cvh annual report 2012

7/28/2019 CVH Annual Report 2012

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MISSION

Community Voices Heard (CVH) is a member-led multi-racial

organization, principally women of color and low-income familiesin New York State that builds power to secure social, economic

and racial justice for all. We accomplish this through grassroots

organizing, leadership development, policy changes, and creating

new models of direct democracy.


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OUR VISION

We are working towards building a society in which

the systems that govern us foster racial, social and

economic justice not exploitation particularly for

low-income people of color. We seek a society in which

all people regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion,

age, gender expression, sexual identity, citizen status,

primary language, and ability are treated with

mutual respect and when privileges of one group donot exist. We seek a society in which all people are

able to work with dignity, have access to a sustainable

quality of life, and can obtain unconditional support

in their time of need. We seek a society in which

governmental structures are transparent and based on

community needs. We seek a society in which policies

address the needs of all people and strengthen our

communities. We believe in a society where experts

do not have all the answers but rather a society in

which the people most directly affected are the ones

making the decisions.

OUR LEGACY

Community Voices Heard (CVH) was founded in 1994

as a member-led organization by low-income people,

predominantly women of color, many receiving public

assistance and fighting the welfare reform policies that

threatened their families. Leading members like Gail

Aska worked to build power in New York City and State

to improve the lives of our families and communities.

From these early beginnings CVH has evolved intoa multi-issue statewide organization of low-income

people.

VISION & LEGACY


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In 2012, CVH completed a new Strategic Plan after a year-long Strategic Planningprocess that engaged over 150 of our core member leaders. The plan sets

ambitious goals and objectives for the next 5 years.

WINNING CAMPAIGNS

CVH will lead campaigns that build statewide power to

achieve racial, social and economic justice for low-

income families and communities of color in New York

in these areas:

!" Good Jobs and Access to Them

!" A Just Social Safety Net

!" Truly Affordable Housing

!" A Participatory Democracy

!" A Fair Share Tax System

CVH will develop and launch a new state-level

campaign that ties together issues of low-income

families across the state.

GROWING MEMBERSHIP

By 2017, we will have:

!" 1,000 dues-paying members

!" 6,000 people moved to action each year

!" 300 active core leaders

CVH will explore a pilot project to organize youth or

immigrant communities.

GEOGRAPHIC POWER

By 2017, we will:

!" Build out fully in at least one of our chapter

counties (Orange, Dutchess, or Westchester).!" Establish a more regular presence in Albany

during the legislative session.

ELECTORAL POWER

We will increase electoral and voting power for low-

income people of color by achieving at least a 10%

voter turnout increase in targeted precincts.

A NEW STRATEGIC PLAN FOR CVH


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Everyone that wants to work ought to be able to work in a job that pays a living

wage, allows for self-sufficiency, permits collective organizing and bargaining, and

provides workers with dignity and respect. CVH works to ensure that government

meets its responsibility to provide jobs for all that need them and to make sure

that corporations provide jobs that fully support workers. We work to advance an

economic system that supports full employment.

CVH won the restoration of nearly$17 million in New

York City funding for the Parks Opportunity Program

(POP), a wage-paying Transitional Jobs program for

public assistance recipients that CVH got the City to

create in 2001. Hundreds of CVH members organized

to participate in lobby days, direct action, press

events, and Council member calls. 6,000 Transitional

Jobs were saved from returning to unpaid workfare

assignments by this effort.

CVH was active in the successful campaign to raise

New Yorks minimum wage over 1 million New

Yorkers will benefit from an increase to $9/ hour by

2016.

The Newburgh Chapter won $70,000 for the

continuation of Newburgh Builds Newburgh, a jobs

training and placement program designed by members

that has already placed over 50 low-income residents

into employment.

In Yonkers, CVH continued to push the City to

enforce the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban

Developments (HUD) Section 3 policy, which requiresthat capital projects supported with HUD funding hire

local low-income and public housing residents. Where

the city fails to enforce the policy, CVH has worked

directly with contractors.

GOOD JOBS AND ACCESS TO THEM


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CVH continued the push to end the unfair practice of workfare on the state and national levels. Workfare programsforce public assistance recipients to work without a paycheck or worker protections. In 2012, we:

!" Filed a complaint with the U.S. and State

Department of Labor (DOL), leading to a meeting

between DOL and the Human Resources

Administration, the NY City Welfare Agency.

!" Met with key NYS Office of Temporary and

Disability Assistance (OTDA) staff to encourage

them to use a federal waiver that could give

states flexibility to exempt public assistance

recipients from doing workfare.

!" Engaged with the United Workers Congress a

national coalition of unrepresented workers to lift

up the issues and concerns of workfare workers.

!" Gathered support from many groups and allies

in the form of an End Workfare statement to be

used in the City, State and nationally.

!" Connected with people organizing against

workfare internationally; met with organizers and

welfare recipients from Hungary, Romania and

the UK.

In Yonkers, members organized a community response to County Legislator Virginia Perezs vote to defund several

social service programs in the county budget.

The Poughkeepsie Chapter stopped Dutchess County from closing the Department of Social Services (DSS) office for

one day each week, as the county executive had proposed in its budget.

