Community Voices Heard
About CVH
Mission
Community Voices Heard (CVH) is an organization of low-income people, predominantly women with experience on welfare, working to build power in New York City and State to improve the lives of our families and communities. We are working to accomplish this through a multi-pronged strategy, including public education, grassroots organizing, leadership development, training low-income people about their rights, political education, civic engagement and direct-action issue campaigns. We are currently working on welfare reform, job creation, public housing and other economic justice issues that affect low-income people, particularly low-income women of color.
While we focus on welfare reform, we broadly define welfare activism to be multi-issue, and thus must include issues such as education, training, jobs, housing, economic development and other community issues. We fill a crucial gap in that our organization connects public policy with grassroots organizing and leadership development.
History
On a sunny Saturday morning, in May of 1994, a group of people, mostly women – some homeless, many on-welfare, and plenty who were unemployed – came together so that their voices might be heard. For too long, they had been shut out of the halls of power, denied a seat at the table, and trampled by both those who openly targeted the poor and those who claimed to advocate on their behalf. They were tired of a government that showed them nothing but neglect and malice. For these brave people it was now or never. No longer would the decision makers be allowed to maintain their power at the expense of the most unfortunate – the poor, women, and people of color.
At our expense.
In 1994, we said enough was enough.
We were united, motivated, and organized. We had no choice. Between 1993 and 1996, attacks on the poor were especially vicious, shrouded in lies and misinformation. Proposals to eliminate aid to poor families and children were gaining momentum and support. The radical right demonized us in order to shore up power among the middle class, eventually taking over Congress. Lawmakers were publicly discussing the option of forcing poor women to live in labor houses, making them “work off” their food and shelter. Those elected to represent us were considering supporting legislation that would put the children of women on welfare into orphanages. They told the world that we were mismanaging our money, that we were liars and cheats.
Together we demanded to be heard. We spoke up. Loudly. We reminded the world that women on welfare were going to college despite the retrogressive cycle of public assistance that demands women get off welfare without helping them find the skills and training to do so. We reminded the world that most women on welfare were in fact white and that most of us were working part time or using welfare for unemployment relief. We showed the world that we were real people, mothers with children, families with friends and neighbors.
From that first 1994 meeting of 80 people, Community Voices Heard emerged and would eventually become one of the leading organizations working for economic justice in the country.
Accomplishments
Since our founding in 1994 Community Voices Heard has grown to be a force to be reckoned with. Below are some of our accomplishments to date:
Organizational
- Educated 25,000 low-income people about their rights and how they relate to pertinent policy issues.
- Contacted and mobilized over 12,000 voters in the South Bronx, East and Central Harlem, and Yonkers, NY in over 50 electoral districts.
Mobilized over 9,200 low-income people to take a step toward action, engaging injustices in their communities in a more critical way.
- Developed the skills of 3,400 low-income people in organizing for social change through trainings in campaign development, power analysis, and all the tools necessary to successfully create change.
- Developed hundreds of members to take leadership roles in the organization.
Released ground-breaking reports on New York City’s Welfare-to-Work Programs (WEP, POP, ESP, WeCARE, etc.).
General Poverty Issues
- Pushed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to create a new Deputy Mayor position to focus on Health and Human Services (HHS)
- Got New York City to create the Commission for Economic Opportunity to focus on poverty and joblessness.
Welfare Reform Campaign
- Got HRA to increase monitoring of the WeCARE program (a program for those with mental and physical barriers to employment) and encourage vendors to do more thorough assessments, train staff in spotting mental health challenges, and alert program participants about how to change appointments rather than getting sanctioned for not attending them.
- Won $5 million in the NY State budget for the creation of a statewide career pathways program.
- Won positions for welfare recipients on the Human Resources Administration (HRA) Citizens Advisory Committee.
- Got the City Council to pass the City Access to Training & Educate Law that allows welfare recipients to go to school.
- Stopped a 25% benefit reduction in welfare grants & saved welfare for childless adults.
