Thanks to your membership support, the Colorado Progressive Coalition - your organization – won many victories in 2007. On behalf of all of us at CPC, thank you for your investment in our work to build a more progressive future for Colorado! Here are a few of our most significant victories from 2007...
THE FIGHT FOR HEALTH CARE FOR ALL: COUNTERING THE POWER OF THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY
CPC’s Health Justice Organizing Program criss-crossed the state, holding 43 community forums with more than 1,000 participants to increase public participation in the State Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care Reform. Our goal? Counter the power of the insurance industry and make sure that voices for high quality, affordable, and culturally competent health care for everyone are heard. CPC gave its first “Health Justice Champion” Award to State Representative Anne McGihon, Chair of the House Health & Human Services Committee, and a long-time CPC member. Lastly, CPC premiered our new short, but powerful documentary on Coloradans’ health care struggles. With your support, we’ll make sure that every Colorado politician gets a copy.
MOVING BEYOND DENVER/ BOULDER: BUILDING A TRULY STATEWIDE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT
With the opening of our new Northern Colorado Regional Office in Greeley, CPC now has three offices from which to organize and win progressive victories. In Greeley, we’ve joined with El Voto Latino in a partnership that’s registered 550 new voters and we’ve supported local human rights, environmental, and anti-war campaigns. In Fort Collins, we’re working with State Rep. John Kefalas (a former CPC staffer), for affordable housing, including mobile home park rights. CPC’s Board includes statewide perspectives from Dr. Ralph Salaz, a long-time Pueblo educator, and Art Goodtimes, a San Miguel County Commissioner.
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN PUEBLO: A MAJOR DAVID V. GOLIATH VICTORY!
Pueblo CPC Members celebrated a major environmental victory in 2007. The LB Foster Corporation’s Pueblo facility had been allowed by former Gov. Owens’s administration to operate for seven years without required pollution permits. Through CPC, long-suffering Peppersauce Bottoms neighbors came together to stop LB Foster’s pollution. After a year of grassroots pressure, the company announced that it would shut down. Excited by this rare, David v. Goliath victory, the neighbors are now working to make sure that their neighborhood is cleaned up once and for all.
TAKING ON POVERTY IN COLORADO: FOLLOWING-UP ON 2006 MINIMUM WAGE WIN
Following our lead role in winning a minimum wage raise for 138,000 low-wage Coloradans in the 2006 election, CPC is leading the grassroots fight to win a permanent Earned Income Tax Credit for 250,000 of our lowest-income neighbors, bringing a few hundred dollars to the pockets of families in need. CPC also has developed a new presentation on the Racial Wealth Divide that we have begun to share across Colorado.
ADVANCING HUMAN RIGHTS & LEADING THE RACIAL JUSTICE FIGHT IN COLORADO
CPC is a leader in a broad and growing coalition that is building a statewide campaign to stop a 2008 right-wing ballot initiative ending affirmative action in Colorado. CPC is also a key ally in supporting immigrant human rights and will launch a statewide Racial Profiling Hotline, assisting people facing discriminatory policing. CPC’s Rights and Juvenile Justice Education program has also conducted 25 “Know Your Rights” trainings to 500 Denver-area high schoolers.
EXPOSING FORMER GOVERNOR OWENS’S SECRET POLITICAL APPOINTEE BONUSES
CPC spotlighted conservative former Governor Owens’s secret plan to shovel out nearly $200,000 in taxpayer funded political appointee bonuses. Following high profile coverage in The Denver Post, new Governor Bill Ritter announced that he’ll not allow such bonuses to be given in the future.
RAMPING UP FOR A BIG 2008 ELECTION: VOTER REGISTRATION & INSPIRATION
Rated one of the nation’s top five community voter programs, CPC is now building a massive drive to register 51,500 new lower-income, young, and people of color voters and conduct a door to door get out the vote program to 150,000 infrequent voters statewide. The voters that CPC works directly with are those most likely to be overlooked by political campaigns and, without our work, many might not make their voices heard in the elections.
HELP US WIN MORE PROGRESSIVE VICTORIES IN 2008 – JOIN OR GET ACTIVE TODAY!
We can’t do any of this work without you so please join or renew your membership today. Call us at 303.866.0908 or visit us at www.progressivecoalition.org. Thank you for your support and best wishes for a peaceful and relaxing 2008.
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