Successes

Our meetings and communications are intended to be action-oriented, and we want to give everyone a chance to participate. Typically we’ll break into working groups on topics such as:

• immigrant rights – no Muslim ban, no wall
• sustainability/climate change
• women’s reproductive health care and other rights
• health care – Medicare for All, protect ACA and Medicare
• political/campaign finance reform
• legal advocacy/bystander training
• economic justice – tenant rights, living wage, worker rights, affordable housing, equal pay
• protest planning – lots of local sister marches are possible with many upcoming national protests

Examples of Early accomplishments of the Santa Barbara Progressive Coalition:

1. We recruited a volunteer group of about 30 local attorneys and organized Know Your Rights/Family Planning Workshops in collaboration with Legal Aid Foundation, CAUSE, and other local organizations. We are building our legal resources by holding ongoing trainings for our volunteer attorneys and Spanish language translators.
   At the Progressive Coalition’s first Know Your Rights/Family Planning workshop on March 15 at La Casa De La Raza, 21 volunteer attorneys, advocates, interpreters, childcare helpers, and food preparers assisted 36 families that included 54 adults and 49 kids. Our second event, held on March 18 at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, included 28 volunteers who assisted 26 families that included 37 adults and 39 children. The group assisted at least 179 people through these two workshops. The actual number may be a little higher as not every family was counted. Also, the group is participating in similar workshops organized by other organizations in Santa Barbara’s Eastside, Goleta, and Isla Vista.
2. We compiled a list of local organizations that need volunteer assistance and distributed it online, at meetings, and at rallies to those looking for ways to get involved; our goal is to collaborate with existing organizations and not duplicate work.
3. We are consistently emailing action alerts with local, state, and national actions and events. At the national level, we are collaborating with Indivisible to fight national budget proposals to gut public education, the EPA, the ACA, and more through coordinated phone calls to Congress.
4. We successfully encouraged Rep. Carbajal to demand an independent bi-partisan investigation into Russia’s influence in the election.
5. We drafted a list of ways to resist at the national level that has circulated on social media and email lists.
6. We successfully asked local Democratic Party to hold event to demystify the DNC Chair vote, how the Party operates, and how progressives can have more of an influence.
7. We worked with the local Sierra Club to send thousands of emails and postcards to local city councils asking them to set 100% clean energy goals; the City of Santa Barbara became the 30th city in the country to set a goal of 100% renewable energy on June 6, 2017. Mayors of Carpinteria, San Luis Obispo, Ojai and Moorpark have also embraced a 100% renewable energy goal. We continue to help our local region accelerate a transition to renewable energy and fight expansion in fossil fuel infrastructure.
8. We created an online resource guide, which includes what to do if immigration agents come to your home, protester rights, and more.
9. We participated in the organization of the Inauguration Day rally, Love Fights Back, in collaboration with El Centro and other groups. That inspired a first-time participant at one of our meetings to organize the successful United we Stand rally and march on Presidents Weekend. We created a resource guide and are offering peaceful protest consultation to upcoming march organizers. We’ve helped provide a platform, publicity and support for numerous rallies and protests in and around Santa Barbara ever since the election.
10. We attended a meeting with Rep. Carbajal to share our legal and immigrant rights perspectives before his meeting with ICE.
11. We rapidly expanded our Facebook page and Google group, while the Progressive Coalition Planning Committee has held monthly meetings to plan and reflect on what’s working and what can be improved so that each meeting is more effective than the last.
12. A California State legislator has introduced a single-payer health care bill, and we are gearing up, in collaboration with Health Care for All, to support that by educating people locally about single payer health care and by lobbying our state legislators.
13. We successfully organized to pass a resolution at SBCC Board of Trustees to protect undocumented students.
14. We encouraged members of our group to help pack the SBUSD board meeting to pass a similar resolution to support all students, an effort led by Ethnic Studies Now, and they did, and it also passed. The Goleta School Board also passed a resolution building on this and using similar language.
15. We organized a protest of the Muslim travel ban at S.B. Airport through our email list, and organized carpools to LAX to protest.
16. We shared a list of Senators opposing the Muslim travel ban and those not opposing it.
17. We compiled and distributed ways to help protect women’s reproductive rights, as well as promoting iCAN’s protest at Cottage Hospital regarding their lack of a VBAC option for pregnant women.
18. We compiled and distributed actions people can take on sustainability issues.
19. We emailed and called Senator Feinstein, and joined members of Indivisible to visit her L.A. district office on multiple Tuesday mornings.
20. We collaborated with Sierra Club, EDC, and Indivisible to encourage people to attend Rep. Carbajal’s press conference to announce his bill prohibiting new offshore oil leases, resulting in a large group there to support him. AND we encouraged the City of Santa Barbara to pass a resolution against fracking and offshore oil, which they did on July 25, 2017.
21. We encouraged people to attend Planned Parenthood’s visibility event at the Sunken Gardens. We also encouraged people to attend the Day Without a Woman Rally and Self-Care Fair, and provided assistance with the organization. Both were a success.
22. We collaborated with SBCAN and other local groups to encourage people to travel to SLO County to oppose oil being transported by rail through our area. And we won!
23. We successfully applied for an emerging grant from Fund for SB. Others have generously made individual donations, and we are grateful for all this support.
24. We encouraged members of our group to sign petition in support of the CA Values Act, and it passed the Public Safety Committee.
25. We collaborated with CAUSE to encourage people to attend the City Council meeting in support of Tenants Rights.
26. We’ve managed a busy table at the Earth Day festival and helped organize a successful People’s Climate Rally.
27. We have consistently held community action meetings ever since the election, and offered Spanish language interpretation. Our meetings grew so large that Casa de la Raza offered us a larger space and a community member donated a portable microphone!