Building the Workforce Campaign
- Pushed the City to create more than 20,000 plus paid transitional jobs for welfare recipients through a legislative and implementation campaign.
- Assured that Department of Transportation (DOT) workers were rehired to finish out yearlong postings in the Parks when DOT let them go.
- Got HRA Commissioner Robert Doar to expand the Parks Opportunity Program (POP) into the Department of Sanitation.
- Secured an $18 million City Council appropriation for community-based programs to assist unemployed people to move into jobs.
- Won extensions for some POP workers so that they could complete educational credentialing programs.
- Stopped the privatization of the Parks Opportunity Program, which would have cut the wages of 3,500 workers by $2.00/hour.
- Got the state to put create and then invest $70 million into a Wage Subsidy Program (WSP) for welfare recipients.
- Got the Commission for Economic Opportunity (Mayor's poverty commission) to focus on the integration of the city's workforce development systems as a priority moving forward; and successfully inserted paid transitional jobs and CUNY/ SUNY access into the anti-poverty agenda.
Public Housing Campaign
- Secured $3.5 million in funding for the NYC Housing Authority from the state for operating subsidies for the first time in ten years.
- Stopped NYCHA from getting the Federal Moving to Work Waiver which would have potentially allowed them to privatize the buildings, add time limits for residence, and/or demolish public housing.
- Pushed Governor Elliot Spitzer to sign the Shelter Allowance Bill which will provide $47 million annually for NYCHA’s operating budget.
Case Study
This is the product of a research project. Community Voices Heard: Changing People and Public Policy through Low-Income Organizing is a case study of grassroots organizing. Based on research directed by Ann Rivera of the New York University Center for Community Research & Action, and funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, the piece highlights how a membership organization of low-income individuals can be an effective force for social, economic, and political change.
A team of three researchers collected data spanning ten years of CVH’s history from our beginning in 1994 to 2005, examining three different organizing campaigns: the passage of the Transitional Jobs Program law in NYC, the implementation of the program, and the ongoing improvement and preservation of the program. In-depth interviews were conducted with CVH members, current and former CVH staff, policy researchers and representatives from local labor unions, funding agencies, government agencies and offices, and other grassroots advocacy groups.
The case study helps to demystify what organizing really is, and outlines how CVH used successful strategies to actually change public policy to improve the lives of thousands of low-income people. It identifies and points to some basic tenets that can be useful to other groups undertaking similar work.
Findings from the research uncover some essentials for engaging low-income constituents to participate in public policy processes:
- building leaders fosters and sustains long-term political engagement,
- constant and targeted contact with constituents encourages long-term investment,
- engaging people in ongoing activity fosters deeper connections, and
- action-focused base building gets people interested in social change.
Additionally, the research highlights some of the critical strategies for groups striving to achieve concrete policy change:
- constituent participation in policy making strengthens public policy creation,
- personal knowledge of issues and community-driven research help fill a knowledge gap, and
- membership base-building drives effective and clear media work and winning alliances.
Theory of Social Change
Community Voices Heard believes that we must build the power of low-income people, particularly women, through building an organization that low-income people control and lead. We also believe we have a successful model that has and can continue to mobilize large numbers of low-income people to: develop into community leaders, participate in the policy making process, win concrete policies that improve our members' lives, and create a more fair and equitable community for everyone.
We believe we win on our issues and contribute to a broader movement for social change by acting on the following theories:
BUILDING A PEOPLES ORGANIZATION: Social change comes through building and maintaining strong, powerful, independent people’s organizations, not relying on mobilizing numbers of people at isolated times. At CVH, low-income people, particularly women, develop their skills, engage in political education and strategic development, and directly negotiate and deal with power. This process is key for sustaining and keeping people involved over the long-term. At the same time, it ensures that we retain a place at the negotiating table.
SHIFTING THE PARAMETERS OF THE DEBATE: We actively and strategically embrace and represent political positions that might not be popular and in the mainstream. We aim for policies that will truly improve our members’ lives and change the balance of social, economic and political power, while negotiating for concrete wins along the way. We seek a position that will move the debate away from the center, and to the left of the political spectrum, where economic justice issues are better represented.
