Welcome to Louisiana Lefty, a podcast about politics and community in Louisiana, where we make the case that the health of the state requires a strong progressive movement fueled by the critical work of organizing on the ground. Our goal is to democratize information, demystify party politics, and empower you to join the mission, because victory for Louisiana requires you.
I'm your host Lynda Woolard. We're declaring this Step Up May on Louisiana Lefty. Over the next two episodes, we're talking to the cofounders of community group Step Up Louisiana about their mission of good jobs and good schools. This week, you'll hear from Maria Harman, a true organizer who has worked in almost every kind of organizing space there is. She's currently based in Baton Rouge, leading Step Ups efforts on Education Justice, while her partner, Ben Zucker, who you'll hear from next time, heads up their organizing on Economic Justice. Step Up Louisiana is a young organization created by young leaders. It's already had some impressive successes. And I believe it can and should serve as a model for the kind of year round work that is needed in all our communities.
Maria Harman, thank you so much for joining me on Louisiana, Lefty!
Thank you. Thank you for having me.
I'm excited to have an organizer on the podcast again. I'm always excited and happy to lift up organizers in our community, because as I've said multiple times, you're superheroes. And I always start the show with how I know my guests. And unless I'm wrong, we met through the Louisiana Democratic Party. Is that right?
Yes, we did.
So you worked there or interned there?
Yes, in 2012, I started interning for the Louisiana Democratic Party. And in 2014, I was first hired for being a campus organizer at Southern University for the Mary Landrieu campaign.
Got it. All right. Well, Maria, tell me your origin story. What first got you interested in politics and activism?
Yes, I first started organizing when I was 16. I'm from Lake Charles, Louisiana. So being a youth leader, I was involved with my church, Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic Church in in Lake Charles, and I was part of the Junior Daughters of the Knights of Peter Klaver, which is an African American organization within the church that does a lot of community benevolence work. And I first started mentoring other young girls, around my age or a little younger. I ran for a state position on this youth board. So at 16, I got to know other black Catholic youth all throughout Louisiana. We did advocacy work and helped raise awareness for sickle cell anemia, that disease, helped to fundraise for it. And in that respect, is when I first started to understand how particularly black people are impacted by other systemic barriers or forms of oppression. And that really sparked an interest in me.
Also, with just my own experience in high school, you know, how I'd seen a disconnect being in more privileged, diverse spaces. My parents supported me to go to Catholic school from pre K to 12th grade. So when I went to high school, it was a predominantly white Catholic high school. So I saw the various lines of privilege right along race and class. And that really helped to politicize my opinion about race. So I really got interested in wanting to go to law school and becoming an attorney just because I felt that I wanted to fight oppressive systems, you know, and so I decided to go to school at Southern University.
I graduated high school in 2006. And Katrina hit into fall 2005. So that was the fall semester of my senior year and the knowing so many young youth from New Orleans was just really impactful in a way of building relationships with more youth from New Orleans who evacuated to Lake Charles and I went to high school with them, but I'd seen how President Bush at the time handled, you know, communications resources, and how that really disenfranchised people from New Orleans. And then not too long after Hurricane Katrina, we went through Hurricane Rita. But I'd seen a difference in how we were able to return back to Lake Charles versus how it was in New Orleans. And I said, I know there are other stemming factors that contribute to this, right? So that in itself also formulated my opinion about politics. And I said, we have got to do something like if we have more people putting pressure on the president or other elected officials, we probably would be able to see some progress. So I was really thinking of like this around the age of 17.
So then I went on to college at Southern University, and I studied political science. That was what I got my bachelor's degree in. And then I went on to grad school, I changed my mind about law school, and just pursued my master's in public administration and public policy. And around that time, is when I really got involved with more political campaigns throughout Baton Rouge, and also getting involved with the Louisiana Democratic Party. And I'll never forget, like the most inspiring moment was in 2008, when that was my first time actually voting. I had registered to vote at 18 but I didn't vote till I was like 20. So that was the first major election. I voted by mail from campus at Southern, right there in the mail center at the Student Union, where I sent off my first ballot and it was to elect President Obama. So fall 2008 was probably one of the highlights of my undergrad experience and also being involved with politics.
