Last year, our organizations began working in Suffolk County, and we have been hard at work mobilizing low-wage workers, immigrants, and people of color. MRNY has organized young people to take to the streets and
encourage residents to support the New York State DREAM Act and DREAM Fund. MRNY also organized our first Low-Wage Workers March in April, marching with hundreds of low-wage workers through downtown Brentwood demanding an increase in the minimum wage. Meanwhile, NYCC organized local residents to ensure that the 3rd Police Precinct offered translation services, led a march through Central Islip to demand action on the foreclosure crisis, and began pressuring local school boards to divest from Chase Bank.
And, together in our work through the Long Island Civic Engagement Table, our groups conducted a coordinated canvass of over 17,000 local voters in Brentwood and Central Islip in 2011, which contributed to an increase of 16.5 percent in the number of votes cast since the last comparable election. We are now in the midst of a coordinated voter registration and Get Out the Vote campaign that will register over 2,500 voters and increase turnout among working-class voters and voters of color in the towns of Islip and Brookhaven in 2012!
These are just some examples of the work that we are doing in our communities, but every week and every day our office is packed with community members who want to make concrete changes in their communities, be it affordable housing, language access, fair wages, or access to services and fair elections. These are the people that catalyze and lead our work.
We want to collaborate with you! This is why we want to invite you to the official grand opening of our shared offices at 1090 Suffolk Avenue in Brentwood on Saturday, September 8, at 12pm. We will begin with a press
conference, highlighting our work, followed by a fair at which our organizations will offer:
• Legal assistance for Dreamers considering applying for deferred action
• Foreclosure counseling and the Home Defenders Campaign
• Voter registration
Please join us for this special occasion! For more information about this event, please feel free to contact Karina Claudio at 917-676-2559 or at karina.claudio@maketheroadny.org.
Sincerely,
Karina Claudio Betancourt, Lead Organizer, Long Island Make the Road New York
Daniel Altschuler, Coordinator, Long Island Civic Engagement Table
Royetta Alston, Member, New York Communities for Change
