At our Training for Trainers in Pennsylvania this past February.
It’s our 1st birthday!
It’s hard to believe that just one year ago, a small group of us launched what we hoped would become an unstoppable, youth-driven movement that could stand up to fossil fuel billionaires and protect the people and places we love from climate change.
Today, as we celebrate our first birthday, it feels like we’re closer to that vision than ever before. Take a look below at what we’ve accomplished together in the last twelve months! And if you haven’t yet, check out this awesome video as well.
Since we launched, we’ve trained 500 new organizers in the tools and strategies they’ll need to become leaders in the movement. These young folks are spreading the word to friends and neighbors within local hubs and taking action to get politicians to stop taking money from fossil fuel executives.
We’ve launched 20 hubs across the country in Rhode Island, Michigan, Florida, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and more!
Sunrisers in Rhode Island have gotten over 30 candidates in their state to take the #NoFossilFuelMoney pledge. Sunrise Boston is working with local partners to get almost a hundred candidates signed on to the pledge including every major Democratic candidate for Governor. Young people in PA have brought in almost a thousand new people into Sunrise just from talking to people in the streets and at events and knocking on our neighbors’ doors.
We’ve stood up against fossil fuel-funded politicians at every turn, from a major fossil fuel lobbying meeting in D.C. to the Trump administration’s pro-coal event at the UN climate talks.
We went on tour, not once but twice, and talked to 4,700 young people about what we need to do to win. Many of the folks we met on tour have gone on to start their own hubs or join Sunrise Semester.
We helped launch the #NoFossilFuelMoney pledge, and so far almost 800 elected officials and candidates have taken the pledge, including Bernie Sanders, Cynthia Nixon, and Abdul El-Sayed. In Pennsylvania, 28 out of 41 candidates who signed the pledge won their primaries!
And…
We recruited 70 full-time volunteers to spend the next six months working to kick out politicians in the pockets of Big Oil and make climate change an urgent priority. They’ve just wrapped up Sunrise Semester bootcamp (check out previous blog posts to see how that went!) and out in five electorally significant states to build the youth army and elect inspiring and principled candidates to office.
This last year has been one of hurricanes, fires, and floods. But it’s also been a year of rising up and fighting back, building a strong community and achieving real victories. We’re just setting the stage for what comes next. Stay tuned — we have some big plans coming soon that we can’t wait to share with you!
Thank you for everything you’ve done to get us to this moment.
