Local Organizing Committees

Civic Engagement

Get Out The Vote Fall 2020

Sacramento ACT has been engaging in an effort to reach 4,000 voters urging them to make their voice heard and to support Prop. 15 to reclaim $12 Billion/year in funding for our schools and communities! Sign the pledge to here: bit.ly/ACTYeson15

Sacramento City Unified School District Candidates Forum

On Tuesday, September 29th, Sacramento ACT gathered all candidates running for school board in the Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) to ask them about some of the most pressing challenges facing our district.  Listen to what they had to say in the video above.

Individual responses for each of the candidates can be accessed below:

Sacramento ACT works to create a more just world by teaching people of faith how to build and exercise their own power to address the root causes of the problems they face. A critical piece of this power is voting and civic engagement is woven into all of our work. In late 2019 and 2020, we will be working to educate residents on the importance of participating in Census 2020 and how it impacts local funding.

We recognize that an integral part of the civic engagement process is restoring hope.  The people who are most oppressed, most disenfranchised are frequently those with the least hope in the voting process.  Our work is to ignite hope and assurance that each voice, each vote matters. 

Since the building block of our organizing work is relationships, our approach to voter outreach is relational. As we reach out to low propensity voters who are predominantly people of color and youth, we ask what is your vision for your community? As we engage in conversation and relationship, we register voters and empower them to reach out to their friends, members of their congregation, and neighbors.

In the Spring of 2018, we had conversations with nearly 24,000 local low-propensity voters, using a combination of phone-banking and door-to-door canvassing.

Year after year, we train thousands of people as their own best advocates.  As we build a just and equitable community, we know that those closest to the pain are the best architects of the solution.  It is critical that these voices are heard in the electoral process and we are committed to this goal.

There are many ways that you and your institution can support civic engagement.  Will you join us to inspire voters to transform our community?

Education

ACT works to increase Restorative Justice, mental health and English Language Learner supports for students in the Sacramento City Unified School District. We have successfully worked to reduce the number of School Resource Officers (police officers) on SCUSD campuses and to add community input to define school safety. We have also begun to work in the Twin Rivers Unified School District, and successfully advocated to prevent school closures. We are exploring best practices for Restorative Justice and developing regional strategies for Restorative Justice as well as creating pathways for re-entry to school after incarceration.

Environmental Justice

ACT began organizing on environmental justice in 2017 and exploring environmental racism and injustice in Sacramento.  After much research and learning, the LOC is currently focused on the West Arden Arcade neighborhood which has been identified by the County of Sacramento as an “Environmental Justice Community” or a community facing some of the strongest negative environmental health impacts in the county.  The LOC is working with neighborhood leaders to identify areas of most concern, and to work to address them. In 2019, ACT added a Climate Change LOC. 

Homelessness and Housing

Sacramento has an epic affordable housing and homelessness crisis.  ACT has worked to gain cooperation between the City and County of Sacramento to develop a comprehensive plan to end homelessness.  We also understand the intersection between homelessness and mental health and work to expand mental health resources.  We are working to increase housing stability and access in impacted communities, including housing for formerly incarcerated residents and youth.  We are working on inclusionary zoning and ways to assure that affordable housing is distributed through the region.  We are raising affordable housing and homelessness as critical issues in the 2020 local elections.

ACT’s Homelessness & Housing Local Organizing Committee (LOC) Letter to the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors Regarding the FY 2020-2021 Budget:

Dear Chair Serna and Members of the Board of Supervisors: 

Sacramento Area Congregations Together (SacACT) provides these comments on the FY 2020/21 budget that was released on August 28, 2020. 

We appreciate the brief opportunity we had to discuss the general direction of the budget with staff, and we reiterate our concern that the budget MUST address public health and homelessness in a robust way. We understand the county struggles with loss of revenue and increased costs due to the pandemic, but it is essential that decisions about whether to augment or cut programs depart from the “status quo” orientation we see in the proposed budget. Click here to read the full letter.

ACT’s COMMUNITY CALL TO ACTION:

The economy has not begun to recover—families are in crisis and with the eviction moratorium ending, hundreds are at risk of falling off the cliff into homelessness. Over 65% of the applicants to our COVID Emergency Fund have not been able to pay rent since April!