And then in 2012, when I started interning for the Louisiana Democratic Party, I also did a lot of student organizing as well. And that's when I was in charge of over 23 students coming from Southern, and we traveled to Pensacola, Florida for two consecutive weekends. We called voters out there and also knocked on doors just to help out with turnout with the reelection of President Obama. So all of these experiences really helped with gearing my perception of like, what do I want to do, you know, as far as like a career.
I fell in love with organizing, I really did. And I really started to see the good, bad and ugly, especially after the US senatorial race with Mary Landrieu. And for me, it was like the good experiences still outweighed the bad. I was like, "Okay, we took an L, but I've dealt with so many different relationships with so many different young people." I knew I couldn't walk away from it.
So then I started to get involved with more community organizing, just veering away from political organizing. And that's when I got involved with the Micah Project. Around 2015, I worked with them. And they're an affiliate of Faith in Action. And around that time, when I had applied, I was still living in Baton Rouge. So this first opportunity caused me to move to New Orleans in 2015. I was the education organizer, and also over civic engagement for the Micah Project. And I worked there for about a year and a half. I met so many powerful grassroots leaders in New Orleans. We started to even pick apart like, what school choice even means in New Orleans for so many families. We really gave a hard critique on how school transportation was being administered and how the One App which really lays into what school choice is all about in New Orleans, we started to critique that and call out One App in a way of like, if One App really works, we wouldn't have all these kids getting bused all over the town at 5 a.m. And once we started to really harness that and lift up our demands, I had to transition on from Micah because they had a massive layoff.
But in that instance, that it was like a blessing in disguise, because if that wouldn't have happened, we wouldn't have founded Step Louisiana. So two weeks after getting laid off, my partner, Benjamin Zucker, called me, because we had met a couple of times in community in New Orleans as organizers. And he asked if I wanted to embark on starting an organization with him. And that's how we settled on a Step Up Louisiana, where we advocate for good jobs and good schools for all Louisiana's working families. So it's been a great journey up to this point, you know, and I've met so many incredible, powerful people that have really taken a chance on me and just working with Step Up, as well.
You have worked in almost every kind of organizing you can work in: faith based, student organizing, electoral organizing, community organizing. That's an impressive range of experience. Well, let's talk about Step Up. So what year was it that you and Ben founded Step Up?
Yes, we started meeting in November of 2016. But we officially founded it on February 7, 2017.
I've worked with y'all, as we've partnered on several campaigns together. I think the very first one was the Unanimous Jury Coalition, which I talked about all the time on the podcast. But y'all were great partners on that campaign. And recently, y'all were great partners on the Susan Hutson campaign for sheriff in Orleans Parish. So what made y'all ultimately decided to start Step Up?
We'd seen a severe need for an organizing project that centered around jobs and schools. And it was definitely a motivational factor with the election of Donald Trump in November of 2016, as well. And when we decided to make Step Up Louisiana official, we started to also see other grassroots groups form, as well, in other parts of the country. And so that was really encouraging to see as, because for us, it was like, we're right on time, you know, to start something new. And Ben and I, we started Step Up before we were 30 years old, I was around 28 or 29. He was 28. And so each of us bring very new, fresh perspectives of just being young leaders in Louisiana. And he and I both, it's like uncharted territory for us as far as implementing the roles of directors for nonprofits. So we had a lot of learning experiences along the way, as well. But yeah, the motivational piece had to be the election of Trump.
And what I find really interesting about Step Up, it's a unique, at least in this area, it's a unique structure. You're member based, member supported, like members pay dues to be a part of that organization. How did y'all come upon upon that structure?
We were thinking, "Okay, how can we build a movement that's not only grassroots centered and membership led, but also sustaining?" So we both settled on $15 a month, you know, for our members to afford. And we're also sticking to our values as well, because for some people, $15 may be a bit too much for them, just looking at their own specific situation. So we wanted to also make membership equitable, as well. So for folks who can pay $15 a month, great. For folks who can't, we try to level that off with paying as much as you can, but we also factor in your level of involvement, too. So we really want our members to know that they have ownership of this organization, and ownership of our campaigns and messaging, and how their activism and lived experiences helps to shape and form our own political analysis as an organization.
