Program areas at San Diego Organizing Project
Development of non-partisan civic leadership and community improvement through local community Organizing: during fy 2023, San Diego Organizing Project increased our volunteer base, expanded our community Organizing work into new communities within San Diego county, and conducted listening campaigns and needs assessments in each of our congregations across the region. Each of our 200 volunteers received training and development to build empowering organizations in their neighborhoods, successfully address issues affecting their lives by building relationships within their communities, and engage in public life through advocacy and civic engagement. Volunteers talk with their neighbors, friends, and fellow congregation members; they organize San diegans to engage with one another about common priorities; they develop a shared vision for their community. The organization's multiple community issues work focuses on racial and economic inequity, housing justice, health disparities, neighborhood improvement,comprehensive immigration reform, educational achievement, and neighborhood-specific issues throughout San Diego county.
San Diego youth Organizing Project: during fy 2023, San Diego Organizing Project began a targeted youth engagement, Organizing, civic education, and leadership development program. The four youth volunteers involved in fy 2023 were recruited from communities in San Diego facing social and economic inequities, and had leadership and decision-making power at the outset of the program to determine its structure and goals. They are developing a shared vision for the program that includes expansion into local high schools and community colleges in addition to current member congregations, and issue work relating primarily to youth substance abuse and incarceration prevention.
Non-partisan voter engagement: during fy 2023, San Diego Organizing Project contacted 1,266 voters in San Diego county's district 4 and encouraged them to vote in the 2023 special election for district 4's county board of supervisors seat. The program secured 1,138 commitments to vote, trained a team of nine phone bankers recruited from impacted San Diego communities, and targeted low-propensity, spanish-speaking voters.