On Your Mark, Get Set, GOAL!
FRRC’s Plan to Score its Goals in 2023
By Chasman Barnes, FRRC Staff Member
Welp! The ball has dropped. Champagne bottles have popped. Fireworks have exploded. Senior Leadership Team plans have been explained. It’s official, folks.
The year 2023 has arrived!
Happy New Year from your friends and fellow advocates at the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC)!
We hope this new year brings much-needed help, continued hope, and more eager hands to join in the fight. Our goal is to remove barriers impacting returning citizens, their families, and the entire community.
Inevitably, during the first few weeks of a new year, people often declare resolutions and set new goals for their lives and loved ones.
Whether committing to eating healthier foods, being more consistent in trips to the gym, or having a resolve to be more involved in the social movements that matter to you, we naturally seem to revisit the most critical points of purpose at the beginning of a new year.
FRRC is no different.
The hope of a new year — with its challenges and choices — is inspiring FRRC to revisit our mission and vision, aiming for targets of change that the members of our Coalition care about most.
The 2023 Top Policy Priorities
This year we’re determined to make a difference for returning citizens in housing, jobs, education, and voting.
The Florida Legislature will reconvene in March, and when they do, FRRC aims to introduce legislation to address each of these priorities and do the following:
- Reduce liability for landlords in renting to returning citizens to remove barriers in the housing market.
- Allow returning citizens to be granted occupational licenses unless 1) their record is directly related to the profession and 2) they cannot show evidence of rehabilitation.
- Remove financial barriers to higher education by providing current and formerly incarcerated individuals a pathway to in-state residency for tuition purposes.
In addition, democracy and the participation of every returning citizen within a democracy are increasingly crucial to FRRC’s statewide members. That’s why we’re keeping our hands to the plow of justice, advocating for election officials to improve their systems for verifying voter eligibility on the front end and to provide legal protections to individuals that the state has determined are eligible to register.
We also want to connect with clemency board members to elevate the ongoing need for reform. The first clemency board meeting is on January 18 at 9 a.m. We will be hosting a Virtual Watch Party for the meeting on our Facebook page. We hope to see you then!
We Are Committed!
With these priorities in mind, FRRC is committed to ending discrimination against and the disenfranchisement of people with past convictions. We envision seeing the work of reentry fundamentally change into a more humane system that supports and restores the whole person and increases public safety.
We remain committed to seeing better opportunities for returning citizens to attain housing, employment, higher education, and access to the ballot box.
You can join us in advocating for these goals in the new year. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @flrightsrestore. Together, we can score an overarching win: a better Florida for everyone!
About the author:
Chasman is a Policy Professional, Advocate for Returning Citizens in Criminal and Social Justice Reform, TEDx Speaker, and sought-after Communicator.
