Developing new Black and Latino leadership in the community is at the center of the long-term organizing strategy at California Calls’ Los Angeles anchor organization, Community Coalition. Neighborhood leaders are responsible for the organization’s success in transforming South Los Angeles by winning public safety campaigns, keeping families together and fighting to strengthen public services.

“At the core of Community Coalition’s work is the belief that our community members are the experts. We do everything we can to support our leaders – ensure that they have a seat at the table and inspire confidence that winning is possible” said Alberto Retana, President and CEO of Community Coalition.

In July, one of the Coalition’s own was sworn into office representing South Los Angeles’s Council District 8. Former Community Coalition President and CEO Marqueece Harris-Dawson – a South Los Angeles native and progressive champion who worked with Community Coalition for 20 years – was elected to represent the neighborhoods and grassroots leaders organized by the Coalition.

The overwhelming support for Council Member Harris-Dawson came as a surprise to some. How could a first time grassroots candidate with only a community organizing background win 62% of the vote in a four candidate primary? To organizations like Community Coalition and Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Engagement (SCOPE), another California Calls anchor organization serving South Los Angeles, the groundwork for such a victorious campaign has been 25 years in the making.

Community Coalition started in South Los Angeles as a community-driven effort to meet the needs of a region that was reaching its breaking point. Their organizing helped South Los Angeles find its way after the 1992 Uprising and since then, the organization has helped community members transform the social and economic conditions in South Los Angeles – including winning $153 million for school repairs and modernization, implementing A-G college prep course requirements for students in low-income communities, clearing out dangerous empty lots to make way for parks and businesses, and bringing awareness to the lack of quality nutritious food in South Los Angeles.

After 20 years of door-to-door grassroots community organizing, Community Coalition was one of the founding anchor organizations of California Calls in 2009. Since then, they have expanded their work to include a year-round integrated voter engagement strategy that allows them to educate and mobilize voters in key elections and keep them involved in their community in-between.  Knowing the importance of civic participation to pass policies South Los Angeles needs and hold elected officials accountable, Community Coalition has made it paramount to mobilize tens of thousands African American and Latino voters to the ballot box.

As part of the California Calls statewide alliance, Community Coalition has talked to 56,445 new and occasional voters and identified 47,244 who agree that California’s priorities should be to fund education and local services.  They also agree and have committed to vote in every election. In all, California Calls anchors have identified 125,000 supportive voters in South Los Angeles.  And they are seeing results. The  35,000 California Calls’ supportive voters in CD8 who voted in the March 2015 elections turned out at a rate 5% higher than the citywide turnout. These voters made up a decisive 42% of the total votes cast in the election, helping Harris-Dawson win the election and avoid a runoff.

Community Coalition follows up with their supporters after each civic engagement program, inviting them to community meetings, workshops and events.  Supporters are asked to become financial supporters of important programs, and to become new leaders in their own neighborhoods.

“South Los Angeles is becoming much more civically engaged because of the direct contact, relationships and trust we’re building in our neighborhoods.”  Executive Director Retana noted. “Our next phase is to build a mass base of 15,000 active, dues-paying members to ensure that the victories we win today continue long into the future.”

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The California Calls alliance came together in 2009 to advance long term change in statewide tax and fiscal policies to create a better future for the communities we serve. The statewide alliance is made up of 31 grassroots organizations in 12 counties of California working on a number of different issues to improve the lives of low-income, people of color, and immigrant communities.  Here are 8 ways that California Calls anchors and formal allies are creating change in their local communities:

1. Raising the Minimum Wage

In June, Los Angeles became the largest city in the US to answer calls by workers to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. In July, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed a similar measure for unincorporated Los Angeles County and County employees. The new minimum wage, which will reach $15 in 2020, will help lift low-wage, low-income workers in Los Angeles out of poverty and help them afford to stay in the city in the face of rising costs of living.

California Calls’ ally Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) and anchor organizations Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE) and Community Coalition helped lead the way for victory through months of advocacy and mobilizing community members to rallies and meetings with elected leaders.

2. Environmental Justice

Many of California Calls’ anchors work year round to make their communities healthy with access to clean air, water and green, open spaces.

In the central valley, Communities for A New California (CNC) launched their #OneHealthyFresno campaign to address park disparities in Fresno. They are advocating for the city to invest in parks in areas with high concentrations of low-income, people of color residents.

Along the Central Coast, the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE) has been busy in 2015 advocating for new recycling programs, cleaning up beaches, pushing for a power plant moratorium and new regulations to protect Central Coast communities from toxic pesticides.

Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE) is cultivating and building a growing movement of climate conscious South LA residents and businesses. They launched #SustainSouthLA to help neighbors find and share solutions and resources for saving energy and, water and sustaining their community. SCOPE is also working to ensure that funding provided by the state cap-and-trade program goes to communities like South LA that need economic support.

California Calls’ ally Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) has scored several environmental justice victories in 2015:  they have won cleaner fuels for trucks and trains, tougher safety regulations at the Chevron Richmond Refinery, state funding for solar energy and better bus services in low-income communities.

3. Health for All

Last summer California Calls grassroots leaders from Communities for A New California (CNC) in Fresno and Coachella and Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement (COPE) and Knott’s Family Agency (KFA) in San Bernardino reached out to voters about expanding healthcare coverage to all Californians, regardless of their immigration status. They found that 76% of the voters they talked to agreed that everyone should have access to quality, affordable healthcare. California just got one step closer to making that a reality.  As direct result of the program in Fresno, the County BOS overturned a previous decision to block access to care for undocumented immigrants and approved $5.6 million for specialty medical care for undocumented immigrants and the poor.

Since then, organizations across the state have been talking to their members about healthcare and advocating for expanding Medi-Cal coverage. In June, Gov Brown signed a new budget that expands low-income state Medi-Cal coverage to all income-eligible children regardless of immigration status starting in May 2016. The County Medical Services Program also expanded healthcare coverage for low-income residents. Now, in 35 California counties, all low-income residents who are not eligible for Medi-Cal or private insurance through Covered California can receive coverage through the county program.

4. Affordable Housing

As housing costs skyrocket statewide, many of the low-income, people of color communities served by California Calls’ anchors have been fighting back against displacement and gentrification.  Nowhere is the need for affordable housing more urgent than in the Bay Area.

Recently, Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) won a campaign in Richmond, California, forcing the city council to develop a rent control and just cause ordinance to help protect residents from exorbitant rents and the threat of being evicted.

Causa Justa/Just Cause, a coalition member of both Oakland Rising and San Francisco Rising, is building a regional movement to fight displacement of residents on both sides of the Bay. They are currently fighting development policies in San Francisco and holding law makers accountable for illegal evictions.

5. Equity in the Tech Industry

In February, Working Partnerships USA announced Silicon Valley Rising – a new coalition of over 15 labor, faith and community organizations working in Silicon Valley to end occupational segregation and severe income equality in the area.  The coalition is focused on raising wages, creating affordable housing and building a tech economy that works for everyone.

In response to the growing movement to raise wages and conditions for low-wage workers in Silicon Valley, many tech companies are beginning to change their contract worker policies. Earlier this year, Apple replaced contract security guards with full-time employees, Microsoft mandated sick leave for contract employees, and Facebook raised the minimum wage for contract employees to $15 an hour.

6. Dignity for Immigrants

California Calls anchors and allies across the state have been making sure that all members of their community have the opportunity to live in dignity without fear of deportation or violence.

California Calls anchors have been working to educate and prepare their community members to apply for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans (DAPA).  In just the first half of 2015, Alliance San Diego has helped over 60 young people in the San Diego area apply for or renew their deferred action status through regular DACA workshops.  The Dolores Huerta Foundation has held multiple townhall meetings to help Central Valley residents apply for DACA, prepare for DAPA and find out how they can protect themselves from fraud during the process.

Beginning this year, all Californians, regardless of immigration status, are now eligible to receive a driver’s license. To date, over 300 Ventura and Santa Barbara County residents have graduated from driver’s license classes provided by California Calls’ anchor Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE).  CAUSE is dedicated to making sure their communities have the opportunities to study, prepare and succeed.

Alliance San Diego (ASD) has been leading the charge to end border patrol brutality both locally and in Washington, D.C. as part of the Southern Border Communities Coalition. The Coalition is calling for an end to brutality inflicted by border patrol officers, increased accountability and transparency, and the demilitarization of border communities.

On May 28, Alliance San Diego helped mobilize over 300 people for the National Day of Action to Stop Border Brutality and to bring to the forefront the fact that at least 37 people have been killed since 2010 by Border Patrol or Customs and Border Protection officers.

7. Clearing Felony Records

After voters passed Prop 47, the landmark criminal justice bill that reclassifies some low-level felonies as misdemeanors and is giving thousands of Californians the opportunity at a fresh start, California Calls’ ally Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles (AAAJ) and anchors Community Coalition, Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement (COPE) and Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education (SCOPE) have been regularly holding workshops and informational meetings to help community members get their records cleared by the 2017 deadline.

