Virginia Organizing

Virginia Organizing is a nonpartisan grassroots organization operating across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Established in 1995 as the Virginia Organizing Project, it was created to bring residents together around issues affecting the quality of life in their communities, particularly issues involving racial and economic inequality. The organization’s approach is multi-issue and multi-constituency: rather than representing one profession, locality, or policy subject, it develops local leadership among people who have historically had limited influence in public decision-making. The organization works through local chapters and community-based campaigns. Organizers identify potential leaders, recruit members, and determine priorities through door-to-door canvassing, telephone outreach, one-to-one conversations, and community meetings. Campaigns can target decisions at different levels of government, ranging from a county board of supervisors to statewide institutions and the federal government. Virginia Organizing conducts an annual power analysis to help determine which issues should receive priority in a given year. Its work has covered affordable housing, health-care reform, economic justice, racial justice, discriminatory policing, the school-to-prison pipeline, voting-rights restoration for formerly incarcerated people, immigration reform, predatory lending, and protection of Medicare and Social Security. Women’s issues and climate change were added to its stated priorities in 2015. The organization has also supported campaigns involving education, transportation, human rights, environmental issues, and community support. Virginia Organizing’s early history emphasized chapter formation, racial-justice education, and local campaigns. Its Lee County chapter achieved a change in the county’s jury-selection process, leading to random selection and the first service of an African American jury commissioner there. A statewide convention in 1997 helped consolidate the organization’s network. Later campaigns addressed affordable housing finance and public participation, fair-housing enforcement in Petersburg, voting-rights restoration procedures, and local and statewide “Ban the Box” initiatives. The organization expanded its civic-engagement work in the 2000s. In 2008 it helped form the Virginia c-3 Table, a coalition of more than a dozen statewide organizations focused on nonpartisan civic engagement. Its voter-contact work included large-scale canvassing and distribution of a nonpartisan voter guide. Virginia Organizing also served as the lead Virginia organization for the Health Care for America Now campaign, convening health-care forums, rallies, and press events with partner groups. Virginia Organizing is not a conventional consumer brand or commercial enterprise. Its principal offerings are organizing infrastructure, leadership development, issue campaigns, civic-engagement programs, and public education. The organization describes its work as supporting community members in building collective power and achieving practical changes in public policy and institutional practice. According to the supplied reference material, it maintains a joint plan of work with more than 40 organizations and has a staff of community organizers distributed across Virginia, under Executive Director Brian Johns.

Virginia Organizing began in 1995 in Southwest Virginia under the name Virginia Organizing Project. Joe Szakos served as its first executive director and organizer. From the outset, the project sought to create local chapters and organize residents around racial and economic inequality rather than limiting its work to a single policy issue or constituency. The first chapter was established in Lee County. In Lynchburg, the organization hosted an early three-day Dismantling Racism Workshop, an effort that helped initiate similar educational activities elsewhere in the state. The first statewide convention took place on June 21, 1997, with more than 135 participants. During the late 1990s, the Lee County Chapter conducted the organization’s first successful campaign by challenging the county’s jury-selection system. The campaign contributed to adoption of a random selection process and the first appointment of an African American jury commissioner in the county. At the state level, the organization supported proposed additions of sexual orientation and gender to Virginia’s hate-crime protections during the 1998 General Assembly. Affordable housing became Virginia Organizing’s first major statewide campaign. After years of organizing, the group helped secure action by the Virginia Housing Development Authority in 2002. The authority approved more than $339 million in financing for low-income homeownership and rental-construction loans and opened its public-comment process. In 2004, the Petersburg Chapter won a local campaign that led the city to fund a fair-housing officer or housing-ombudsman position. Virginia Organizing increasingly combined issue organizing with nonpartisan civic engagement. In 2002, it and allied groups pressed Governor Mark Warner to simplify Virginia’s process for restoring voting rights to people with nonviolent felony convictions. The application was reduced from thirteen pages to one. In 2008, Virginia Organizing helped create the Virginia c-3 Table, bringing more than a dozen statewide organizations together around nonpartisan civic-engagement work. Its program hired 50 interns, who canvassed more than 140,000 doors, and distributed 300,000 copies of a 32-page voter guide. In the following year, 40 paid interns canvassed 142,679 doors statewide. Health-care reform was another prominent area of activity. Virginia Organizing became the lead organization in Virginia for Health Care for America Now, coordinating forums, rallies, and press conferences with organizations across the state. The Center for Community Change presented the organization with its 2009 Community Change Champion Award for its commitment to low-income communities. Since 2010, reported victories have included support for a more inclusive mural in the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors meeting room, local and statewide Ban the Box campaigns, repeal of language directed at returning citizens in an Amherst County ordinance, and further improvements to Virginia’s rights-restoration process. The organization has also continued work on health care, economic justice, racial justice, policing, the school-to-prison pipeline, immigration, predatory lending, Medicare, Social Security, environmental concerns, education, transportation, and human rights. Virginia Organizing’s operating model relies on chapters, member recruitment, leadership development, direct action, public meetings, and partnerships. The supplied reference describes a joint plan of work with more than 40 organizations across Virginia. It also identifies Brian Johns as executive director and describes a staff of 14 community organizers working across the state. The organization remains active, but detailed current information about its legal structure, finances, headquarters, and present chapter count is not established in the supplied material.

