Support to community organizing

Community organizing is the coming together of individuals and organizations to create opportunities for active engagement in civic life. It involves educating people about issues that affect them, enabling them to feel empowered to make social change, and encouraging them to have an active role in the decision-making process. Understanding that organizers and their actions can have a critical impact on public policy, legislation, institutional practices, and social programs, The Piton Foundation, through the Strengthening Communities program area, helped to spearhead the following organizing initiatives:

Colorado community organizing collaborative

The Colorado Community Organizing Collaborative (CCOC) is a partnership of grassroots community organizing groups that are working together to address the inequities and power imbalances that exist in Colorado, and improve programs and policies in the areas of immigrant rights, healthcare, education, and jobs and wages. These groups all use grassroots community organizing as a primary strategy, with a strong emphasis on membership-driven self-governance. The purpose of the CCOC is to foster collaboration among community organizations and build philanthropic support for organizing with a big-picture agenda toward creating a social justice movement in Colorado.

Launched in 2004 with an initial grant from the Ford Foundation, CCOC members include: 9-to-5, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, Colorado Progressive Coalition, Colorado Unity, El Centro Humanitario, the Front Range Economic Strategy Center, Metro Organizations for People, Padres/Jovenes Unidos, and Rights for All People.

Allied with the CCOC is the Philanthropic Community Organizing Collaborative (PCOC). The PCOC is a partnership of state and local funders supporting grassroots organizations. The collaborative places a special emphasis on helping community organizing partners and others build their individual and collective ability to inform and advance a regional agenda. As the philanthropic arm of the CCOC, the PCOC connects funders with grassroots organizing groups in order to elevate funders' understanding of organizing, campaigns, and capacity-building initiatives. Collectively, they offer valuable knowledge, expertise, resources, and a common vision for social justice.

PCOC members, in addition to Piton, include: Bamboo Fund, Brett Family Foundation, Buck Foundation, Chinook Fund, The Colorado Health Foundation, the Denver Foundation, Gay & Lesbian Fund/Gill Foundation, General Services Foundation, and Rose Community Foundation. Together, the CCOC and PCOC are working to positively affect social change in Colorado and are focusing on four cross-cutting issues: health, education, immigrant rights, and jobs and wages. Members have agreed on the following four principles to guide their unity as a collaborative:

promoting the idea that in a democracy we are responsible for the well-being of all in society, because their participation is affected if their quality of life is lower;
addressing social problems and practices that privilege some and disadvantage others;
improving the quality of life for all Coloradans;
holding accountable local, state and national governments and corporate entities to improving the quality of life for all;
supporting wise public investment that establishes basic quality of life standards and provides dignity for all people; and
building a movement of the people to recognize and exercise their power to make change and achieve equality and justice for all.

communities for public education reform

Communities for Public Education Reform (CPER) was formed in early 2007 to improve education for students by giving parents and students a stronger voice in shaping the policies that affect their public schools. This initiative also creates a unique intersection between education reform and immigrant rights work in Colorado. Local funders came together, raising over $1 million over the past three years, to support education organizing, as part of a national effort to strengthen the growing field of education organizing. These dollars are matched 1:1 by the national CPER collaborative, which is managed by Public Interest Projects.

Organizing groups supported by CPER locally include Metro Organizations for People, Padres/Jovenes Unidos, the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, and Stand for Children. CPER funders, in addition to The Piton Foundation, include Rose Community Foundation, the Denver Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation/Making Connections--Denver, the Timothy and Bernadette Marquez Foundation, PICO National Network, the Donnell-Kay Foundation and the City and County of Denver's Housing and Neighborhood Development Division.

In Denver, the CPER seeks to create, increase in scale, and strengthen effective policies and programs to ensure that key marginalized groups have access to high quality education. It also strives to develop systemic strategies to improve college readiness, access and persistence, including, but not limited to, a focus on effective high-school reforms.

Support to community organizing

Colorado community organizing collaborative

communities for public education reform

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