USING A COMBINATION OF STRATEGIES: We actively embrace and implement a combined strategy of organization building, leadership development and mass mobilization. We derive our power through the effective combination of these strategies.
SEEKING AND BUILDING CONSTITUENT-LED COALITIONS: Coalition and ally work is critical to certain campaigns and goals, but we seek to participate in coalitions that are led and directed by base-building organizations that are directly accountable to their constituencies. For us, this creates opportunities to nurture and develop community leaders, which builds our organizational strength and power.
ENGAGING A BROADER MOVEMENT: While we believe that building our own organizational power is critical to social change, we support activities within and outside of our organization that help to build the greater social change and economic justice movements. This includes our work on global justice issues, training young people of color to be organizers, assisting in the start-up of other nascent organizations, and participating in key solidarity events and actions.
Operating Principles
Community Voices Heard subscribes to the following values and principles to help guide us as we move forward in implementing our strategic plan and in expanding our work:
- CVH believes that membership must have meaningful decision-making and control of the organization and the work we do.
- CVH believes that base building is the foundation of what we do – we actively work to increase the numbers of low-income people involved in social change.
- CVH believes that leadership development of community leaders is core to our work.
- CVH believes that affected constituencies must represent the organization to power and be the key decision makers in the organization.
- CVH does not do for people what they can do for themselves – we motivate people to do what they can do for themselves.
- CVH is about organizing not service.
- CVH values, nurtures and supports women’s leadership, while welcoming all.
- CVH is a multi-racial, multi-cultural and diverse organization that integrates and respects different groups of people and actively seeks to promote and develop leadership of people of color.
Staff Bios
Sondra Youdelman, Executive Director
Sondra has been at CVH since 2000 and was named the organization’s new Executive Director in March 2007; she was previously CVH’s Director of Public Policy and Research. Sondra has worked both in the United States and abroad to achieve social and economic justice through organizing. She has over 10 years experience as an organizer and activist with grassroots groups including farm workers, Native Americans, public housing residents, and low-income workers in the United States, and abroad for various populations throughout Latin America and in several African countries. She obtained a Master’s Degree in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School in order to gain policy analysis tools to bring back to the grassroots. She also has a BA in American Studies focusing on Oppression and Revolution from Wesleyan University.
Henry Serrano, Senior Organizer / Voter Engagement Project Coordinator
Henry first joined CVH as an Organizer in 2001, and was named Senior Organizer at CVH in Spring 2003. In addition to his own organizing work, supervises and guides the work of our other organizers. He is also responsible for developing and leading our Voter Engagement Project. His early work for Community Voices Heard was as the organizer working on winning implementation of the Transitional Jobs Program and organizing Parks Opportunity Program workers. His previous organizing experience includes 2 years of neighborhood-based grassroots organizing in Brooklyn for ACORN on issues including housing, education, and neighborhood services. Henry has a BA degree from New York University in comparative literature.
Michelle Perez, Director of Administration & Institutional Giving
Michelle joined Community Voices Heard as Development Director in May 2002. She is very pleased to turn her efforts to economic justice projects after having worked in fundraising for arts/community development organizations for 19 years. She has previously worked for the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Meet The Composer, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and The Joffrey Ballet. Michelle has a BA degree in Economics/Political Economy from Barnard College, and has done graduate work in business administration at New York University.
