High Road Constituencies

Serving Local Officials.  One city council member – working alone without a staff person – can easily get bogged down in minutia.  An official should be able to focus on two simple questions:   Is this a good idea?   How can I build a coalition around it?   With a few clicks on the keyboard, it will be possible for a Mayor to review metro initiatives bubbling up city-by-city across the country, and build a collaborative coalition to move ideas into action.  When an innovative Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) passes in Seattle, we can pass information along to council members in Saint Louis and Cincinnati.  By collecting the best high road policies from around the country, putting them all in one place, and letting local electeds know about it, ALICE makes it easy to ask and answer those two simple questions as we put these local leaders in touch with issue experts and activist organizations to build coalitions.   

Collaborating with Local Organizations.  Our goal is to share, supplement and highlight – not replace – the best ideas in local labor, non-profit and advocacy organizations.  The educational materials provided on our website are developed in conjunction with the best minds from city, state and national non-profits.  Our best messengers for ALICE are the familiar faces of advocates that officials already know and trust.  We don’t pretend to have all the answers, but we can find the people who do, use them to develop policy package, and share that knowledge and experience with a national network of local decision makers.

Working with State Electeds.  Local and state government should work as partners, and local government depends on the support and funding of states to survive and thrive.  We can address problems at the local level, but a complete solution is not possible without coordination between state and local government.  Any successful high road strategy must include state government, and ALICE works closely with The Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and other state groups to share model high road policies.  When Apprenticeship Training legislation passes in Washington State, ALICE can share bill language and support materials the next week with key people in Maine, Minnesota, Missouri and Montana.  When ALEC rolls out a privatization bill, we can send counter-talking points to networks of local and state progressives in every state.

Vetting and Consensus

We seek healthy dialectic and debate.  Sample ordinances will be analyzed, evaluated and edited by experts from across cities, counties and states.  Over a six-week vetting process, major stakeholders will send comments, corrections, additions and edits.  Differing views will be addressed over conference calls, emails or personal meetings until consensus is reached.  Packages will then be posted and rolled out to a national network.  Because we are a user-driven operation, we encourage and facilitate communication between ALICE and local groups, and will continuously update and re-evaluate based on that feedback.

home | login | my profile | join our network | about us | contact us | forums | site map