A JUST SOCIAL SAFETY NET

Everyone should be supported in their time of need through health care, income,

and other supports that ensure that no human being goes hungry or is mistreated.

CVH works to defend and expand the effective social safety net programs that are

currently in place and to reform those in need of an overhaul. We work to advance

a society that treats all people with dignity and respect regardless of their ability

to earn a traditional income; a society that provides a robust safety net for people

in their time of need.


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Everyone should have access to safe, affordable housing - housing is a human

right. CVH works to create and preserve affordable housing, including public and

subsidized housing. We work to advance communities that allow for people to live

in the neighborhood of their choosing without discrimination.

NYC PUBLIC HOUSING

Due to our work organizing public housing residents for

better repairs in their crumbling buildings, NYC Mayor

Bloomberg and the Chair of the City Council Public

Housing Committee announced an allocation of $10

million towards addressing the backlog of repairs in

public housing. The funding will result in 175 public

housing residents being hired to do the work.

CVH organized the residents of Washington Houses

in Harlem after finding out that NYCHA planned toreplace public space with garbage compactors. We

were successful in decreasing the number of garbage

compactors and ensuring better cleanup, resident

notification, and apartment repairs in the two adjacent

buildings.

Met with top NYC Housing Authority staff to present

the CVH proposal for Participatory Budgeting in

NYCHA, so that residents can have a voice in

determining funding priorities within public housing.

TRULY AFFORDABLE HOUSING


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YONKERS NEWBURGH

CVH held a march with over 80 people to occupy

a vacant, foreclosed home in Poughkeepsie to raise

visibility about the foreclosure and affordable housing

crisis.

Members identified and documented the conditionsof over 60 vacant buildings in 2 city wards as part of

a campaign to get the city to rebuild vacant properties

into affordable housing.

By organizing Dutchess Countys homeless residents,

CVH got the management of the only emergency

shelter in Poughkeepsie to reverse course and

eliminate new policies that would have instituted fees

and evicted shelter residents after 60 days.

POUGHKEEPSIE

CVH worked to encourage the passage of an Affordable

Housing Ordinance that will require all new housing

developments to include some housing for low-

income residents. We got three of seven City Council

members to agree to: 1) increase the percentage

of affordable units, 2) decrease the income levels

required to live in that housing, and 3) give preference

to people receiving Section 8 or Public Assistance, or

living in Public Housing.

CVH was chosen as a community partner in the Choice

Neighborhood Initiatives Planning Grant group with

the Municipal Housing Authority of City of Yonkers

to remake Cottage Place Gardens and transform the

Croton Heights neighborhood.

Surveyed over 300 tenants about housing conditions

and property owners. Got commitments from

the Newburgh Mayor and City Council to enact a

new Rental Property Registry and Vacant Property

Registry that will hold landlords and owners of vacant

properties to higher standards.

Secured seats on the board of the newly created

Newburgh Community Land Bank, that is taskedwith redeveloping city-owned vacant properties.

Three members also sit on the Land Banks Resident

Advisory Committee. CVH plans to direct that the

Banks redevelopment projects include truly affordable

housing and job opportunities for low-income

residents.


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A truly participatory democracy allows people to define their needs and actively

develop the solutions that meet those needs. CVH works to re-imagine the notion

of democracy in New York and beyond by developing new ways for people to

directly shape the direction their community takes.

PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING

Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a democratic process

in which community members directly decide how to

spend part of a public budget. CVH members first

learned about the PB process when delegations went

to its birthplace - Porto Alegre, Brazil to attend theWorld Social Forum in 2002, and have since been

figuring out how to implement it in New York.

When trailblazing NYC Council Members Brad Lander,

Melissa Mark-Viverito, Eric Ulrich, and Jumaane

Williams agreed to pilot a PB initiative in NYC with

at least $1 million in capital discretionary resources

each, they made NYC only the second place in the

United States to implement a PB process. CVH served

as the lead Community Engagement partner for the

process and focused on target outreach to ensure

that the diversity of communities were represented.The process proved successful, engaging over 6,000

residents. In District 8, covering East Harlem and

the South Bronx, where CVH did focused outreach

work, half of the PB budget delegates were African

American, much higher than the 23% of the residents

African Americans represent in the district. Likewise,

PB voters that identified as Latino made up 50% of all

PB voters, a much higher portion of the voters than in

the 2009 NYC elections, where Latinos only made up

39% of the voters in District 8.

PB BY THE NUMBERS IN 2012

4City Council Districts

250 people volunteered to serve as budget delegates

2,000 residents attended 27 neighborhood assemblies

2,000ideas were submitted for capital projects

6,000total people voted in PB processes

$5.3 millionallocated to 26 projects based on

residents votes

A PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY

In the years ahead, CVH intends to lead efforts to expand

this process to more City Council districts, to various City

agencies and authorities (including the NYC Housing

Authority!), to the overall city budget, and more.

OTHER DEMOCRACY WORK

CVH joined the campaign for Fair Elections in New

York, pushing for legislation that would limit campaign

contributions and provide public funding for state-level

elections. We participated in events in Albany, NYC,

and Poughkeepsie. We also continued to participate in

Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) Advisory

Committees and public hearings in Yonkers, Poughkeepsie,

and Newburgh.


