[Excerpt]

....We were an interfaith group of 20 lay leaders, clergy and professional organizers from the West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation, a representation of a decades-long tradition of community organizing in the United States, of which Catholic communities and parishes have played a major role. Parish-based organizing began in earnest with the founding of Communities Organized for Public Service in San Antonio 50 years ago.

“People are not used to listening, and that is what true catechesis does—listen and teach listening.”

What ensued was a dialogue, a 90-minute conversation in Spanish, filled with humor and back-and-forth engagement... We shared stories of organizing to bring running water and basic services to over a million people along the southern border, about working to combat human trafficking, of creating efforts to move poor families into living wage career paths and of helping to develop leadership among the immigrant community in our parishes. Our leaders spoke to their development as public persons, worthy of recognition in civil society and local democracy.

Not long into the conversation, Pope Francis interjected, “Usaron mucho las palabras ‘ver’ y ‘escuchar.’... Me impresiona que ninguno de ustedes parte de alguna teoría. Ninguno dice ‘leí un libro y me interesó eso.’” (“You frequently used the words ‘to see’ and ‘to listen.’ I am impressed that none of you start from a theory. No one says, ‘I read a book and that interested me.’”) Then he added, “el peligro a veces es intelectualizar el problema.” (“The danger sometimes is to intellectualize the problem.”)

He stressed the importance of being with people and paying attention to one’s reality, emphasizing amor concreto, love concretely in action, saying that he saw our work as seeing and hearing of injustice in the real lives of our people, acting to change the situation, and being changed ourselves as a result....

The Day Pope Francis Welcomed Community Organizers Into the Papal Residence, America: The Jesuit Review [pdf]

[Excerpt]

Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, is a longtime supporter of his area's West/Southwest IAF affiliate, El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization (EPISO)/Border Interfaith.

"They've developed a process of attentive listening over the years, talking to people about their lives and identifying the needs of a particular group," said Seitz. "When we were trying to create a process for the synod, it occurred to me it was exactly the approach they'd long taken."

[In photo, a synod training session is held by Communities Organized for Relational Power in Action (COPA) at a parish in the Diocese of Monterey, California. COPA community organizers trained around 500 Catholics to conduct synodal listening sessions in the region.]

For Synod Listening Sessions, US Bishops Turned to Community Organizers, National Catholic Reporter [pdf]

[Excerpt]

"A massive corporate tax-break program in Texas expired in 2022, but before Dec. 31, state officials said an “extraordinary number” of companies tried to apply. Now, it could be up to the state legislature to deal with the stack of pending applications.

Over the years, critics argued certain requirements were whittled away and some companies were bringing few or low-paying jobs with little benefits. Some, including a coalition of interfaith leaders with The Metropolitan Organization, Central Texas Interfaith and Texas Industrial Areas Foundation Organizations, have called out the program as “corporate welfare” and for leaving the rest of the Texas taxpayers to essentially “make up the difference.”

“We pay our taxes. Parents, teachers, grandparents, alumni pay taxes towards our school districts and towards the state. So, we feel that that is something that every body is responsible for,” said Reverend Minerva Camarena-Skeith of St. John’s Episcopal Church."

[Photo Credit: KXAN]

A Corporate Tax Break Program Just Expired in Texas. Will Lawmakers Replace it in 2023?, KXAN [pdf]

[Excerpt]

Organizers who worked for years to pass police oversight are optimistic that it will start the process of reforming one of the more violent police departments in the country.

The Vallejo Sun spoke with several members of Common Ground, a non-partisan group of religious and non-profit organizations in Solano and Napa counties, about their thoughts on the ordinance aimed at holding accountable a police department which has killed 19 people since 2010.

“When you listen to the residents, you hear people say they started this process 20 years ago,” said Renee Sykes, a member of Common Ground. “If you look at 20 years ago, and if you look at now, we now have something in writing, we have something concrete.”

....The city council is expected to officially establish the three-prong oversight approach, including outside investigations of serious police incidents, a Community Police Oversight Accountability Commission, and a police auditor.

Common Ground Optimistic about Vallejo Police Oversight Model, Vallejo Sun

Vallejo City Council Officially Passes Police Oversight Model, Times-Herald

Vallejo Police Oversight Model Expected to be Adopted Tuesday Night, Times-Herald

Vallejo City Council Votes to Introduce Police Oversight Ordinance, Times-Herald

Common Ground ‘Pleased’ With Police Oversight Draft Ordinance, but Lists Number of Omissions, Times-Herald

Central Texas Interfaith

[Excerpt from FOX 7 Austin]

"The Austin ISD school board has voted against a multi-million dollar tax break for NXP, a semiconductor company... 

"It is not fair that those who have the greatest ability to pay are the ones who don't want to pay a dime," Rev. Minerva Camarena Skeith of Central Texas Interfaith said. 

The tax break called the appraised value limitation, or 313 agreement, lets potential businesses build property and create jobs in exchange for a 10-year limit on the taxable property value for school district maintenance and operation. 

