Boost the Budget 2023
RSVP: first campaign meeting!Click on a title to jump to that section.
Overview
Budget Talk Meetings
Politics Watch: City Budget Edition
House Parties
Overview
We are fighting for an equitable and just Durham where everybody feels secure, safe, and cared for. In this fight, budgets have the most immediate impact in shaping people’s lives and determining who can access what.
But too many Durham residents feel left out of the city budget process, believing that being engaged in this process requires some sort of expertise that they don’t have.
In our rapidly growing city, we have many new housing developments, yet more people are housing insecure. More jobs are coming to the city, yet wages remain low for too many families. Additionally, because high food and gas prices are eating into the pockets of Durhamites, our vision of equity, justice, security, and care seem even less attainable.
Through the Boost the Budget campaign, we will:
- collectively learn about the city budget process
- organize towards a sustainable movement that brings about real change through consistent unified action in our local politics
- mobilize Durham to vote for a City Council that’s capable of offering unprecedented solutions in these unprecedented times.
Together, all races of working people can use the power of local government through budgets and elections to bring to Durham good paying jobs with benefits, more affordable housing, more safe places for our kids to play, and so much more.
Will you join us? RSVP to our first Budget Talk meeting to get involved in the decision making for how our hard earned public dollars should be distributed in the city budget.
Budget Talk Meetings
Conversations with community and City Councilmembers about the budget
RSVP for the next meeting!Leading up to the June 5th public hearing on the budget, we will hold Budget Talk meetings monthly. In conversation with Durham community members and council members Jillian Johnson and Javiera Caballero, we continue to build power in the streets, in the halls of power, and towards the ballot box in November.
At the monthly Budget Talk meetings, you’ll meet like-minded Durham residents, build relationships around the issues we care about as a community, learn together about the budget, and how we can be involved in the budget decision making process. We will also talk to City councilmembers Jillian Johnson and Javiera Caballero about this year’s city budget.
By solidifying our unity across a diverse set of Durhamites who share an interest in making change, we practice taking concentrated and coordinated actions that harness the power of our collectivity and win change in the streets, halls of power, and at the ballot box.
RSVP for monthly budget talk meetings. On all three days, you can join us at 5pm for dinner and some fun!
Budget talk #1: Thursday March 30th, 6-8pm, People’s Solidarity Hub: an introduction to the strategic importance of local budgets, the Durham city budget process, and some of the items proposed in this year’s budget.
Budget talk #2: Thursday April 27th, 6-8pm, People’s Solidarity Hub: the relationship between budgets and elections
Budget talk #2: Thursday May 25th, 6-8pm, People’s Solidarity Hub: collectively preparation for showing up at the June 5th public hearing for the budget
Politics Watch
City Budget Edition: Our Pockets, Our Politics
The city budget is a crucial way our communities can get the care, justice, and security Durhamites need to thrive regardless of job status, race, gender, or faith.
How much do you know about Durham’s budget process? Do you know which services are prioritized to receive more money (from the city taxes that we pay) and how? Do you know what our City Council members are discussing right now as they work on the next budget?
Too many of us, especially working communities, have been made to think that the budget is too complicated for us to understand or have an opinion about.
The Politics Watch: City Budget Edition is a monthly email we send out with a breakdown of the budget process, summary of what’s being discussed in city council meetings, what community members are saying about those issues, and our analysis on the politics of the budget. As we learn together about what the city budget can pay for, we will collectively apply that knowledge to determine what needs more money and how we can advocate for it.
Each month, we will be focusing on one issue:
To receive our monthly “Politics Watch: City Budget Edition” emails in your inbox:
House Parties
Strengthening community bonds, collective learning, and realizing our people power
Our greatest potential lies in activating our closest relationships to take decisive and collective steps towards transformation. We grow our ability to change the circumstances in our community by utilizing people power and bringing together these networks of substantive intimate relationships for change making.
The Boost the Budget house parties are opportunities to do exactly that. With support from D4A organizers, Durham community members who joined our organization last year or earlier will plan a house party, invite their friends, neighbors, and loved ones to talk about what we can do together to affect positive change on the current and future city budget.
If you want to host a house party, contact our community organizer, Cedric Craig (he/him) at cedric[at]durhamforall.org
