainings 
April 3, 6:30 pm  Telling your story Joint Finance Prep, register at Telling your story

Transit Equity Day 2023

Date: 
Saturday, February 4, 2023 (All day)

Transit Equity (click for video)

Public transit provides basic mobility for many in our communities. It is also essential urban infrastructure–just like roads, bridges, tunnels and utilities–that is crucial to the economic, social and environmental well-being of all our regions.

Everyone has a right to a public mass transit system that includes:

  1. Safe, reliable, environmentally-sustainable and affordable transit that is accessible to all, regardless of income, national origin, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, or ability.
  2. An affordable public transit system that reliably connects people in all communities to the places we need to travel: home, work, school, places of worship, shopping, health, and recreation, in as efficient, and timely a manner as possible. We must ensure that all communities have access to transit; no community should be left behind. Public transit in rural, less densely populated communities should be provided in any master transportation plan despite the special challenges that may present.
  3. Living wages, benefits, safe working conditions, and union rights for transit workers, including those who manufacture transit equipment, and access to family-sustaining transit jobs and training opportunities for people from underserved communities.
  4. A just transition for workers and communities who are dependent on our current automobile and highway-centered transportation system, to ensure that no one is left behind as we transition to a more public, accessible, and cleaner transit-based system.
  5. Rapid transition of our transit and school bus systems to electric, non-polluting buses powered by electricity from renewables.
  6. Safe, healthy and livable neighborhoods that are connected by public transportation and by bicycle pathways and sidewalks, and that are planned to expand safe access to transit and reduce single occupancy vehicle miles traveled.
  7. Dedicated and sustainable public funding for public transit.

https://www.labor4sustainability.org/transit-equity/

Transit Equity Day 2023

Transit Equity (click for video)

Public Transit provides basic mobility for many in our communities. It is also essential urban infrastructure–just like roads, bridges, tunnels and utilities–that is crucial to the economic, social and environmental well-being of all our regions.

Everyone has a right to a public mass transit system that includes:

 

  1. Safe, reliable, environmentally-sustainable and affordable transit that is accessible to all, regardless of income, national origin, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, religion, or ability.
  2. An affordable public transit system that reliably connects people in all communities to the places we need to travel: home, work, school, places of worship, shopping, health, and recreation, in as efficient, and timely a manner as possible. We must ensure that all communities have access to transit; no community should be left behind. Public transit in rural, less densely populated communities should be provided in any master transportation plan despite the special challenges that may present.
  3. Living wages, benefits, safe working conditions, and union rights for transit workers, including those who manufacture transit equipment, and access to family-sustaining transit jobs and training opportunities for people from underserved communities.
  4. A just transition for workers and communities who are dependent on our current automobile and highway-centered transportation system, to ensure that no one is left behind as we transition to a more public, accessible, and cleaner transit-based system.
  5. Rapid transition of our transit and school bus systems to electric, non-polluting buses powered by electricity from renewables.
  6. Safe, healthy and livable neighborhoods that are connected by public transportation and by bicycle pathways and sidewalks, and that are planned to expand safe access to transit and reduce single occupancy vehicle miles traveled.
  7. Dedicated and sustainable public funding for public transit.

https://www.labor4sustainability.org/transit-equity/

Madison Action Day Training Series

Posted in
Date: 
Thursday, February 9, 2023 - 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Date: 
Thursday, February 23, 2023 - 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Date: 
Thursday, March 9, 2023 - 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Date: 
Thursday, March 23, 2023 - 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Date: 
Thursday, April 13, 2023 - 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location: 
Zoom Meeting

 

Madison Action Day will be Thursday, April 27, 2023.
 

Here are some trainings over the next few months that will help to prepare us for Madison Action Day.

Madison Action Day is scheduled every-other year, to coincide with the time that the legislature is working on the state budget. This year, WISDOM, ESTHER's state partner, is offering five trainings, via Zoom, to prepare for both the Budget Hearings and Madison Action Day. Learn how to advocate for funding that will help support gains and improvements in the issues on which we are working. Please start sharing these trainings with your contacts, your faith community, and other organizations. Watch for more information about signing up with ESTHER for travelling to Madison that day.  We hope to fill two buses from the Fox Cities.

The five trainings will be:

Thursday Feb. 9, 6:30 pm: State Budget 101

Thursday Feb. 23, 6:30 pm: WISDOM Budget Issues

Thursday March 9, 6:30 pm Telling your Story

Thursday March 23, 6:30 pm: Working with Legislators

Thursday April 13, 6:30 pm: Madison Action Day Orientation

To register for any or all of the first four trainings: WISDOM 2023 Spring Trainings

To register for April 13:  Madison Action Day Orientation and Preparation

 

Video: Fall Gathering 2022

Our Fall Gathering was a huge success. Thank you to all who helped make this possible, and all who participated. 

Anyone who would like to watch the video can find it online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jfM40AFFFY

Please enjoy and share your feedback. 

 

Help Send Postcards to Voters

Posted in

Let’s get out the vote.

Help complete postcards to voters: Oct 13th

…because democracy needs all our voices.

Please note that Oct. 11 event has been canceled due to the hard work of people at Oshkosh ESTHER meeting on Oct.4.  You're welcome to register for Oct. 13.  We will easily meet our goal of 1,000 postcards.

