A Letter from Our Executive Director, Alan Jenkins
Dear Friend,
As friends and supporters of The Opportunity Agenda, and the broader movement to expand opportunity for all, I want to share with you some of the details of a remarkable month at our organization. They reflect the culmination of a huge body of research, relationship-building, and other groundwork, as well as a historic opportunity to put our values, vision, and expertise to use. They also reflect the challenge of making strategic choices with our human and financial resources at a time when almost all of the issues we care about are simultaneously moving.
Promoting Rehabilitation and Redemption for Young People
On May 28, we conducted a communications training for advocates working to abolish the sentencing of young people to life without the possibility of parole. These advocates believe, and we agree, that denying the opportunity for rehabilitation to these young people is harmful to our society and a violation of basic human rights. The movement to abolish Juvenile Life Without Parole is gaining strength, and has new urgency, with two pending Supreme Court cases on the issue and bills in Congress and several states. This work is part of our US Human Rights Initiative, which builds public support and public policy to apply human rights protections here at home. In the training sessions, we shared the findings and implications of our recent focus groups on Juvenile Life Without Parole in the context of human rights, and worked with participants on delivering a compelling, common message that moves persuadable audiences to oppose the practice and take action to end it.
White House Meeting on Economic Stimulus
On June 2, we met with White House Recovery Implementation staff to discuss ensuring that economic stimulus investments create greater and more equal opportunity for all communities. This work is part of our State of Opportunity Initiative, and builds on our successful effort to have anti-discrimination and other equal opportunity protections explicitly included in the White House’s mandate on stimulus spending. The meeting was a promising one, with openings to ensure improved implementation and accountability on this mandate across federal agencies and state and local governments. Only a few days later, we received news of a grant from the Open Society Institute to support our work on structural equity in the economic recovery process.
A Shared Message on Immigrant Opportunity
On June 3, we addressed a gathering of some 800 immigrant rights organizers and social justice leaders who met in Washington, DC for the launch of the Reform Immigration for America Campaign. We shared our new public opinion research on immigrant integration, and trained the groups on using the movement’s core narrative — “Workable Solutions” that “Uphold Our Nation’s Values” and “Move Us Forward Together” — with a variety of audiences and settings. The Opportunity Agenda led the creation and testing of that narrative over the last year, engaging hundreds of advocates and communications experts, as part of our Immigrant Opportunity Initiative. With the White House expected to begin immigration reform conversations this summer, our research, tools, and training are incredibly timely, and are already being used by national, state, and local groups to move hearts, minds, and policy.
Advancing Reproductive Justice
On June 4, we conducted a day-long communications workshop with several dozen leaders of the Reproductive Justice movement, which works to ensure that all women and girls have the information, resources, and human rights protections necessary to make healthy reproductive choices. We shared with the group our recent media analyses and case studies on the topic, and facilitated a discussion of priority audiences and communications strategies. The current national debate on health care reform lent additional urgency to this conversation.
Voices of Faith on Immigration
On June 9, we presented our immigration research and advice to a large group of clergy and other faith leaders from a diversity of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian denominations. The conversation produced a number of new insights on how faith leaders can build public support for more just and practical immigration policies, particularly in the context of the imminent national immigration reform debate.
National Council for Research on Women
On June 10, I gave a presentation to more than 100 participants at the opening plenary panel on Powering Change: Is There a New Landscape for Social Justice as part of the NCRW annual conference. NCRW is a network of 120 research, advocacy, and policy centers and 2,000 experts working across disciplines and including some of the leading progressive women’s organizations and supported by outstanding women activists, including Eleanor Smeal, Irasema Garza, Marie Wilson, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. NCRW invited me to speak as part of their effort to expand partnerships and develop “an innovative agenda for social justice.” We consider our involvement with NCRW an opportunity to forge new alliances.
Supreme Court Decisions on Equal Opportunity
On June 10, we spoke with some 120 public interest lawyers and civil rights advocates in a call sponsored by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights. The strategy call covered the implications and communications strategy around pending Supreme Court decisions on voting rights and equal employment opportunity. The latter case, Ricci v. DeStefano, has received significant media attention because Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor was part of the lower court decision in that case. We filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Ricci because of its importance to our State of Opportunity Initiative. Our Supreme Court efforts have also extended to expanding equal educational opportunity for English language learners. On June 8, we provided messaging guidance to two dozen advocates, attorneys, and legal scholars fighting for responsible financing of English Language Learning programs in Arizona’s public schools in the Horne v. Flores case. We will be providing further communications advice and legal insight to the field when the Supreme Court issues its decisions in these cases, sometime before July 1 of this year.
pportunity Impact Statements Included in the "Fresh 50" Report
As part of our State of Opportunity Initiative, we have developed innovative policy proposals to systemically address structural economic inequality. One such idea, The Opportunity Impact Statement (OIS), was included in the Democratic Policy Committee’s report, The 2009 Fresh 50, which compiles the most promising new ideas and distributes them to the offices of Democratic Senators. Modeled after the Environmental Impact Statement, the OIS would assess the effect that any public spending project would have on key factors such as access to schools, jobs or hospitals relative to the existing opportunity available within the community, and then create space for public comment and participation. If implemented, the OIS would be a major step towards transforming the public spending process into a real engine for opportunity. The report is available here (PDF) and the OIS is idea number 46.
Challenge and Opportunity
Each of these efforts builds on recently-completed and extremely timely communications, policy, or social science research by The Opportunity Agenda. And each draws urgency from the confluence of policy issues that are—or are about to be—active at the state and national levels: economic recovery, health care reform, immigration reform, a Supreme Court nomination, and important Supreme Court cases on equal opportunity. They speak to the important role that our organization has to contribute at this crucial time, but also to a major challenge. When so many of our issues are simultaneously in play, and the opportunity for transformative change is so great, we must rise to the occasion, but also make tough choices and ensure that our work continues to meet the highest standards of excellence and professionalism. I want to thank each of you for your contribution to our work, and the movement to expand opportunity more generally, and also to welcome your insights on making the most of this remarkable time.
As always, I would be eager to hear any feedback that you and your colleagues have on our work. Please do not hesitate to contact me through Jason P. Drucker, Director of Development and Operations, by phone (212-334-4275) or email (jdrucker@opportunityagenda.org). I look forward to speaking with you soon.
Sincerely yours,
Alan Jenkins