8. Equitable Education For All

On June 9th, Community Coalition and Inner City Struggle mobilized students and members of the community to the Los Angeles Unified School District board meeting for continued funding and support of A-G college prep course requirements. A-G courses prepare students for a brighter future and give them the skills required to pursue higher education.  Thanks to comments from students, parents and community members, the school board voted to continue making A-G courses a priority and committed to adding additional resources to help students pass the courses they need to graduate.

In July, Community Coalition filed a lawsuit against LAUSD for an accounting formula that will cost needy students $2 billion by 2020, money that should be going to low-income, English learners and kids in foster care under the Local Control Funding Formula. Instead, the LAUSD wants to direct those funds more broadly, diminishing the effect they could have in assisting the most vulnerable children of all.

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In a state where 1 in 7 people are living in poverty and the top 1% of Californians earn in 1 week what middle-income Californians earn in 1 year, no Californian can look around and argue that there isn’t a need for greater tax fairness and a redistribution of resources. Now is the time to fully restore the $20 billion in budget cuts to education, safety net and local services which are the lifeline for millions of poor, low-income and working class families.

At the end of June, Governor Brown signed the new $115 billion California state budget for 2015-16.  This includes $14 billion more in revenue than anticipated in the governor’s original budget[1], partly due to Prop 30, the temporary initiative passed in 2012 that raised taxes on the wealthy to fund education and services.  The legislature has made some attempts to use this revenue to meet the needs of communities hurt most by the $20 billion in budget cuts since 2009 still plaguing many communities across the state.

The budget offers a number of new funding priorities, including the state’s first Earned Income Tax Credit for 825,000 low-income families, an 18-month debt amnesty program for low-income Californians with over-due court-ordered fines, $6 billion in funding for K-14 education for disadvantaged students, freezing University of California tuition for California residents for two years, and, in a bold policy move, expanding Medi-Cal eligibility to 170,000 undocumented children[2].

Many have described the $14 billion in additional revenue a budget “surplus”, declaring that the state is “flush” with revenue.  Unfortunately, most Californians have yet to feel the impact of this so called “economic resurgence”, as schools and neighborhood services are still shattered after a decade of more than $20 billion in budget cuts.

• Low-Income families – As of April 2015, a family of three only receives $704 a month in public assistance — an amount impossible to make ends meet. The new budget does not increase benefits or restore cost-of-living adjustments (which were frozen in 2010) for CalWORKs grants. Cuts to these critical benefits have devastated low-income communities for over two decades. In 1989-90, a family of three received $694 a month. If the grant had been adjusted for inflation and the cost of living, the same family should now receive $1430 a month.
• Seniors and the Disabled – California’s most vulnerable – 1.3 million low-income seniors and people with disabilities – will continue to struggle with deeply reduced benefits.  California currently pays the minimum level of support allowed by the federal government.  This is less than half the support they would be eligible for if benefits had been adjusted for inflation every year since 1990.
• Early Childhood Education – Working families will continue to struggle to find affordable child care.  Between 2007 and 2014, 100,000 childcare and preschool slots were cut from the budget.  The 2015-16 budget restores 16,000 slots.
• Healthcare – Many basic medical benefits for adults receiving Medi-Cal are still not covered, including the full range of dental benefits and other critical benefits including glasses, speech therapy and audiology.
• In-Home Supportive Services – Homecare workers, the lifeline for many aging seniors, will continue to work with low wages and reduced hours.  The new budget rolls back the 7 percent cut to the authorized hours of care for homecare workers, but the state cannot afford to permanently maintain the restoration. The budget also continues to delay the implementation of overtime for homecare workers pending a federal court decision.
• Higher Education – Although the 2015-16 budget freezes tuition for Californian residents attending University of California and California State Universities until 2017, there is no substantive solution to address the skyrocketing costs of California’s public colleges and universities.

After signing the 2015-16 budget Governor Brown has called for two special sessions of the legislature to address funding for transportation and health & human services. It’s time for our state to turn to ambitious policies that create permanent funding and long-term solutions. That’s why California Calls has joined the Make It Fair movement – a coalition of community, faith-based, civil rights and labor organizations committed to closing corporate property tax loopholes while protecting homeowners, renters and small businesses to generate an estimated $9 billion more statewide.

Join us, find out more about how California can secure the funding we need and make California fairer for everyone.

[1] Page 11 and 12 http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/2014-15/pdf/Enacted/BudgetSummary/SummaryCharts.pdf

[2] page 5 http://calbudgetcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2015_16-State-Budget-Package_First-Look_06292015.pdf

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