The Licking County Progressives

So, the first few weeks of this new year have led to a number of new developments which we are proud and excited to share:

1. January 20th: A Women’s March (which we contemplated at our January meeting and which is now a reality thanks to the hard work of fellow local progressive leader, Jen Kanagy) in Downtown Newark, starting at the old location for the Gazebo. It will transpire from 2-4pm and will include some speakers. Hope you can partake!
2. The official launch of the new “Working Families First” initiative. This was also discussed at the January meeting, as some of our core members are helping to build this movement. In many respects, it has overlap with the “99% of Newark and East Central Ohio” subgroup of the Licking County Progressives with its message of uniting the working class and abandoning our needless and divisive labels. There is currently some talk about bringing this initiative partially or wholly under the umbrella of the Licking County Progressives as another “nonpartisan” or “trans-partisan” project thereof. In the spring, the initiative will take on an exciting new phase as we go door to door in an outreach effort to build this into a transformative grassroots movement. Stay tuned!
3. Dates have been chosen for a complete “Summer of Labor” series and will be revealed sometime shortly after the next two business meetings of the Licking County Progressives! Some of the details (such as whether we are able to partially partner with the Freedom School of Licking County) for this series in its inaugural year still has to be ironed out, but this is an important first step. Of course, one event of the series will be the 2nd Annual Newark Democracy Day on September 17th, and more will be unveiled about that event as the year progresses.
4. We will be contemplating – at our next business meeting – another opportunity for civic and community engagement. An idea was brought to the attention of one of our core members by a leading member of the Newark Think Tank on Poverty. This stemmed from a conversation about empowering the working class and empowering it to recognize its common struggles. A model emerged for going forward – at least initially – with a series of community discussions consisting of an overarching theme supported by a number of subthemes. This will be briefly discussed at our February business meeting as we attempt to put the final touches on the details and the exact framework so that we can begin the series at the outset of spring.

As you can see, we have much to be excited about! Stay tuned and get involved!