Rights and Democracy Institute

PHI (Vaccine Outreach) :A special RDI project since 2021 focused door-to-door or site-based canvass program to provide information about the vaccine in communities with high rates of vaccine hesitancy, lower income communities, and communities of color in New Hampshire.This tactic was used to have meaningful conversations with the community about their personal beliefs, experiences, and opinions on COVID vaccination.

Jobs Justice Climate (JJC):In 2022, we coordinated the Vermont Renews Coalition and New Hampshire Renews Coalition, both statewide coalitions for which RDI serves as the anchor organization. The state coalitions are constituents of the regional coalition Renew New England. Our JJC work continued to address the intersecting racial, environmental and economic crises we are confronting. RDI continued to engage and organize around our JJC priority issue areas - climate justice, environmental justice, and housing justice.Climate Justice: We supported and coordinated a campaign to close the Bow power plant, the last coal-fired plant in New England, conducted outreach and held public education events about the Civilian Climate Corps bill and the PUC bill (requiring PUC to consider climate change impacts when setting fees and rates), and helped to support and coordinate six climate strikes throughout NH.Environmental Justice: We organized a series of events in four environmental justice communities in Vermont to provide opportunities for community members to share their experiences related to environmental justice issues, including housing, transportation, and more.Housing justice: Our tenant organizing work has continued to flourish. We have held regular tenant meetings, know-your-rights trainings, and Housing for All public events. We organized in support of the Burlington Just Cause Eviction Charter Change.

Rural Organizing:Rural organizing continues to be a major area of work as we engage with our communities on a broad range of issues. In addition to our Renews issue areas, we worked heavily on education justice, economic justice, and healthcare justice in 2022. Education Justice: In partnership with our affiliate, Race Forward, we organized in VT and NH for HEAL Together (Honest Education Action & Leadership), a national initiative to organize at the school district level to unite communities in the face of the culture wars exploding across the country. We held virtual and in person events to raise awareness of the school board, school budgets, and the issue of police in schools. Economic Justice: We organized restaurant workers who support ending the sub-minimum wage in favor of a living wage for all.Healthcare Justice: Our healthcare work included a story collection campaign to raise awareness of barriers to healthcare access, as well as a campaign to fight insurance company denials of critical medical care and medications. We also organized in support of harm reduction solutions to the overdose crisis in both states.

Miscellaneous smaller programs

Leadership Development:While leadership development is integrated into all of RDI's areas of work, in 2021, we launched two cohort-based training programs.Catalyst Leadership was created to develop and support emerging leaders from the most impacted communities across New Hampshire and Vermont, who are committed to a bold agenda for equity and justice. Its flagship year had two cohorts: a bistate cohort and a placed-based cohort in southern Vermont. Grassroots Leadership Academy is an educational initiative to support the development of a new generation of community organizers interested in growing their skills to advance human rights. Race-Class Academy RDI launched an ongoing guided course to acquaint participants with race-class messaging as an organizing strategy. We held a condensed training in February with 63 attendees and a four-part series in May averaging 50 participants per session.