COMMUNITY ORGANIZING & ADVOCACY (COA)
The purpose of the Community Organizing & Advocacy department is to raise consciousness, give support to, harness collective power, and strengthen Latinx communities throughout Michigan, with a particular focus in Southwest Detroit, by organizing activities that build community, increase local leadership, and mobilize our gente towards transformation and liberation.
Community Organizing & Advocacy (COA) operates year-round, working alongside members of our community to address systemic issues and fight for justice.
Our areas of focus:
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Education Justice
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Health Equity
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Environmental Justice
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Immigration Justice
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Civic Engagement
Current initiatives:
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PODER Parent Action Team
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Promotors of Health
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Partners Reducing Diesel Emissions in Southwest Detroit (PRDE-SWD)
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Michigan Latinx Coalition
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Instituto de la Comunidad (popular education series)
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MI Gente Vota 2024
PODER
Padres Organizado y Demandando Educación Real (Parents Organized & Demanding Real Education) is a group of parents taking action on the education issues they identified affecting the students in Southwest Detroit. Our parents engage in struggle so that the education of our students is just and real. PODER parents fight for language access and education justice in the Detroit public school system as a founding member of 482Forward, a city-wide coalition.
MI Latinx Coalition
Building power through unifying as a statewide network of Latinx organizations.
In 2020, organizational leaders of Latinx direct service non-profit organizations initiated collaborative efforts to share updates, information and best strategies in community service as a response to COVID-19. Collaborative efforts evolved into formalizing a statewide Latinx coalition establishing purpose and common shared goals. The first coalition conference was hosted by Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation in Lansing, Michigan lead by Facilitator Marta Gonzalez-Cortes.
Public Health and Environmental Justice
Reducing air pollution through research, training, and advocacy.
Our community has been suffering because of poor environmental health for decades due to industries, truck traffic and other polluting factors. Since this is such a prevalent and devastating health issue in our community, we hope to focus our efforts on Environmental Health and Healthy homes, healthy indoor environments and clean indoor air quality. DHDC has been working on environmental justice issues for over 20 years and we hope to be able to advance our policy work in the process while preserving the vibrancy and growth of our community.
GOTV, Election Protection, and Democracy Work
MI Gente Vota 2024! Expanding the electorate, educating and activating voters, and eliminating disparities in civic participation
COA directs its efforts towards grassroot activities to strengthen the Michigan Latinx community’s voice, build the capacity for its leadership to mobilize its constituency, and to increase their participation in democratic processes. This involves operating a door-to-door canvass, phones, text, and relational organizing to educate Latinx voters throughout the state of Michigan.
Instituto de la Comunidad (popular education series)
Our core community power building “practice” is the engagement of residents in critical examination of the root causes of the issues they face and solutions to the problems they experience through popular education. Our main vehicle for creating critical consciousness is El Instituto de la Comunidad (the Institute of the Community). This multi-series, multi-pronged effort leads community residents through several sessions covering topics of import led by our community organizing staff and past participants.
- promotores de la salud (promotors of health)
- promotores de la democracia (promotors of democracy)
- promotores de la tierra (promotors of the earth)
Leadership Roles:
Through this model of action/reflection (praxis) we will create a pipeline of leaders prepared to engage their neighbors on critical issues, connect folks to existing resources of support, and mobilize their family and neighbors to advocate for improved policies or important projects affecting their neighborhoods.
