Who We Are
New Haven Rising is a community organization of residents committed to winning economic, racial, and social justice through collective action. Since our inception during the summer of 2011, we have worked to improve the lives of New Haven residents through grassroots activism and advocacy.
Our members and allies have knocked on doors, held community meetings, given speeches, marched in the streets, taken arrest, and even gone on hunger strikes. The culmination of this work has led to changes in the way people of our city look at the economic and racial realities in New Haven and has created new opportunities for those in need.
Our Charter
We, the people of New Haven, declare:
We are creating a new movement that embraces our diversity, promotes economic, social and racial justice, and aims to create a community where everyone lives with freedom from fear of deprivation and violence.
Too many of our families and communities face declining wages, staggering workloads, mounting debt, unemployment, homelessness, violent and run-down neighborhoods, schools in crisis, unaffordable health care, incarceration, deportation, and isolation.
We stand together for healthy communities that celebrate the contributions of all people. Embracing different backgrounds and experiences brings richness to our lives. When people of all abilities, classes, nationalities, races, ages, and the multiplicity of genders, faiths and sexualities forge strong alliances, everyone can thrive and the fear and hopelessness that engender violence recede.
We recognize that all elements of justice are interconnected and that our struggles to transform our community cannot be divorced from the growing economic and political inequality that shapes communities around the globe. The violence and fear that plague our communities has the same roots and requires the same commitment to peace as conflicts all over the world.
We believe that every person has the potential to play a leadership role in achieving these goals. We will nurture the development of leaders at all levels as we organize and build our movement. Finally, we will measure our community’s institutional leaders by the standards of this charter.
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HOUSING
We stand to empower every family to achieve an affordable, livable, and secure home. We support affordable rents that provide stable communities for working families. We resist gentrification when it tears neighborhoods apart and prevents those working here from living here. We will address the source of both the foreclosure crisis and the taxation structures that overly burden homeowners.
HEALTHCARE
We stand to achieve affordable and comprehensive health care for all. We insist illness is not a crime nor should it lead to debt and poverty. We stand to support public health systems that serve the uninsured and underinsured.
JOBS
We stand for living wage jobs that can sustain our families. We will fight for training and access to jobs for New Haven residents. We call on all employers to recognize that all workers shall have the right to form unions, free from intimidation or coercion. Our unions empower workers, build generations of strong communities, sustain businesses, and strengthen local economies.
YOUTH
We stand for a culture in which young people feel hopeful about their lives and their futures rather than scared about violence and insecurity. We support public, private and personal investment in activities and spaces that unleash the full potential of our youth for creativity, leadership, and service.
EDUCATION
We stand for safe learning environments that are free from threats, fear and violence where students, teachers, and parents have a voice. We believe that beginning with early childhood and throughout life, free, high quality public education should be accessible to all. Our education systems should unlock lifelong curiosity and love of learning, nurture critical thinking, build a sense of community, and establish a confident generation that is willing and able to remain in New Haven.
SENIORS
We treasure and respect the continued empowerment of our senior citizens. We resist attempts to sideline and alienate those who are no longer in the active workforce. We will confront those who take aim at the voting rights, housing rights, access to public transportation and other services that impact our seniors’ quality of life.
CIVIL RIGHTS
We stand for the restoration of civil rights which are critical to restoring dignity to anyone who has repaid their debt to society. This is a dignity that is ingrained in the right to vote, the right to work for fair wages, and the right to strive for a better quality of life. We are committed to preventing the high rates of incarceration and racial profiling that devastate many of our communities.
IMMIGRANT & NATIVE RIGHTS
We stand for all immigrants and declare that no human being is illegal. We honor the history of our native families and assert their struggle is not over. We resist attempts to take advantage of immigrant workers’ vulnerability to keep wages low for all and to create divisions among our city’s residents. No person’s wages and conditions are secure as long as another person’s vulnerability is exploited.
ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP
We will commit ourselves to the stewardship of our natural resources and the pursuit of a sustainable future. We will resist efforts to mortgage the health of our communities so that others may turn a profit. We will work collectively to halt and reverse the negative impact of environmental injustice on communities of color.
Good jobs for all residents
“Fight for more jobs, for the people and the city of New Haven, and the state of Connecticut, that’s what is going to make our communities safe and stronger.”
— Rev. Scott Marks, NHR Director