The West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation is a network of broad-based institutional organizations building power to revitalize our democracy for constructive social and economic change. We are part of the Industrial Areas Foundation, the nation's first and largest network of community organizations.

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Read below for recent victories. Click here for more extensive News Coverage.

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MAJOR UPDATES


Five years after COPS/Metro proposed, championed, and won voter approval for SA Ready to Work, one of the nation's largest municipal workforce development initiatives, the organization continues to work with the City of San Antonio, Ready to Work staff, and working families to ensure the program is delivering results.


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A new effort in the San Joaquin Valley is bringing together residents, educators, faith groups, and civic leaders to address the region’s most pressing issues.

More than 700 people filled an auditorium at Fresno State on May 3 for a “founding convention” of the newly created organization called United San Joaquin.


At the urging of the Inland Communities Organizing Network (ICON), Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval organized a public hearing with over 100 people to allow residents to testify on their experiences with detainments and encounters with federal immigration agents.

Responding to declining school enrollment, pervasive fear, and what one ICON leader described as "a crisis of disappearing families," this was the second public hearing emerging from One LA's award-winning freedom school strategy.


A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy (AMOS) is at the center of a major milestone for housing in Des Moines: the first two permanently affordable homes have now been built in Des Moines' South Side.


The County of Los Angeles Commission on Human Relations honored One LA-IAF with its John Anson Ford Human Relations Award for their work organizing Freedom Schools that bring faith and community institutions together to strengthen civic belonging, protect human dignity, and build solidarity across lines of race, faith, language, and immigration status.


TMO receiving the Garnett F. Coleman Health Equity Award from Harris Health

After nearly three years of organizing, The Metopolitan Organization (TMO) leaders are celebrating a major victory for access to life-saving healthcare. The Harris County Commissioners Court voted unanimously to acquire 8.9 acres in Hermann Park to expand Ben Taub Hospital and address dangerous overcrowding at one of Houston’s most critical trauma centers.

TMO recognizes the County Commissioners for their vote to help meet the increasing demand for inpatient care in Harris County.

This win follows sustained organizing by TMO leaders, including securing nearly 2,200 petition signatures in support of the expansion online and in person at congregations throughout Harris County. Leaders educated their communities, held a press conference, delivered public testimony, and conducted behind-the-scenes negotiations and meetings with county commissioners to move the project forward.


Once again, Valley Interfaith leaders and allies organized to stop a multi-million dollar tax break for Texas LNG, a billion-dollar company seeking to build a natural gas facility at the Port of Brownsville. 

After the company applied for a $160 million tax abatement from Port Isabel ISD, leaders met with trustees, educated community members, and testified at the school board meeting. Following the testimony, the board unanimously rejected the application.


The New Orleans City Council unanimously approved the Neighborhood Power Plan - a $30 million proposal by Together New Orleans (TNO) and allies to strengthen the local power grid by installing solar batteries at over 1,600 homes, community facilities and businesses.

Funded with Entergy settlement dollars, the plan will not increase utility rates.

According to The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, New Orleans Mayor Elect Helena Moreno called the endeavor "the largest single investment in community-led sustainability the city has ever made."


At the urging of Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action (COPA) leaders, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the creation of Esperanza Care 2.0—a county healthcare program for undocumented adults, launching with 500 people and a commitment to expand.


For generations, residents on San Antonio’s Southeast Side have grappled with robberies, shootings, and acts of violence in their neighborhoods and in front of institutions like St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church. After years of organizing, COPS/Metro celebrates a major victory - the groundbreaking of the new South Flores Police Substation to serve the Southeast Side community. This new facility will be the first police substation built in San Antonio in 30 years.


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