Rural Organizing Project Cara Shufelt (2nd right) joined AJS Executive Director LeeAnn Hall (3rd right) and Gary Delgado (right) in honoring Marcy Westerling (left) founding Director of the Rural Organizing Project.
The Alliance for a Just Society hosted our third Institute for Pragmatic Practice symposium on March 28-30. The Institute for Pragmatic Practice (IPP) is a project of theAlliancethat brings together organizers, academics, leaders and visionaries to explore theories and innovative strategies to address public policy.
Our third symposium focused on building progressive power in ruralAmerica. Seventy organizers from across the country gathered for 3 days of workshops, plenaries, and panels on topics ranging from protecting and rebuilding the rural economy to building alliances across constituencies in rural communities.
The conference was kicked off with a keynote address on the state level right-wing agenda, from Devin Burghart of the Research and Education on Human Rights.
Veteran organizer, Ed Whitfield fromNorth Carolina’s Fund for Democratic Communities presented a vision for a just and sustainable economy; which will be the topic for our next IPP Symposium slated forSeptember 6-7, 2012. Marcy Westerling, founding Director of the Rural Organizing Project was honored for her contributions to building progressive power in rural counties all across this country.
For more information on future IPP symposiums, email danisha(at)allianceforajustsociety(dot)org.