On Monday, May 14th the Health Care Workgroup will meet to plan our spring activities, including distribution of Spanish Birth Control Resource Cards, Single Payer House Parties, presentations, and a collaborative booth at the El Dorado County Fair
6767 Green Valley Road, Placerville
VoteSmart Workgroup
Every. Vote. Counts.
There are stories after stories of elections that have been won by just a few votes. In the past months dedicated volunteers have been registering voters during Voter Registration events. We truly appreciate all the time that our volunteers have spent in this effort.
Getting Out The Vote is the focus from now until the Primary on June 5. Mail-in Ballots go out on May 8 so voting actually begins on that date.
Our efforts to Get Out the Vote include sending out postcards. These postcards go to targeted audiences and encourage the recipients to vote. To accomplish the large task of addressing and mailing all these postcards we have several Postcard Parties planned.
We had our first Postcard Party at the Sierra Forward Placerville Team meeting on May 1 and whipped out 800 postcards in no time. Thank you to all of the volunteers who showed up and helped make this event a success.
Upcoming Postcard Parties:
Sunday, May 6, at the EDP General Meeting
Thursday, May 10, 2 – 4 pm
Placerville Raley’s Community Room
166 Placerville Dr, Placerville, CA 95667
Friday, May 11, 6 – 7:30 pm
Placerville Raley’s
Please join us at any and all of the parties to Get Out The Vote.
Workers Solidarity Workgroup
April has been a very busy month for the Workers Solidarity Network. We have been working closely with the Red Hawk Casino workers and Unite Here to help organize a union at the Red Hawk Casino.
We held a Meet the Red Hawk Workers meet-the-community night that was an absolute success. We have been having in-home organizing meetings with the workers as well as going to their committee meetings to help brainstorm ideas to insure continued success. We are now working on a petition with other community members and are on our way to our goal with 11 petition runners working on more signatures.
We are also working on getting other community leaders in one room to plan our next steps.
Our group participated in the May Day March in Sacramento as part of the (LCLAA) Labor Council For Latin America Advancement - Sacramento AFL-CIO contingent with whom we also were able to participate in a Boycott Driscoll's action. We also had our own EDP Workers Solidarity Network booth at the capitol to gain signatures for the Red Hawk employees.
We will continue to assist the Red Hawk workers in their unionization efforts and hope that other El Dorado Progressives will join us.
Our next monthly meeting will be held on Sunday, May 20th at 3:30 pm at Totem Coffee, 312 Main St #104, Placerville, CA 95667.
Progressive Alliance Calendar - May 2018
Progressive Alliance of El Dorado County
Creating Energy & Strength through Unity.
Our alliance provides continuity and a communication network for citizens and groups dedicated to progressive causes.
Click here for the full Progressive Alliance Calendar May 2018
Community Night at the Placerville Shakespeare Club
On April 23rd members from the community of El Dorado county and Red Hawk Casino workers came together to share some food , share stories, discuss union organizing and to build community support for the Red Hawk workers union organizing campaign.
The event was a huge success, every seat was filled! There were labor leaders from different unions, community leaders, labor activist, clergy leaders and rank n file workers from the Red Hawk casino as well as workers from other industries through out El Dorado county.
We heard horrific stories from Red Hawk workers on what the working conditions were like at the Red Hawk casino while other unionized workers we able to share their strengths of what it was like to work in a union shop.
Everyone who attended partisapated in break out workshops showing how bad negative jobs affect a community while good decent unionized jobs only benefit a community.
The energetic community support for the Red Hawk workers was amazing and overwhelming!
To all who attended and contributed to this event we send out a heart felt THANK YOU!
March for Our Lives
In March, people from EDP pulled together, on short notice, to raise funds and send eight EDC high school students to Washington DC to participate in the March for Our Lives. The students were chosen via an essay contest.
“The March for Our Lives in Washington, DC was a transformative event. From the moment we landed, to the moment we boarded the plane home, each and every person in our group was challenged to expand their spirit, confront their biases, and take the messages of that event back to their community to give meaning to the lives lost. I feel fortunate to have been on the trip and to have experienced it with these intelligent, sensitive, and wise students from our county. I can’t wait to share our journey in the coming weeks,”
Sean Frame, one of the adult chaperones on the trip.
On April 22nd, the students will talk about their experiences and what they learned in DC and in the March. The Meeting and Special Presentation will be at the Placerville Town Hall, 549 Main Street, from 4 to 6 p.m. eldoradoprogressives.org/events-page/2018/4/22/march-for-our-lives-presentation
Health Care Workgroup
By Maureen Dion-Perry and Margaret Madams, Co-Moderators
A busy couple of months behind and ahead of us.
