Recent elections have signaled a shift in our nation’s slow trajectory toward progress. Our families, our communities and our nation need us once more, to stand firm on the principles that have guided our work for the past 110 years and to ensure that our hard-won gains are not erased.
The Orange County Branch of the NAACP has created a vision of advocacy and issues based on the Game Changers outlined by the national office. The six NAACP Game Changers address the areas of inequality facing African Americans that are the focus of our work.
- Economic Sustainability – A chance for all to live the American dream. Every person will have equal opportunity to achieve economic success, sustainability and financial security.
- Education – A free, high-quality public education for all. Every child will receive a free, high quality, equitably funded, public pre-K and K-12 education, followed by diverse opportunities for accessible vocational or university education.
- Health – Health equity for all Americans, including a healthy life and high-quality health care. Everyone will have equal access to affordable, high-quality health care, and racially disparate health outcomes will end.
- Public Safety and Criminal Justice – Equitable dispensation of justice for all. Disproportionate incarceration, racially motivated policing strategies, racially biased discrimination and mandatory minimum sentencing will end. Incarceration will be greatly reduced, and communities will be safer. The death penalty will be abolished at the state and federal levels, as well as in the military.
- Voting Rights and Political Representation – Protect and enhance voting rights and fair representation. Every American will have free, open, equal and protected access to the vote and fair representation at all levels of the political process. By protecting democracy, enhancing equity and increasing democratic participation and civic engagement, African Americans will be proportionally elected to political office.
- Expanding Youth and Young Adult Engagement – The NAACP is expanding the presence of youth consciousness in every aspect of the association through significant attention to increasing engagement with key age demographics. Young adult engagement will be key in policy research, development and advocacy on all levels.
Greater support is being offered to enhance the capacity of the branch to recruit, engage, train and retain young adults. Innovative approaches are being taken on young adult membership and program engagement.
Making these game changers a reality will require the board of directors’ leadership, broad outreach in venues such as regional and state conferences, and an effective program to educate national, state and local leaders about the plan.