Members of the NYS Community Equity Agenda Coalition work together to fight for transformational change and to develop and advance a bold, shared policy agenda, through organizing, policy advocacy, community education and outreach, media work, and more.  

1. Membership is open to nongovernmental nonprofit organizing and advocacy groups, labor unions and worker organizations, cooperatively-structured and/or community-led initiatives, and nonprofit community development financial institutions;

2. Organizations must agree to support the coalition's mission and core values; and

3. Members commit to following the coalition's operating principles.


Coalition Mission & Core Values:

The NYS Community Equity Agenda calls for policies and actions that transform, rather than perpetuate, our fundamentally unjust social, political and economic systems. It puts racial and economic justice front and center and addresses long-standing inequities that play out at the neighborhood and regional levels. It requires decision-making led by people and communities typically left out of, and harmed by, status quo economic development. And it demands we do much more to tackle the existential crises we face – from climate devastation to persistent wealth inequality. In the face of federal attacks on low-income people, immigrants, women, and people of color, the need for bold, local action has never been greater. The Agenda sets forth an affirmative, solutions-oriented platform, focusing on legislative and regulatory changes that New York can and should take right now.


Operating Principles:

-The coalition pursues an “equity agenda,” a shared policy platform that is informed by on-the-ground, community-led development. The Equity Agenda is focused on democratizing our economy, ending racial wealth inequality that plays out at neighborhood and regional levels, and ensuring a just transition to a non-extractive economy.

-The coalition prioritizes base-building, constituent-led organizations, and the experience and voices of people and groups in neighborhoods directly affected by the issues on which the agenda focuses. We commit to inclusive decision-making, grassroots leadership development, and community accountability, including as articulated in the Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing, in our work together.

-To pursue a bold agenda, the coalition does not refrain from challenging government and corporate policies and practices, as appropriate and strategic.

-The coalition determines and articulates its policy platform within a broader context of long-term, structural change.