After 15 schools closed at the end of the 2023-2024 school year, Carvajal Elementary is being considered next on the chopping block. COPS/Metro leaders participated in a heated public meeting on the potential closure, while parents voiced concerns about losing their community and native tongue fostered through the school’s dual language program.

The New Orleans City Council unanimously approved the Neighborhood Power Plan - a $30 million proposal by Together New Orleans (TNO) and allies to strengthen the local power grid by installing solar batteries at over 1,600 homes, community facilities and businesses.

Funded with Entergy settlement dollars, the plan will not increase utility rates.

According to The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, New Orleans Mayor Elect Helena Moreno called the endeavor "the largest single investment in community-led sustainability the city has ever made."

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When the Rev. Joey Evangelista saw immigration agents wearing “full battle gear,” their faces covered by masks, just two blocks from St. Kevin Catholic Church, he froze. The Catholic priest, a member of the Missionaries of Jesus, said he still has trauma from facing military intimidation while in ministry in the Philippines and Congo. 

Evangelista said the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions reminded him of former Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte’s tactics during his war on drugs. The priest told RNS, “It’s the same playbook, and it’s scary.” 

Although Evangelista admits he’s “scared” as a priest in the United States on a religious worker visa, he’s using his “privileged position” as a clergy member to work with a local interfaith group that wants to defend democracy.

One LA, a local coalition of religious groups and other community institutions, has been convening civics meetings, which the group refers to as “freedom schools,” since the summer in response to immigration raids. They also work with local elected officials to hold public hearings about the impacts of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, seeing both efforts as helping protect democracy…

Over 150 faith and community leaders gathered on December 7th at a “Rally for the People” organized by Nevadans for the Common Good (NCG) at St. James the Apostle Catholic Church on the Historic Westside of Las Vegas. The rally was a response to the costly and harmful federal government shutdown recognizing that though the shutdown has ended, suffering for Nevadans has not.

“Every delay means there’s folks that don’t have a place to sleep more permanently,” Valley Interfaith Project (VIP)'s Rev. Sarah Oglesby-Dunegan told Arizona’s Family.

After an old hotel was set to become transitional housing for seniors, families, and domestic violence victims, Mesa City Council took the final vote off the council agenda with no explanation why. The move pushes the decision to February, delaying the opening by about two months.

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On a Tuesday evening in mid-November, dozens of cars slow-rolled, bumper-to-bumper, along Northwest Highway, queuing to turn onto Hillcrest Road. Temple Emanu-El was this year’s host for Dallas Area Interfaith’s Reimagine Dallas...The group, which consists of about three dozen congregations of various faiths and denominations, has since 1984 organized around issues rooted in justice, making sure policymakers and other powerful people follow through on their promises.

Months after the nation's first sustained immigration raids hit Los Angeles and surrounding cities, the City of Angels hosted the first congressional field hearing on their impact -- a process set in motion after One LA-IAF leaders met with Mayor Karen Bass and pressed for public hearings to document widespread civil rights violations.

Before the hearing, Mayor Bass marched with One LA leaders, clergy, and families to the LA Metropolitan Water District, where the hearing convened. LA Auxiliary Bishop Matthew Elshoff, OFM Cap. also joined the procession.

Energy crackled as 110 COPA leaders from 28 institutions, including Bishop Lucinda Ashby of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino Real, filled the room for an honest, wide-ranging conversation with California Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas.

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As Mayor-elect Helena Moreno's transition ramps up, a coalition of community leaders are launching their own transition to hold the mayor-elect and other elected leaders accountable for the promises they made on the campaign trail.

The "People's Transition Team," an initiative of the nonprofit Together New Orleans, will focus on four issue areas identified by city residents the group surveyed — cost of living, public works, jobs and energy.

A testament to organizing hope, VOICE, ACTION, and the National Association of Evangelicals met with Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt to discuss the impact and future of immigration policy.