Ludovic Blain

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Ludovic J. Blain III is the Organization Services Director at the New Progressive Coalition. There he focuses on encouraging synergy and collaboration among NPC member organizations, including 501(c)3s, 502(c)4s, 527s, PACs and for-profit organizations.

Previously he was the Associate Director of the Democracy Program at Demos, a New York City-based think tank. Ludovic’s work built the capacity of regional and state democracy reform networks. His lead projects were the reversal of felon disenfranchisement laws that strip voting rights away from citizens convicted of felonies ([1]), and the promotion of Election Day Registration ([2]).

In 2005 Mr. Blain wrote the widely distributed essay Ain’t I an Environmentalist, [3] a response to the controversial commentary Death of Environmentalism. It was originally published in Social Policy [4], and quickly became an informative tool for social justice advocates who wanted to learn more about the lessons people of color domestically and abroad, as well as women, had to make to the typical White American in a room decision-making process still prevalent in the environmental and environmental funding community.

In 2004 he conceived of the Generational Leadership Listening Sessions (GLLS) [5], a year-long program of the Building Movement Project [6] that examined the challenges faced by 25-40 year old social justice leaders in the US. The report detailing GLLS findings, Nonprofit Social Change Leadership: A Generational Transition [7], was released in May of 2005.

Previous to his involvemtn at Demos, Ludovic was a Founding Director of the East Coast office of We INTERRUPT This Message [8], an anti-racist media training and strategy center. He developed programs enabling youth to impact youth and crime coverage in the New York Times, and capacity-building initiative focusing on injecting the voices of welfare rights organization members into the racially-charged debate about welfare and other public benefits. He also served as the national Development Director for that organization. Prior to that, Ludovic lobbied, organized and researched for over a decade at the New York Public Interest Research Group. His successes there include directing campaigns defeating incinerators, lobbying for increased funding for lead poisoning and breast cancer prevention, higher education funding, tenant protections and campaign finance reform.

Ludovic is a non-profit entrepreneur. He has co-founded several national, regional and local organizations including the Progressive Communicators Network [9], the Northeast Environmental Justice Network, and the East New York United Front. He co-founded the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance [10], and chaired that group as well as NYPIRG. He currently serves on several boards including the Fannie Lou Hamer Project, NYPIRG Fund, the Independent Media Institute [11], and the Right to Vote Campaign [12].

Ludovic’s international work has included presentations to then-ruling party officials in Denmark regarding how the right-wing promotes racism and xenophobia as a strategy to erode public support for comprehensive welfare state policies. Over a 5 year period he led discussions about sectarianism and other forms of racism with civil society actors in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, including the British Secretary of State, party leaders, ambassadors, as well as Catholic, Protestant, Travellers, queer and people of color non-governmental organizational leaders. He has also led NGO capacity building work in Haiti, the Gambia and Canada. Ludovic received honorary citizenship from the President of The Gambia for his work there building a national youth alliance. He played a key role in the development of the Northern NGO Alliance for the Preparatory Committee IV meeting of the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), and was a US representative to the UNCED Youth Preparatory Conference in Costa Rica in 1992.

Ludovic’s work has been covered in NBC Nightly News, C-SPAN, The New York Times; Miami Herald.com, Alternet.org; the Haitian Times, and Race, Poverty and the Environment. He’s also been featured in several books, including Loud and Clear in an Election Year (2004), Black Corona: Race and the Politics of Place in an Urban Community (1998), Face Forward: Young African-American Men In a Critical Age (1997) and The Activist's Handbook, A Primer For the 1990's and Beyond (1996). He also had a key comment in How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Power (2004).

Ludovic was graduated by the City College of New York and currently lives in the Bronx. He is a Haitian-American.

Ludovic is an art-lover. In 2004 a selection from his visual art collection was shown at the Franklin H. Williams Caribbean Cultural Center/African Diaspora Institute [13]. He’s traveled widely, and recently became scuba diving certified.