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Profile of Community Change Action:
Leveraging the Power of Voters of Color
by Jaqueline Swearingen, in collaboration with John Ries
The Crimson Goes Blueprint Portfolio makes it easy for donors to invest in grassroots groups with a proven record of registering, mobilizing, and protecting voters in battleground states. Community Change Action (CCA), one of the groups in the 2022/Q1 Portfolio, is a national coalition of community organizations working with Latino, Black, Indigenous, and Asian American voters. CCA aims to leverage the power of voters of color to tip district- and state-level elections in 2022 battleground states—including Nevada, Georgia, and California.
CCA strives to change the lives of low-income Americans by organizing to increase voter participation and expand access to affordable housing, childcare, and health care. CCA’s voter registration and engagement programs connected with over 3 million voters in 2018 through canvassing and phone calls and another 3 million in 2020. Organizations like CCA are effective in getting out the vote thanks to the credibility and trust they earn when they deliver on real community needs.
Partnering with grassroots groups across the nation, CCA persuaded state and local governments to allocate $350 million in 2021 American Rescue Plan funds for housing, childcare, and health insurance assistance. In Missouri, $20 million went to the Housing Trust Fund to keep low-income housing projects and options afloat during the pandemic. In Michigan, thousands of people who had fallen behind on their utility bills during the pandemic got their water restored.
In videos on CCA's Change Wire website, activists across the country bear witness to the difficulties low-income Americans face, and how CCA has improved their lives, including:
- Elida Cruz, a daycare provider from California supporting the children of farmworkers.
- Omari Ho-Sang, a Louisiana housing activist, on how organizing can secure housing and raise hope for the future among people at risk of losing their homes.
Donate here to invest in proven grassroots organizations like CCA, as well as Democratic candidates, up and down the ballot, running in close but winnable races this year.
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