Burlington City Councilors: RISE with us!

Dear City Council Members,

We want to thank you for making and holding space for the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance and our supporters in the Burlington City Council and Finance Board meetings over the past couple of weeks. We appreciate that you respected the rights of more than 1,500 folks representing all wards and beyond at this historic moment.

Know that we are committed to working with you at this time.  It is for that reason that we are developing a resolution-driven approach that we feel Restructures public safety, Implements cultural empowerment, Secures equal opportunity, and Expands racial equity, inclusion and belonging as articulated in #OperationPhoenix.

We will continue our negotiations with the Mayor, in hopes that he will work with us to deliver on his commitments that support this vision. We’ll also continue to keep our constituents engaged, so that they may see their hopes to “transform the lives of Black and brown people by investing in their lives, holding space for their culture, providing them opportunity and ensuring the equity they deserve to thrive” come to fruition.

Note: We’ve been in touch with city councilors and have heard that folks are in need of more time to adequately fill out the survey we provided earlier this week. We don’t need to put additional pressure on you, so we’re extending the public survey deadline to Monday at noon.  Here is the link to the Racial Justice Alliance public survey. We’ll be reaching out in the coming days to have one-on-one conversations to hear your thoughts and feelings.

We call upon on you to RISE with us!