Maria Elena Manzo, Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action (COPA) Leader, and Founder and Executive Director of Mujeres en Acción, was announced as this year’s recipient of the Siembra Latinos Fund’s Alfred Diaz-Infante Award.

For years, Dallas Area Interfaith (DAI) tenant leaders have shone a public light on the hazardous, unbearable apartment conditions they face, and urged city officials to develop solutions to hold landlords accountable. Despite paying market-rate rents, mold, rats, and leaky sewage are just some of the issues experienced by these tenants.

Almost a decade ago, DAI was at the center of a successful effort to overhaul the Dallas rental housing code. After years of continued organizing, leaders have now secured a mechanism to ensure the code is enforced.

According to MLive Media Group, billionaires like the DeVos and Ilitch families have, for eight years, benefited from Michigan’s Transformational Brownsfield tax incentive program, which funnels billions of public dollars into huge private developments meant to revitalize abandoned spaces and attract workers.

“But to (Together West Michigan Leader) Satorie Spicer, 28, born and raised in Grand Rapids, these projects are ‘not for us.’

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Starla considered her options carefully — pay her fines from previous incarceration or pay for groceries and a place for her and her children to stay.
"It was either eat and have a place to lay my head or pay my tickets," she said.

(She) chose to pay for food and rent instead of her fines. Her choice set in motion a familiar cycle...after almost 10 years of incarceration...those unpaid fines and penalties were waiting for her upon her release — and they had multiplied to the tune of about $11,000 owed to three different counties.

The former inmate shared her story before the start of a free Fines and Fees Client Clinic hosted by Voices Organized In Civic Engagement, or VOICE, and Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma. Representatives of VOICE member organizations and Legal Aid teamed up to help Starla and other formerly incarcerated individuals fill out forms designed to help judges determine their ability to pay fines and fees from previous incarceration….

Despite San Antonio facing a staggering $5 billion infrastructure shortfall, many elected leaders are poised to spend $800 million in public funds to finance another Spurs basketball arena.

COPS/Metro, seeing through the project’s complicated funding structure, continues to be a leading voice for using this public money for the public’s benefit. At an August 5th commissioners court meeting, COPS/Metro Leader Rena Oden testified:

“It is unconscionable that you want to give this money for an arena when we have people dying from infrastructure or lack thereof. … Don’t tell us this money is only for arenas. Where is your imagination for our families? In the early 2000s, we voted on the venue tax where there was community benefit for all of us. This deal has no community benefit.” 

Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, Together Louisiana's Community Lighthouse strategy is being recognized as a national model for disaster preparedness. Bloomberg News highlighted the initiative for "strengthening the capacity of local communities to respond to emergencies."

Hurricane Katrina was one of the most catastrophic storms in U.S. history, displacing millions and leaving many in oppressive heat without power or clean water. One of those displaced was Bianchi Hughes, who was just nine years old when she and her mother fled to Mississippi. They had to leave her father behind at a hospital that later flooded and permanently shut down after its generators failed.

Now, Hughes serves as a leader and the director of disaster relief with Together Louisiana. 

In a shared commitment to building bridges of integration, reconciliation, and fraternity, The West/Southwest IAF participated in the Third Fratelli Tutti Synodal Meeting. The gathering took place in Washington D.C. on July 28-29 and was sponsored by the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America (PCAL) through the Bridge Building Initiative, in collaboration with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

Those in attendance included West/Southwest IAF Co-Director Joe Rubio, Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America Dr. Emilce Cuda, Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, as well as labor representatives, entrepreneurs, and social organizations across the Americas.

Responding to pressure from The Metropolitan Organization (TMO), the City of Houston has issued demolition orders for two long-vacant buildings, one of which is a strip mall that has been abandoned for over 30 years.

COPS/Metro is gaining significant traction in its fight against Project Marvel, the city's multi-billion dollar proposal for a publicly-funded downtown entertainment district and Spurs stadium. 

With a track record of moving tens of thousands of adults from poverty-level jobs into living wage careers, the West/Southwest IAF Labor Market Intermediary Programs are a testament to the power of organized people to deliver economic mobility. Last week, directors from seven of these programs participated in the Workforce Directors Convening in Houston:

• VIDA (Rio Grande Valley)
• Project QUEST (San Antonio)
• Capital IDEA (Central Texas)
• Capital IDEA (Houston)
• Project ARRIBA (El Paso)
• NOVA Workforce Institute of Northeast Louisiana
• Arizona Career Pathways