Tell your County Supervisor to support those in our community who have been hardest hurt by the pandemic.

Sample Public Comment:

My name is ____ and I'm a community member with Sacramento ACT. We object to key portions of the budget proposed by County staff and ask the Supervisors to commit to four critical things:

1. Provide at least $5 million in rent relief to match what the City of Sacramento has already committed to its low income residents;

2. Increase funding for homeless services beyond the level included in the proposed budget;

3. Start the process to develop a coordinated regional plan to end homelessness;

4. Commit to an inclusive, transparent, community-led process to develop a budget for next year that truly reflects our community’s needs and values.

How to Submit Your Comment:

The Board is scheduled to approve the County’s $6.2 billion budget during hearings starting on Wednesday, September 9, starting at 5PM and continuing on Thursday, September 10 at 9:30AM.

Email comments can be submitted to the Clerk of the Board at BoardClerk@saccounty.net or online: sccob.saccounty.net/. Submit by Wednesday before 5PM.

Email comments can also be submitted or called in by phone to each County Supervisor. Specific supervisor information in the images and you can find your Supervisor here: https://www.saccounty.net/SupervisorLookUp/Pages/default.aspx

Immigration

In a time when immigrants are especially threatened, ACT is working to provide support.  We created a 24-hour Rapid Response Hotline to provide support to those who are targeted by ICE and to provide resource referrals.  We have created a network of trained Legal Observers, and a network of sanctuary churches.  We provide Know Your Rights trainings, accompaniment, and information to immigrants in our rapidly changing landscape. We connect undocumented immigrants to legal support for detention, deportation and asyum proceeding, and accompany families through the process. We advocate for increased access to health care and mental health care for undocumented immigrants through the Healthy Partners program in Sacramento County.  We also worked to end the County Sheriff department’s contract with ICE to house undocumented detainees.

ACT works on Immigration issues in both Sacramento and Yolo counties. We work in partnership with our state and national organizations on immigration reform, and advocating against family separation, mass deportation, and the Muslim Ban.

Live Free

(Police Accountability, Transparency & Violence Prevention)

ACT works on increasing transparency and accountability in both the Sacramento (City) Police Department and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department, and on addressing implicit bias in law enforcement.  We are deeply engaged in developing a partnership table on police accountability, transparency and reform in the Sacramento using the H.E.A.T. framework of Hiring practices, Equipment, Accountability measures and Training. We also support faith leaders to build relationships between law enforcement and community.

We work with leaders and residents on violence reduction efforts in impacted neighborhoods through advocating for preventive services, leading night walks and training faith leaders to mediate in community spaces.

Following the killing of Stephon Clark in March 2018 and the release of findings in 2019, ACT has worked to organize healing circles and healing spaces for community.

ACT has also successfully advocated for statewide legislation to reduce the use of deadly force by law enforcement.

(Investing in Prevention and Re-Entry)

ACT leads the Sacramento Reinvestment Coalition, a team of leaders and partners who advocate for a Reinvestment agenda in Sacramento County. Many Sacramento neighborhoods have experienced cycles of disinvestment: lack of investment in neighborhood health fosters a climate of fear and violence which creates a “need” to invest in enforcement and incarceration.  We work to disrupt this cycle by advocating for the reinvestment of dollars into impacted communities. 

In 2019, we initiated the Decarcerate Sacramento Coalition which successfully advocated against the issuance of and $89 million bond to fund jail expansion.

We work a multi-faceted strategy to reinvest funding and target policy to support prevention, re-entry and thriving, healthy communities, focusing on both the County and the City.  Target issues include mental health services, affordable housing, transit, job development and re-entry support.

Youth Justice

ACT renewed our youth organizing in 2017, working on raising awareness about and reforming the juvenile justice system.  Youth organized to reduce the numbers of School Resource Offices (police officers) on campuses in Sacramento City Unified School District. Youth are advocating for jobs and workforce development and for re-entry pathways to school and community. ACT is working with youth in juvenile detention and in the community.  Youth are also invited into ACT’s work on reinvestment, police reform and implicit bias.

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