Anderson Fils-Aime, Community Organizer, Sustainable Communities
Anderson Fils-Aime is the Sustainable Communities Organizer. Known as a Troublemaker throughout the last few years, primarily to the landlords in New York City Housing Courts, Anderson has been involved in campaigns throughout the region to preserve community, and to insure that all citizens opinions are heard. As the Rent Regulation Campaign Manager at Tenants and Neighbors, Anderson led a campaign to reform and strengthen the rent laws, and reduce the accelerated displacement and gentrification taking place in New York City. Anderson also worked for the Pratt Area Community Council in Brooklyn, an organization that works to preserve and develop safe, affordable housing. At PACC, Anderson served as the Community Organizing Program Manager and was responsible primarily for organizing buildings to preserve their long term affordability, as well as educating tenants on their rights to protect their rent-stabilized housing, as well as combat predatory equity backed landlords. Anderson is returning "home" to East Harlem. From 2004 to 2007 he worked in the 10029 zip code as a Housing Specialist for Palladia HomeBase. At HomeBase, Anderson?s primary role was to stabilize the residents of East Harlem housing by working with the Housing Court and the various city agencies overseeing housing. Anderson's first job as a community organizer was with Mount Vernon United Tenants, the only tenant-based community organization in Westchester County. Born and raised in New York City, Anderson brings to CVH a passion for diversity and inclusivity in the community, as well as a strong commitment to social equity.Shannon Barber, Community Organizer, Public Housing
Shannon got his start as a community organizer in September of 2000 as an organizer trainee at CVH. He has also worked with CVH on special projects in 2002, and most recently, starting September 2006 coordinating the Central Harlem voter engagement canvass crew, and doing follow-up organizing. He is a 2003 graduate of The Center for Third World Organizing’s Movement Activist Apprenticeship Program. Because of his passion for social justice, Shannon has gone on to organize on numerous issues such as Welfare Rights, Tenant Rights, Education Reform, Youth Rights as well as Voter Registration & Participation. This passion has led him on a journey throughout the country to places such as; NYC, Connecticut, Maryland and California. As a person who not only grew up with, but is currently dealing with, some of the very issues we work to improve, Shannon rates his ability to relate to the membership as one of his biggest strengths. Shannon has recently been hired permanently as the Public Housing Organizer, and is excited to help the campaign move forward on its goals to save and improve public housing.
Linda Broessel, Director of Individual Giving
Linda joined CVH as part-time staff in March 2007. Her professional career has been spent fundraising for non-profit organizations and political campaigns, as an editor for legal, medical and policy publications, and in public policy and medical research. Among the organizations she has raised funds for are the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Advocates for Women, and Brandeis University. She has also been Director of Development for The Joffrey Ballet and was Vice President of Executive Search for the Oram Group. Prior to embarking on her fundraising career, Linda worked in medical research positions in the Histology Departments at The Baylor College of Medicine, the Ochsner Clinic, and the University of California – San Francisco Medical Center. She has a BA degree in Microbiology from the University of Texas and a JD from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
Anita Graham, Community Organizer, Welfare/Workforce Development
Anita is the mother of three daughters and has lived in New York City all of her life. She graduated from Morris High School in 1976 and Bronx Community College in 1996, with an Associate of Arts Degree in Human Services. Anita has worked with people with HIV/AIDS, in the therapeutic community, in the coordination of youth activities, and participated on many committees, including tenant associations, president of a day care center, co-president of parent association meetings, SEFA/United Way, etc. She is also a former recipient of public assistance. Anita first joined CVH in August 2004 as a canvasser with our Voter Engagement project, moved on to help with a welfare program survey project and was promoted to a full-time Community Organizer position in January 2005. Anita is excited about the challenges of community organizing and empwoering people to creatively change policy currently affecting our communities.
Alexa Kasdan, Policy and Research Coordinator
Alexa joined CVH as the Policy and Research Associate in July of 2006, and was promoted to Policy & Research Coordinator a year later. In June of 2006, she earned a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Alexa also holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Prior to graduate school, Alexa worked in New York City as a case manager for homeless people living with HIV/AIDS and as a public policy fellow at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Alexa has also worked on an election-monitoring project in El Salvador, and as a surveyor for a CVH research project.
Jenny Loeb, Community Organizer, Mid-Hudson Valley
Jenny joined CVH in May 2007 as the Mid-Hudson Community Organizer. As a resident of the City of Newburgh, she is excited to bring CVH's powerful organizing model to the Mid-Hudson Valley. Jenny received a BA in Sociology in May 2006 from SUNY New Paltz, where she was active in student government and a protest movement against the administration. She was an organizer and did leadership development with Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and currently sits on their Board of Directors. She has also organized several large community events linking social justice and music. Jenny has been extremely active in Hudson Valley politics, including a run for Ulster County Legislature in 2005. She is thrilled to have the chance to focus on empowering low-income communities in the Mid-Hudson Valley.
