Southerners on New Ground (SONG)

For the year ended December 31, 2022, SONG operated the following programs:(i)Local Campaign Training and Organizing: In 2022, SONG continued to train LGBTQ leaders across the South in grassroots campaign organizing and intersectional methodology and connect leaders building local organizing campaigns with each other. In 2022 as SONG went through a process of strategic planning and strategic alignment, leaders in local sites worked with regional staff to assess the status of their formations as they continued to identify local organizing opportunities to engage alongside organizational planning. Additionally, SONG members continued to evolve organizing practices in response to continued pandemic conditions which required shifts in organizing methodology and limited campaign tactics.(ii) Coalition and Alliance Work: SONG brings LGBTQ leadership, expertise, and visibility to key racial and economic justice alliances and organizing fights in the South and incubates collaborative work that helps to connect bases and shared priorities. In 2022, SONG continued to participate as a partner in multiple coalitions including Movement 4 Black Lives, the National Bail Out Collective and Rising Majority as well as partnering with other local and statewide coalitions and alliances throughout the South.SONG also continued to serve as an anchor organization along with eight other Southern movement organizations to lead the Southern Power Fund which was designed to raise and distribute resources to grassroots organizations across the South. As one of four anchor organizations of the Southern Power Fund, SONG helped raise funds to redistribute to smaller southern organizations.(iii) Regional Membership & Base-building: SONG maintains and builds a base of more than 3,000 Southern LGBTQ Black people, people of color, rural, working class, and immigrant people. In 2022, SONG continued our work to connect and support SONGs base through general membership meetings, training and leadership development, communications work, and regional convenings. Due to continued pandemic conditions SONGs gatherings which have been central to our work had to continue virtually as our staff worked to support continued connection with using online meeting tools and old school technologies like phone calls.In continued response to the continuing Covid-19 pandemic and ongoing climate catastrophes, SONG offered a member support fund and distributed funds for emergency support to SONG members and other community members in need due to pandemic-driven economic crisis and environmental emergencies.Through these programs in 2022, SONG brought leadership to intersectional organizing projects; further developed leadership within a multi-racial, intergenerational LGBTQ base; and engaged Southern LGBTQ people in projects and campaigns that directly addressed institutional and social injustice.