How progressives are winning over the rural voters Democrats abandoned

To give support to struggling families without prescribing solutions requires respect and discipline. The Family Independence Initiative (F.I.I.) encourages low-income families to define their own goals and work towards them in mutual support groups, while carefully documenting their successes.

In a rapidly gentrifying Mexico City neighborhood, two artists refurbished an icon and set up an altar for Santa Mari La Juaricua, a saint to protect residents from eviction. The saint raises awareness and acts as a reminder about housing issues and the icon has been taken up by the residents and has been used in processions and protests.

It wasn't until first cases of coronavirus were recorded in the United States that San Francisco and other U.S. cities took action to mitigate the spread, but in Chinatown, precautions started much earlier and the preparations seem to have worked. With only three recorded cases in Chinatown, the residents credit trust in authorities, community-driven communications, heightened hygiene practices, and the local Chinese Hospital, "which has strong ties to the community it serves."

The Women’s Collective is a nonprofit that works with more than 10,000 subsistence farmers in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu to promote food security using millets, a crop resilient to drought and climate change. For Pavitra, one of those farmers, she began cultivating the ancient grains in 2015 and now has more than enough food to feed her family year-round. However, there’s a lack of public investment in millet production and machinery. And there’s no unified effort to create demand for millets: Some state governments lead the charge and in other states, it’s led by grassroots organizations.

Orange County is a gold standard for supporting voters who aren’t fluent in English. All voting materials come in multiple languages and online databases and voting equipment are compatible with the multilingual system. The county works with community groups and hires native speakers to translate materials for increased accuracy. The county's bilingual workforce has steadily increased, with 30% of election workers now speaking the native language of the voters needing support. Due to the pandemic, language support was provided by video conference, an option that will continue to be available in the future.

A new restorative justice court in a Chicago neighborhood shows promise in bringing healing to the community through having defendants repair harm they’ve done and reintegrate into the community. It has support from key members of the criminal justice system but it faces funding issues and getting buyin from the community. Some argue restorative justice cannot operate effectively within the existing criminal justice system.

A New York-based nonprofit called Students for a Free Tibet is training Tibetans in "how to stage nonviolent protests." This effort, in conjunction with other Tibetan NGOs, has helped activists in Dharamsala, India to become "more organized, media savvy and technologically sophisticated," which in turn has increased the number of people who have come together to participate in the nonviolent protests.

Ahead of a vote on a ballot measure that would have ensured that no right to abortion could ever be added to Kentucky's constitution, pro-choice activists connected with voters via protests and door-knocking campaigns. Their efforts focused on registering new voters and exploring the nuances of reproductive health care, and the amendment was successfully defeated by a margin of nearly 5 percentage points.

The Election Registration Information Center allows states to check for duplicate voter registrations across state lines and identify voters who have moved or died. At one time, a total of 33 states participated in the database, but several have since left the partnership as a result of disinformation about how the effort is funded.

KC Tenants is a tenant union that connects renters to put pressure on landlords and local government to protect tenant rights. With the help of the group’s political arm, KC Tenants Power, they have blocked thousands of evictions, received millions of dollars in funding to secure affordable housing for those in need and have grown to about 10,000 members. Outside of blocking evictions and securing long-term affordable housing, the group also has four members who won City Council seats.