"We want more dollars for AISD and for every school district in this state. We want every child to have every opportunity they need," Rev. Miles Brandon with Central Texas Interfaith said."

Austin ISD School Board Rejects Tax Break for Semiconductor Company, Fox 7 Austin

Austin ISD School Board Denies Tax Break for Semiconductor Company NXP with Narrow Vote, KVUE ABC

Austin ISD Board Considers Chapter 313 Tax Break for Semiconductor Company NXP, KVUE ABC

NXP Fails to Gain School District Tax Incentives for Possible Factory Expansion, Austin Business Journal

With Weeks to Spare, Austin ISD to Vote on NXP Incentives, Austin Business Journal

AISD Board to Vote on Contested Tax Breaks for Billion-Dollar Semiconductor Company, KXAN

Central Texas Interfaith Commends AISD Board for Rejecting Chapter 313 Deal with NXP, Central Texas Interfaith [pdf]

Dallas Area Interfaith

[Excerpt from Dallas Morning News]

"Amid pressure from community advocates, the Dallas schools administration pulled a vote to approve a property tax break for a manufacturing company just before trustees were to weigh in on it Thursday night.

The Texas Economic Development Act – commonly referred to as Chapter 313 based on its position in the tax code – will expire at the end of the month. Companies across Texas are rushing to get deals approved with school districts and lock-in tax abatements ahead of the deadline...

“Does it make sense to continue to grant certain large corporations these huge tax breaks?” Dallas Area Interfaith leader Bill deHaas said ahead of the meeting. “We already know that we have a crunch on educational spending.”

Dallas ISD Punts Tax Break Ask from Manufacturing Company Ahead of Chapter 313 Expiration, Dallas Morning News

[Excerpt]

Two parishioners from Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart in Ankeny collaborated with others to move bureaucratic mountains to create a plan that helps children suffering mental health crises.

Jan Brown and Sue Murphy said their faith plus a passion for helping people in pain fueled their drive to fill a gap in health care in the Des Moines area....

“It wasn’t charity, it was justice,” Brown said.

Brown and Murphy along with representatives of AMOS... did research, talked to families, visited with hospital officials and legislators and built the political will to figure out a new system...

Now they’re trying to ensure that it has long-term funding and that there are counselors who can meet the need of the community including refugees and immigrants who call central Iowa home.

Brown said: “That’s our goal is to listen to concerns of families and improve the communities we live in.”

Fueled by Faith, Advocacy for Children Pays Off, Catholic Mirror [pdf] 

[Excerpt]

Tired of nothing seemingly happening to better God’s world, the 1,300-member Westminster Presbyterian Church, located in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan, decided it was time to join ranks with other churches and organizations through the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF)...

[IAF affiliate] Together West Michigan, comprised of 20-plus organizations seeking to create substantive change in the greater Grand Rapids area, was exactly what Westminster wanted to get involved with.

According to the Rev. Lynette Sparks, senior pastor of Westminster, Together West Michigan — whose name was chosen for easy translation into Spanish — is about building relationships and encouraging people and institutions to come together to make change.

“Jesus was about building relationships across lines, and we are about building power and defining power as the ability to act. Power itself is neutral. How you use it is what matters,” she said, adding, “So many families don’t have a voice or the power to right the injustices they encounter, but churches and secular organizations do — especially when they join together for a common cause.”

[Photo Credit: Westminster Presbyterian Church]

PC(USA) Churches Are Changing the World, Presbyterian Mission [pdf]

In advance of 2021 School Board elections in Jefferson County, Coloradans for the Common Good (CCG) assembled over 300 people at Trinity Presbyterian Church for a non-partisan candidate accountability session.  All six school board candidates were asked "yes or no" in regard to increasing wages for education support professionals and increasing access to healthy food.

All six candidates said yes. After the election, CCG worked alongside member institution Jeffco Education Support Professional Association (JESPA) to hold the recently elected candidates accountable to their commitment.  The work resulted in higher wages for school workers and healthier food options for Jeffco students.  Andrea Cisneros, a leader with JESPA and CCG, tells the story of how it happened:

[Excerpt]

“Some parents got ahold of our union and asked us how to get better food that’s more culturally relevant to what they eat at home....”

“Parents were upset and didn't know what steps to take. They joined us and the Coloradans for the Common Good, … and, together, we set up a game plan.”  JESPA [Jeffco Education Support Professionals Association] is a member of Coloradans for the Common Good, a broad-based organization comprised of over 30 local institutions, including congregations, unions, non-profits, and neighborhood organizations, committed to the common good of all people.

The game plan was to grow their network of support among the community, partner with groups familiar with farm-to-table approaches, visit other districts that were serving healthy foods, and push their elected officials or any candidate running for office, at the time, to publicly support JESPA’s efforts.

