DC Appleseed is undertaking an examination of how the District's Attorney General is selected and removed, as well as considering what the proper role of that office is.
Anacostia Waterfront Initiative
DC Appleseed -- along with business leaders, community organizations, and others -- is working to ensure that the DC government meets its statutory obligations to create more affordable housing, improve employment opportunities for local residents, and protect and restore the environmental integrity of the Anacostia River during the development of the Anacostia waterfront.
Anacostia Watershed and River Restoration
DC Appleseed organizes and coordinates stakeholders to devise and implement strategies to restore the Anacostia River.
Carefirst BlueCross BlueShield Reform
DC Appleseed has been working since 2001 to ensure that the nonprofit CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, the largest health insurance company in the mid-Atlantic region, meets its obligation to the public as a charitable and benevolent non-profit organization.
More than 65% of District children have cases open in the child support system -- more children than are in the District's public and charter schools combined.
Public health indicators among District children have for some time been among the worst in the nation, including high levels of asthma, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, HIV/AIDS and mental illness.
DC Appleseed's civic engagement project began with the Solving DC Problems Campaign 2006, undertaken in the months leading up to the local 2006 elections, to provide residents of the National Capital area with a mechanism for bringing their ideas for solving city problems to the attention of city decision-makers--a mechanism we believed was missing.
For several years, DC Appleseed was counsel in a case challenging the constitutionality of a provision in the District of Columbia's Home Rule Charter (passed as an act of Congress) that prohibits the District from collecting income taxes from those who work and earn income in D.C. but do not live here.
For several years, DC Appleseed has been a central player in the effort to gain full-voting representation in Congress for the District of Columbia through congressional legislation.
DC Appleseed has teamed up with several other organizations to form Defeat Poverty DC.
In August 2005, DC Appleseed issued a report calling for sweeping reforms in the District government's response to the city's HIV/AIDS epidemic and making specific recommendations for improvement.
In 2004, after high levels of lead were found in DC's drinking water, Councilmember Carol Schwartz invited DC Appleseed to examine this problem and issue recommendations.
DC Appleseed is working with the DC Public Schools to reduce reliance on litigation by parents and schools, so children with special education needs get the education they deserve more quickly, and school funds are spent on education, not lawyers' fees.
DC Appleseed is leading a broad coalition of local non profit, business and legal organizations that have filed an amicus brief in the gun case now before the Supreme Court.
Partnering with the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, DC Appleseed has undertaken a project designed to assess and strengthen D.C. policies that affect the working poor.
