Whereas the foundation of any nation is the institutions that lay the structure for the people’s development;

Whereas, according to the United Nations, the five basic institutions in a community are education, health care, housing, food production and delivery systems, and clothing;

Whereas through qualitative and quantitative empirical data we know that in Black, Brown, Indigenous, and working-class communities, systemic racism has sabotaged basic quality-of-life institutions while maintaining resources for a privileged few;

Whereas equity requires providing resources identified by impacted communities to alleviate harms caused by various social injustices including but not limited to racism and other forms of discrimination;

Whereas directly impacted communities must guide and inform processes committed to equity;

Whereas through hundreds of listening projects, town hall meetings, and engagement with grassroots organizations across the United States, the Equity or Else campaign has engaged tens of thousands of people across the country on the impact racism has had in education, housing, health care, food production and delivery systems, the environment, youth investment, immigration, senior rights, and economic development;

Whereas, in May 2022, representatives from organizations across the country reached consensus on the Equity or Else quality-of-life platform;

Whereas, in September 2022, the Equity or Else quality-of-life national platform was released as a living, breathing framework that can be used to shape racial equity policy at the local and Federal level;

Whereas local communities around the United States are using the Equity or Else framework to develop racial equity policy solutions;

Whereas the Equity or Else campaign is calling on local governments and the Federal Government to adopt a zero tolerance approach to racial inequity, expressed through policy and practice; and

Whereas supporting the Equity or Else framework ought to include investments in eliminating food deserts and investing in Black farmers, funding safety net hospitals and ensuring they provide equitable care to all patients, transformative initiatives like Medicare for All, investing in public schools and ending the school-to-prison pipeline through evidence-based models such as community schools, investing in youth centers and free or low-cost childcare, providing job opportunities for every youth that wants one, uplifting rent control as a means for controlling gentrification and affordable homeownership pathways, eliminating lead pipes and guaranteeing clean water for all, banning discriminatory job screenings for formerly incarcerated people and providing widely accessible, low-cost apprenticeship and job training opportunities, and opening up better pathways for citizenship to all immigrants: Now, therefore, be it