Community groups offering free rides to the polls By WDSU Community Team Published on November 4, 1029 by WDSU The Power Coalition for Equity and Justice and Step Up Louisiana are offering voters rides to the polls every day during Early Voting Week. The bus pickups will follow a city council district-by-district plan each day, Monday, November 4 – Friday, November 8, with special stops also scheduled on both Saturday, November 2, and Saturday, November 9. The buses will pick up voters at the locations and times listed below, take them to the nearest Early Voting location, and bring them back to the original pickup spot. Here is the full schedule: •District A–Monday, 11/4 o9:00AM: Hollygrove Multipurpose Senior Center, 3300 Hamilton St, New Orleans, LA 70118 •District B–Tuesday 11/5 o11:00AM: New Zion Baptist Church, 2319 Third Street, New Orleans, LA 70113 o2:00PM: New Hope Baptist Church, 1807 Reverend John Raphael Jr. Way,...

Political Experts: Voter turnout will determine the governor’s race  ...

Power Coalition for Equity and Justice to Co-Host Candidate Forum at UL-Lafayette By Daion Brewer Published on October 5, 2019 for News 15 LAFAYETTE, LA— With early voting for statewide and local elections already underway, the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice will partner with the UL-Lafayette College of Liberal Arts to host a forum for candidates who are running for House Districts 31, 43, and 45, in Harry L Griffin Hall, Room 147, on Rex Street, on the campus of the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. Wednesday, October 2, the people of Lafayette will get a chance to evaluate candidates who are running for three local legislative representative seats at an event hosted by the region’s flagship university. The candidates will address several topics, including criminal justice reform The forum will run from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Children and families are welcome. For more information, visit www.powercoalition.org. Read the article on...

Candidates in local elections to answer audience questions at SU Town Hall tonight By Mykal Vincent Published on October 2, 2019 by WAFB 9 BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – The Southern University System will host a Town Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 2 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Royal Cotillion Ballroom of the Smith-Brown Memorial Student Union on campus. Candidates for the offices of Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, State Senate, State Representative, East Baton Rouge Parish Clerk of Court and more have been invited to participate. After candidates introduce themselves and their respective platforms, they will take questions from the audience. Community partners for this event include: 100 Black Women of Baton Rouge, the La Capitale Chapter of The Links Inc., and the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice. On-campus partners include the Student Government Association, Political Science Association, NAACP and the Alpha Tau Chapter of Delta Sigma...

2019 Get Out & Vote Campaign launching this weekend By KATC News Published on September 6, 2019  The Power Coalition for Equity and Justice (PCEJ), VOTE, and other partner organizations will hit the streets across Louisiana as they begin their Get Out & Vote effort. On Saturday, September 7, the organizations hosted launch event at their VOTE office, located at 110 Travis Street, Suite 140, in Lafayette. The campaign’s plan is to engage in a variety of community outreach efforts, including knocking on doors, calling voters, and holding events and candidate forums in order to get the word out about voting and to increase voter turnout. Get Out & Vote’s goal is to foster long-term civic engagement in communities that have traditionally been ignored by the political establishment. The group will also encourage people to pledge to become Power Voters. PCEJ considers Power Voters those who: 1) Vote in every election, education...

Report: State preemption laws disproportionately hurt women, people of color By Michael Isaac Stein Published on Monday, May 8, 2019 by The Lens State laws that prevent local governments from making their own rules on issues like affordable housing and minimum wages are especially detrimental to women and people of color. That’s according to a new report from the Partnership for Working Families, a national coalition of advocacy groups. The report uses Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Colorado as case studies on these so-called “preemption laws.” In Louisiana, state law prevents cities from passing higher minimum wages and requiring a minimum number of work leave days. The report says that because women and people of color are more likely to work in low-wage jobs, they are disproportionately impacted by these policies. “What’s real is that we know the folks that ultimately bear the brunt of this are women and, in particular, women of color,”...

State laws that prevent local governments from making their own rules on issues like affordable housing and minimum wages are especially detrimental to women and people of color. That’s according to a new report from the Partnership for Working Families, a national coalition of advocacy groups.  The report uses Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Colorado as case studies on these so-called “preemption laws.”  In Louisiana, state law prevents cities from passing higher minimum wages and requiring a minimum number of work leave days. The report says that because women and people of color are more likely to work in low-wage jobs, they are disproportionately impacted by these policies....

Thursday, April 2nd: Royce Duplessis, Peter Robins-Brown, Mark Ballard, Jason Baumann By Jim Engster Published on Monday, May 2, 2019 by WRKF 89.3 tate Representative Royce Duplessis and Peter Robins-Brown, Communications Director for the Power Coalition for Equity and Justice on House Bill 422, which would repeal the state preemption of local  control of minimum wage and family and sick leave policies. Mark Ballard, Capitol Bureau Chief for the Advocate, notes that social issues remain vibrant in the Legislature and Ballard assesses the Louisiana Senate reaction to Attorney General Bill Barr’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee of which John Kennedy is a member. Jason Baumann of the New York Public Library reflects on the 50 year anniversary of the historic Stonewall uprising. Read and listen on WRKF 89.3...

