Our Campaigns
People & Planet First
The climate crisis is here – extreme weather makes our communities sick, while floods and wildfires poison water and air, destroy our homes and even transform our sacred places, hurting mental and spiritual well-being. It does not have to be this way.
People’s Action Institute’s member groups threw down hard through direct action and lobbying to pass the nation’s first major federal legislation on climate change, the Inflation Reduction Act, which promises to invest at least $369 billion in renewable energy, pollution clean-up and other environmental solutions.
We are near the tipping point of irreversible climate change, so there is no time to wait. Two thirds of our energy in the United States – and even more worldwide – comes from fossil fuels. That’s why, even as we build the path towards a green energy future, we must decisively end our dependence on fossil fuels.
Housing Justice
We live in the richest country in the history of the world. We can, and we must, guarantee that everyone has a home. This is the vision of the grassroots leaders of People’s Action Institute’s Housing Justice cohort and our Homes Guarantee campaign.
Grassroots leaders across the country are working hard to win tenant protections from the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). People’s Action is actively training and coaching leaders around the country to form tenant unions, and in November of 2023 we brought over 100 tenants who have experienced rent hikes to Washington, D.C. to meet with FHFA leadership and lead a briefing on our housing crisis for the U.S. Congress.
Health Care for All
Health care is a human right. We all deserve lifesaving care and medicines when we need them. Yet private insurers deny medically necessary care over 248 million times every year, and pharmaceutical companies inflate the prices of livesaving medicines to boost profits.
Thanks to those who fought tirelessly over the decades for expanded healthcare, nearly 92% of Americans now have health insurance. But when we need our insurance to access care, it often fails.
People’s Action Institute’s Care Over Cost campaign helps individuals fight for care when insurers deny treatment, and holds these companies to account for denying claims. This builds base and lays groundwork as we move towards our goal of affordable, universal health care.
Leveraging Federal Funds
With the passage of the American Rescue Plan, Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act, CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act, there are trillions of dollars on the table for communities to fix urgent infrastructure problems. Yet these federal funds will only reach these communities and make a difference in people’s lives if we hold elected officials to account and ensure these funds reach local initiatives created by trusted and knowledgeable local organizers.
Fortunately, that’s exactly who People’s Action Institute and our members are: trusted and local. Our organizing builds trust and lays the foundation for moments such as this one. Through our Leveraging Federal Funds work, we are helping local communities and statewide groups cut through red tape so they can identify and make the most of these federal opportunities. We want to elevate how each opportunity can lead to the next, so that together, we advance towards our long-term goal of a democracy that works for all of us, with sustainable jobs in a clean economy.