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Networking
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San Francisco Supervisor
Jane Kim is the first Korean
American Supervisor in the
country. Her priorities include
preserving and building more
affordable housing, funding
public schools and parks, and
addressing homelessness. Supervisor Kim’s landmark initiatives
include:
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Assistant Majority Leader
Dominick Moreno is the
youngest serving member of
the Colorado state legislature.
Moreno is committed to
ending child hunger and has
passed legislation to make
breakfast available to more than 80,000 kids who attend Colorado’s
lowest income schools. He’s also sponsored multiple proposals to
raise Colorado’s minimum wage. In the most recent legislative
session, Moreno introduced bills to cap the interest rate banks can
charge on student loans, to make it easier for transgender people
to change the gender
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YEO F r o n t l i n e N e w s • Q1 2016 • PG 11
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Me
Jane Kim
Supervisor
San Francisco, California
Dominick Moreno
State Representative
Commerce City, Colorado
sh
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Nominees
• Housing Balance Plan: Ensuring one third of all new housing
is affordable to 60 percent of San Franciscans
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YEO F r o n t l i n e N e w s • Q1 2016 • PG 10
I struggle with the word progressive, but I think it means to think about
progress and how to work together with partners. It’s about thinking
outside the box, it’s about not doing business as usual, and being inclusive
in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual identity and orientation. It’s
about being purposefully inclusive and disruptive. It’s about knowing that
“sometimes you have to crack some eggs to make an omelet.”
Kim is the former president of the San Francisco Board of Education
and a civil rights attorney whose practice at the Lawyers Committee
for Civil Rights focused on combatting new Jim Crow voting laws
in California. Prior, she directed the youth empowerment program
at an affordable housing developer, Chinatown Community
Development Center.
• Homeless shelter reform: Providing mental health, medical
care, and conflict resolution training for residents and staff
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It’s time consuming, it takes a lot of work and elbow grease, but I think
at the end of the day, it’s meeting people where they are. I think it’s about
going door to door, calling people on the phone, and really talking to people
individually about what matters to them and connecting it back to policy.
For example if people are struggling with paying their bills, connecting that
What does the word progressive mean to you?
This award honors Congresswoman Jordan’s dedication to public
service and our country by recognizing an outstanding young
elected official who is following in her footsteps. The Barbara
Jordan Leadership Award will be given to a young elected official
who has shown dedication and support to the YEO Network, and
has a distinguished record of public service to their community and
the progressive movement at large.
• $15 Minimum Wage ballot measure: Authoring and passing
the strongest and most progressive minimum wage proposal in
the nation
Me
hip
What’s the best way to get more people involved in the electoral
process?
I’d like to see the YEO Network grow. I’ve
been the Pennsylvania State Director for
the past couple years and I actually got an
award for growing the Network here – when
I first started I was blown away to see there
were only five others in the Network from
here, so I’ve worked really hard to grow our
presence. I ran my YEO outreach the same
way I ran my campaign. I’d like to see more
members get involved; it’s like anything else,
the YEO Network is what we make of it. I’d
agree that YEO is one of the most important
organizations in America – we are the firsts,
we are on the front lines of change, and there
is a lot we can learn from each other and
there is a lot of camaraderie that we can find
in each other’s struggles. I’d also like to see
Convening grow; I’d like to see more YEOs
from Pennsylvania there.
• The Fair Chance Act: Making San Francisco the first city
in the country to remove conviction record questions from
applications for jobs and affordable housing in both the public
and private sectors
Policy
Policy
Where do you see the YEO Network in
10 years?
Barbara Jordan, co-founder of People For the American Way
Foundation, was a true visionary and public servant. Serving as
the first African American woman in the Texas State Legislature,
and the first Afric an American US Congresswoman from the
Deep South, she championed voting rights and the causes of the
poor, the disadvantaged, and people of color. While serving on the
Judiciary Committee during the Watergate hearings, she rose to
national prominence with her impassioned speeches about the
Constitution, stating, “My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is
complete, it is total.”
Networking
to minimum wage; if people are struggling with their health, connecting
that to the Affordable Care Act; if people are struggling with childcare,
connecting that to the work I’m doing on early childhood education; but
that requires a lot of work. Some people think there’s a magic bullet and
posting an article online will change people’s minds, but I think you really
have to meet people where they are and talk to them individually about
their issues. That’s why they always say “Yard signs don’t vote.” It’s a lot
of work, but I think that is the best way to do it. Also I always take the
opportunity to talk to young people in schools and other settings, because
political awareness is something that needs
to be cultivated at a young age.
2016 Barbara Jordan Leadership Awards
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are doing. We tweet regularly, we post news on Facebook every day,
and we have a monthly newsletter so we really try to put out as much
information for constituents as possible. I also think when people see how
hard my staff and I work it gives people respect for the work we do as
government servants. Also, gerrymandering is a big problem that needs
to be addressed. In many states and in Congress, we have politicians who
carve out the legislative districts they want to represent, instead of the
voters in that legislative district choosing who they want to represent
them. It’s backwards.
Natalia Rudiak