Your first chapter, and I say first chapter, because now you have more than one, but you started as a New Orleans based organization. What made you decide that you were ready to branch out and have a chapter in Baton Rouge, which is where you've now moved back to Baton Rouge to run that chapter?
Yes. So we first started off with the name of our organization being Step Up New Orleans, because we knew we were being intentional about being a New Orleans based organization. And Ben and I were discussing just the development of our organization throughout the years, just thinking through, like, where are we going to be two years from now? And I told him, "Well, to be honest, I'm glad we're starting in New Orleans, but I think we can utilize this organization in other parts of the state, as well, to just really encourage more activism from regular everyday Louisianans, to give them support, to train and organize," and he was like, "You know what, I like that idea." So, I said, "Let's be statewide by 2019." So when we told this to our friends at Center for Popular Democracy, who helped us to formulate, one of our advisors was like, "Well, if you're gonna go statewide, just name yourself Step Up Louisiana." I was like, "That's a good idea," but you know Step Up New Orleans - SUN -that brought in the acronym SUN, so that's what really inspired our logo. And I told Ben that we could change to Step Up Louisiana, but we're keeping the sun logo because, hey, that's who we are: step up for a new day.
I love that I had no idea that's where the sun came from.
We decided to keep the logo with the sun in it and the cool orange colors and proceeded on with formulating our official logo. And yeah, I decided to move back to Baton Rouge in 2019, and that was really along that timeline of us going statewide. So you know, we planted ground in Baton Rouge in 2019 with forming our second chapter. And now we expanded back midway between New Orleans and Baton Rouge by expanding our third chapter in Jefferson Parish.
You have a third chapter already? I didn't know that.
Yeah, we just formulated the top of this year. Yeah.
Oh, that's fantastic. Jefferson Parish is a great area to be expanding into. There's so much opportunity in that parish right now. We've seen that from the data from elections, right? So you named Center for Popular Democracy. Can you tell me some of the other partners that you're working with? You have just a great range of partners?
Yes. We're also working with the Journey for Justice Alliance, as well. They've been a great national partner around helping us with our Education Justice advocacy. We're also connected to the Network for Public Education. Diane Ravitch leads that group. And, of course, we seen her track record as secretary of education where she was working for George Bush, but then she had a change of heart on how privatization has impacted public education. So Network for Public Education has definitely been a great supporter. And also our friends at the Alliance to Reclaim our Schools, AROS. They are helping us a lot with our demands around sustainable community schools. We're very grateful for the amount of partners that have been able to just give of them their time, their resources, and support, because all of that has helped with our campaign development.
Locally, you coordinate with the Power Coalition also, right?
Yes, yes, they're a great partner as far as helping us locally in doing statewide work. They have been with us when we had the Unleash Local campaign, trying to rid ourselves of preemption, for us to be able to raise wages. They've also worked with us on advancing the demand for community schools, and also working with us on redistricting, where our work was able to make some impact, especially with Governor Edwards' veto of the congressional map. So I feel like our advocacy definitely made some impact there. Yeah.
You started in New Orleans with a three point platform. Can you tell me what that was?
The process was a very organic one, which is why I appreciate it so much. We started off doing a survey of a list of all these different things like, all the way from $15 minimum wage to a sanctuary city for New Orleans, like a plethora of issues that all impacts us on an economic level. But we surveyed over 140 workers and community leaders in New Orleans. And the top three issues which formulated our three point platform was $15, minimum wage, equal pay for women, and at the time, Ban the Box, which has now evolved into Fair Chance in Hiring.
And Ban the Box, just say what that is, for folks who might not know.
Ban the Box is a policy that really demands that employers remove the question, "Have you been convicted of a felony or arrest records," to really even the playing field for people to gain access to employment, more access to interviews, to be able to have a fair chance at being hired.
