We believe those closest to the pain are closest to the solution. We approach this truth with transformative organizing. We train community leaders to tell their own stories of personal suffering and injustice and to communicate why that motivates them to create a better world for their communities. We build agency into the public decision-making process for people who have been historically and repeatedly left out of the conversation. Our work is intersectional at its core because our communities survive racism, discrimination and oppression simultaneously based on their identities (e.g., gender and racial discrimination against women of color). Our leaders and staff directly reflect the perspectives of our community because we share the lived experience of inequality derived from the oppression of women, LGBTQIA+ folks, people of color, elders, immigrants, renters and the working class. As a result, when we utilize our voices we build power to advocate for change, to change narratives and to develop leader-led community-informed solutions to the issues impacting our county, the state, and the nation. By building community, leaders understand that they are not alone, that in fact, by building power with others, they can affect change. Every facet of our organization exists to change the structural conditions that keep our folks poor and that creates an unlivable planet. We are the frontlines of the future.