THE LAPOLITICS Q&A Louisiana Power Coalition’s Peter Robins-Brown   LaPolitics: For readers who are unfamiliar, tell us a little about the Power Coalition and its’ efforts.  Peter Robins-Brown: “The Power Coalition for Equity and Justice is a statewide civic engagement table that works to shift power back to the people by fighting for policies that lift up Louisiana’s families. We also work with our coalition members to educate voters, increase voter engagement, and provide a support structure for community activism and voice.” One of the big bills that the Coalition is working on local control. Why is this bill critical to your group’s efforts?  As part of the Unleash Local coalition, we are supporting grassroots organizing across the state to educate voters about HB422, sponsored by Rep. Royce Duplessis. Currently, the state of Louisiana bans cities and parishes from setting many of their own local economic standards, including minimum wage and...

By Forgiving Warrants and Fines, Communities Give People a Fresh Start Sometimes a suspended driver’s license stands in the way of a desperately needed job. By Keith Griffith Published on April 9, 2019 by Yes!  Izell Mayes drove without a license for about 20 years, the result of unpaid traffic tickets, missed court dates and compounding fines that seemed impossible to pay off. Still, the 45-year-old plumber and father had to take his children to school and get to work. When he was eventually pulled over, it meant arrest and more fines. The worst experience came on a family vacation to a Six Flags amusement park in Texas, when a Louisiana state trooper pulled him over and hauled him away in handcuffs in front of his kids for driving on a suspended license. Afraid of other complications, Mayes avoided court dates, and the bench warrants piled up. Eventually, he owed nearly $23,000. Everything...

Coalition launches campaign to increase minimum wage in Louisiana By Terry L. Jones Published on March 11, 2019 by The Advocate Labor organizations, non-profit groups and some small business owners have joined forces to take yet another run at convincing state legislators to overturn a 1999 state law that bars local governments from setting their own minimum wages. The goal of the Unleashed Local campaign that was launched on Monday is to clear a path to increase the minimum wage in Louisiana. Louisiana is one of five states that doesn’t set a minimum wage, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The other states are Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. In the absence of a statewide standard, Louisiana employers must pay their employers at least $7.25 an hour, the federal minimum. A coalition of grassroots groups and leaders have been lobbying state leaders for at least the past five years to lift families out...

Around the World Day of Social Justice, we should consider why cities pay poverty wages, and why 28 states can preempt local efforts to raise the minimum wage. This week, the United Nations noted a World Day of Social Justice, focused “on guaranteeing fair outcomes for all through employment, social protection, social dialogue, and fundamental principles and rights at work.” Here in the United States, one of the world’s richest countries, raising the minimum wage is the most directly effective measure we can take to guarantee fair outcomes by combatting poverty and economic insecurity. In recent years, many states, counties, and cities across the country have decided to go that route. Unfortunately, many others are handcuffed when it comes to raising their minimum wage. In 28 states, including Louisiana, local governments are “preempted”—that is, banned—from setting their own minimum wage (23 states also preempt local governments from setting their own...

Academics, activists, philanthropists and journalists convened on the uptown campus this weekend alongside celebrities, comedians and local musicians for the first-ever Unrig the System Summit, a place to cross the country’s partisan lines to address today’s most pressing political issues.  The summit, which ran from Friday, Feb. 2, through Sunday, Feb. 4, was organized by Represent.Us, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization launched in 2012 in response to the rise of super political action committees (PACs). “This weekend is our precious opportunity to build our own community of reformers, who conduct the latest research on election reforms, develop policies for better ethics enforcement and pass government corruption laws in our hometowns,” said Charlotte Hill, who hosted the weekend’s welcome plenary in the Lavin-Bernick Center with Kulpreet Rana, chair of the Represent.Us board....

Influencing Complex Systems Change The Management Assistance Group (MAG) is one of NPQ’s go-to sources of information about social justice movements. MAG works with a number of the networks that are moving some of this nation’s most difficult issues. MAG has come to believe there are five elements that are critical to advancing a thriving justice ecosystem. This is the fourth in a special five-part series, in which MAG and NPQ invite you to contribute to the evolution of what these elements mean in practice. Let’s start something! By Natasha Winegar, Susan Misra and Ashley Shelton Published on May 3, 2017 in Nonprofit Quarterly For many nonprofits, there is little new about trying to move the needle by seeing the big picture, understanding all the pieces, addressing root causes, or influencing institutions and structures. What is different about this moment in time—a time of sustained racism, xenophobia, police brutality, sexual violence, war,...