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CVH joined with allies from New York and around the country to take action in support of increased taxes and closing

loopholes for the rich and corporations, including:

CVH fights to adequately fund the programs and services our communities

rely on through progressive taxation and ensuring that corporations operating

in our communities pay their fair share. This includes providing quality direct

employment opportunities, as well as support for other community needs.

!" Organized an action in Albany against members

of the Committee to Save New York, at which

we brought piggy banks to the Taxholes at the

Business Council of New York and others who fail

to pay their fair share in taxes due to corporate tax

loopholes.

!" A demonstration on Tax Day on the Upper East

Side to get support for the Buffett Rule.

!" Held Tax Day Actions in Newburgh and NYC

calling out corporations like Verizon for payingno taxes and calling for an end to corporate tax

loopholes.

!" A cheerleader-themed action with VOCAL-NY at

Senator Schumers office after he went back on

his commitment to increase taxes on incomes over

$250,000, calling on him to raise taxes on the

rich to protect Medicaid, Medicare, and Social

Security.

!" Newburgh members participated in an action at

Representative Nan Hayworths office calling out

her support for the Ryan Budget along with Mid-

Hudson Valley 99%.

!" 2 days after the November elections, Mid-Hudson

members visited outgoing Congresswoman Nan

Hayworth and incoming Congressman Sean Patrick

Maloney to demand they fight for low-income

people when negotiating and voting on Fiscal Cliff

and budget issues.

!" Organized a caroling action at Macys in

December, against their CEO who was one of

the leaders of Fix the Debt, a group of CEOs

pressuring Congress to cut Medicaid, Medicare,

and Social Security in return for lower taxes.

!" Mobilized a bus of members with allies to D.C.

in December to a rally and legislative meetings

demanding higher taxes on the rich and stopping

Fiscal Cliff cuts.

FAIR SHARE TAX SYSTEM


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2012 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Afua Atta-Mensah, Co-Treasurer

Stephen Bradley

Ann Bragg, Co-Secretary

Pat Diaz

Keith Gamble

Ketny Jean-Francois

Walter Lipscomb, Co-Chair

Loretta Manning, Co-Treasurer

Anne Marcelline

Brenda McPhail

Valerie Pearson

Brooke Richie, Co-Secretary

Agnes Rivera, Co-Chair

Janet Rivera

Linda Williams

OFFICE LOCATIONS

Community Voices Heard

115 East 106th St., 3rd Fl.

New York, NY 10029

P: 212.860.6001

Yonkers Office

28 N. Broadway, 2nd Fl.

Yonkers, NY 10701

P: 914.751.2641

Newburgh Office

98 Grand St

Newburgh, NY 12550

P: 845.562.2020

Poughkeepsie Office

29 North Hamilton St., Suite L03

Poughkeepsie, NY 12601

P: 845.790.5945

STAFF

Monique Mo George

Public Housing Partership Director & Special Projects

Blair Goodman

Poughkeepsie Organizer

Jennifer Hadlock

Welfare and Workforce Organizer

Chris Keeley

Political & Communications Director

Kflu Kflu

Public Housing Organizer

Rae Leiner

Newburgh Organizer

Juanita Lewis

Yonkers Organizer

Jenny Loeb

Regional Lead Organizer

Michelle Perez

Director of Administration & Institutional Giving

Carmen Pieiro

Sustainable Communities Organizer

Henry Serrano

Senior Organizer

Vincent Villano

Participatory Budgeting & Policy and Research Coordinator

Sondra Youdelman

Executive Director

BE SOCIALBLE:WWW.CVHACTION.ORG | WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/CVHACTION | @CVHACTION ON TWITTER


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CVH WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING 2012 INSTITUTIONAL FUNDERS

Atlantic Philanthropies

Bend the Arc

Center for Urban Pedagogy

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation

Citizen Action/Fair Elections

Civic Engagement Table

Daphne Foundation

Dyson Foundation

Elias Foundation

F.B. Heron Foundation

Ford Foundation

Elizabeth M. Gitt Charitable Foundation

Glickenhaus Foundation

Hill-Snowdon Foundation

Lily Auchincloss Foundation

Mertz Gilmore Foundation

National Peoples Action

New York Community Trust

New York Womens Foundation

The City of New York

New York Foundation

Oak Foundation

Page & Otto Marx Foundation

Moses L. Parshelsky Foundation

North Star Fund

Project Vote

Pushback Network

Right to the City

Robert Sterling Clark Foundation

Scherman Foundation

Self-Development of People

Shannah Ley Foundation

Solidago Foundation

TD Charitable Foundation

Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program

at Shelter Rock

United Way Community Leaders Impact

Rose & Sherle Wagner Foundation

ADDRESS: 115 EAST 106TH ST., 3RD FL.,

NEW YORK, NY 10029

PHONE: (212) 860-6001

WEB: WWW.CVHACTION.ORG

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/CVHACTION

@CVHACTION ON TWITTER

cvh annual report 2012

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