accomplishments

full history

2023

• Reclaim-endorsed candidates for City Council At-Large, Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O'Rourke, win their elections and kick Republicans out of all City Council At-Large seats. Reclaim volunteers mobilized to canvass with Working Families Party to support the victory.

• Reclaim Philadelphia officially becomes Reclaim Philadelphia Action, newly incorporated as a 501(c)(4) after seven years of growth as a fiscally sponsored project of larger organizations.

• Reclaim volunteers collected over 1,000 petition signatures for WFP candidates Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O'Rourke.

• New neighborhood group launches in Northwest Philly.

• We mobilized over 280 volunteers to knock more than 34,000 doors to support our endorsed candidates for Mayor, City Council and judicial seats.

• Our year of strategic planning comes to a close, resulting in a strategic framework to strengthen and focus our organizing.

2022

• Climate Justice Caucus, in coalition with Reclaim's Point Breeze neighborhood group and our allies at Philly Thrive, supports the South/Southwest Coalition for Healthy Communities in community benefits hearings for Philadelphia Energy Solutions, the refinery that closed after a fire in June 2019.

• Reclaim volunteers knocked more than 12,000 doors to get out the vote for John Fetterman (US Senate) and Josh Shapiro (PA Governor).

• Endorsed candidates Elizabeth Fiedler, Rick Krajewski, Chris Rabb, Tarik Khan and Ben Waxman were elected State Representatives. Progressive incumbents Fiedler, Rabb and Krajewski faced attack ads that flooded their districts, attempting to villainize their commitment to criminal justice reform. Philly voters rejected the narrative and re-elected our incumbents by huge margins.

• Reclaim leaders recruited and organized 183 candidates to run for committee person, the most grassroots elected position in the city. Politically, our city is divided into 66 wards. Committee people are elected to represent their division of the ward, a district of a few blocks. They help get out the vote, connect their neighbors to constituent services, and at the beginning of their four-year term they vote for their ward's ward leader. Candidates that Reclaim leaders support will be voting for a ward leader who agrees to "open" the ward, meaning the ward's endorsements will be voted on by all committee people instead of decreed by the ward leader. The very large majority of wards in Philadelphia are closed wards that carry establishment endorsements — endorsements that maintain a status quo that is not working for Philly's working class majority. Open wards can endorse candidates who are accountable to the people and are often shut out of the pay-to-play politics that have been the reality for too long. On May 17th, 157 of 183 candidates supported by Reclaim leaders won their election. An additional 32 candidates were supported to run write-in campaigns in divisions where there was a vacancy on the ballot.

• Healthcare Caucus led a meeting to educate leaders on harm reduction and overdose prevention sites.

• Healthcare Caucus lobbied Dwight Evans to push him to commit to supporting Medicare for All.

• Five-year strategic planning begins. Staff and steering committee discussed investing in support for a five-year strategic planning process, intended to engage leaders at all levels of Reclaim to create methods to hear from members, allies and movement leaders about their experiences with Reclaim, our strengths and weaknesses, and what they want us to prioritize as we shape a five-year agenda for our organizing.

2021

• We led a three-day training that supported the leadership development of 35 leaders.

• Climate Justice Caucus collects petition signatures to stop trains transporting natural gas from running through residential working class neighborhoods in Philly.

• Our Mass Liberation Taskforce canvassed to talk to Philadelphians about community violence and learn what solutions people want to feel safe. We also asked them to share their perspective on shifting resources from the police budget directly into our neighborhoods to fund community services.

• Our Housing Justice Taskforce canvassed to learn what Philly tenants wanted to see on a tenant bill of rights. We define tenant as a renter who is a tenant of a landlord, a mortgage holder who is a tenant of a bank, and members of the houseless community who are tenants of the city.

• Pressure on City Council members continued as Reclaim leaders and allies took over the Mayor's office to demand no tax cuts for the rich and investment in our communities.

• Two tax cut bills were defeated, and the negotiated budget included our demanded $3 million for eviction defense, $7 million for mobile mental health units, and a total of $155 million for violence prevention including $46 million for community organizations who have been leading the way.

• Queer Liberation Caucus launches their speaker series with Stonewall Was a Riot.

• Completed the first ever Mass Liberation School, unpacking abolition over a nine-week online course with several facilitators from allied organizations.

• Re-elected Larry Krasner; elected Gregory Yorgey-Girdy to Municipal Court; elected Michele Hangley, Cateria McCabe, Wendi Barish, Nick Kamau, Betsy Wahl, Chris Hall and Dan Sulman.

• People's March to demand a People's Budget.

• Reclaim organizes hundreds of people to sign up to testify and call City Council against tax cuts for the rich and to demand investment in our communities.

• Reclaim community makes 186,036 attempts to reach voters across the city in collaboration with Free the Ballot and 215 People's Alliance, in support of Larry Krasner and a slate of judges.

• Mass Liberation Fund "What Works" panel discussion.

• Point Breeze/Grays Ferry Neighborhood Group canvasses to provide vaccination information.

• Gender Justice Caucus led a Trans Day of Visibility workshop, inviting Reclaim community members to explore gender. Proceeds from the event were donated to Morris Home.

• Judge Accountability Table convened two Judge the Judges forums, asking judicial candidates questions based in our values of mass liberation.

• West Philly and Ward 1 & 39 Neighborhood Groups canvass to provide vaccination information.

• Ran successful candidate cohort training with 10 potential candidates for state house and senate in Philly and 10 from around the state.

2020

• Reclaim Housing Taskforce joins two direct actions — one targeting Biden and demanding housing as a human right, the other targeting the Office of Homeless Services and city administration for evicting 175 residents of the Holiday Inn Express COVID prevention space.

