Victories
When we stand together as ECCO across lines of race, faith and class, we win: whether it’s standing with immigrants to help pass state legislation granting driver’s licenses to all residents, regardless of status; passing landmark police reform in 2021; or standing with public housing tenant whose home was in disrepair to win $5.2 billion for affordable housing through the MA Affordable Homes Act. See below for more details on our victories.
We won a statewide police reform bill, body cameras and bias training for all officers and command staff in Lynn, and a Lynn unarmed crisis response teams launching in 2025. LEARN MORE
HOUSING
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
ECCO’s leaders played a key role in passing statewide legislation making driver’s licenses available regardless of immigration status. Our communities have protected immigrants through accompaniment and through local sanctuary laws, and are now providing deportation defense in partnership with the LUCE immigrant justice coalition. LEARN MORE
IMMIGRATION
Our Victories
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Secured $25M+ in ARPA funds for affordable housing in Lynn, Salem, and Gloucester.
Won affordable housing zoning ordinances in Lynn & Rockport.
Helped pass key policies through grassroots organizing:
Fair Share Amendment: Raises $1.2B/year for education & transportation.
$15 minimum wage increase.
Paid sick days & family leave for all MA workers.
Founded Shine Together, the first immigrant & Black worker-owned cleaning cooperative on the North Shore.
Minimum Wage – In partnership with Raise Up MA, we helped raise the minimum wage from $8 to $11 in 2014, and then to $15 in 2018.
Paid Family Leave – After helping win paid sick time in 2014, we worked with Raise Up MA to pass statewide paid family medical leave, allowing up to 12 weeks off for care.
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Helped pass historic statewide criminal justice reform (2018) and police reform (2021) through legislative meetings, community forums, and public actions.
Secured $500K in Lynn’s police budget for an Unarmed Crisis Response Team that will respond to mental health crises and other non-violent emergencies as an alternative to armed police.
Won a campaign to require Lynn police to wear body cameras.
Advocated for funding to establish a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer in the Lynn Mayor’s Office.
We worked with the Lynn police to create a training module as part of required in-service training for all police officers in which police built relationships with directly-affected community members and listened to their concerns.
We won a campaign to get the Lynn police’s command staff to engage in implicit bias training with ECCO.
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Helped pass 2022 driver’s license law for all MA residents, regardless of immigration status.
Led voter outreach to defend the law from repeal.
Secured quarterly meetings with ICE and won the release of multiple detained immigrants.
Passed Sanctuary City ordinances in Salem & Ipswich and a Sanctuary School Resolution in Beverly.
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Helped pass key Affordable Homes Act provisions
Secured $15M in ARPA funds for Lynn, including:
Won affordable housing ordinances in Rockport, Swampscott, & Lynn, lowering income thresholds to improve access.
Secured $650K for Rockport's Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
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Since 2021, the ECCO community raised and donated funds to support 218 families in desperate need due to the COVID crisis. We also supported one another through mutual aid and created a “RAFT rental assistance application team” to support Spanish-only ECCO members with rental assistance applications that were only available in English.
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Trained hundreds of community members from Black, Brown, and White communities to be more engaged and effective leaders and allies in the fight for racial, social, and economic justice
