42 churches, synagogues and nonprofits will participate in the Rotating Emergency Shelter Team (REST) this year, providing temporary shelter as well as meals shared between providers and homeless participants. The Marin Independent Journal credits the Marin Organizing Committee (MOC) for establishing the program nine years ago and for continuing to building power to expand its reach.

Says leader Pat Langley, a parishioner at St. Anselm Church in Ross, "We haven't run out of gas!" Langley explained that just this year, MOC signed up 8,500 Marin residents who support the creation of a new year-round shelter for the homeless. Leaders furthermore secured, through non-partisan accountability assemblies, pledges of support from Dennis Rodoni, who was elected to the Marin County Board of Supervisors on Nov. 8, and supervisors Kate Sears and Katie Rice, who secured re-election in June.

Read more

In an assembly drawing about one thousand Together Baton Rouge leaders, the organization challenged runoff candidates on a number of issues, eliciting commitments from candidates for City Mayor and Metro Council 10 & 12 positions. The organization live-streamed the assembly which drew residents from across the city. The most contentious of the requests for commitments includes finding $1.5 Million to help finance a grocery store in neighborhoods where none exists, and around law enforcement. Together is calling on the city for more minority hires, an independent monitor for the Police Department, reforming use-of-force policies, higher pay, better training and addressing the 'history of discriminatory arrest patterns in Baton Rouge."

Together Baton Rouge Grills Candidates on Law Enforcement, Tax Exemptions, Flood Relief and Addressing 'Food Deserts,' The Advocate

Read more

Hundreds of leaders of Dallas Area Interfaith assembled at Temple of Faith CME to address issues of neighborhood safety: police protocol on traffic stops, wage theft, thousands of feral dogs, and hot spots for drugs and prostitution. Confronted with hundreds from the community, Interim Police Chief David Pughes committed to developing a bilingual video on proper protocol that can be shown in congregations and to fundamentally changing how police handle wage theft -- recognizing theft of service as a criminal matter and not a civil one. Leader after leader told personal stories about unfairly being treated as criminals during traffic stops and when reporting crimes.

At one point, addressing immigrants in the packed room, Pughes said "we don't want to be immigration police." The chief additionally committed to working with leaders to address three areas in the city that see high level of drugs and prostitution, as well as developing a plan for the 8,000 feral dogs roaming neighborhood streets.

Read more

In an effort to build a constituency for mental health, to rebuild a comprehensive system, Albuquerque Interfaith convened close to 300 leaders from 28 institutions (15 member and 13 allied) to secure commitments from elected officials.

Read more

Building on a four-year campaign, One LA leaders and their allies shaped, pushed for and passed Measure M to raise $120 Billion for new rail lines, improved bus services, and street and highway projects which will create hundreds of thousands of jobs and make finding and getting to a job easier for working poor families across LA County.

Passing this bond measure required meeting a challenging two-thirds voter threshold for approval. This extraordinary victory took a county-wide education and mobilization of non-traditional allies crossing significant geographic, racial, religious and socioeconomic lines.

Read more

Only one month after raising municipal wages for the second year in a row in San Antonio, COPS / Metro is now fighting to leverage necessary funding for school improvements...$450 Million, to be precise. Elaine Ayala of the San Antonio Express-News reported that two weekends before Election Day, dozens of COPS / Metro leaders block walked -- asking voters to scroll to the end of the ballot to the last two measures. Leader Maria Tijerina explained that TRE funds would support after-school, summer and enrichment programs, freeing up money to help the district reach the $15 / hour wage they are fighting for.

Read more

TMO celebrated its founding members with special guest Daniel Cardinal DiNardo in a celebration dinner designed to highlight the organization's achievements, honor the leaders made those achivements happen and introduce the next generation of leaders. Cardinal DiNardo of the Catholic Diocese of Galveston-Houston praised the work of TMO and the Gulf Coast Leadership Council while challenging TMO to continue its work in the future.

In photo, Cardinal DiNardo stands with past and present leaders of TMO.

Read more

Thanks to consistent pressure from Together Louisiana and allies, industrial tax exemption reforms were codified into state rules.

Says Together Baton Rouge (part of the Together Louisiana network): "These reforms haven't gone far enough yet, but what has changed already on Louisiana's biggest corporate subsidy program is historic.

Read more

Over 200 leaders of Nevadans for the Common Good invited candidates for office to an assembly in which well over 200 participated. Leaders secured commitments from federal, state, and local candidates to work with the organization to advance their agenda of issues on education, healthcare, and immigration.

Additional photos, NCG

Valley Interfaith leaders are changing hearts and minds about the creation of a health district by knocking on doors and telling their healthcare stories. Catholics and Methodists are uniting, with reverends and veterans, all to make reality a community healthcare system for the Rio Grande Valley.

Says leader Eddie Anaya, "Valley Interfaith has long had a vision of a community ...healthcare system that will take care of the most vulnerable — health care that will serve the uninsured, the elderly, our children and our working families. We believe that an educated vote will result in the passing of Proposition 1."

Read more