At Appleseed, we believe in meeting the world where it is — not where we wish it to be — and changing it from the ground up. That’s why, whether we’re working in deep-blue New England or deep-red Nebraska, we don’t waste time lamenting political climates. We get to work. And we get results.
This spring has been a season of progress across the Appleseed Network.
Massachusetts Appleseed has taken on multiple fronts of injustice in education and public services. Just weeks ago, the team elevated the alarm in the Boston Globe about alarming racial disparities in school discipline. Black girls in the state are four times more likely to be disciplined than white girls, and MA Appleseed is demanding action—not platitudes—by pushing for legislative reforms to ban exclusionary discipline practices for young students and those penalized over dress and grooming rules.
MA Appleseed also co-led a legislative briefing in March on the Language Access and Inclusion Act, a critical bill designed to ensure all residents—especially the one in four Massachusetts residents who speak a language other than English at home—can access essential services like healthcare, education, and public benefits. With over 70 organizational partners, and moving testimony from community members like Chau Nguyen of the Circle of Vietnamese Parents, the message was clear: government services must be inclusive and accessible to everyone, not just English speakers.
Meanwhile, in Nebraska, a powerful people-led victory unfolded in Lincoln. After years of advocacy by Nebraska Appleseed and the Lincoln for Fair Housing coalition, voters overwhelmingly passed a local ballot initiative that bans housing discrimination based on source of income.
With 66% support at the ballot box, the city has now joined 22 states and over 100 municipalities nationwide that are standing up for equitable housing access—ensuring that how you pay rent, whether with a housing voucher, disability benefit, or veteran assistance, cannot be used to deny you a home.
These wins look different. They involve different laws, different populations, and different political realities. But they spring from the same Appleseed roots: deep commitment to justice, unshakable belief in human dignity, and a strategy that prioritizes progress.
And progress doesn’t wait for perfect conditions. It grows wherever we plant it.