JESPA ... successfully negotiated a pilot program that will replace junk food and highly processed prepackaged food with healthier, scratch-cooked options. Plus, menu creation will include parent and student voices and will have more culturally relevant options. The pilot will start in three schools: an elementary, middle, and high school.

While the menu is still in progress, Cisneros hopes to serve quesadillas, enchiladas, or homemade burritos, instead of frozen burritos in a packet.

“We realized that we have more power together, … and we couldn’t have done this without the support from our parents and community,” she adds.

[Photo Credit: NEA Today]

Educators, Parents Team Up to Bring Healthier Food to Cafeteria, NEA Today [pdf]

Bastrop Interfaith and Friends of the Land, a farmland preservation coalition, worked with local Elgin residents and landowners to defeat a 10-year Chapter 313 corporate tax abatement at the Elgin ISD School Board last night by a unanimous vote. Solar Proponents, a startup owned by an oil and gas hedge fund, would have clear-cut over 2,100 acres of trees bisected by Little Sandy Creek to build an industrial solar farm. While the community had been testifying monthly since May at the school board meetings against the project, last night was the first time the public got to hear from Solar Proponent about the project. Speakers argued the project endangered Greenbriar Community School and neighboring homes with water runoff in an area already prone to flooding with an already diminishing refuge for wildlife.

“In these past six months, we haven’t heard a single person speak in favor of this project. Compare that to more than 1100 signers of our petition to stop this project and all the comments here you have so patiently listened to since then,” said Skip Connett, a leader with Bastrop Interfaith and founder of Friends of the Land at last night’s school board meeting.

“We spoke for our communities and our trees. Our school board listened,” Connett said after the vote.

This past May, Bastrop Interfaith and Friends of the Land, one of its member institutions, opposed the initial Chapter 313 application which would have given the company a 10-year school property tax abatement from Elgin ISD. Chapter 313, Texas’s largest corporate welfare program, costs taxpayer $1Billion/year to fund these tax breaks, money which could be going to public schools.  Chapter 313’s reauthorization was killed last legislative session by Bastrop Interfaith and the Texas IAF along with allies. However, the program doesn’t expire until this December, and there has been a rush of nearly 500 applications by companies looking to get tax breaks before the deadline.

Bastrop Interfaith Commends Elgin ISD Board for Rejecting Chapter 313 Deal

Friend of the Land, Bastrop Interfaith Oppose Dogwood Creek Solar 313 Application to Elgin, Elgin Courier

Delegation of West/Southwest IAF leaders and organizers stands with Pope Francis. [Photos credit: Rabbi John Linder]

Our network had the rare opportunity to visit with Pope Francis at the Vatican.  

An interfaith delegation of 20 leaders and organizers from the West/Southwest Industrial Areas Foundation met with him to share our collective work of broad based organizing at a time when the Pope is guiding the global church in a historic Synod listening process.

The Holy Father sat side by side with us in his residence, thanking us for inconveniencing ourselves to come see him.  What ensued was a true dialogue, a 90-minute conversation in Spanish with lots of back and forth engagement.  The encounter was filled with many graced moments about both the joys and the struggles of our work, and the work of the Church, past, present, and to come. 

This invitation to meet was in large part due to the recognition of our work by local Bishops, particularly those involved with the 'Recognizing the Stranger' strategy, which is dedicated to formation and leadership development of immigrant parishioners. As well, our involvement to support the Synod process in multiple dioceses has helped to bring those in the margins to the center of the synodal dialogue. 

As we shared our experiences of organizing, we were struck by how carefully he listened, asked questions, and engaged with lots of humor. Early on, he reflected back to us, “Usaron mucho las palabras ‘ver’ y ‘escuchar,’... Me impresiona que ninguno de ustedes es parte de alguna teoría.  Ninguno dice ‘leí un libro y me interesó eso.’” (You constantly use the words “to see” and “to listen.. I am impressed that none of you start with any theory. No one says ‘I read a book and that interested me.’)  “El peligro es intelectualizar el problema” (The danger is when you intellectualize a problem).

He stressed the importance of being with people and paying  attention to their reality, emphasizing Amor Concreto, love concretely in action, saying that he understood our work as seeing and hearing of injustice in the real lives of our people, acting to change the situation, and being changed ourselves as a result. He expressed his appreciation for our focus on what we are doing, rather than to complain about what is not being done or to disparage anyone. “Ustedes no menospreciaron a nadie.”

Before concluding, he thanked us for our visit, saying that although he had never known of IAF before, he was glad that he knew us now, and he welcomed further conversation around our continuing work with the Synod process.

We teach that power recognizes power.  For Pope Francis, “el verdadero poder es el servicio,” (“true power is service”).  Recounting the Good Samaritan, he clearly stated that the Gospel cannot be understood without acting with those who are suffering.  He recognized the leaders and organizations of the IAF and the powerful work that is happening every day at the margins. He referred to the IAF as “Good News for the United States.”

We are humbled to represent the many decades of work from those who preceded us, and we are encouraged in the continuation of our work into the future.