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KFTC Blog

SOKY chapter creates People’s Guide to Planning

Posted by: KFTC Staff on July 19, 2021

From protecting natural resources to building apartment complexes, decisions about our communities and day to day lives happen through local planning and zoning. We see the impacts of these decisions when Black neighborhoods face displacement, when gentrification pushes the working class out of affordable housing, and when pollution in our air and water hurts our bodies. While planning processes are designed to shape the future of Kentucky cities, planning and zoning are often difficult for the public to offer input into and to navigate.  

Reflecting on the Just Imagine Art Show

Posted by: KFTC Staff on July 19, 2021

Graphic and website created by Seun Erinle of Grid Principles (gridprinciples.com)On Wednesday, May 19, 2021, KFTC members hosted a virtual launch event for The Just Imagine Art Show: Healing harm, sharing grief, envisioning the Kentucky we deserve. 

The idea for this art show emerged from a small crew of KFTC members and staff from the Empower Kentucky Leadership Network – Mikaela Curry, Trinidad Jackson, Tona Barkley, Lisa Abbott, and Nikita Perumal – who have, since late 2019, been working together to deepen KFTC’s understanding of Just Transition.

Why we organize for Climate Justice, Racial Justice, a Just Transition, and a healthy democracy

Posted by: KFTC Staff on July 19, 2021

Anyone in the U.S. under the age of forty and paying attention has lived their entire life aware of the existential threat caused by the global climate crisis. In recent years, Americans of all ages have expressed increased levels of alarm and urgency about climate change. According to Pew Research Center, in 2020 nearly seven-in-ten Biden voters (sixty-eight percent) said climate change was very important to their vote; six-in-ten Americans viewed climate change as “a major threat to the well-being of the U.S.” A Tufts University study found that young Americans named climate change as one of their top three concerns motivating them to vote in 2020, behind COVID-19 and racism.  

Finding each other through deep canvassing

Posted by: KFTC Staff on July 19, 2021

Eastern Kentucky Organizer Jacob Mack-Boll has been leading a learning circle about deep canvassing. Below are his reflections from the first two months of facilitating and participating in the learning circle.

Over the past two months, a small collection of KFTC members, staff, and allies have been probing the questions “what is deep canvassing?” “how do we design field canvassing operations that are responsive to this moment?” and “what can we learn from the powerful work being done by other organizers around the country to engage people meaningfully where they are?” Partially prompted by a desire to work with other organizations in Kentucky to build support for federal THRIVE agenda and Green New Deal policies, it also resonated with other pieces of our work – folks are talking in all corners of KFTC about wanting to do more door knocking. 

With leadership from Black faith leaders and others, Lexington bans no-knock warrants

Posted by: KFTC Staff on July 19, 2021

A packed house for the council meetingAfter more than a year of demands from residents, the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council passed an ordinance that bans the use of no-knock warrants with a 10-5 vote.  There was a packed house for the council’s discussion. 35 people made comments in support of the ban and none made comments in opposition.

Black faith leaders in and around Lexington are at the forefront of the coalition that got their demands and stories heard by tens of thousands of Lexington residents. They held vigils and press conferences. They talked with the mayor and other city leaders and organized their congregations. 

KY Public Service Commission establishes a fair process for calculating compensation credits for rooftop solar

Posted by: KFTC Staff on July 19, 2021

The grassroots campaign to protect rooftop solar in Kentucky and prevent electric utilities from rigging the rules against locally-owned distributed solar generation won a major victory in May, ending (for now) a multi-year dispute between solar advocates and monopoly utility companies over the value of fed-back rooftop solar energy.

On May 14, 2021 the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) issued a ruling rejecting Kentucky Power Company’s proposal to slash by seventy-five percent the value of the credit that new solar customers would receive for electric power from their panels that is fed back to the grid. Importantly, the PSC order established a methodology to determine a fair value of that fed-back distributed solar energy. The Commissioners then applied that new framework to calculate that, for Kentucky Power customers, the value for that credit is just twelve percent below what it would have been under the old policy.  

Voter Registration for Kentuckians with felonies in their past (and others)

Posted by: KFTC Staff on July 13, 2021

Lexington Voter Registration June 2021KFTC members and allies are hard at work in the field - community tabling and door-to-door to find Kentuckians with felonies in their past and helping them to register to vote if they got their rights back through Beshear’s executive order.  This work is being integrated into existing canvassing efforts and some stand-alone events, particularly in Lexington where Tayna Fogle is leading weekly talking events.  These events are also key places to circulate our Voting Rights petition to identify supporters and get them involved.

Open letter to Governor Andy Beshear about Voting Rights

Posted by: Cassia Herron on July 13, 2021


Governor Andy Beshear,

Kentuckians know that our democracy works best when we all have a voice and a vote. Your 2019 executive order attempted to help reduce disenfranchisement of Kentuckians with felony records in their past, and was a huge step toward a healthy democracy. I want to thank you for taking action and to let you know it's not enough.

Redistricting on the Horizon

Posted by: KFTC Staff on July 13, 2021

Every 10 years after completion of the US Census, it falls to the Kentucky Legislature to conduct a redistricting process to redraw political boundaries for US Congress, KY House, and KY Senate to

NKY Chapter hosts People's Hearings

Posted by: Joe Gallenstein on July 2, 2021

Over the past few months, members in northern Kentucky have been doing deep canvassing in neighborhoods in Covington looking to learn the issues neighbors were facing – with a specific interest in

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