Hoosier Action, founded in 2017, aims to create an Indiana where all Hoosiers, Black, white, and brown, can shape the decisions that affect their lives. Small town and rural communities throughout Indiana are facing poor healthcare, an opioid crisis, toxic contamination, and negligible worker protections, which disproportionately affect families and vulnerable populations. Almost a half million Hoosiers meet the criteria for having a substance use disorder, and 94% of families with children under 18 are expected to receive a monthly cash payment to help lift 80,000 children above the poverty line. Hoosier Action has achieved powerful results, such as defeating work requirements for Medicaid recipients, winning an EPA commitment to clean up a carcinogenic toxic site in Franklin, and helping secure $40 million in statewide rent relief. The organization’s goal is to promote justice and improve the lives of all Hoosiers.
Rally for Hoosier Families.
Polling turnout events lead by Hoosier Action members.
The key to Hoosier Action’s success is their person-to-person contact. They have gathered hundreds of members by going door to door, talking to people outside grocery stores, phoning friends and associates, and holding large texting parties, open houses, association meetings, and the occasional town hall. They have a staff of six, three of whom are organizers focusing on different counties or issues. Most members of the organization are women. In other ways the group is very diverse; in an area that is mostly white and Republican, their membership includes people of color as well as Democrats, progressives, and people who thought little about politics until they joined Hoosier Action to protect their families by presenting testimony on how they have been affected by toxic pollution, for example, or by attending community rallies for better living conditions. Hoosier Action’s emphasis is on developing members’ organizing skills so they can improve conditions that impact them directly.
Hoosier Action leaders speak with Senator Todd Young about the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, extending the Child Tax Credit, and passing the MAT Act.