Long-Term Game Plan to Rockin’ Poetry Slam: The 1st Annual CA Alliance Convening Builds Knowledge and Synergy
Nearly 150 enthusiastic Alliance leaders — organizing staff, phonebank and canvass team leaders, volunteer neighborhood activists — converged in LA from August 21-22, for the first annual CA Alliance Leadership Convening. Joining the gathering were funder friends from Veatch, Ford, Irvine and Liberty Hill Foundations and the Progressive Era Project, as well as allies from the Courage Campaign, PowerPAC, Mobilizing the Immigrant Voter, the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment, and California Forward. United Domestic Workers leaders attended, as well as those from Mexican American Political Association, and the Dolores Huerta Foundation, who are all looking to partner with the Alliance in November.
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An Exciting CAUSE Unites Labor, Business, Community
In November 2009, the Central Coastal Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) ran a hard-fought campaign to establish a moratorium on big-box retailers. After weeks of knocking on doors and making phone calls, the initiative to keep Walmart out of Ventura lost by less than 200 votes. Community leaders and staff were crushed, according to Marcos Vargas, CAUSE’s Executive Director. “We had been involved civic engagement and initiative work in the past, but it was always short-term — gearing up two weeks before the election to make a difference. We had some impact, but it was never enough to result in a lasting increase in voter participation.” Out of that loss surged new energy in CAUSE for a long-term approach to building civic power.
