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."

Demonstrating the power of organized people, Calgary Alliance for the Common Good (Calgary Alliance) packed Knox United Methodist Church with 600 people for its 2025 Mayoral Forum.

“Over the last year, we have been consulting with the members of our constituent organizations, and have heard stories about life in Calgary and what would make it better," said Rev. Kersi Bird, co-chair of the Calgary Alliance Affordable Housing Team.

Over 70 West/Southwest IAF leaders from across 10 states gathered for a seminar with Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and Director of the Allen Lab for Democracy Renovation and the Democratic Knowledge Project at Harvard. 

The focus of the conversation was Justice by Means of Democracy - the latest book by Professor Allen that reconsiders the foundations of justice and democracy at a time of social and political turmoil.

Nevadans for the Common Good (NCG) engaged 700 people in their year-long Health Care Seminar Series to educate the public and to advance a concrete strategy for improving health care access.

At their 10th culminating seminar, NCG gained pivotal commitments from State Senator Fabian Doñate and community partners to:

• increase funding for Community Health Workers, and
• build a stronger network between trusted community organizations, such as congregations, and reputable, accessible health care providers.

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.’

[Excerpts] 

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.