Center for Community Change

Center for Community Change

Founded	1968
Type	Nonprofit
Focus	Jobs and wages, immigration, retirement security, affordable housing, racial justice and barriers to employment for formerly incarcerated individuals
Origins	Response to civil rights concerns
Area served	Urban areas across the U.S.
Executive Director	Deepak Bhargava
Revenue	$37,372,900 (2013)[1]
Website	www.communitychange.org

The Center for Community Change (CCC) is a progressive community organizing group active in the United States.^[2] It was founded in 1968 in response to civil rights concerns of the 1960s and to honor Robert F. Kennedy.^[3][4] Through its collaboration with its affiliated group called Center for Community Change Action, it aims at creating social movements that help create a benevolent and friendly environment for all individuals regardless of their gender, race and ethnicity. The majority of movements organized by the Center for Community Change are targeted towards improving the quality of life for marginalized groups in the community.^[5] CCC has received funding from the Democracy Alliance and the Tides Advocacy Fund.^[6][7]

CCC headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Missions & Areas of Focus

The fundamental missions for the Center for Community Change are as following:^[5]

• Building the power and capability of the marginalized groups, particularly the low-income people of color
• Changing the public awareness with respect to low-income individuals in the communities
• Calling for the changes in the public policies that favor the improvement of standard of living

In the course of empowering the marginalized individuals, the Center for Community Change has set its primary areas of focus including:

• Jobs and Wages
• Immigration
• Retirement Security
• Affordable Housing
• Racial Justice
• Barriers to Employment for individuals with criminal records

Strategies & Activities

The Center for Community Change generally works in urban areas, especially within the communities of color, and attempts to create resident-based groups to work on the local issues of concern. The organization sponsors internships and training programs in several areas, including community organizing, service learning, union organizing, electoral engagement, and youth/student organizing.^[8] The key element in empowering people and promoting grassroots movement is the provision of appropriate resources and education.^[9] Thus, the Center for Community Change focuses on providing resources for grassroots groups in terms of campaign strategy, funding and social media use. It also helps provide education for individuals and let them develop their own leadership skills for social movements. It also provides a platform where grassroots movements can make a collective voice on certain issues. For instance, in 2004, through the collaboration with with immigrant groups, the Center for Community Change organized the Fair Immigration Reform Movement that "empowered immigrants to speak out."^[10] CCC has helped to create government programs like the Community Reinvestment Act and the food stamps program.^[11]

Two major social movements organized by CCC

Economic Justice

• "Putting Families First: Good Jobs for All": This event was launched in 2015 in an attempt to achieve economic justice for marginalized groups in the United States. Workers of color and women do not have sufficient access to employment although they were good enough to take the positions. The core principles of this movement is to create workplace environments that value family, to guarantee minimum wage, "unlock opportunities in the poorest communities, and increase in income taxes for the wealthy.^[12]

Immigration Advocacy

• Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM): This is the immigration reform movement which attracted numerous grassroots movements to join and make a collective voice on immigration reforms in the United States. In other words, FIRM is a coalition of immigrant rights organizations working for comprehensive immigration reform that received funding from the Open Society Foundations and the Ford Foundation.^[13][14] In 2004, the Center for Community Change with other national immigrant groups and other minority groups such as LGBT, labor, civil rights and education communities organized the so-called FIRM in order to guarantee wage equality and work protections for undocumented workers. Following the success of the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, other digital immigration reform campaigns were created such as #DREAMers where undocumented youth volunteered to publicly speak up and share their narratives of family sacrifice and deportation.^[15]

References

External links

• CCC website
• FIRM website