And I loved how many candidates you actually got to sign on to that three point platform, many of whom ended up elected. You mentioned the orange shirts with the sun logo on them. Y'all went out and you had a banner that had the three points from your platform on it. You went out in front of City Hall, and there was press there, and you really made a splash. You were very visible with all the members in the orange colored shirts and getting, like I said, all these candidates, some of whom won their elections, to sign up. That was impressive for a really young organization to be able to make that big of a splash, I thought.
Definitely. I really attribute that to our skills in organizing, and just our ability to encourage people to show up. That had to be one of our most powerful moments as a new organization, especially being that right at 10am I think it was, when we kicked off the press conference, Ben and I looked on Twitter and we'd seen that Latoya Cantrell, who was running for mayor at the time in 2017, lifted up all three of our points, that she supports $15 minimum wage, she supports Ban the Box, she supports equal pay, and I was like, "Oh, my gosh, this is serious." And all the press is out there. And I was just really blown away at the time, with all of that happening at once.
It seemed that you ultimately were focusing on Economic Justice and education Justice. Would you still say that's your big main two issues?
Yes, yes, good jobs and good schools is really the foundation of where Step Up Louisiana emerges it's advocacy from. And we also thread these issues along with other stemming factors like as far as racial justice, like we organize from a racial justice perspective. So when we see the disenfranchisement of any minority community, we definitely stand in solidarity and speak up in favor. Another powerful moment for us is when the pandemic had first hit around 2020, and everyone had seen that eight minute video of... goodness...
You're talking about George Floyd?
Yes, I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting to get a little emotional thinking about that. But that eight minute video of George Floyd, getting murdered by police in Minnesota had really put in a flood wave of just the harsh response of our community who were just like this hurts. It hurts to see that. It hurts to see a blatant murder by the hands of police. Essentially what it is, is just a manifestation of state violence that has been plaguing us for years, you know, even since the Jim Crow era or before that. And I told Ben, I told our members, I said, "We have to do something, you know, and we have to channel this energy in a meaningful way." So we organized a march: Step Up for Black Lives. We gathered at the Lewis Armstrong Park, about Congo Square, we had over 200 people show up for that march and that was so powerful to see. We lifted up powerful names of our ancestors, like Oretha Castle Haley, and we just stood in remembrance of just what many people have done in fighting for justice. And that in itself really grounds us in a meaningful way. And I appreciate us always being intentional to make space for that. And that really set the tone for how we proceeded on with our march. And we marched from Congo Square all the way up to the Orleans Parish prison, where we also ended there with saying how we need to end mass incarceration, because essentially, our children are impacted by mass incarceration, our parents and workers are impacted by mass incarceration. So that's how we have been able to advance our demands for good jobs and good schools and other areas of of justice, by just noticing and calling out the intersectionality there.
Am I misreading that you take the lead on organizing for the Education Justice piece?
No, you're not, you're right on that. I do lead the Education Justice work.
And what makes that sort of your main focus?
Well, after I was organizing for the Louisiana Democratic Party, I did work for a little bit with Democracy Prep public schools, and I was their community organizer in Baton Rouge, where I was tasked with garnering a lot of admissions and students to attend their school. So I was helpful in them recruiting about 192 students for kindergarten and sixth grade. And I'm sure they've grown to about maybe K through 11 now, but I've seen the dynamics of what it takes to start a charter school from the ground up. I've seen some problematic areas there, and I'm like, "Wow, this is very like corporate driven." It was very eye opening for me.
So I appreciate that experience there and I mean, no shade to Democracy Prep public schools, but the fact of the matter is, I've heard a lot of complaints. And those complaints have been very concurrent with how other charter schools have operated, and honestly feel like it's just unintentional consequences that come, because whenever you try to fit in corporate style models of any programming, it's going to be some some gaps there and disconnects. It's not to really point out just individual schools, but how all these individual players are part of a system, right?
