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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MAJOR UPDATES


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.


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."


Months after the nation's first sustained immigration raids hit Los Angeles and surrounding cities, the City of Angels hosted the first congressional field hearing on their impact -- a process set in motion after One LA-IAF leaders met with Mayor Karen Bass and pressed for public hearings to document widespread civil rights violations.

Before the hearing, Mayor Bass marched with One LA leaders, clergy, and families to the LA Metropolitan Water District, where the hearing convened. LA Auxiliary Bishop Matthew Elshoff, OFM Cap. also joined the procession.


Among the rolling hills and luxury ski resorts of Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, soaring costs of rent and childcare are crushing working families, leading to long commutes, mental stress, and dwindling time with loved ones. 

Realizing that neither the state nor the federal government was coming to save them, Mountain Voices Project (MVP) collaborated with the Confluence Early Childhood Education (CECE) Coalition to tackle this issue head on.


Crediting One LA with the idea, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Congressman Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, announced a broad congressional investigation into civil rights abuses, with the first field hearing to take place in Los Angeles.



On Sunday, October 12, 2025 at the Starlight Event Center, over 650 leaders from across institutions in El Paso gathered as delegations to launch their campaign -  "Reimagine El Paso." The action was hosted by EPISO/Border Interfaith, a long-standing grassroots community organization, dedicated to forming people to be active participants in the public arena. 

Co-Chair Cindy Ortega of St. Thomas Aquinas told the delegations, "There is a word I learned recently - 'plasticity.' It means that things are not set in stone, they can change. We do not have to be resigned to the way things are- we are moldable and so is the world - we can change things, we can have an impact."


While the restaurant industry has poured massive resources into national and state campaigns that pretend to help workers but really cut pay, New Yorker named Coloradans for the Common Good (CCG) as a key group that successfully protected tipped workers despite these deceptive practices.

Working hand in hand with workers, unions, and local businesses, CCG stopped every version of a dangerous bill that would have forced cities to slash wages for tipped workers or stripped towns of the right to set fair, local minimum wages. Introduced in March 2025, this bill targeted wage gains in Denver, Boulder, and Edgewater. CCG organized a press conference and gave legislative testimony with Towards Justice, CWA 7777 and the Colorado AFL‑CIO, making it clear: tipped workers deserve fair wages on top of their tips—not shrinking paychecks. As a result, lawmakers backed down and removed the worst parts, preserving both workers’ pay and local control.


After California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed to drop undocumented immigrants from the state health insurance rolls, 120 California IAF leaders and allies traveled to the capitol by bus and persuaded legislators to restore access to the program.

“Immigrants pay taxes. They work in our communities with no safety nets," said COPA (Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action) Leader Mary Litel Walsh. “We came hundreds of miles from all over the state...took time off of work and away from our families to be here today. Why?

Because we need our legislators to fight for us.


After nearly three years of organizing, EPISO-Border Interfaith leaders from Bauman Rd celebrated a major victory Wednesday: the City of Socorro revised its “Arterial 1” proposal, renouncing its initial plan to build a major road through the heart of their neighborhood. The move would have impacted over 100 families and displaced dozens of longtime residents—many elderly and living on fixed incomes—who had spent decades building their homes.


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