Our next Workgroup Meeting will be held on Monday April 9th at El Dorado County Office of Education, 6767 Green Valley Road, Placerville. We start at 6 pm with snacks and socializing, with our monthly meeting from 6:30 - 8:30. Please join us, even if you are not currently identified as a Health Care Workgroup member.
Current projects include:
1. Ongoing work on wallet cards and improving access to birth control services. We have distributed around 3,000 of the 'Western Slopes' card and have two more versions—one in Spanish and one for Lake Tahoe—currently in production. We expect the Spanish version from the printer any day now and would love/need some help in distributing them. Please contact Maureen or Margaret if you can help.
2. We continue to monitor and respond to Health Care legislation and are booking 'House Parties' to raise awareness and help educate constituents about what is happening at both the State and Federal level.
3. Following the success of our earlier 'Community Conversations', we have booked a further event for 'Sierra Renaissance' on June 15th (details to follow). Collaborative efforts with other organizations continue and it is shaping up to be a busy year. Watch this space for future events!!!
You can join our workgroup or ask questions here.
Our thanks to workgroup members and all of you who have supported and encouraged us in all of these projects.
Vote Smart Workgroup
By Mary Elliott-Klemm and Marian Washburn
The EDP VoteSmart Workgroup is busier than ever. Voter Registration is going forward at full throttle. Volunteers are registering voters in April at the El Dorado Center College campus, at various Taquerias and Benham Park after Sunday Hispanic Mass, at the Placerville Natural Foods Co-op, at Earth Day, at the Native Plant sale, and more events are planned. We want to get every possible voter registered and voting in the Primary on June 5.
WE CAN WIN IN NOVEMBER IF WE GET EVERY ANTI-MCCLINTOCK VOTER TO VOTE IN NOVEMBER!!!!!
We continue to support the ever-important CalAway canvassing which targets Democrats. Canvassing is scheduled for April 7,8 and April 21, 22. This is probably the most important thing that we can do to get votes for the Democrat candidate and replace McClintock in November. Contact Lorraine King at lorraine.king@sbcglobal.net for more information and to help out.
House Parties are an important venue to bring in new volunteers and do fundraising for the anti-McClintock campaign. At the last House Party 10 new volunteers were added and money was raised. Donations are needed for our partner, Sierra Forward, to be able to do mailings, brochures, and ads for the campaign. Volunteer to host a House Party soon! Contact us at edpvotesmart.org
We are also extremely excited about the enthusiasm of the local high school students who participated in the March 24 "March For Our Lives" in Washington D.C. Their efforts to engage fellow students to register to vote will have a tremendous impact.
Join the movement! The more volunteers we have, the stronger we will be. Join us at edpvotesmart.org. Meet your fellow volunteers at our Sierra Forward Placerville Team meeting on May 1, 5:30 pm at Raleys Event Center in the Raleys Placerville Drive store.
If we volunteer, if we get out the vote, we can have a victory in November!
Civil Rights Now Workgroup
By Michael Saunders
Our group continues in its commitment to deal with racism in El Dorado County and our area.
The Monday morning picketing in front of the Mountain Democrat continues weekly at 12 noon. We have been a visible force to show the community that racism will not be tolerated and let others know there are like-minded voices. The protest has been visited by members from Unite Here and also has shown our solidarity with the Sacramento community for Stephon Clark.
We have been addressing the problem of Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions (CC&Rs) in our county. Covenants are limits and rules placed on a complex of dwellings by a builder, developer, neighborhood association, or homeowners association. Many old CC&Rs contain outdated language forbidding "blacks" to own or have property in that complex. Several CC&Rs with this language have been collected and will be sent to the California Legislature. The intent is to create a law requiring homeowners associations to remove these antiquated, unenforceable, yet highly offensive clauses from their CC&Rs.
On the school front, we are attempting to work two efforts: a curriculum for Social Justice to be taught throughout EDC schools and a one-day Social Justice workshop with panels of experts, speakers, and exercises for all schools.
And we may have some upcoming actions to protest against yet another police shooting of an unarmed African-American.
We live in a democracy where all people do not share the same freedoms. We continue to deal with bigotry, hate, and injustice. If you are looking to join us in rapid response actions and/or if you are willing to help in one of our many-faceted approaches to the problem, sign up for our workgroup here at the next general meeting.
Protecting Public Lands
Protecting Public Lands
The Protecting Public Lands Workgroup, formerly known as the South County Citizens for Public Lands, is inviting you to view our newly launched webpage on the El Dorado Progressives website CLICK HERE
On out page you can find information on environmental alerts and legislation as well as good news and events that you can participate in.
We are a small group determined to push back against the constant assault on our environment. We are looking to grow the group so we can be more effective in our efforts. If you are interested, please use the “Contact Us” link on the Protecting Public Lands web page.