BY JYOTHSNA HEGDE
Atlanta, GA, January 3, 2025: “Eradication of poverty, for me, is the driving mission. I have rejected it (poverty) my entire life even when I read the scripture in Matthew –“the poor will always be among you”. It was never intended as an excuse. It was a call to action. And the work that I do, the world I believe in, the world I imagine, is one where poverty is eradicated, and not just material poverty, but the poverty of imagination, poverty of spirit, the notion that my that we are in a zero-sum society, that my success demands your oppression,” Stacey Abrams, American politician, lawyer, voting rights activist, and author who headlined the State Innovation Exchange (SIX)’s 10th national convention held at Marriot Maquis Atlanta between Dec 11- 13, quoted.
The well attended convention brought together over 600 legislators, advocacy groups, think tanks and activists across 48 states.
“SIX was just an idea – the idea that actually solutions come from local communities, people who are directly impacted by the happening around the world should be actually coming up with solutions. State elected solutions are part of that solution. So the idea is that state elected officials and community members should be working in partnership from the very beginning to think about what policy matters most to communities. To me, that has been the most important shift for six of the last 10 years and that is what we are celebrating, Neha Patel co-executive director, SIX told NRI Pulse.
SIX is a national organization that works in close coordination with legislators, advocacy groups, think tanks and activists to provide the tools and information legislators need to be successful. SiX formed when three smaller groups merged in 2014: the Center for State Innovation, the Progressive States Network, and the American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange (ALICE). SiX works with a network of progressive legislators across all 50 states, with on-the-ground State Directors in ten states—Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Washington—who provide tailored support to legislators, especially on issues of democracy and economy.
Highlights of the convention included Building Networks and Power by connecting with hundreds of lawmakers and advocates, building a network of values-aligned champions; Shifting Power Toward Communities with a focus on co-governance, empowering communities to have real power and agency over their lives through collaboration between legislators and the people they serve; Developing Tools for Justice by equipping participants with tools to drive racial, gender, social, and economic justice policies that strengthen communities; and Celebrating 10 Years of Impact from expanding voting rights and protecting child labor laws to reproductive health access and economic justice.
“I am proud to attend the SiX conference as SiX empowers state legislators and communities to drive real, transformative change across the country,” Stacey Abrams, Esq. said in the press release. “The 2024 election cycle has revealed two competing visions for America and this conference is a crucial step toward building the futures we deserve—equitable, just, and resilient for all.”
Over three days, the landmark convention featured various panels and discussions to engage the legislators, advocates and communities. This year’s conference, Irresistible Futures: Moving from Impossible to Inevitable, highlighted the importance of Practicing collaborative governance and Transforming conditions of governance and deliver policy wins.
The convention kicked off with welcome remarks by Beth Michel, Senior Associate Director for the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies, Emory University, Neha Patel and Jessie Ulibarri, Co-Executive Directors, SIX.
“This year’s conference is more than a reflection on the past—it’s a vision for the future. SiX is dedicated to building a democracy where people and their communities are at the center of policymaking, ensuring a more equitable, resilient, and just society. We are honored to host a diverse group of state and national partners from different political backgrounds and geographies. This powerful lineup of leaders and change agents is ready to chart the course toward “Irresistible Futures” and demonstrate our value of collaborative governance.” Patel and Ulibarri said.
The opening session, Welcome to Georgia: Rooting Down, Visioning Forward, rooted down in the rich tradition of organizing and power-building in Georgia and the South, grounding in the work that is underway, to create a vision for building durable power by starting with organizing in Black and brown communities. The panel featured Greisa Martínez Rosas, Executive Director, United We Dream, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, Organizer, Activist, Political Educator, Movement Strategist, Patel, Ulibarri, Tamieka Atkins, Chief Executive Officer, ProGeorgia, Sen. Hillman T. Frazier, State Senator, Mississippi-27, Rep. Lydia Glaize, State Representative, Georgia-67.
In the Building Anti-Racism Capacity: A Reflective Workshop for White Legislators and Advocates, Healing Justice facilitators held space for self-introspection and empathy building, foundational skills to combat white fragility and improve the capacity of participants to engage in meaningful anti-racist work in their roles as policymakers, colleagues, and collaborators.
