Alliance for a Greater New York (ALIGN)

ALIGN: The Alliance for a Greater New York’s mission is to create good jobs, vibrant communities, and an accountable democracy for all New Yorkers. Our work unites worker, community, and other allies to build a more just and sustainable New York. ALIGN is a local affiliate of the Blue Green Apollo Alliance, Jobs with Justice and the Partnership for Working Families. As a coalition building organization, we build power to advance the movement for social and economic justice. Using organizing, policy and communications strategies, we develop, drive and win campaigns that increase opportunity for all, improve our environment, and hold government and corporations accountable. We build strong coalitions in which organizations with varying missions and strategies can work together to achieve common goals, build long-term relationships and develop a collective vision that transcends individual campaigns, politics, geographies and organizational agendas. Our work has brought together labor, community-based, faith, student, policy, academic, business, political and other allies to win campaigns that make a real impact in our communities and shift power and resources toward more progressive ends. We produce timely analysis, action-oriented research and forward-thinking policy solutions for our campaigns. We also work closely with national and local policy experts and allies to interpret and design policy options that meet multiple coalition demands. We have driven innovative collaborations such as One City/One Future and the Green Collar Jobs Roadmap, which brought together diverse stakeholders to propose innovative and actionable policy solutions to make our city more equitable, livable and green. We organize, train and build the capacity of people to take action by creating opportunities for community and labor leaders and grassroots rank-and-file members to come together outside of their organizations and across movement sectors for joint trainings, educational sessions, and civic engagement efforts. We have conducted non-partisan voter education and mobilization, built strong cross-sector relationships through trainings and statewide strategy sessions, organized grassroots actions, and garnered broad support for workers fighting for justice. We use strategic communications and technology to educate, inform and organize stakeholders, opinion leaders and activists, and to promote progressive frames and messages in the media that shift public opinion about our issues. We have built out a communications infrastructure to quickly and effectively communicate our campaign messages and mobilize allies by tracking and responding to the media, launching a new website, and engaging our fast-growing activist base using social media and online advocacy tools. ALIGN: The Alliance for a Greater New York was formed in 2011 through the merger of New York Jobs and Justice and Urban Agenda. With a track record of 25 years combined experience, our partnership and merger increased our collective resources and positioned us to win larger, more systemic change for our communities, our city and our state. From the beginning, we have focused on building a more sustainable economy and environment by winning concrete victories that build momentum to make greater victories possible.