#WeAreLongIsland initiative to offer advocate groups training, other resources
People gather at VFW Post 7277 in Massapequa on Sunday for the launch of the #WeAreLongIsland initiative. Credit: Howard Simmons
More than a dozen Long Island organizations have joined together to launch the #WeAreLongIsland initiative, a new hub that will offer training and other resources for regional advocate groups.
At a launch event at VFW Post 7277 in Massapequa with more than 100 attendees on Sunday, during Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend, the groups called for “an end to the harm caused by oppression and a false narrative for a more empowered, fair and just Long Island for all residents.”
“We want everyone on Long Island to thrive and it starts with stories that are being told and what’s really happening in communities on Long Island,” said Shanequa Levin, chief executive and founder of the Women’s Diversity Network.
“There’s countless examples of homophobia, transphobia and racism [on Long Island] and we want to be able to tackle those issues and give people the skills they need to step up their leadership, skills that they need to organize around issues that arise, issues that impact their lives and community,” she added. “We want to be able to provide them with the skills necessary to make change that is not reliant on our lawmakers.”
Seventeen groups have joined the initiative, ranging from environmental justice organizations such as the Brookhaven Landfill Action and Remediation Group to arts and culture nonprofits like Teatro Experimental Yerbabruja.
The organizing hub, which has been years in the making, will offer training and networking opportunities to members, and is funded through Good Neighbors Initiative, a participatory grant-making fund housed at the Long Island Community Foundation. The hub will help connect members to grant opportunities offered by Good Neighbors Initiative, organizers said.
“Usually grant-making is done from the top down,” said Juli Grey-Owens, executive director of Gender Equality New York Inc. “Participatory grant-making is brought to the lower level, to more of a grassroots type of situation, where people who are on the ground doing the work are the ones determining where the money goes so that it’s used more effectively.”
The new hub, she said, will provide an opportunity for different organizations to not just connect, but to understand each others’ issues and work together.
Other organizers similarly highlighted solidarity as a defining goal of the initiative — whether it’s multiple groups joining forces on a picket line or sharing an accountant.
“One of the core features of this initiative is the collaboration and the intersectionality that exists amongst the groups,” said Ani Halasz, executive director of Long Island Jobs with Justice. “True justice happens when we are all moving through it together.”
Brianne Ledda covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.
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