Uplift Watertown

01/10/2022

The Annual Martin Luther King Jr Day Unity Breakfast is being held on Monday, January 17th, at 10am virtually. Please visit www.unitybreakfast.org to RSVP! Keynote speech by Dr. Sherrilynn J. Bevel.

10/30/2021

A new generation of cell phone apps offer a fresh approach to personal safety. Scroll thorugh for more information.

10/29/2021

Town elections are on TUESDAY NOVEMBER 2ND! In addition to voting for the proposed charter changes (vote "yes"!), you will have town-wide candidates for Library Trustee and School Committee, and "at-large" candidates for Town Council. You will also have a specific Town Council race for YOUR DISTRICT. So, make sure you know what district you're in :) Follow the link to the precinct map in our bio.

10/28/2021

We are Uplift Watertown. Advocating for community reinvestment and police divestment, advancing anti-racist reform in our public schools, and pursuing the democratization of our local government through civic engagement. DM us to get involved!

10/27/2021

Before District B voters cast their votes next Tuesday, please remember that the murders of George Floyd, Breonnna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks, and Daniel Prude catalyzed the largest national movement the United States has ever seen. Segments of this movement branched off to demand more creative solutions to community care, centering on the call to reallocate funding within local budgets. Groups in Watertown noted racialized disparities in policing, and sought to explore collaborative solutions with Chief Lawn and the WPD to no avail. A global pandemic fueled unprecedented job losses and housing instability, showing that we need creative and transformative solutions to community health and safety.

On July 14, 2020, Councilor Piccirilli moved to refer to the Committee on Public Safety for discussion of the current operations and services being provided by the Watertown Police Department. Almost *eight months* passed before Town Councilor Lisa Feltner, the CHAIR OF THE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE, brought the committee together for a meeting, and only after an immense amount of public pressure and calls for her to be replaced.

The Committee on Public Safety is meant to ensure that public safety policy reflects the needs of Watertown residents, yet it cannot do that if it does convene. As stated in Section 11.5 of the ‘Rules of the Town Council’, “Every committee to which a matter has been referred shall meet within a reasonable time to consider such matter. If the chair of the committee fails to call a meeting within 30 days of a referral, a majority of the committee may call a meeting.” The committee was nothing short of negligent in its duties to the residents of this town and has continually failed to provide a structure for this dialogue to move forward productively. Regardless of whether you find the data to be cause for concern, or whether you are on board with the mission of reallocating public safety budgets to provide more funding to preventative measures than crisis management, this timeline should trouble you. The Committee on Public Safety took a 465 day nap on Lisa Feltner’s watch.

10/26/2021

Over the course of a year and a half, Uplift requested line-item budgets for WPD three separate times, from both WPD Admin and the Town Manager/Clerk. We were consistently referred to the very general Annual Town Budgets on the town website. We FINALLY were able to get the actual detailed line-item budgets for FY16, FY17, FY18, FY19, FY20 and FY22 and have linked them here for public transparency: https://msha.ke/upliftwatertown/

Transparency. Why is it so hard?

10/22/2021

⭐ What we're reading ⭐

Safer and More Just Communities Without Policing. Link in our bio.

10/22/2021

10/19/2021

Link in bio for zoom. Public can come in via email but there will be no open conversation during the meeting.

10/19/2021

Follow the link in our bio for voting & pulling Locations.

10/15/2021

Swag is here! DM us if you want an Uplift Watertown sticker.

10/06/2021

Please join us for ’s 15th Annual Robert Coles “Call of Service” Lecture & Award honoring Mingus on Friday, October 15th at 6:30 PM ET! Mia Mingus is a writer, educator, and trainer for transformative and disability justice.

Mia has been involved in transformative justice work for almost 2 decades. She is passionate about building the skills, relationships and structures that can transform violence, harm and abuse within our communities that do not rely on or replicate the punitive system. RSVP at pbha.info/Coles2021 or the link in Phillips Brooks House Assn.]’s bio. The event is free, open to the public, and will have an ASL interpreter.