ACTS-CNY

ACTS at the Gamaliel Foundation International Leadership Assembly 2008: Realizing the Promise

Leaders of the Alliance of Communities Transforming Syracuse traveled to Washington, D.C., on December 3-5 to join thousands of other Gamaliel Foundation affiliate members and allies at the “Realizing the Promise: A Forum on Community, Faith & Democracy”. In 2007, in Iowa, we received a promise from then candidate Barack Obama to make certain that, when elected, grassroots leadership of Gamaliel and allies would be at the table during the transition to help shape the agenda. ACTS representatives traveled to realize that promise.

On Thursday, December 4, the members of the ACTS delegation participated in health care and immigration reform rallies and visited members of Congress in the capitol building. Linda Ervin of ACTS chaired the inaugural meeting of Gamaliel New York with the other five Gamaliel affiliates in New York State (NOAH - Niagara Falls, Voice - Buffalo, ARISE - Capital Region, Northwest Bronx Clergy and Community Coalition, and LION - Long Island). Gamaliel NY had close to 300 people in Washington, DC!

The crowning event was the Realizing the Promise forum at which the representatives from President-elect Obama’s office spoke with over 2500 people of the Gamaliel affiliates and allies from throughout the nation. ACTS President Rev. Kevin Agee was honored to be among those on stage leading the assembly in the opening prayer. Melody Barnes, the Director of Domestic Policy Council for President-Elect Obama assured the group that the Obama administration shared our concerns about health care, economic stability, education, and immigration, and it planned to address all these issues in timely fashion. Valerie Jarrett, Co-chair of the Obama-Biden Transition Team and White House Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Relations and Public Liaison, addressed the group with the reaffirmation that the promise was real.