Grantee Profile
Community Voices Heard
In 1994 the Clinton administration cut welfare spending while promising to support welfare recipients through job training programs. The cuts in social spending and insufficient "welfare to work" programs placed low-income New Yorkers in an even more precarious financial situation, especially single mothers and their children.
In response, a group of 80 people, primarily women who were on welfare or unemployed, came together so that their voices could be heard. Community Voices Heard (CVH) was founded to force government officials to pay attention to the needs of low-income people of color and to involve marginalized New Yorkers in making the policies that affect their lives.
North Star Fund supported CVH when the organization was just getting started from 1996-2000. "Early seed funding is critical to help groups navigate through their initial experimental phase and grow into more experienced organizations," said Sondra Youdelman, the Executive Director of CVH. "Grants from North Star Fund in the early days allowed CVH to master an effective model of community organizing." As CVH grew and its work expanded, North Star Fund maintains a close relationship with CVH. At our Community Gala earlier this year, we presented with with North Star Frederick Douglass Award, in recognition of their groundbreaking work improving the lives of low-income New Yorkers.
Fifteen years later, CVH is still building the power of marginalized New Yorkers to advocate for their rights and voice their concerns at the decision-making table. With over 28,000 members from throughout New York City, Yonkers and upstate New York, CVH has a successful track record of connecting grassroots organizing and leadership development with public policy.
CVH's record is impressive. The organization has mobilized 12,000 voters in the Bronx, Harlem, and Yonkers in 50 electoral districts. They pushed New York City to create the Commission for Economic Opportunity to focus on poverty and joblessness. Members stopped a 25% benefit reduction in welfare grants and saved welfare for childless adults. A six-year organizing and advocacy campaign led City Council to create more than 20,000 paid transitional jobs for welfare recipients. CVH played a crucial role in influencing New York State and City to build more public housing units.
According to CVH Senior Organizer Henry Serrano, "We are building the power of low-income people of color. It used to be a struggle to get the government to listen to our members. Now elected officials call us when there is a meeting about public housing to invite our members to the table."
CVH connects economic justice to the movement for peace and to end militarism. According to Sondra, "Peace is connected to economic justice. If the government spent less on war there would be more money to meet the needs of low-income people." Although CVH has outgrown our seed grants program, North Star Fund supports their voter engagement work through a donor-advised fund. Sondra views the relationship between North Star Fund and CVH as a partnership. "Groups don't have to change what they are doing to receive funding because North Star Fund believes in the power of building community from the ground up."
In the end, achieving economic justice is a core goal of Community Voices Heard. "We are trying to decrease the divide between the rich and poor by lifting up the bottom and creating a more equal distribution of wealth," explained Sondra. "In one of the richest cities in the world it's an atrocity that such deep poverty and marginalization exists."
