Early Action for the Common Good

Early Action for the Common Good, May 12th, leaders will prepare to take our 2009 Legislative Agenda to our institutions.  Together with those who feel the pressure of the economy, the environment, health care and education, we can these initiatives into action in Tacoma, Sunday, June 1.

April 12 in Ellensburg, Spokane and Sound Alliance leaders integrate the mutual interests of their organizations into a specific, immediate and winnable agenda for the common good.

Over 30 leaders from the Sound and Spokane Alliance gathered in Ellensburg and hammered out an agenda for the common good of Washington State.  This agenda drew directly from the pressures and passions that surfaced through hundreds of individual and small group meetings and shared at the Spokane Alliance October Assembly.

Both Sound and Spokane Alliance found education, sustainable jobs, and health care to be their top priorities when then gathered on February 9th.  In Ellensburg, leaders shaped an integrated set of legislative proposals to address those priorities that had been tested by research and discussions with legislators.  The proposals unify around early investment and action to actualize the full potential of human and natural resources.

At 5:30 PM, May 12th, leaders from Spokane Alliance institutions will gather at Westminster Congregational Church of Christ to consider ratification of the agenda crafted in Ellensburg.  Early Action for the Common Good will inform, inspire and equip leaders to take the 2009 Alliance Legislative Initiative package back to their institutions if they decide to ratify it.  There they can similarly educate and connect the proposals to the passions and pressures of those who inspired the proposals with their personal stories.

The legislative proposals support learning readiness of children entering school through quality child care, high school students motivated by their own choice of alternative pathways to graduation and building bridges to for post-high school education can dramatically increase high school graduation rates. 

Eric Anthony tells how he realized his dream of self-sufficiency by becoming an apprentice ironworker

The legislative package expands opportunities for high school graduates and college students interested in the various dimensions of high efficiency building through 15% apprentice and internship utilization mandates at public four year university construction projects.  Proposals continue to expand skilled high efficiency building through cap and trade legislation that cuts carbon emissions while easing the burden on modest and middle income families.  In addition, the initiatives provide for certification of contractors doing residential retrofits to protect consumers.

Wellness and prevention together with expanded illness care are sought by health care proposals for 2009.  Legislation passed in 2008, directs the governor to appoint a work group to explore the best alternative to provide care for everyone in Washington State.  Spokane and Sound Alliance will seek to put at representative on that work group.

The Spokane Alliance will be meeting with the Sound Alliance at 2:30 PM, Sunday June 1st, to press statewide political leaders including Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and Speaker Frank Chopp to move the proposals forward.  Governor Gregoire and Minority Leaders commitments are pending.

Before and after June 1st, Alliance leaders are interested in taking this package of initiatives back to our institutions to educate their members.  The members of each institution will then have the opportunity to take up their own power to push back against the pressures that they have said most concern them.