CAUSE Organizing Project
The CAUSE Organizing Project is a values driven effort to build a Central Coast regional power organization of affiliated community organizations, congregations, labor unions, universities and other institutions. The mission of the project is to build the grassroots power base of community, labor and faith-based leaders capable of organizing thousands of people around social, economic and environmental issues affecting their lives. The effort seeks to accomplish this mission through community organizing training and undertaking strategic actions to bring about much needed policy reform and meaningful long term social change.
Why build a sustainable regional grassroots power base in the Central Coast? Over the last twenty years, here in our region and throughout the nation, we have witnessed escalating economic inequity and poverty. Correspondently, the voices of hard working people and their families continue to be silenced in policy issues directly affecting their lives, from the disastrous global and domestic affects of the war in Iraq, to the lack of adequate public transportation, healthcare and good paying jobs.
A wonderful example of our effort to organize for power was recently experienced locally on April 9, 2007 by CAUSE’s role in the recent community mobilization against BHP Billiton’s proposed LNG terminal proposed off the coast of Oxnard. On that day over twenty-five hundred residents of Oxnard, Malibu and throughout Ventura County demonstrated the power of the people, when we are organized. As a result of this manifestation of people power, the LNG proposal was successfully halted.
Organizing Strategies
CAUSE’s regional organizing project utilizes the following strategies:
Relationship Building: Intentional and intensive relationship building strategies within and outside institutions. The process creates dialogue, opportunity, a collective vision, joy and connectedness to other communities.
Leadership Development : local and national leadership training opportunities for all members. Leaders are challenged to lead, to understand the interests of others, and to build collective strategies to meet everyone’s interest, in support of just social change.
Development of Core Teams: core Teams of leaders are created in each member institution. The core team responds to local issues, institutional needs and leads your institution into the public arena.
Engaging in the Public Arena: CAUSE’s regional organizing project serves as a vehicle that will influence public policy changes in the region to benefit all. This leads to tangible community improvements and increases a sense of belonging to a healthy, self-determining community.
Community Organizing and Leadership Training
In an effort to move forward this organizing agenda, CAUSE has established a partnership with the international community organizing (CO) institute, the Gamaliel Foundation, to provide ongoing consultation and training. Two center points of the Gamaliel Foundation’s organizing methodology is the creation of well-trained grassroots leaders and the building of regional (countywide or larger) organizations of institutional partners with the collective power to effect meaningful public policy change. In 2007 CAUSE provided three one-day CO trainings, with participation by approximately 150 community leaders, and has facilitated sending over twenty local leaders to the seven-day Gamaliel organizing training.
Building a Regional Power Organization
Since early 2007 CAUSE’s regional organizing project has been actively engaged in one-on-one conversations with leaders of the region’s many community, labor and faith-based organizations for the purpose of establishing new relationships, nurturing existing relationships and learning more about the interests and concerns of organizations throughout the region. Beginning in September 2007 CAUSE has convened monthly meetings of invited organizations interested in taking the necessary steps toward building a regional power organization of organizations. To-date, twenty-eight organizations have participated in these meetings, including eleven community organizations, five labor unions and twelve congregations. By September 2008, it is expected that over sixty organizations will come together toward a collective decision to formally establish the regional power organization of affiliated organizations.
It’s About Community Values
Based on our vision to create a regional social change movement that is part of a much larger national movement based on community values, CAUSE has established a partnership with the Center for Community Change.
Click to see CCC video on Community Values: http://www.communitychange.org/community_values/
Contact Us.
For more information about CAUSE’s Regional Organizing Project contact Cesar Hernandez, Community Organizing Director at cesar@coastalalliance.com .
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