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“Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without ploughing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters. The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand; it never has and it never will.”
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Invest in hope. Invest in
change. Invest in POWER.
POWER
is a group that gets things done.
In just the past 2 years, we have:
- Won over $100
million in affordable housing for low-income
families in Venice and Marina del Rey
- Written and won
the passage of LAUSD's Cafeteria Reform Motion,
which lowers the amount of sugar, salt, and
trans-fats in food served at cafeterias in all 700+
LAUSD public schools.
The more money we have the
more power we have to win more affordable housing,
improve our local schools and revitalize our
communities.
Be a part of
the change that brings hope to local communities -- make
an investment in POWER today!
(POWER is a
government recognized -- but NOT goverment funded
-- non-profit 501c3. All donations are tax-deductible)
POWER is an institutionally based community organization that works in low-income areas of Venice, Mar Vista, Marina del Rey, Inglewood and Santa Monica. POWER employs a community organizing model focused on relationship building and direct action to effect positive change within low-income communities. POWER’s implementation of this relational organizing model unites neighborhood leaders with neighborhood institutions to fight for social change and to build social capital.
POWER’s organizing base consists of three non-profit social service agencies (Westside Children’s Center, St. Joseph’s Center, and Venice Family Clinic), a non-profit housing development corporation (Venice Community Housing Corporation), two tenant associations (Holiday Venice Tenant Action Committee and Mar Vista Tenant Association), and a neighborhood association (Venice Neighborhood Action Coalition). POWER leaders and organizers also partner with United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) to organize leadership teams at 10 local elementary, middle and high schools within the LA Unified School District (LAUSD).
POWER is unique in several different ways:
- POWER combines the strengths of both institutional and neighborhood based organizing. We have neighborhood institutions that pay dues and link us to local leaders. Yet we also work in specific neighborhoods providing a tight geographical focus to our work (very necessary in low density Los Angeles)
- POWER is one of a handful of neighborhood focused organizations in Los Angeles. This allows us to represent targeted community problems that might fail to be addressed by larger, City-wide organizing networks.
- POWER partners schools with local social service organizations, unions and tenant organizations bringing about a unique collaborative forum for people who normally would not work together.
- POWER reaches directly into low-income communities through individual meetings, door knocking, public meetings and action to engage a wide cross section of West Los Angeles. POWER wins victories because we have created a team of leaders representative of our neighborhoods true diversity in terms of class, race, religion and sexual orientation.
POWER has won numerous organizational victories since our founding in 1999. Over the three years, POWER has increasingly taken the lead on such issues as preserving affordable housing, education reform, childcare funding, welfare reform, and boaters’ rights. For more information, download our brochure (pdf).
website updated 5/2/2008
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