WHO WE ARE
We are a new organization of North Carolina Quakers. We want to help you advocate for North Carolina legislation and good government practices that embody the Quaker testimonies of peace, simplicity, equality, community, integrity and stewardship.
WHAT WE DO
You’ll see us setting PRIORITIES FOR OUR ADVOCACY and sending out ACTION ALERTS to launch our network of participants into action, and offering resources and training on how to influence NC legislation. SIGN UP for our ALERTS.
Check Out Our Advocacy Workshops
If you would like to learn more about how you can effectively witness as a Quaker advocate, we invite you to register to join the following workshops with Piedmont Friends Yearly Meeting
https://www.emailmeform.com/builder/form/3pu9cb4Uhcw
1. Saturday, July 25, 2020 during the afternoon meeting for business session
Friends Committee on North Carolina Legislation (FCNCL): Quaker Advocacy — Tools, Resources and Next Steps
2. Sunday, July 26, 2020 1:00 pm- 2:00 pm ET
Quaker Advocacy Skill-Building with Quaker Lobby Groups FCNL and FCNCL
For more information visit: https://www.fgcquaker.org/cloud/piedmont-friends-fellowship-and-yearly-meeting/events/pfym-annual-sessions-2020
3. North Carolina Fellowship of Friends will host a workshop: Saturday, August 15, 2020 at 2:30 pm ET
Advocacy with Friends Committee on North Carolina Legislation in the Covid Era
Please register: https://www.ncfriends.org/events/ncff-virtual-annual-meeting/
You can find a printable flyer about the workshops here.
IMPORTANT NEWS
FCNCL IS COMMITTED TO RACIAL JUSTICE AND ENDING SYSTEMIC RACISM
WE HAVE UPDATED OUR RECENT ACTION ALERT to put police violence in the larger context of systemic racism.
ACTION ALERT
UPDATE OF OUR POLICE VIOLENCE ALERT
To All Participants in the Friends Committee on North Carolina Legislation:
FCNCL is committed to antiracism and to continually learning what that means. We stand in solidarity with the North Carolina Council of Churches, the Poor People’s Campaign, and others committed to addressing systemic racism, of which we recognize police violence is but one visible part. Our commitment to antiracism includes addressing voting rights, improving access to healthcare, providing quality education, and promoting environmental justice.We ask members to contact their municipal and state officials to:
Stop Militarization of Police. Redirect funding away from military equipment and military training for police and increase funding towards meeting community needs.
Invest in Black communities by increasing funding for education, jobs, healthcare, and housing.
Renew and increase any funding that has been cut in the past and redirect it to community needs to address mental illness and homelessness with compassion rather than police coercion.
Adopt 8CAN’TWAIT. Recent events have highlighted that these are necessary but not sufficient. Urge your municipality to enact the 8CAN’TWAIT guidelines for policing, but continue your advocacy for much broader system changes.
To see a PDF of this alert, click here.
- FCNCL COMMITS TO RACIAL JUSTICE AND ENDING SYSTEMIC RACISM. Read our Minute on Anti-Racism (here and below)
Friends Committee on North Carolina Legislation Minute on Antiracism
(approved at FCNCL General Committee Meeting October 5, 2019)
Responding to and inspired by Friends General Conference’s report (1) on racism, Friends Committee on North Carolina Legislation (FCNCL) commits to becoming an antiracist faith organization. In making this decision we are acknowledging that systemic racism is a long standing and continuing problem in American society. As part of that society, we recognize that as individuals and Quakers we have too often been blind to our own failings and to the part we play in perpetuating structural and institutional racism.
In committing to the work of becoming antiracist, we know that confronting our failures will be difficult and painful. Guided by faith and grace, we are willing to accept this challenge and to do the necessary work. We see this work as essential if we are truly to live our Quaker testimonies and recognize that of God in everyone.
As part of the work of becoming an antiracist organization, FCNCL will ask committees and business meetings to use the query, “How does this decision support FCNCL in its goal to transform into an actively antiracist faith community and in supporting anti-racism policies and regulations in state government?” whenever we make a decision.
- To read what other Quakers are saying in response to recent events, see this statement and compilation of resources from New England Yearly Meeting.
- To see what some Quakers of Color are saying about race issues, visit this compilation of videos at the Quaker Speak website
REVIEW FCNCL’s 2020 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES
FCNCL uses a corporate discernment process to set our lobbying agenda for North Carolina General Assembly deliberations. These excerpts are from the full statement on 2020 Priorities approved in January 2020, and they are consistent with our Quaker testimonies of Equality & Social Justice, Peace, and Integrity, and with our FCNCL Minute on Antiracism:
- ELECTORAL REFORM – We support:
- Creating an independent non-partisan commission to redraw fair maps
- Legislation that ensures fair and free elections and upholds voting rights.
- Measures promoting strong government ethics
- ACCESS TO QUALITY HEALTHCARE – We support:
- Medicaid Expansion
- Reproductive Rights
- ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION MEASURES – We support:
- Preserving natural areas, air and water quality
- Environmental justice
- Preventing coal ash and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) pollution
- Mitigating climate change, especially through clean energy and ceasing environmental policy rollbacks
- CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORMS – We support:
- Ending Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids
- Abolishing the death penalty
FCNCL is grateful to Jane Ashley of Flower of Life Press for our logo design
