Inland Region Impact Brief: Powerful Multi-Racial Organizing for Housing Justice
This is custom excerpt shown on search results
Inland Region Powers Multi-Racial Organizing for Housing Justice
The Funding from F4ICA and others made it possible to engage in rapid response,” said Sonya Gray-Hunn, Lead Housing Organizer at COPE (Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement) and an F4ICA Community Advisor. “We’re moving housing advocacy at the state and regional levels and focus locally on direct services, to be able to stop evictions, utility shut offs, and other denial of rights and services.
“We’ve benefited from collaborative funding efforts of our region including through F4ICA,” reflected Tom Dolan, Executive Director of ICUC (Inland Congregations United for Change) and an F4ICA Community Advisor. “Looking ahead, we hope the collective foundation support for the Inland Region will sustain collaborative investments and enable groups to go deep in our efforts to realize long-term housing and economic justice.
For F4ICA, investment and lessons from the Inland Region have shown us that coastal and inland challenges are interconnected, as are opportunities for building toward our collective vision for housing justice and thriving, equitable communities.
1 We learned from local partners that the extreme racism in the Inland Empire created a desire for some community members to distance their efforts from the term “empire.” Through discussion with our local community partners, we resolved to use “Inland Region” as the term to describe this region in our work.
2 Funding Housing Justice for Thriving Communities, Fund for an Inclusive California. August 2021.
3 Los Angeles Times, Tens of thousands leave Los Angeles County for Inland Empire. February 8, 2014.
4 Los Angeles Times, ‘Crime-free housing’ deepens racial disparity. November 19, 2020.
Learning from innovative organizing in California’s Inland Region
As the U.S. begins to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, the innovations and organizing power of the Inland region’s social movements makes it a strategic community for deep investment.
For funders interested in this session: This event was for funders, philanthropy networks and affinity groups, community groups organizing in Southern California’s Inland region, and invited guests only. Video recordings of the panels from the event are available. If you are a funder who is interested in accessing these recordings, please email [email protected].