Together, we’re building power and easing suffering
By Robyn Hyden, executive director
The year 2020 has been a time of dramatic, world-shaking transformations. But with your support, Alabama Arise has sustained and strengthened our movement for change. From the COVID-19 pandemic to racial justice protests, from the Alabama Legislature to the halls of Congress and to the streets, Arise has stood ready and willing to speak out for dignity, equity and justice. And your membership and your engagement have made it all possible.
Last fall, Arise members voted to reaffirm our commitments on tax reform, fair lending and criminal justice reform. You also expanded our focus on voting rights. We saw early progress on several of those issues as the 2020 regular session began. You packed out the State House’s largest room for our Legislative Day in February. That energy paved the way for a Senate committee hearing on a bill to remove the state grocery tax.
And then came COVID-19, which ground the session to a halt. In mid-March, Arise staff moved to an all-remote workplace. Membership meetings and presentations moved online. One-on-one meetings and listening sessions moved to Zoom. And our policy, advocacy, organizing and communications efforts ramped up to meet the moment.
Continuing to build toward a better Alabama
Together, we made the case for Medicaid expansion to equip Alabama to fight COVID-19 and help our neighbors amid record unemployment. In mid-April, Arise staffed and supported the launch of the Cover Alabama Coalition, which now has nearly 100 partner groups. And in June, we published Medicaid Matters, a comprehensive report on the economic and humanitarian benefits of expansion. We also held Town Hall Tuesdays, a series of online summer listening sessions on a range of topics. And we raised our collective voices to support protests and calls for racial and social justice.
You continue to amplify our work for a brighter future. You’ve flooded federal and state officials with emails and calls demanding adequate COVID-19 relief. You successfully urged Alabama Medicaid, DHR, the Department of Education and the USDA to pass reforms to get resources more quickly into the hands of those who needed them. And you circulated our guide to getting help during the pandemic to those who needed it.
We’re grateful for your advocacy, membership and support. Together, we’ll endure these challenging times and continue our fight for dignity, equity and justice for all Alabamians.
Arise by the numbers
1,703 individual members
158 member groups
145 staff presentations across Alabama and the United States
20,232 people heard about Arise’s work via staff presentations
21,533 people reached with information about the 2020 U.S. Census
94 partner organizations in the Cover Alabama Coalition, launched in April
150 elected officials received our Medicaid Matters report in June
10,065 subscribers to Arise’s email list
4,092 calls and emails to policymakers generated through June 30, 2020
29 news releases, advisories and op-eds
90 blog posts, fact sheets, newsletters, reports, videos and other publications
600+ media appearances
7,082 Facebook likes
4,181 Twitter followers
We’re changing Alabama together!
Alabama Arise thanks you and every other individual, member group, business, foundation and organization that supported our work between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020. (Alabama Arise Action, our sister organization, will report its donors separately.)
Click here or click the “Download” button above to see Alabama Arise’s full FY 2020 donor list and financial report.