• Reclaim community members, led by our Mass Liberation Taskforce, testified in a City Council hearing about police oversight. Over 100 people testified and the public comments lasted over five hours.

• In response to advance notice of Trump supporters aiming to protest the counting of votes at the Convention Center, Reclaim joins a coalition of movement organizations and plans dance parties, actions and rallies to bring joyful celebration in support of counting every vote.

• H.E.A.R.T. series launch.

• Communities Not Cops rally, connecting the fight against police violence to ICE — the fight to stop 28 children from deportation — and conditions in jails and with the courts.

• Mass Liberation again led our community in demanding justice for Walter Wallace Jr. and demanding the city stop offering meaningless reforms instead of real change.

• Safety We Can Feel survey launch; our leaders called folks in Southwest Philly to have meaningful conversations about community safety.

• Judge Accountability Table teach-in.

• Camp JTD wins housing for 50 mothers and children, to be created from city-owned property and placed in a community land trust.

• Justice for Jacob Blake rally, #FreeOurYouth townhall, FOP contract teach-in.

• A'Brianna Morgan was the Mass Liberation issue expert for the Political Healers 2-Day Summit & Act 111 Teach-In, which drew 200 people from across the state.

• In the wake of George Floyd's murder, the Reclaim community demanded police accountability and justice for all of the Black and Brown people killed by police. Mass Liberation leaders led protests and direct actions to demand accountability and structural change.

• Our Housing Justice Taskforce supported the Emergency Housing Protection Act, passed on June 18th, which froze evictions and offered avenues of relief to renters.

• Rick Krajewski (State Rep, 188th), Elizabeth Fiedler (State Rep, 184th), Chris Rabb (State Rep, 200th) and Nikil Saval (State Senate, 1st District) all won.

• Reclaim Housing Justice Taskforce supports Camp James Talib-Dean and Camp Teddy, two homeless encampments demanding permanent housing from the city.

• Our Mass Liberation Taskforce engaged hundreds of community members in testifying against a proposed budget that gave an increase to the PPD while cutting vital social services. Due to overwhelming outreach to City Council, the proposed increase to the police budget was removed.

• Joined Mass Liberation groups in calling for the city to release vulnerable populations from prison as COVID-19 escalated. Held judges accountable through the Judge Accountability Table for their weak response to petitions for release due to COVID.

• Joined the No215Jail Coalition and, through our #FreeThemAll campaign, reduced the jail population by nearly 20% during the start of the pandemic.

• Supported harm reduction advocates in supporting overdose prevention sites in Philadelphia. Joined the Philadelphia Overdose Prevention Network to continue supporting this effort.

• Over 500 Reclaim volunteers joined campaigns for endorsed candidates Rick Krajewski, Nikil Saval and Elizabeth Fiedler, calling hundreds of thousands of voters across the city.

• Reclaim Housing Justice Taskforce joins the national Homes Guarantee campaign, which demands housing as a human right through the creation of social and public housing nationwide.

2019

• In partnership with 215 People's Alliance, knocked on almost 30,000 doors for Kendra Brooks and Nicolas O'Rourke.

• In partnership with Free the Ballot and 215 People's Alliance, we knocked on over 70,000 doors for Helen Gym, Erika Almirón, Isaiah Thomas, Justin DiBerardinis and Ethelind Baylor, and a full slate of judges recommended by the Judge Accountability Table.

• Joined our coalition partners at Alliance for a Just Philadelphia in holding the People's Forum, where City Council candidates answered questions from our movement organizations and committed to progressive leadership.

• Judge Accountability Table held its first judicial forum, creating a candidate questionnaire and requiring judicial candidates to state their values clearly on issues like cash bail.

2018

• Knocked on over 52,000 doors to defeat a racist and xenophobic Republican challenger in the PA governor's race.

• Judge Accountability Table started.

• In partnership with Neighborhood Networks, organized and supported over 230 candidates for local Democratic committee person races. 200 of them won.

• Spring primary season: four endorsed state representatives elected — Elizabeth Fiedler, Chris Rabb, Danielle Friel Otten and James Roebuck.

• Volunteers participated in Elizabeth Fiedler's campaign, which knocked on 50,380 doors in South Philadelphia.

• Organized a congressional forum for the 5th District, held in Delaware County.

• Helped create the West Philly Participatory Defense Hub.

2017

• Organized the Coalition for a Just DA with other allied Mass Liberation groups.

• Organized a call-in campaign (again) to Marcel Groen to demand a state party sexual harassment policy or his resignation. The Pennsylvania Democratic Party created that policy and Groen resigned at the Governor's request.

• As a member organization of the Our City Our Schools commission, we celebrated the end of the School Reform Commission after years of organizing, and the return of local control of Philly schools.

• Knocked almost 30,000 doors for Larry Krasner's general election campaign.

• Joined a coalition of movement groups to organize the #DumpWells campaign, successfully demanding that Philadelphia move $2 billion out of Wells Fargo due to its racist lending practices.

• In coalition with movement groups and Mass Liberation allies, we canvassed over 57,600 doors for Larry Krasner's epic primary campaign.

• Supported Keith Ellison for DNC chair and organized a call-in to Marcel Groen with over 600 people participating.

2016

• Emergency meeting after Trump was elected. Over 200 people attended.

• Direct action at TD Bank, in solidarity with protesters at Standing Rock, demanding disinvestment from the Dakota Access Pipeline.

• Lobbied City Council to pass a resolution opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

• Reclaim begins.