Michael Selick, Membership and Communications Coordinator
Mike joined CVH as Membership and Communications Coordinator in May, 2007. He came to CVH just after graduating from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study where he studied Radical Urban Politics. During his years in college, Mike worked with a grassroots organizing group, Picture the Homeless, on their housing campaign. He has been involved as a collective member of a community arts space on the Lower East Side called ABC No Rio since 2005. Mike is looking forward to developing new mediums through which members can have their voices reach the masses.
Sarah Thomason, Community Organizer, Westchester County
Sarah joined CVH in February of 2007 as our Westchester County Organizer. She graduated from DePaul University in 2004 with majors in Political Science and Women’s Studies. Before coming to New York, Sarah lived in Chicago where she had worked on passing an expungement bill for ex-offenders, organized child care providers with SEIU, and organized affordable housing residents. She is excited to apply what she has learned in Chicago to build a powerful CVH chapter in Yonkers.
Board Member Bios
Zoila Almonte
Zoila Almonte was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic but she has lived in New York City for the past 28 years. She was attended secondary school in Dominican Republic. She has 4 children, 3 girls, 1 boy, and 2 dogs. Ms. Almonte has experience working in the area of domestic violence. She joined CVH in 1998 when she saw a presentation in Northern Harlem about Welfare Rights and put herself on the mailing list for future events. She has remained active in CVH for so long because she has experience with public assistance and she likes how focused the membership is and she feels that she needs to be involved in working towards change on these issues. Ms. Almonte started in CVH with the anti-WEP / Count Our Work campaign fighting for transitional jobs. Since 1998 she has become involved in many different aspects of the organization. She says she has learned a lot through her participation such as how the government functions and how politicians make decisions. She said, “These lessons have been tremendous and these are the things that have inspired my participation in the advancement of the organization and in the movement. The focus of the vision, I feel it is important to maintain for our advancement.” Zoila joined the board in 2002. She feels that an important part of her work has been to help educate her community of Washington Heights about CVH’s issues. It’s important that people have knowledge….it gives one the push, the impulse.
Margaret Anadu
Margaret Anadu grew up in Lagos, Nigera and at the age of ten moved to Houston, Texas. She graduated from Harvard undergrad where she studied computer science and was involved in a member group called the Coalition Against Sexual Violence. Since graduating she has continued this type of work and is currently a NY State certified rape and domestic violence crisis counselor and volunteers at Beth Israel hospital. As well as women’s issues she also worked on cultural issues at Harvard. She was the senior intern at the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations. Ms. Anadu currently works at Goldman Sachs in the Urban Investment Group. They are a private equity group that invests directly from Goldman Sach’s in projects in distressed/emerging neighborhoods and/or that target low to middle income families. She is also currently sitting on the board of a group called Seneca whose mission is to improve the experience of undergraduate women at Harvard. Margaret joined the board of CVH in September 2006 and is now the co-Treasurer.
Stephen Bradley
Stephen Bradley was born and raised in Harlem and he has spent his entire life living in New York City. He first heard about CVH when an organizer handed him a flyer during outreach at a WEP site. He has now been with the organization for over 7 years during which time he has become a member of the board and is the current board treasurer. He feels that he knows this organization from a variety of perspectives and that people trust him as someone who can help tie all different aspects of the organization together. He believes in the CVH model because we are a membership run and directed organization. He feels that when people fall from grace it is good to have a place like CVH that they can fall into. Stephen has said that his participation in CVH has saved his life, “for me I was headed down the wrong road and my involvement here has empowered me to do more with my life. Being with this organization has built up my self esteem.” Stephen says he plans on being a part of this organization until the transitional job program is extended through out all city agencies. He has been working towards this end for a long time and he plans on seeing the process through till the end.
