You're invited to our June 2022 Meeting at Sherrill Brook (New Hartford Town Park (4191 Route 12). We have a pavilion (and hopefully good weather!) for our 6:30 pm meeting. We'll clarify who is running for which office in each district and organize our timeline for electoral work and advocacy for the next few months. Plus, we have a lot to celebrate including our five year anniversary as Indivisible Mohawk Valley, school board election wins, and a successful #BansOffOurBody march last month! Bring a friend, and join us on Tuesday evening!

What a terrible few weeks. First it was the assault on reproductive freedom, then the white supremacist massacre at the Tops in Buffalo. Now we have the slaughter of 19 children and two adults at a school in Uvalde, Texas. If you are still reeling from the events of recent weeks, and also weary because we've been marching, holding vigils, and writing letters for so many years already, to try to convince our lawmakers to pass common sense gun safety reforms, take a deep breath.

Shortly after the end of our peaceful, nonviolent, and well-attended #BansOffOurBodies Utica March ended last Saturday, a white supremacist perpetrated a murderous terrorist attack with a semi-assault weapon in Buffalo, NY. You can read our local NAACP President's statement on the Buffalo murders here. You can read about the victims here. This heinous assault in a majority Black neighborhood reminds us of why we do the work we do, and how much more we need to do to dismantle our country's white supremacy system and the political power that nurtures and protects it.

No politicians, no bans, and no court ruling should interfere with any woman's ability to access abortion. Your body is your own. We have to fight back. Join us in Utica to take to the streets!

#BansOffOurBodies Utica March
Saturday, May 14th, 12-2 pm
YWCA Mohawk Valley (310 Rutger Street) marching to Nurses' Candlelight Park (1425 Genesee Street)

You're reeling. You're gutted. You're horrified. We know. Indivisible Mohawk Valley is rooted in the mass women's march movement as well as the fight for democracy and social justice, and we are all devastated by the news of the draft SCOTUS decision decimating Roe v Wade and taking us back 50 years in women's freedom and equality and basic human rights.

But we are the kind of people who don't just cry and post angry memes on social media. We show up to resist tyranny and injustice together, take effective action, and make change.

On Tuesday afternoon about 20 people gathered for an impromptu rally at the federal courthouse in Utica on Broad Street---some were at their very first political rally, so we know that there are more people who yearn to be part of our movement in the Mohawk Valley and just haven't connected yet.

Please save the date of May 14th for our next #BansOffOurBodies reproductive freedom march in Utica. IMV is working with our coalition partners to determine time and location. There will be hundreds of us on the streets of Utica. You'll hear details from us soon.

We will finally be coming together again IN PERSON! Jewish Community Center, Sunday, May 1st, 3-5 PM. Enjoy a huge cake to celebrate the confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the SCOTUS, cover some ground on electoral work and bring everyone up to speed on the recent decision about NY's election maps and primary dates, and then spend some time volunteering with door knocking (or for those who prefer, postcard prep) for James Paul who is on the ballot for Utica School Board. Celebrate and take action, together!

Submit Comments on the Draft Scoping Plan

The Climate Crisis Working Group (CCWG) is making a plea to the entire IMV membership to comment on the CLCPA Draft Scoping Plan. Thousands of comments will be needed advocating for the CLCPA implementation and against false solutions. It really takes just one minute to fill in your name and email and submit a public comment on the Land Use and Local Government Sector of NY’s Draft Scoping Plan.

You're invited to our Indivisible OneNYS virtual convening on Thursday, April 21st, 7 pm-8:30 pm, to help us get oriented towards winning in the midterms! This event is open to all Indivisible activists from all across the state, and it's how we build power beyond our local community to get the representation, the laws and  budget, and the change we want.

SCOTUS!!!

Judge Katanji Brown-Jackson has been confirmed as the newest justice on the Supreme Court by a bipartisan 53-47 vote in the Senate!

We have an opportunity to celebrate today, see the calendar, and at our May 1 meeting!

So....the NYS budget was not done by the April 1 deadline, and it's not an April Fool's Day Joke. If you'd like more information on what this means, what's happening with the budget, and how our IMV and #InvestInOurNY (IONY) priorities stand, you can tune in to hear our IONY organizing partners, Ron Deutsch from New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness and Peter Cook from New York State Council of Churches speak about the Governor's budget priorities on Capital Tonight on Friday, April 1 at 7:00 with Susan Arbetter as the host.

In the meantime, our job is to KEEP CALLING the three NYS leaders and reinforcing our message about the economic and climate justice priorities that must be funded in the budget.

Today is the last day to make your calls and demand funding for the most important priorities in New York State. Call now, and keep the calls going all afternoon!

The budget deadline is tomorrow, April 1.

We're coming down to the last days for the 2023 NYS budget, and need everyone to make calls. You'll find that this newsletter is filled with budget asks. Pick the ones that matter most to you. Call with the asks that matter most to you. You can call and leave messages as often as you want. Just keep calling!

You don't usually get a newsletter from Indivisible Mohawk Valley on Tuesday, but we're in the last 10 days before the NYS budget is due, and we need EVERYONE to take actions, especially sending emails and calling leadership in Albany. Today we're focusing on childcare.

IMV's March 2022 monthly meeting is on Zoom this Sunday (3-5 pm), so please take two hours out of your afternoon (but then keep carrying petitions if you can!) to join us for a very full agenda.

We're nearing the deadline of April 1 as the Invest in Our New York coalition pushes our elected representatives toward an economically and environmentally just 2022 NY state budget. We want climate protections and green jobs ($15 Billion). We want to prioritize public health and health care, funding for front line workers in home health care, nursing homes, and hospitals. We want to make sure that regular people across our state can afford housing, education, job training, local transportation and child care. How can we make sure that our representatives in Albany know our priorities and include them in the state's 2022 budget?

$15 Billion Before It’s Too Late: Fund Climate Justice Now! March 8th: New York State Capitol. It’s not too late to join NY Renews in Albany for a rally at the Capitol on March 8. We’re at risk of NY’s landmark climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, becoming an unfunded mandate. Join us in Albany on March 8, 2022. Together, we’ll make climate history.

It's time to write postcards for our first 2022 postcard project! These postcards are large and colorful and encourage targeted voters in key areas to notice how President Biden's infrastructure bill will positively impact their lives by improving rural broadband. It's a "thank you, Democrats!" message that we can all embrace. You can pick up postcards (and a sample message so you know what to write) starting today.

IMV is thrilled that our main speaker for our February 2022 meeting is Farah Tanis, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of Black Women's Blueprint. She's going to tell us about Restore Forward, a holistic Reconciliation Center her group is building in Ava, NY (outside Rome), with a focus on healing and social, economic, and environmental justice. We've been wondering for a while how we can support this innovative project that aligns with our values. Farah Tanis is a "Can't Miss" speaker for IMV--so....don't miss her!

Indivisibles across New York will join together for a virtual State Lege Conference on Thursday, February 17th at 7-8:30 pm!

In March, Governor Kathy Hochul, Speaker Carl Heastie, and Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins will bring their respective budgets--moral documents that reflect values and priority investments--together and create the final budget for the upcoming year. March is a strategic month for advocating hard for funding that helps every day New Yorkers. How will they know what we want to be included if we don't tell them?

The NY State legislature approved the new Congressional districts Wednesday, and the Senate and Assembly districts yesterday, and they now go to Gov. Hochul for her approval or veto. To review the new maps (congressional, state senate, or state assembly), you can click on "Proposed Congress, Senate or Assembly" under 2022 maps here: https://www.latfor.state.ny.us/maps/