And that's really the critique that Step Up Louisiana has. I'm thankful for that experience, because if I wouldn't have had it, I wouldn't have garnered the knowledge that I have now, you know, and that really formulated my impetus on doing Education Justice organizing, because I got to know those families and those children, and just understanding the different experiences and challenges each of them face. And just for the simple fact that all children should be afforded a quality education. And I also feel that parents should be empowered in a way to be able to advocate in a meaningful way.
So that has really been, you know, just my inspiration. And also, my parents, my parents have played a major role in me gaining a passion for education, because they've always valued it. But also I've seen my parents is leadership as a kid with my dad being part of a school board. And then my mom being part of the school board at our local school, in Lake Charles. So I understood how, if you're going to be a charter school or private school, how it's supposed to be ran, because parents are really supposed to run that school. But when I've seen that parents weren't running the school at Democracy Prep or other charter schools in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, I'm like, that's an issue. We have to advocate in that way. And that has really been a motivational piece for me.
And moving to New Orleans, I started to understand the system even better, you know, with how state take over has had an impact on invoking privatization in school districts. And in really understanding again, going back to how children are being bused at 5am and not having access to a quality neighborhood school, I feel like a quality neighborhood school should be a right that's afforded to every family. Unfortunately, there's just not the reality we're in right now. But we're hopeful that each year that comes by, each day that passes that Step Up Louisiana's around so by for another day, and that in itself is powerful to me, because we're using our agency to be able to advocate for meaningful things that impact our families.
And you mentioned your mom and dad. So I want to ask this question, because you started the podcast talking about organizing around some hurricanes. How are they doing with their recovery from Laura?
Thank you for asking, my parents are doing okay. My other family, like my aunt's, they did lose their homes, but they were able to move in a new home. So my parents and aunts are next door to each other now. So I find that to be really cool. But the recovery process is still going, like you still pass through parts of Lake Charles, where you see a lot of impacted homes that have not been repaired and are just sitting there, you know, and you really see the impact of how depopulation can impact the community. Lake Charles is resilient, you know, it's been going on two years since the storm passed through and we're still in need of resources, we're still in need of rebuilding, and I just don't want folks to forget about us in that sense. It's always something that can be done to help. And of course, I want, you know, Step Up to be able to be there and supporting them in a meaningful way as well, as long as we can have the resources and the capacity to do it. But, yeah, my family's hanging in there, you know, and our community is, as well. Yeah, we're slowly shaking back.
Do you aspire to have a Step Up chapter in Lake Charles?
Actually, I do. I do. I don't know what that looks like in the next couple of years. But I'm hopeful that we can start to organize in that area. We've also gotten a lot of requests from our folks in Lafayette. They want a chapter, as well. So maybe we can work something out with like a Southwest Louisiana branch or something.
Very good. Well, what do you feel like your biggest successes have been? And I have to say, again, you all are a young organization to have accomplished as much as you've already done, but are there particular successes that you look at and say that this is really big for us?
Yes. In May of 2018, we were able to pass one of our first major policies in Louisiana. We worked with the Louisiana Association of Educators, where we were able to pass state resolution 133, which was a policy that the Louisiana Department of Education adopted to utilize the sustainable community schools model as an option for schools in need of comprehensive supports and improvements. And what we've been able to do with that resolution is use it as a way of language to encourage local school boards to implement a similar policy on the local level. We are currently trying right now in Baton Rouge for that, you know, but it's been a challenge, you know, because opposition is real. But I'm glad that we have something in the books at least to really name and claim that we did that. Another big thing that we were able to get done was pass a Fair Chance in Hiring Act in our state last year with the legislative session. That was a big accomplishment. Also, we were successful in passing policy to bring more local democracy and decision making for New Orleans public schools, because they've been plagued with state control for so many years. But now we're starting to have some return of democracy and process. So hopefully, we can see how that impacts the local landscape of our public schools in New Orleans.
