ACT was born out of grief caused by gun violence in our communities and anger that there wasn’t a path forward for addressing the systemic causes that created perennial gun violence and inequality.
Deep and abiding love for our communities lead an inter-faith group of clergy and lay leaders to realize we were being called to build something bigger than ourselves: an inter-faith, multi-racial, cross-class organization with the power to heal our communities and repair broken systems.
In the summer of 2016, ACT’s founding group of clergy and leaders from 16 different faith communities made a collaborative decision to ACT together. By 2018, hundreds of newly trained leaders across the County were breaking down the silos and in October, ACT launched its Founding Assembly with over 1,100 in attendance.
ACT has been building relationships in Anne Arundel County and Annapolis that allow us to act together in power. These relationships drive our ability to create systemic change through broad-based solutions to issues in our communities that we can solve together and make this world better for our children. In the past five years, ACT has won campaigns on issues related to fair and safe housing, gun safety, and educational equity.
2022 Annual Report
ACT is a people’s power organization working across race, socioeconomic background, faith, and geography to win on issues of justice for low- and moderate-income communities in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. We train and develop leaders to act and win on the issues that are most important to everyday people in our communities.
Past Campaigns and Victories
Election Accountability
In spring and fall 2022, in partnership with our sister organizations, AIM in Montgomery County and PATH in Howard County we held actions with the statewide candidates for Governor, Attorney General, and Comptroller. Over 1,000 attended these sessions.
Over 170 ACT members turned out for an accountability session with candidates for County Executive and County Council. The candidates heard our stories and committed to working with us to grow our jobs movement for returning citizens, Turnaround Thursday.
Equitable Schools
Because of our work, Anne Arundel County Schools shorted their timeline to test for and remediate the presence of lead in school drinking water from 3 years down to 1. See news article.
With allies, ACT protected funding to create new school bus routes for low-income and Black students. Letter to the Editor. Next, ACT ensured that every student, instead of every family, in Anne Arundel Public Schools received a laptop for online learning during the pandemic.
Fair and Safe Housing
As a result of ACT’s organizing with community partners Anne Arundel County passed Fair Housing legislation. This is a crucial step to prevent discrimination in housing against renters using public assistance vouchers.
ACT supported residents of Woodside Gardens, a publicly subsidized housing complex in Annapolis, to organize and seek accountability from their landlords for unhealthy and unsafe living conditions. As a result, the owners committed $1M for renovations and repairs.
Read article from the Capital Gazette.
Feed Anne Arundel
Feed Anne Arundel was formed in partnership with ACT and local restaurants. In the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we mobilized to support workers vulnerable to losing their livelihoods, stabilize small businesses at the core of our economy, and feed our community. We ensured 75 restaurants could pay their workers and delivered over 200,000 meals to families in Anne Arundel County.
Gun Violence
County Executive, Annapolis Mayor, and the Anne Arundel police chief agreed to be leaders in the Do Not Stand Idly By national movement to reduce gun violence.