Statewide Efforts
As part of Community Voices Heard's 2004 strategic plan, the organization established a goal of creating statewide power, on top of the citywide power that the organization had already built up in New York City. Statewide power building became a goal in an effort to be able to have more influence on the policies and programs that came down from the state capital, to develop a network of welfare recipients and other low-income families across the state that could work together in consituent-led coalitions, and in order to bring our successful model to other parts of the state where low-income families were had no organizing outlets.
CVH has since built four separate but connected chapters around the state of New York: NYC (covering all five boroughs), Yonkers (Westchester County), Newburgh (Orange County) and Poughkeepsie (Dutchess County). Each new chapter began with a scan of county in order to identify organizing needs, opportunities and challenges as well as similarly oriented groups or potential partners. Once a location of operation was identified, a non-partisan voter education and mobilization project was used to build an initial base and carry out early issue identification as a way to assess what to work on and how. Next, an organizer was hired to develop that base into a core leadership and those issues into local campaigns.
While each chapter works on local citywide and countywide issues, all four chapters of CVH also come together collectively to tackle issues at the state level that affect members and constituents similarly across geography.
Current Regional and Statewide Issue Focus
- Statewide Budget Issues
- Progressive Taxation and Revenue Raising
- Welfare Reform and Workforce Development
- Affordable Housing Preservation and Expansion
Accomplishments
- Evolved from a single-issue, single-location organization to a multi-issue, multi-chapter organization
- Contributed to the passage of a Shelter Allowance Law that brings $47 million yearly in additional state funding for public housing
- Won a $25 million statewide Transitional Jobs Program for welfare recipients, now implemented in 48 counties across the state
Get Involved!
To get involved in CVH's Statewide Organizing Efforts, contact Jenny Loeb at jenny@CVHaction.org or by phone at 845-857-8415.
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A Brief Note about CVH's First Acts of Civil Disobedience
Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.
The protest was widely covered in the media, including those below. (The NY1 and Fox23 segments under TV/ Video are among the better pieces.)
Newspaper:
In solidarity,
Sondra Youdelman
Executive Director
CVH and VOCAL-NY Hold “Bake Sale to Save New York” Outside
Gov. Cuomo’s “Top of the Rock” Fundraiser
(Feb 17, 2011) CVH, VOCAL and allies from around New York City converged on Rockefeller Center on Thursday night to protest the fundraiser Governor Andrew Cuomo’s was hosting on the 67th floor of Rockefeller Center, also known as “The Top of the Rock.” The funds raised at the governor’s event -- $15,000 per person -- are reported to be for Cuomo’s re-election campaign, which is more than 3.5 years away, but the fundraiser’s invite stated plainly that the funds were actually, “to help fund a planned public-relations blitz” to defend the drastic budget cuts the Governor has proposed.
A small contingent of protesters disrupted the lavish Top of the Rock party, holding a 9 foot banner that asked of the wealthy guests and the governor himself, “Cuomo, whose side are you on? Wall Street or Main Street?” The group disrupted the event by chanting, “Hey you, millionaires, Pay your fair share!”
"We are here today to highlight the fact that this is not a budget crisis it is a revenue crisis. The focus should be on raising revenue and keeping critical services in the budget,” said Ann Valdez, a leader with Community Voices Heard. “We elected Cuomo so that he would care about those most in need and instead of pushing for tax cuts for wealthiest New Yorkers, he should keep his commitment to the vast majority of New Yorkers. He should renew the millionaire’s tax instead of cutting services, because if he doesn’t renew the tax it is simply a billion dollar bonus to those already doing well.”
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
Diane from CVH discussing the protest from VOCAL NY on Vimeo.