So I did want to mention, I just spoke to Norris Henderson of VOTE a couple podcasts before you. And he was talking about the tools of the trade. And what really made them so effective nowadays is that they've learned the tools of the trade, the cutting edge, most modern tools like the VAN, and Hustle, and predictive dialers. I think that's what's so effective about the organizing you're doing is that you're finding all of those great tools to use, the ones that I'm constantly trying to get candidates to use and seem to have a hard time, but y'all have fully embraced all of that stuff. And it does make your organizing more effective. You're also on Action Network, so you can send out emails to folks. You do Facebook groups and Facebook events. You've never have an event that I don't get a Facebook invitation, and email, and a text from y'all telling me that I'm supposed to go do something. So I just wanted you to maybe talk about that a little bit. And just tell me what your thoughts are on the tools that you use and and what makes them so effective.
Definitely. Again, Ben and I are millennials at heart. So we always are thinking of like, what's the newest trend, what's the most innovative thing we can do to make our organization more effective in building our base and keeping in touch with our members. So we have our database put together with bar stripes and Action Network and also, we're constantly thinking of ways to touch base. We just looked at a new provider to help with mass SMS text messaging. So we've found these things to be very effective, though, like we always are analyzing, like evaluating how our tools are being used and what's, you know, the most effective, and making the best use of our resources. So I'm really grateful for like, all the different channels we're able to use, like whether it's social media, mass emails, text messaging, all these things are effective, even phone calls. We're very good with organizing our base around making phone calls to our members and supporters. So yeah, we've been able to, I think our level of outreach wouldn't be where it's at if it wasn't for our toolbox.
Well, and the other piece of that is you're training people to use those tools. Your members and your staff are all learning how to use those tools.
Yep, and then that has been helpful as well, because just relying on two people to do something is very challenging. So as we grow our team, you know, we're making sure we're providing the supports there as well. So all of that is very meaningful. Yeah.
And that's leadership building as well.
Yes, definitely. We have like this cool little thing now Ben and I came up with for membership growth and development, we call it RDG, which is like retention, development and growth. So like our retention is really, you know, like how do we respond in times of crisis and need, also looking at ways of always cultivating joy within our work, because joy is an act of resistance, but it also keeps us going and it helps us remember like, why we're here. And then also healing and wellness programs, like I want to incorporate it and take advantage of partnerships with different practitioners or organizations that really prioritize healing in the midst of this work, and then development of course is with like our leadership development members, and we have tiers of membership now, like how Step Up has been able to do organizational development with ourselves, I'm really happy with. The first level is member, then we have a member leader, and then our member organizer is like our highest tier of membership. So our member organizers are pretty badass. Like, they're the ones who like, are leading the meetings, pulling in recruiting new members to join Step Up. So I'm very proud of the member organizers we have right now. Sometimes I feel like they're more passionate about Step Up than I am. And I'm like, "Wow," that in itself is like really something. And then of course, like our growth piece, you know, that is something that we like, we set goals, you know, and hopefully we can double our membership. Right now we're at over 200 members that are full time paying dues members. So we're hoping to grow in the next year, double that, you know, and increase our contact base as well, we have about 7000 emails on our contacts. So if we can grow to 15,000, that would be great.
I love that. The other thing that's so important about what you do is you work full time in the community year round. So it's not just when a campaign is happening, or not just when you need something from someone, but you're there all the time. Year round.
Yes. And that in itself is also part of our theory of change. Like we know that we have to remain for us to be sustainable and have longevity, we have to be consistent. And that's what I think is also a qualifying factor of how authentic we are for many community members to like, because their use to the transactional cycle of elections, we're we're just going up there to tell them to who to vote for. But we know that community organizing is much deeper than that, right? So that's really integral in our theory of change at Step Up, where we see the benefits of doing year round canvases, where we're authentically building relationships with people in a community, checking in with them, to really see like, what issues that they care most about, what changes that they want to make. And even that played a major part in how we really first started in New Orleans, too. We started with doing neighborhood organizing in Hollygrove and in the Seventh Ward, where we were able to call out the blighted issues that were going on in different neighborhoods, abandoned homes, and really putting a spotlight on it, and even petitioning the city council for them to do something. So you know, these are effective methods of organizing and how we can really garner in and keep a base of people.
Well, what's next for Step Up?
