6.30.26 Action Center Update
Welcome to the Action Center Weekly Update. Each week, we’ll share:
A brief analysis of critical issues in this political moment
Immediate actions you can take
Resources to deepen knowledge and strengthen our collective work to side with love
Nothing is inevitable. Justice movements are built by ordinary people who come together to defeat oppression and nurture a loving world. You are not alone. We have power. Together, we can create a just and thriving future.
Movements are strongest when we act together. Organize with your teams and networks, and take these actions in community. For practical tools, see our Organizing School and Trainings & Webinars.
Bodily Autonomy
Core Principle: Every body is sacred. We affirm that trans people are divine, abortion is a blessing, and no one is disposable. Attacks on identity are designed to divide us—solidarity is our moral and strategic mandate.
The Update:
A new U.S. Department of Justice legal memo is questioning long-standing enforcement of the ADA’s integration mandate under Olmstead v. L.C., suggesting states may not be required to actively provide home- and community-based services (HCBS), only to avoid unlawful institutionalization.
Disability advocates warn this could weaken the legal foundation for Medicaid HCBS programs and shift care pressure back toward institutional or segregated systems, especially in states with limited community care infrastructure.
Take Action:
Build disability + reproductive + maternal health alignment.
Recognize that HCBS cuts directly affect:
postpartum disabled parents
high-risk pregnancy support needs
infant care capacity for disabled caregivers
This is one system, not separate fights.
Join or start a local chapter of ADAPT. Free training is available to learn disability rights organizing, direct action strategy, and how to build campaigns that fight institutionalization and expand community living access.
Resources:
Read:
Watch/Listen:
Crip Camp, a documentary on the disability rights movement, independent living, and the fight against institutionalization that shaped today’s disability justice work.
Climate Justice
Core Principle: A just and loving world is also a flourishing one. A fossil-free future is possible, where clean energy is a human right and all beings thrive. To get there, we must create new systems, norms, and practices.
The Update:
Two-thirds of the country will be blasted with a long and dangerous heat wave with New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., among cities expected to see record highs into the 100s this week. Will your power be shut off in extreme heat? Your neighbor’s? Your friend’s? If the answer is no, think more broadly—who in your community is at risk of utility shut offs during extreme heat?
Extreme heat kills more people each year than all other extreme weather events. States are already experiencing longer heat seasons, more dangerous heat index days, and humid heat due to human-caused climate change.
Shockingly less than half of the states protect us from utility shut offs during extreme heat. During extreme cold, most states have a “cold weather rule” that prevents utilities from turning off power when temperatures go below a certain point but only 22 states have a hot weather rule.
Energy shut offs hurt our communities, and marginalized communities are hurt worst. The Energy Equity Project’s Tsunami of Shutoffs Report analyzed utility shut off data and found that no state is effectively protecting its residents from shutoffs, with at least tens of thousands at risk. According to the report, utilities executed shutoffs for non-payment at a rate of more than one per ten households in 2024. The rates of shutoffs happen in states where extreme heat and hurricanes are persistent threats and seasonal protections from shutoffs are generally weak or non-existent.
This is one of the many ways health equity overlaps with energy justice, economic justice, and climate justice. People who bear a heavy energy burden are all too often put in the position of having to decide whether to pay the electric bill or pay for gas, food, or medicine. It’s layers and layers of injustice that keep our communities from thriving. . . and it’s mostly about profit.
“Utilities typically execute shutoffs when households are more than about $100 and thirty days past due, although there are reports of shutoffs for households owing as little as eight cents. By contrast, multiple reports have indicated Americans pay an excess of $50 billion—about $300 per household—to boost the profit margins of investor-owned utilities.”
Take Action:
Protect your community by abolishing Utility shutoffs. The Tsunami of Shutoffs Guides for Action provide recommended actions to move this forward at all levels, including:
Community
Local Government
Public Utility Commission (PUC)
Legislators
Congressional
Resources:
Read:
Learn:
Local Energy Policy Toolkit - ILSR Energy Democracy Initiative
Explore National Trends and find out how your state ranks for shut offs, average monthly bills, and more.
In extreme heat, does your state protect people from having their power shut off? Less than half of our states do! Check out the Hot Weather Disconnect Policies to see if your community is protected.
Extreme Heat Can Impact Our Health In Many Ways - American Public Health Association
Together, we practice the world we long for. Together, we win.