• 2015

  Issue agenda expands

  [1]Virginia Organizingen.wikipedia.org

  Women’s issues and climate change were added to the organization’s stated priorities.

• 2009

  Community Change Champion Award

  [1]Virginia Organizingen.wikipedia.org

  The Center for Community Change recognized Virginia Organizing for its work with low-income communities.

• 2008

  Virginia c-3 Table formed

  [1]Virginia Organizingen.wikipedia.org

  Virginia Organizing helped bring more than a dozen statewide organizations together for nonpartisan civic engagement.

• 2004

  Petersburg fair-housing campaign succeeds

  [1]Virginia Organizingen.wikipedia.org

  The Petersburg Chapter’s campaign led the city to fund a fair-housing officer or housing-ombudsman position.

• 2002

  Affordable-housing campaign achieves state action

  [1]Virginia Organizingen.wikipedia.org

  Following a statewide campaign, the Virginia Housing Development Authority approved more than $339 million in financing for low-income housing and opened its public-comment process.

• 1997

  First statewide convention

  [1]Virginia Organizingen.wikipedia.org

  The first statewide convention brought together more than 135 people on June 21, 1997.

• 1995

  Virginia Organizing Project founded

  [1]Virginia Organizingen.wikipedia.org

  The organization was formed in Southwest Virginia to build community chapters and organize around racial and economic inequality.

A nonpartisan, community-led organizing network focused on building power among Virginia residents and communities that have traditionally had limited representation in public decision-making.

• Organizing services · 1995

  Community organizing

  Virginia Organizing develops local chapters and member leadership through canvassing, phone outreach, one-to-one conversations, community meetings, and direct action. The work is designed to help residents identify shared concerns and act collectively on decisions made by local, state, and federal institutions.

• Public participation · 2002

  Civic engagement

  The organization conducts nonpartisan voter education and outreach, including large-scale door-to-door canvassing, voter-guide distribution, and coalition work. Its civic-engagement activities are presented as participation and public-education efforts rather than partisan campaign operations.

• Public advocacy · 1995

  Issue campaigns

  Campaigns have addressed affordable housing, health care, economic and racial justice, voting-rights restoration, policing, immigration, predatory lending, environmental issues, education, transportation, and other community priorities. Campaign tactics include forums, rallies, public testimony, coalition-building, and direct action.

• 2010Ban the Box campaigns

  Virginia

  Virginia Organizing supported campaigns to restrict the use of criminal-history questions in employment or related screening processes.

  Outcome. The reference material reports victories in multiple cities and at the statewide level.

  Source
• 2010Returning-citizen rights campaigns

  Virginia

  The organization campaigned against discriminatory language and barriers affecting people returning from incarceration, including work on voting-rights restoration.

  Outcome. Reported outcomes included repeal of anti-returning-citizen language in an Amherst County ordinance and improvements to the rights-restoration process.

  Source
• 2008Virginia c-3 Table civic-engagement coalition

  Virginia

  Virginia Organizing helped establish a formal coalition of more than a dozen statewide organizations for nonpartisan civic engagement.

  Outcome. The coalition conducted extensive outreach, including intern-led canvassing and distribution of a nonpartisan voter guide.

  Source
• 2008Health Care for America Now in Virginia

  Virginia

  Virginia Organizing served as the lead Virginia organization for Health Care for America Now, coordinating health-care forums, rallies, and press conferences with partner groups.

  Source
• 2004Petersburg fair-housing officer campaign

  Petersburg, Virginia

  The Petersburg Chapter organized for a dedicated municipal fair-housing officer or housing-ombudsman role.

  Outcome. Petersburg funded the position.

  Source
• 2002Affordable housing campaign

  Virginia

  The organization led its first statewide campaign around affordable housing and pressed for expanded low-income homeownership and rental-construction financing.

  Outcome. The Virginia Housing Development Authority approved more than $339 million in financing and opened its public-comment process.

  Source
• 1998Virginia hate-crime protections campaign

  Virginia

  Virginia Organizing publicly supported adding sexual orientation and gender to Virginia’s existing hate-crime laws during the 1998 General Assembly.

  Source

• 2015

  Expand annual issue prioritiesStrategy

  Background

  Virginia Organizing sets priorities through an annual power analysis and had historically emphasized health care, economic justice, and racial justice.

  Action taken

  The organization added women’s issues and climate change to its stated priority areas.

  Source

1. 1Virginia Organizingen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Virginia Organizing official websitevirginia-organizing.org