You are invited to join us in non-partisan voter outreach as we write postcards to encourage Wisconsin citizens to vote in the upcoming election. We know how important it is for voters in this election to take the time to get informed about candidates and vote for officials who will protect both democracy and the issues which are at the heart of ESTHER’s work. We want to remind Wisconsin citizens that their voice and vote are vital to the future of Wisconsin, and this is a proven method of increasing turnout.

Here are the details. Please register and share the invite!

 

  • Thursday, Oct. 13th:  First Congregational UCC, 724 E. South River Street, Appleton WI  54915, 6-7:30, Includes pizza and beverage. RSVP at esther-foxvalley.org/postcardsoct13

"Forward Together - Not One Step Back"

     A 14 hour bus trip is a long enough to learn a few things. The first was the call and response that is the center piece of The Poor People’s March on Washington. Here it is -

“Forward together” and the reply is “Not One Step Back”. It seems so simple. And it is. But it is also the bedrock of the Third Reconstruction of America. The Moral Reconstruction of America.

      The first Reconstruction, right after the Civil War, failed because violence and racism was too popular for many institutions, businesses and people. The Second Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement, failed because too many people were willing to hurt their own future, their own families, their own country rather than let other people have freedom and some political power. We’ve seen it in the Senate hearings, in the current Texas RNC platform that calls for secession, in the fact that in the 1960’s small towns all over the South filled in their city pools rather than integrate. So this time we’re taking everyone forward. Our allies and our enemies.

“Forward Together” “Not One Step Back”

     That means we can’t leave anyone behind. If that means that Baptist ministers have to join the campaign for trans rights; that’s what has to happen and on June 18th, it did happen. It means that if union organizers are with a bunch of artists and a paper mâché tank, they are together. It means that disabilities have to be taken into account, that age and accidents have to be provided for.

“Forward Together” “Not Step Back”

     Was the event perfect? No. Were there problems? Oh, yeah. Whenever you have thousands of people, you have problems. But they are an organization that anticipated those problems. It began on the buses, with gift cards to cover meals on the road and even gas to get to the bus. Because they assumed they were attracting poor people.  At the event, there were moveable ramps so that wheelchair users didn’t have to go down a block to go up a curb. Cooling areas for the elderly or overheated. There was glorious chaos. There were problems finding food. Some groups fed their own people first. The sandwiches were cheese or BBQ and some people missed the old hand made turkey or peanut butter. New Mexico had free vegan tacos that could blister a Wisconsin tongue. Ice cream trucks circled the outside. Free food attracts random homeless people. That’s Ok. They too are going forward.

“Forward Together” “Not One Step Back”

     There were speeches by Rev. William Barber II, Yolanda King, music, dancing and representatives from all 50 states talking about their own personal issues in poverty, incarceration, homelessness, lack of healthcare, being gay, being trans, being undocumented, chronically ill. Some of which we missed because our bus got lost. It’s OK. Progress is messy.

     It was fun, trading signs, flags, and pins. Seeing heroes in real life and sneaking off to an ice-cream truck. Trying to meet up with people when cell phones are dead, buses being late. Cleaning up behind us because sanitation workers are people too. Will there be sacrifices in this movement? Yeah, like being last in line for pizza, having sore feet for days, wearing a mask on a 14 hour bus trip. Freedom is worth the cost.

“Forward together” “Not one step back”

     I’ve seen the future IF If --we all come together. A future where there is plenty for all because money isn’t wasted on war and hate. Where we can find food and shelter for all. Where healthcare is a right and no dies by violence.

“Forward Together” “Not One Step Back”

     Remember this when someone says that “those people’s” rights can wait or don’t matter. That can’t be true. Whether Texans or trans we need to go-

“Forward Together” “Not One Step Back”

ESTHER member Joyce Frohn and her daughter Elizabeth attended the "Poor People's March on Washington DC" this past month.

Fox Cities People & Politics

Date: 
Wednesday, June 1, 2022 - 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Location: 
Legends Cuts & Styles, Fox River Mall, 4301 W Wisconsin Ave, Appleton

Fox Cities People & Politics. We'll be discussing Unlock the Vote, storytelling around the constitutional amendment, and hearing from elected officials, candidates and appointees who impact us as System-Impacted People


Sponsored by EXPO, FREE, Legends Cuts & Styles and ESTHER. Follow the Facebook event page for latest information.

Help spread the word! Download and share the attached flier.

Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight to Vote

Posted in
Date: 
Wednesday, June 1, 2022 - 6:30pm
Location: 
Menasha Public Library

This is a public screening of Suppressed and Sabotaged: The Fight to Vote. This film shines light on the dark corners of our country's voting processes, including the increase of vote-restricting laws passed through legislation prior to, during and after the 2020 election cycle. Panel discussion following the film. Sponsored by ESTHER and the League of Women Voters of Appleton-Fox Cities

Introduction to Community Organizing

Posted in
Date: 
Wednesday, April 13, 2022 - 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Date: 
Wednesday, April 20, 2022 - 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Date: 
Wednesday, April 27, 2022 - 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Date: 
Wednesday, May 4, 2022 - 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Date: 
Wednesday, May 11, 2022 - 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location: 
Zoom Meeting

Wisdom Wisconsin will be holding a 5 week Zoom series from April 13-May 11 on Introduction to Community Organizing. This is open to everybody and is a great way to learn about organizing.

 

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