Mission: Community Voices Heard is an organization of low income people, mostly women on welfare and public housing residents, working together to improve the lives of our members'' families and all poor people in New York City and State. We are directed, run and being built by low-income people. We are a growing grass roots organization that uses public education, public policy research, community organizing, leadership development, voter education & mobilization, and direct action issue organizing to build our membership and to organize around issues that are defined by our membership. While we began with a 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 critical gap in that our organization connects public policy with grass roots organizing and leadership development.
Programs: Community Voices Heard's current campaigns include a Welfare/ Workforce Campaign, a Public Housing Preservation & Improvement Campaign, and a Sustainable Communities/ Equitable Development Campaign. Additionally, we operate three main projects: a Non-Partisan Electoral Project, a Statewide Expansion Project, andTraining and Capacity Building for other organizations dedicated to power building for low-income constituencies.
Community Voices Heard (CVH) really is member led and there is training to help members develop leadership capacity. Additionally, the organization does serious advocacy work on behalf of low-income New Yorkers. Several policy reports and white papers have been issued. It appears to me that CVH is well respected throughout the Stae of New York.
I am editing this review because I strongly believe that Community Voices Heard (CVH) is a Top-Rated Nonprofit and is an outstanding candidate for the 2013 Top-Rated Awards