Fairfax County NAACP Advocacy Agenda
“Our goal is to create a beloved community and this will require a qualitative change in our souls as well as a quantitative change in our lives.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Last year was unprecedented and tumultuous for so many but especially communities of color. If we fail to take heed, respond, and act accordingly, we could see a continuation of the turmoil through much of this year and beyond. The challenges of 2020 also highlighted that our communities continue to struggle greatly in ways that require renewed focus, renewed energy, and new policies and laws to close gaps that have remained wide for far too long.
As the nation calls for an end to structural disparities, we have a duty to examine our own community and eliminate those barriers that continue to perpetuate and foster institutional racism. Since the root causes of the problems our communities face – inequality and injustices – are deeply connected, so must our solutions. We are certainly at an inflection point, and we must ensure that all our decisions are intentional, transformative, pro-active, and equitable.
The membership of the Fairfax County NAACP branch continues to grow steadily. We now have over 1,000 active members and close to 8,000 friends and allies on social media. Our shared mission is to ensure the political, educational, social and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate race-based discrimination by ensuring the removal of barriers of racial discrimination through a democratic process.
Our 2021 Advocacy Agenda will work when we challenge ourselves to join together and live up to the ideals of the Beloved Community. Our Standing Committees will continue to remove systemic barriers to institute fair and equal access to quality education; a restorative criminal justice system; affordable and equitable housing; access to clean air and natural resources; a just transition to clean energy and energy efficiency; economic justice; and support for our vulnerable communities (veterans, LGBTQ, women, etc.).
Sincerely,
Karen Campblin
President
Fairfax County NAACP
president@fairfaxnaacp.org