May 10, 2011
By Stephanie West
NY Jobs with Justice and Urban Agenda, two New York City based advocacy organizations announced the launch of their new unified organization on Friday night at their inaugural Movement Builders Awards celebration. After a year long strategic partnership, the groups are now ALIGN: The Alliance for a Greater New York. Matt Ryan is the organization’s Executive Director.
The new organization’s mission is to create good jobs, vibrant communities, and an accountable democracy for all New Yorkers. ALIGN’s work unites worker, community, and other allies to build a more just and sustainable New York.
Elaborating on the focus of the new organization, Ryan explained, “At ALIGN, we want to build a New York in which our economy produces jobs that support families and vibrant communities; a New York in which economic development programs truly create broadly shared prosperity; a New York in which government is responsive to the people’s will and uses its power to create opportunity for all.”
The merger builds upon twenty-five years combined experience and was undertaken in order to increase collective resources and position the new organization to win larger, more systemic change that increases economic and environmental sustainability.
Ed Ott, Distinguished Lecturer at the Joseph M. Murphy Institute for Worker Education at CUNY and a board member of the organization said, “ALIGN will play a critical role in building coalitions with community groups, labor, business and other stakeholders in order to connect our issues and build the power to improve the lives of all New Yorkers.”
“This merger is an exciting opportunity in very challenging times,” said Ana Maria Archila, Co Director of Make the Road New York and an ALIGN board member. “As part of the social justice movement, we hope to bring a new level of strategic alignment across different campaigns.”
For more information about ALIGN, please visit our new website, www.alignny.org or contact us.
