Blueprint for Justice: 2024-2027 Strategic Plan

Vision 

We envision a fair and equitable Oklahoma that recognizes all Oklahomans.  

Mission 

The ACLU of Oklahoma works to secure liberty, justice, and equity for all Oklahomans through advocacy, litigation, and legislation, leading by example and fueled by people power. 

Values 

  • Courage
    • We have the courage to stand up to difficult challenges and are willing to risk failure.
    • We are persistent in our efforts to tackle those challenges.
  • Integrity
    • We are principled and loyal to our mission. We take stands even when it is unpopular to do so.
    • We are honest.
    • We are accountable for our actions and words. We hold others to the same standard.
    • We strive to do our best at all times.
  • Justice
    • We believe in fairness and are committed to the pursuit of liberty and equality for all.
    • We believe in due process.
    • We respect the rule of law.
  • People-Centered 
    • We believe in the value of people and strive for inclusion.
    • We welcome diversity of thought and expression.
    • We treat everyone with respect and work with compassion.
    • We respect our staff, leadership, supporters, and clients as autonomous individuals who have diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and life experiences.
  • Impact
    • We are advocates for positive change to advance and improve people’s lives.
    • We embrace innovation and learning.
    • We recognize that change may be difficult and strive to adapt.
    • We believe in strategic collaboration.
    • We are optimistic about opportunities for advancement.

Commitment to Racial Justice 
 
The ACLU of Oklahoma has a long history of fighting for racial justice and will continue this commitment. Racial justice will continue to be a principal value that informs our work. 

We will work to continue to dismantle harmful systems that have blocked Black, Latinx, Indigenous and other marginalized communities from achieving their full potential.

The ACLU of Oklahoma will continue to honor our commitment to Indigenous justice work, recognizing there is more to achieve. We will continue to explore over the next four years ways to deepen this work. We will engage with tribal government representatives to identify opportunities to collaborate.

Theory of Change 

To achieve a fair and equitable Oklahoma, we must implement an integrated advocacy approach. This includes coordinated planning of litigation, legislation, communication, advocacy, and community education through our networks and relationships. 

IF the ACLU of Oklahoma closely coordinates planning for litigation, legislation, communication, advocacy, and community education AND works with community, amplify voices of impacted individuals, recruits our supporters to become volunteers, and train members to get involved; THEN we will win impactful litigation; change policy at both the local and state levels; transform the narrative around civil liberties and civil rights and build power in communities throughout the state. 

Defend and Advance 

The ACLU of Oklahoma engages in both proactive and defensive work. We realize that it is essential to move forward with priorities that we define; however, we must address the moments that arise.

Our defensive work involves many issue areas. We determine which issues we engage in based on harm, capacity of coalition partners, resource availability, and other considerations. 

Our proactive work, priority campaigns, includes high impact issues that were identified through a collaborative effort. Our priority campaigns are strategic, measurable, ambitious, realistic, and time-bound. 

Restore Abortion Access

Bodily autonomy is an essential fundamental right that all Oklahomans deserve to enjoy. Oklahoma was the first state in the country to lose access to abortion care. While we still work to restore access through legal and legislative avenues, we recognize that an initiative petition is the tactic most likely to succeed. 

We will:

  • Create a statewide public education campaign for traditional media to dismantle abortion stigma prior to a state question campaign.
  • Continue to work with the strong reproductive coalition to understand the needs of the community.   
  • Create an abortion storyteller’s database to amplify voices of impacted people. 

End the Death Penalty 

Oklahoma continues to use state-sanctioned killing as a sentence option. A large coalition of faith leaders, anti-death penalty activists, business leaders, and policy makers was created to create strategies through both legislative and advocacy efforts to end the death penalty. 

We will: 

  • Lift voices of exonerees, families, and victims to change the narrative regarding the death penalty. 
  • Create trainings to educate and mobilize support for ending the death penalty. 
  • Continue to monitor conditions of death row to prepare for both a federal challenge and possible advocacy strategies. 

Advance Criminal Legal Reform

In 2020, Oklahoma witnessed the largest commutation in our state’s history with 527 people leaving carceral facilities. Our criminal legal work aligns with our racial justice work, and improving criminal legal reform in Oklahoma continues to knock down barriers for Black, Brown, and Indigenous Oklahomans.

We will: 

  • Ensure the state prioritizes the housing and mental health needs of Oklahomans rather than restrict their freedoms with fines, fees, and incarceration.
  • Reduce and eliminate fines and fees associated with court costs, driver’s license revocation costs, and probation costs. 
  • Reduce the incarceration rate by 30%. 
  • Highlight the stories of people impacted by the current criminal justice system to be used in traditional media with the purpose of reaching persuadable Oklahomans.