Oh, gosh, there is much ahead for us. What we're working on right now is a Workers' Bill of Rights in New Orleans, I'm really excited about this work to see what comes out of that, because we were able to check off like our three point platform in New Orleans. We successfully were able to raise the wage to $15 an hour for city workers in New Orleans. And we were able to push forward with equal pay policy in New Orleans. And then also a Fair Chance in Hiring. The city council we had was was very helpful, you know, in bringing forward these policy demands to life. And where we are now on our Economic Justice is just demanding the Workers' Bill of Rights on a local level. I'm really excited to see how that happens.
With how things are going on in New Orleans with education, I am pretty excited to see a possibility of a new era, a new dawn of a landscape to come our way. We have school board members who are claiming that they want to see a return of traditional public school. So let's see if they're really about that. Step Up will definitely hold them to that. And we have a new superintendent search going on right now. So I'm eager to see who they choose and the possibility of working with a new leader, and really seeing how pro public education they can be. We're hoping to to push them in that direction, and really have an emergence of people demanding a reclamation of their schools, like reclaim our schools in the sense of how we name them and how they're run. We want you know, the true authentic fabrics of democratic governance, where we can start to see more centrality within the school district, as well. So we're hopeful about that work, coming up in the near future.
And then in Baton Rouge, we're still pushing out demand for community schools. So we're hopeful about a new coalition that we're building for the Louisiana Alliance to Reclaim our Schools. And it's very encouraging working with the teachers union and working with other powerful service providers who can really help with bolstering the demand for community schools because our children need it. We need these holistic forms of education. And we're starting to see the climate across the country shift towards full service schools, which is essentially sustainable community schools. So we're hopeful about working with Miguel Cardona's administration, we're hopeful about working with other department heads in the Department of Education, because we do have some people there that are knowledgeable about the community schools model. So it's a lot of opportunity to partake in with pushing our domains forward.
That's awesome. So how would people plug into your work if they were interested in joining you?
You can sign up to be a member, either by DMing us on Twitter at @StepUpLA, or DMing us on Facebook, go to our page, Step Up Louisiana, and we're very responsive. You can also email us at info@stepuplouisiana.org, and you could put in a subject line membership, expressing your interest for membership. You can easily sign up as well on our website, stepuplouisiana.org, and join as a member. Again, dues are $15 a month, or whatever you can afford to pay. We'll work with you. But we definitely want your involvement.
I'll put all those links in the episode notes, so it'll be easy for people to get to. Last three questions I ask a different version of every episode: Maria, what do you see as the biggest obstacle to progressive change in Louisiana?
Oh, well, the biggest obstacle I see is just the ever growing capitalistic movement. That in itself is a big challenge, because their political machines have a lot of money. And they have a lot of influence. But I still feel like the power we are harnessing is chipping away at that. But it's still a challenge, nonetheless.
And what's the biggest opportunity for progressive change?
I think the biggest opportunity is just really base building and meeting our people where they are, you know, finding out where their passion lies, and helping them to channel that energy in an effective way to fight for change. I think, you know, the more conversations we have, we shouldn't give up on that. You know, it's always an opportunity to encourage someone to throw down on the fight. There's always something to be done. And it's always an opportunity to use someone's skill set. Yeah.
I love that. I love that. And I think it's so important for people to never give up. People get frustrated and downtrodden when they don't get something going their way. And what I love about y'all, Maria, is that you don't give up, you keep going and you keep organizing and keep, like you said, building that people power. Last question, Maria, who's your favorite superhero?
Oh my gosh. I would say my favorite superhero would be Ella Baker, Ella Baker. She led with love. She led with tenacity and courage. And she saw the importance of people power and grassroots organizing. So yeah, that's my superhero.
That's amazing. Maria, thank you so much for joining me. Again, I really appreciate everything you're doing for the state. And just keep up the great work.
Thank you.
Thank you for listening to Louisiana Lefty. Please follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you to Ben Collinsworth for producing Louisiana Lefty, Jen Pack of Black Cat Studios for our Super Lefty artwork, and Thousand $ Car for allowing us to use their swamp pop classic "Security Guard" as our Louisiana Lefty theme song.