Keith Gamble
Keith Gamble was born in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, but he has spent his entire life living in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. He spent two years studying at the Kingsboro College. Keith has had previous experience working in politics as a volunteer for the Green Party. In 2004 a CVH organizer was doing outreach at a job center and met Keith, through this first meeting he was introduced to a new type of organizing for social change. He believes in the CVH model because of the membership involvement in the organization. He is interested in how CVH is a strategic organization; before CVH makes any moves we first consult with the membership and try to figure out how we can strategically achieve our goals. He feels that his participation in CVH has shown him that he is not powerless. We can fight city hall and we can win, it may be a small victory and it may take a long time but through his work with CVH Keith has learned that everyone has the ability to make changes, people power is real, it may take a long time and a lot of work but it is real.
Ketny Jean – Francois
Ketny Jean-Francois was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti but she has lived in New York City for over 25 years. Ketny became a CVH member when she was in a Back to Work program. She found out about the organization while talking about wanting to form an organization with some of the other women in the program and one of the people she mentioned this to told her about CVH. She came into the office and liked how CVH teaches you how to take control over the decisions the power holders are making regarding low-income people and programs. She feels that her participation in CVH has made her feel empowered as well as teaching her about how the government works and how policies are made. During her time at CVH she has been the most excited about expanding the Transitional Job Program and changing the way services are delivered to low-income people. Ketny is an artist and a mother of one who graduated from New York City Technical College where she studied art and advertising design. She also attended Hunter College where she studied for her bachelors in studio art as well as Black and Puerto Rican studies. During her time at Hunter she was student Vice President. She has recently received her certificate as a medical assistant.
Brooke Richie, Esq.
Brooke Richie met CVH while she was a Skadden Fellow at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, formerly the Welfare Law Center, in New York City where she focused on education access for welfare recipients. She received her undergraduate degree from Yale University, her J.D. from Harvard Law School, and her Masters in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government. Before attending law school she worked as a Field Organizer for the Children’s Defense Fund-NY, where she organized community-based advocacy strategies to facilitate greater access to children’s health insurance. Ms. Richie is active in numerous coalitions and advocacy efforts to increase individuals’ awareness of their legal rights, and to empower individuals and families to advocate for access to the opportunities to which they are entitled. She is a member of the Welfare Reform Network Steering Committee. She also serves on the Board of a SEED, NYC based non-profit that works with community based organizations and city and state agencies to build their internal capacity to fight poverty. Brooke is the Secretary of Social Welfare Law Committee of City Bar of NY. She currently is working to start her own non-profit, the Resilience Law Advocacy Project, to focus on the intersection of youth development and law. Brooke joined the CVH board in September 2006 and is now the co-Secretary.
Agnes Rivera
Agnes Rivera was born in East Harlem, but spent her childhood in the South Bronx and Northern New Jersey. She has been a resident of the Wagner Public Housing Development in East Harlem for the past 18 years. She joined CVH in 2006 when a CVH organizer knocked on her door during the electoral project and asked her feelings were on the conditions in public housing. She has stayed engaged in the organization because she feels that CVH is a positive force because we organize the community to fight for our rights, provides political education, and trainings. As a result of her involvement with CVH She is more conscious of what is going on in her community and more in tune with some how the media works. She now feels that she is able to pick up a newspaper and read between the lines. Agnes’ favorite part of being involved with Community Voices Heard is helping to train people to be more active in their communities. She feels that this work helps to make a community grow and develop and it keeps people engaged both with the issues they are facing and with each other. She received a BA in Social Services from Rutgers University and then became a social worker for Head Start working with families with children with disciplinary problems. She stayed at Head Start for 10 years before becoming a coordinator for the Visiting Homemaker Services where she send registered nurses to peoples homes who were in need. She also worked for Henry Street Settlement as a Self Help Case Manager.
