Image: Illustration of a Latina girl with fist raised, speaking into a mic, saying the words “Dreams Are Stronger Than Fear”. In the background are butterflies and a family holding hands.

State & National Action

Artist: Melanie Cervantes

Building power at the state level.

We believe every person should have health, safety and self-determination in every aspect of their lives. We look through the lenses of race, gender and sexuality at how policies intersect with people and communities.

We work on issues like

  • Securing healthcare access, including abortion;
  • Ensuring that our communities are safe from state-based and gender-based violence; and
  • Recognizing that all family formations deserve policies like paid sick leave and paid family leave.

We take a state-based approach to building power for our families, working in New Mexico and Oregon and partnering closely with groups in Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Colorado and Montana.

Read more about about our state-based work:

The Impact Series is…

A collection of real stories from real people in real communities.

We believe that our stories are important because they connect communities in the deepest ways, tying together our emotions and moving folks to take action. The stories from people who look like us are often untold. The mission of the Impact Series is to share those stories and center our people’s voices on the issues that mean the most to them.

Safe Communities

Forward Together works to ensure that our communities are resourced, supported and resilient, not locked up, targeted and criminalized. For many of us safe communities mean alternatives to policing, reformed gun laws, rejecting state-based violence and ensuring that activities of daily living don’t present barriers for undocumented folks.

Access to Healthcare

Forward Together believes that everyone’s deserves to live in a healthy community. Everyone deserves access to health care, including the range of reproductive health services regardless of household income—this includes abortion.

Family Recognition

We all have connected family or networks we care deeply for beyond our blood relatives or the traditional definitions of family. In fact, over 79% of American families don’t fit the nuclear family model that public policy has used time and again to define who qualifies as a “family member” when we take sick day or long-term paid leave.

New Mexico

Strong Families New Mexico

Strong Families New Mexico (SFNM) is a state-based advocacy and action program of Forward Together. SFNM brings together organizations and activists statewide to build strong communities and create policies that work for all families.

Learn more about our work in New Mexico.

Oregon

Oregon is the newest state-based advocacy and action program of Forward Together. Our mission is to be a home for leaders and activists of color in the state to create policies that work for all families.

Learn more about our work in Oregon.

Oregon family

All Above All

All* Above All

Forward Together is a part of the All* Above All Coalition to lift bans that deny abortion coverage to low-income women.

Learn more about All* Above All.