Belonging Begins Here

We are not – and do not aspire to be – like any other progressive organization. We believe in the inherent dignity of all people. We believe in the transformative power of the Divine and our deep desire as human beings to co-create a new world with the Divine. This is a spiritual struggle that we are engaged in and our approach must always reflect this.

We believe that we only have as much justice and love as we have the power to compel. We believe that our power lies in our relationships and that good organizing work must be rooted in our local communities. Therefore, we center the development of local organizations to be as powerful as possible, and capable of shaping decisions and narratives affecting our families and communities. Our driving purpose is to build the power of local federations which builds the power of the statewide collective as a whole.

We believe that “organizing is about people, people are about issues” and that our own liberation and healing is tied to the liberation and healing of everyone. We center the work of building relationships and engaging in the formation, healing and liberation of ourselves and our community leaders. We seek to build an organizing culture where people are constantly being invited and encouraged to cross bridges to their own power and to public power.

We aim to build organizations and communities that truly see and love each other across lines of race, place, gender, immigration, and anything else that keeps us from recognizing the divine in each other. We believe that addressing and healing racism in all its forms – along with any other form of “othering” – is absolutely crucial to the work of liberation and building our collective power.

We believe that local power organizations aligned around liberation and power will inherently have a hunger to come together with others to shape a trans-local vision and plan for building prophetic power. We believe our collaborative work can develop local leadership and leverage greater victories for our families and communities.

We believe that people should have a say in the decisions that shape their lives. And we believe that in order for people to feel like authentic architects of a shared future, both power and accountability must be distributed and shared broadly. We aim to build a culture of deep co-ownership and democratic-decision making combined with a deep sense of mutual accountability.

We believe that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. To be as powerful as we want to be, we must ensure that each member federation is as strong and powerful as it needs to be.