Janet Rivera
Janet Rivera was born in Manhattan, NY. She has been in NYC most of her life but she spent a decade living in both New Jersey and Virginia. She returned to New York in 1996 and has lived here every since. She has participated in JTP in the parks department. Ms. Rivera joined CVH in 2001 when she was approached by an outreach worker at a welfare center. She came to a meeting and participated in a rally in Washington, DC where we spoke to congress people. The next memorable work she participated in was an accountability session with candidates for NYC offices. Janet says that the reason she has remained with CVH is the people and the work that we do, she values how we fight for our rights. She began her time at CVH working on Welfare and Transitional jobs but has begun working with the Public Housing Campaign as well. She joined the board in August 2006. She feels that being active at CVH has helped her to become more open and to speak out more not only at CVH but in all aspects of her life.
Sindy Rivera
Sindy Rivera was born in the Dominican Republic but immigrated to Brooklyn before she was two years old. When she was six her family was evicted from their apartment and moved to San Diego, California until she was nine. Then she moved to the Washington Height area of Manhattan and she has been living there ever since. In 2000 Sindy was working at a WEP assignment in downtown Manhattan when she met a CVH organizer who invited her to a meeting. She believes in CVH because, “I never like anyone speaking for me because they would never get it right. “No one can speak for you better than you!” CVH has modeled around that concept. Through her participation with CVH Sindy did an internship with a non-profit organization called Computers For Youth or CFY. The internship was supposed to be year long, but they kept her on for three years. In 2003 she was honored a special award called the Urban Hero Award. During her time at CVH she has developed from a new member to a leader to a board member which she believes is a result of her willingness to volunteer for tasks she knew nothing of. CVH has allowed her to learn through action. This process has given her the experience and skills necessary to make her social justice work more effective.
Yvonne Shields
Yvonne Shields was born in the Bronx and has lived in New York City for over 50 years. She first joined Community Voices Heard in the spring of 2000 when she became homeless after she lost her job to downsizing. She has remained with CVH because it has given her the opportunity to interact with Government Agencies and politicians to get clarification as to their goals and to inform them of CVH’s goals. She believes in CVH because the organization is a vehicle for real change. Before joining the board in 2002 Yvonne was active in the Welfare Rights and WEP campaigns. Through her involvement in CVH she has improved her public speaking and become empowered to make sure her voice and her opinion are taken seriously. Yvonne has worked with non-profit organizations for about 40 years. She worked at Early Childhood Education, trained and worked with Family Childcare Providers, and is now a chef in training at the New Broadway Community Soup Kitchen.
Anne Washington
Anne Washington was born in Trinidad and has lived in New York City since 1970. She has been a resident of Grant Housing in Harlem since 1978. She joined CVH when an organizer knocked on her door and asked her about being a tenant of public housing. She worked for temp agencies for years doing computer work for banks. She attended Borough of Manhattan Community College and studied computer science. She worked at the Federal Reserve in the bank supervision department for almost 9 years. Anne likes CVH because she sees that we get things done. We pick up a project and we push and push, go directly to politician’s offices, have protests, and put the work and time in to be successful. She feels that the Valentines Day action in Albany to secure funding for public housing was one of the most inspiring actions she has participated in. It was the first time she had ever been involved in something like that and ever since every action she has taken part in has made her more excited and happy to be involved in making social changes and being a part of something bigger. Anne believes that being involved with CVH has changed her life in many positive ways. It has makes her feel that she is involved in something important that will make real differences of in her life and in her community.
Linda Williams
Linda Williams was born in New York City in Jamaica Queens. She has lived in New York City her entire life and she says she plans on living here the rest of her life. She graduated from Mabel Dean Baron High School in 1971. The school is now called The School of the Future. She works for the Department of Education as a school aide. Linda was one of the earliest members of Community Voices Heard she joined in 1994 the first year we were an organization. She became a member when an organizer did a teach-in at her housing development in the Bronx. Linda says that she has been involved in CVH for so long because, “it [CVH] is a powerhouse place where members run the race for change.” She feels that her participation in CVH has made her life whole. It has given her the opportunity to be more connected to the neighborhood she grew up in and give something back. She likes all aspects of her work with CVH because they are all important to her and she has a self interest in all the issues.
