13 Minutes That May Change Your Perspective...
Industrial Areas Foundation Co-Director Ernesto Cortes, Jr. articulates and models the fundamentals of relational meetings, the core practice of broad based organizing.
This video, designed to showcase the craft of experienced organizer practitioners, was shot during a 3-Day IAF Training in Las Vegas, Nevada. Click on photo at right, or click here, to view clip.
250 ACT Leaders Launch Organization Rebuilding Effort
250 institutional leaders from 18 Tarrant County-area congregations celebrated and committed to rebuilding the Allied Communities of Tarrant (ACT).
Said the Rev. Lindsay Woods, pastor at Gethsemane Presbyterian Church, "ACT has allowed us a small church to seek justice. Congregations often do a lot of charity (give food to food bank) or education (explaining what we believe about justice), but our mission sometimes lack the ability to create justice. ACT allows us to be part of a network of different institutions seeking solutions to a common cause."
Read moreLas Vegas Leaders Reflect on Lessons of 9/11
'Nevadans For the Common Good' leader Rabbi Sanford Akselrad and organizer Robert Hoo appear on 'Face to Face' with John Ralston to discuss the lessons of 9/11.
Read moreReflections On a Neighborhood Walk Organized by COPS/Metro
COPS / Metro Alliance "recently gathered folks — including parishioners at member parishes, the San Antonio police chief and a city councilman — for a "walk for the West Side." It was really something akin to a listening tour, hearing what residents in the neighborhoods and housing projects around St. Timothy's Catholic Church had to say about their circumstances.
I tagged along...."
Read more‘Nevadans for the Common Good’ Praised
"Since arriving in Las Vegas in late 2008, I have witnessed a new spirit that leads me to believe that our valley is determined to become a more caring and compassionate community. If there is anything positive to come out of the economic recession, it is the realization that we must all work together to support one another..."
Read moreWorking Together Jackson
Jackson Free Press
Read more‘Working Together Jackson’ Launches in Mississippi
"Representatives from approximately 50 organizations based in Jackson, Mississippi came together on June 14, 2012 to kick-off 'Working Together Jackson', a community development initiative three years in the making. The well attended event was held at New Horizon International on Ellis Ave., pastored by Bishop Ronnie Crudup. The majority members of the broad-based coalition of institutions in the Jackson Metro Area are churches. However, the remainder of the groups are service oriented, such as Stewpot, Spencer Perkins Center, United Auto Workers, Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliances and Zoo Area Progressive Partnership."
Community Welcomes 'Working Together Jackson', The Jackson Advocate
Read moreVOICE Rises in Oklahoma City
"Founded last winter at a convention that drew more than 1,200 people, Voices Organized in Civic Engagement (VOICE) hopes to get residents focused on what their biggest needs are, and how those can best be achieved at the local and state level.
"We hope to get citizens engaged in conversations that confront our communities, and we will try to hold public officials accountable for their decisions and votes," said Lance Schmitz, pastor of Capitol Hill Church of the Nazarene and an original member of VOICE's earlier entity, the Oklahoma Sponsoring Committee..."
Read more‘Nevadans for the Common Good’ Cuts Video of 1st Convention
"We understand that when people come together and they are of one accord, things can happen....
We want to engage in a process of contagious neighborliness! We want to get to know each other better in our institutions. At the same time we want to enlarge our neighborhoods. We move forward with the knowledge that together we can change the face of Nevada..."
Read moreTogether Baton Rouge Explains ‘Why Transit Reform Succeeded in Baton Rouge’
"On Saturday, April 21st, 2012, the citizens of Baton Rouge and Baker passed a historic election to create a dedicated revenue source for public transit....This was a truly historic feat -- one that many thought could not be accomplished and that succeeded despite great odds. So we want to take a moment to reflect on how this effort succeeded where so many others have failed.
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