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Every day, community-based organizations bring people together to solve shared problems. The people most affected by social and economic injustice hold politicians accountable, develop visionary solutions and accomplish together what they are unable to accomplish alone.
In this spirit, the Center for Community Change and hundreds of grassroots groups have launched a values based, multi-year campaign to get America back on track.
The Campaign for Community Values will build people power at the ballot box and start a new national conversation about the country we want to become. We will build a new politics for the common good to win real victories on critical issues facing low-income people.
Getting America Back on Track
When America is on the right track, Washington works for all of us.
Real people with real power can make big change happen: voting rights for women, equal rights for African Americans, public schools for all kids, Medicare, clean water to drink and politicians who dedicate themselves to world peace instead of world war. When America is on the right track, the President and every one of us is called to do our part for our nation's common good. We look out for one another and take action together.
But when America is on the wrong track, we're each on our own. We elect Presidents and Members of Congress who shower themselves and their cronies with tax breaks and million dollar handouts while undercutting kids, seniors and hardworking everyday people.
Our leaders and their friends operate above the law and point fingers, rather than work to make our nation a better place. They tell us that the Enron guys were just businessmen doing their thing. Under the guise of "American individualism" we are urged to watch our backs and lash out. Our leaders exhibit extraordinary greed, dishonesty and racism and expect us to do nothing about it.
When America is on the wrong track, our faith traditions are put to the test, family bonds get stretched to the breaking point and we're left to wonder how our nation got in this mess.
Getting America back on track requires more than another laundry list of policy proposals – we need a new approach to politics to build a brighter future for all of us.
Combining Grassroots Power to Win
This is not a Washington-based campaign – it is owned, shaped and directed by Center for Community Change and the community groups who participate in it. Beginning in 2006, grassroots leaders came together to envision an America on the right track and build a strategy to get there. In 2007, they formed a Campaign Council of over 100 organizations committed to working in a spirit of community action on the national stage.
At gatherings in every region of the country, organization leaders developed the goals, structure, issues and tactics of the campaign. Campaign Council organizations will direct the campaign and additional groups and individuals will be encouraged to participate over the next three years. Together, this campaign has the power to directly reach millions of organization members and our deep roots in communities from coast to coast will enable us to communicate with tens of millions.
Real People»
In New Hampshire and Iowa, the campaign will host Presidential candidate forums where leaders from thousands of low-income communities will challenge candidates confront the "on your own" mentality of today and stand up for community values. The people most affected by social and economic injustice will ask the questions, cut through the political spin and show the nation what our next President is made of.
The events are hosted by local community-based groups with the help of the Center for Community Change and grassroots partners. They are the first in a multi-year series of major engagements to amplify community voices and project a grassroots vision for an America on the right track.
Real Power»
All organizations involved in this campaign are committed to increasing the voter participation of everyday people in their communities because we know that we are all stronger when each of us has a voice. Our most high-intensity work will focus in 15 – 20 states during the 2008 election cycle by elevating issues of concern to low-income voters, expanding the scale of voter registration and voter education work, and increasing turnout in targeted precincts. Together, we will build the power necessary to forge a new movement for change.
Real Change»
At the community level, we recognize that our futures – and the issues we work on – are connected: immigration policy impacts healthcare and low wages impact education. The Campaign for Community Values is organized around the following priorities:
Community Values – To get America back on track, we need more than policy solutions. The Campaign for Community Values will elevate the values of interdependence, community and the common good to unite issues and constituencies. In so doing, we will help more Americans understand why America is on the wrong track and demand a new kind of leadership from our politicians.
Immigration – America's broken immigration system is a civil rights crisis that affects us all. While politicians use new immigrants to bring racism back into politics, they pass laws to create unbearable poverty around the world and rip families apart in America. Immigrants have always been a part of our American community – The Campaign for Community Values will force Washington to fix our broken laws and ensure that the light of freedom continues to shine brightly for all of us.
Healthcare – Millions of Americans live in fear of ending up poor if they get sick. But in Washington, high-quality healthcare is considered more like a luxury and healthcare systems are treated like a cash cow for campaign contributors. The Campaign for Community Values will help more Americans see healthcare as a right and force Washington to change the way it does business.
Low Wage Work – The groups participating in The Campaign for Community Values are committed to making all jobs decent jobs. When some workers have no right to organize, are paid meager wages, have no healthcare benefits or pensions or work in unsafe conditions – we all lose.
Now!
The Center for Community Change, together with hundreds of groups from diverse communities around the nation, are leading this campaign to get America back on track. Be a part of this new movement for change, contact us to learn more: communitychange.org. In addition to the key areas listed above, "lift committees" on several issues will enable leaders to learn and strategize with one another to create fertile ground to develop visionary solutions for the future and the social movements of tomorrow.
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