The convention also provided an opportunity to learn about the SiX Cohort for Rural Opportunity & Prosperity (CROP), meet the SiX Ag team, and connect with fellow CROP members.
Elected and Unsafe, a short impact film produced by the Women’s Democracy Lab featured along with an informal conversation about building solutions to address the escalating threats faced by public officials, especially Black, Indigenous, immigrant, and other women of color.
Navigating New Terrains of Governing Power offered etworking space to connect with colleagues across the country to exchange experiences, ideas, and strategies for navigating through chambers where control will soon flip from one party to another.
The session, Election Reflections and Charting A Path Forward Together, drew attention to post election statistics. While much of the national attention has been focused on control of the White House and Congress, the panel discussed some of the most important races of the year that have been at the state level—from protecting abortion rights on the ballot to breaking up minority rule through state legislative and judicial races. This panel reflected on what the election results mean for the future of governance in the states, and discuss the work that lies ahead of our movements.
Other engaging sessions included discussion about Gender Justice, Empowering Workers, Using the Human Rights Framework in Policy from the Global Reproductive Rights, Movement, Abuse in Public Life, Finding Purpose and Staying Grounded, Agriculture Policy, Maternal Health Care Policy and Infrastructure, Power of Progressive Caucuses, Purple States Project, Running a Black Maternal Health Caucus in States, Advancing Progressive Agendas Together with Rural Communities, Building a Care Economy that Empowers Working Families, Building People Power Beyond Elections, Criminalization of the Body and the Surveillance State, Tax & Budgets that Work for Working Families, How You Can Work Together Better, Modernizing Our State Legislatures, Healing Journey for LGBTQIA+ People Surviving Uncertain Times, Collaborative Governance, Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice, Defending Democracy Against Abusive Preemptions & Restoring Local Power, Depolarizing Care for Trans Youth, The Future of AI, Black Love & Empowerment, and Tactics for Legislators to Champion Agricultural & Rural Communities, crafting an Irresistible Narrative, Building Anti-Racism Capacity, among others.
“I envision a future where everybody gets to express their joy, their vitality, and most of all, their kindness towards each other, where things like honor and integrity are taken for granted, instead of being bitterly fought over. I want a future where everybody gets to decide what happens to their own bodies. I want a future where people aren’t in pain or being trapped in what they feel is the wrong body,” Loretta J. Ross, Associate Professor, activist said during her session with Abrams and Sen. Erin Maye Quade in a panel titled Looking to the Horizon.
The conversation also focused on the importance of maintaining and expanding a human rights framework while also fighting for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Prof. Ross argued that attacks on DEI are not diminished by shifting to a human rights framework and emphasized the need to combat tactics like demonizing and delegitimizing DEI values, as well as legal efforts to weaken federal protections. The discussion highlighted examples such as Voting Rights Act and the Fair Admissions Act, noting how these laws are misused to justify discrimination.
Abrams stressed the importance of not being distracted by corporate commitments to DEI and focusing on the broader impact of individual harms, urging state legislators to anticipate and counteract these attacks. “What I love about the human rights framework is, what should we be demanding on behalf of our people. Make them tell us why not, and that’s where I think Loretta is absolutely right about adopting this human rights framework, but we’ve got to do both, and we cannot let them fracture us and say, well, we’ll defend human rights, but not DEI, because they want us to let the vulnerable fall so that we’re focused on the larger picture. And if we’re focused on the larger picture, we’re missing the individual harm that they are doing. And those individual harms aggregate very quickly,” Abrams noted.
What is the biggest takeaway for attendees from this convention and SIX in general?
The highest achievement of Six is that almost 600 lawmakers are leaving with information, conversations, connections, ideas and strategies, Patel said. “So many first-time legislators learned ways to talk to people in communities, building relationships and providing spaces where people are telling the truth. What started with a staff of seven, with a network of a couple 100 legislators to now, a network of 12,000 legislators and activities that regularly receive information from SIX – expanding that network and building that community is our greatest achievement,” Patel noted.
