Even as the shifting demographics of New York are changing the Hudson Valley in positive ways, immigrant communities in New York have faced many years of targeting by ICE for deportation and detention. Keeping immigrants fearful and disconnected from their rights leaves people vulnerable to exploitation and erodes community power.

Columbia County Sanctuary Movement (CCSM) is based in Hudson and organizes throughout Columbia County, where they bring together new citizens, other immigrants, and allies to involve them in local policymaking. They ran a successful campaign to end local police cooperation with ICE in Hudson in 2017, and are now defending that victory as ICE continues to push the boundaries of people’s rights. CCSM has successfully intervened to stop detentions and deportations of their members and local community leaders.

CCSM runs Know Your Rights trainings and legal clinics so that local residents can stand up to ICE disruptions in their daily lives. They register new citizens as voters in smaller communities where every vote most definitely does count, and they are a regional coordinator of the statewide Greenlight Campaign to offer equal access to New York State drivers’ licenses without regard to immigration status.

We’re honoring CCSM for consistent, strategic actions that are in response to the leadership by immigrants in their local communities and for their ability to hold the line for immigrant justice in the Hudson Valley.

New York state has steadily reduced the number of incarcerated people over the last 20 years. But the state has stubbornly held onto parole practices that have left thousands of people to languish for decades in prison with no hope of release. This is cruel when there is ample research to show that in many cases these New Yorkers pose low risk to communities and could be released without compromising public safety.

But “tough on crime politics” has prevailed, at times silencing the voices of currently and formerly incarcerated people when they demand changes. Yet RAPP’s leadership, made up largely of formerly incarcerated people, has become a unique and effective voice in Albany pressing for desperately needed changes to the parole system.

RAPP leaders have zeroed in on specific policy and personnel changes to the Board of Parole to make it more accountable to its mission and to the public, including adding new members. They have found sponsors for strategic legislation to change parole policy. They have shared stories showing how high the true cost of endless incarceration is. They are shining a light on a part of the state government where the people suffering are carefully hidden from public view.

We’re recognizing RAPP for creating tectonic shifts in parole policy that were unimaginable a decade ago and that open the doors to challenging mass incarceration on multiple levels.

Barbara’s political engagement began in the 1960s, when she demonstrated against the U.S.-led Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba and picketed Woolworths to protest racial segregation. Her commitment to social justice continued in college and afterwards, founding one of the first women’s liberation organizations, challenging racial injustice, supporting labor organizing and opposing U.S. imperialism. She was the founder and director emerita of the Shirley Chisholm Project of Brooklyn Women’s Activism.

In her 40s she faced the challenge of deciding how she wanted to use her inherited wealth in a time when the standard approach of a “charity” largesse mindset was the norm.

In the 1970’s, the North Star Fund became her north star. She became a leader in the North Star Fund community early in our years of redefining anti-racist, cross-class relationships for social justice movement building. Barbara has served on our Board—including as our board chair—and as an advisory board member, fundraiser, donor, activist and volunteer. She has been instrumental in developing our coop partnership with Antioch College.

She has built relationships within the North Star Fund community that have spanned decades of creating change in New York City’s political and grassroots organizing landscape.

We’re honoring Barbara for being in the streets protesting when needed, while also providing leadership within grassroots organizations holding the line for women’s rights, labor rights, access to public education, global social justice and peace.

Linda joined the staff of the Arab American Association of New York in 2001, in time to deal with the dramatic rise of anti-Muslim policing after the September 11th attacks. She assumed the position of director after the tragic death of mentor and then Executive Director Basema Atweh in 2005.

Under Linda’s leadership, the organization grew into a force to be reckoned with that reined in police abuse and bias while building deep connections among communities of color, Jewish communities and Muslim communities.

She has since used the same intersectional, from-the-ground up approach as a national co-chair of the Women’s March and as one of the co-founders of MPower Change, the first online Muslim organizing platform.

She is a member of the Justice League NYC, a leading force of activists, artists, youth and formerly incarcerated individuals committed to criminal justice reform through direct action and policy advocacy. She is one of the most recognizable Muslim women in the U.S. political landscape and has proudly described herself as “every Islamophobe’s worst nightmare.”

We’re recognizing Linda for her bold solidarity building, her ability to advance towards accomplishments that many people say are impossible and her principled leadership in challenging times.

While attending Howard University, the killing of a classmate led Maurice into a formative experience as a student organizer against police violence. After college, he worked at the Long Island Progressive Coalition where he organized multiracial coalitions and learned to build power in a broad range of communities.

He went on to become Organizing Director for Citizen Action of NY, and then ran the NY State Civic Engagement Table, a coalition of community and civic engagement groups working on issue and electoral campaigns to build progressive power whose reach across New York state ran to the hundreds of thousands.

He was a co-founding consultant and strategist at Blackbird, where he supported activists and organizations across the country via the network sustained by the Movement for Black Lives.

Earlier this year, Maurice became the National Director of the Working Families Party, where he will be part of engaging the emerging electorate in the changing landscape.

We’re recognizing Maurice for authentic leadership that has supported the development of hundreds of other grassroots leaders and grassroots organizations.