Independent Sector will honor Community Voices Heard with the 2009 American Express Building Leadership Award for empowering low-income people in New York City and State to advocate for public policy changes that improve their lives. CVH will receive its award, which includes a gift of $10,000, at the Independent Sector Annual Conference in Detroit, November 4-6.
CVH is a membership-led organization that engages low-income people, particularly women of
color, in direct action campaigns to improve workforce and welfare systems, save and expand
affordable housing, allow greater access to education and training opportunities, and ensure that
low-income residents help shape the future of their communities. It trains members to be leaders
both within the organization and at other grassroots nonprofits, and harnesses their expertise and
experience to inform, challenge, and change public policy. CVH combines education, grassroots
organizing, leadership development, and civic engagement to build the advocacy power of its
membership and advance causes that its members believe are critical to improving their
communities.
“Community Voices Heard is a model for how to integrate leadership development into policy and
advocacy work, enabling people who have been historically marginalized to help influence the
decisions that directly affect their lives,” said Diana Aviv, president and CEO of Independent
Sector. “The training and expertise they provide committed activists and emerging organizers has
enabled them to press elected officials to uphold their responsibilities to communities, creating more
effective programs that continue to improve the quality of life for so many living in New York and
beyond.”
Members of CVH, who are predominantly women of color with experience with public assistance
programs, have led efforts to advocate for public policies that benefit the nearly 2.7 million
individuals in New York State living in poverty. The organization developed the concept for — and
subsequently got the City of New York to implement — the Parks Opportunity Program, the largest
paid welfare-to-work transitional jobs program in the United States, employing over 25,000 lowincome
people since its creation. This year, CVH helped secure over $25 million in new resources
for paid jobs programs for public assistance recipients statewide. At the encouragement of CVH
members, in 2006 Mayor Bloomberg established a new position of deputy mayor for health and
human services and appointed a Commission for Economic Opportunity to recommend solutions
to reduce the number of New York City residents at or below the poverty line.
In just three years, CVH has been successful at securing over $222 million in additional resources for the NYC Housing Authority to help support the public housing stock in the city. Its Voter Power Project, which educates low-income individuals about the importance of voting and uses election cycles to insert issues involving poverty into campaign debates, has contacted and mobilized a total of more than 17,000 New York voters in over 50 election districts — in the South Bronx, East and Central Harlem, Yonkers, Newburgh, and Poughkeepsie — since its inception in 2004.
Training modules are a key element of CVH’s commitment to cultivating leadership, such as power
analysis trainings that brief members and staff about key elected officials’ strengths and policy
positions; media trainings that prepare members to speak on message about specific government
programs; and fundraising trainings that explain the budget process and how to raise resources to
sustain its work. To ensure staff is representative of its diverse membership, it operates an organizer
training program that educates people from its constituency in the theory and practice of basebuilding
and campaign development and execution. Upon completion of the program, trainees are
qualified for paid staff organizing positions at CVH and other grassroots organizations. Its newly
developed Gail Aska Policy & Research Fellowship — named for CVH’s late co-founder — will
further its commitment to being a multi-racial and multi-cultural organization by building the
presence of women of color in policy and research staff positions.
“Community Voices Heard is honored that the 2009 American Express Building Leadership Award
recognizes our work to create an organization led by our members, who are the driving force behind
the development and execution of our campaigns and programs,” said Ketny Jean-Francois, co-chair
of the Community Voices Heard board. “I hope that our example encourages other grassroots
organizations to view their constituents as leaders and to maximize their involvement in
strengthening their organizations and community.”
Formed in 1994 in response to elected officials’ efforts to eliminate aid to poor families and children
and in reaction to the negative stereotypes about individuals on welfare, Community Voices Heard
works to promote the social welfare of low income people living in New York City, New York State,
and the nation through grassroots organizing, leadership development, participatory research, public
education, and advocacy. To learn more about the organization, visit: www.CVHaction.org.
American Express Building Leadership Award, formally known as the Leadership IS Award, is
sponsored by American Express. The award, which was established in 1999, recognizes the
importance of investing in leaders of the nonprofit community by celebrating an organization that
embodies this principle in spirit and practice.
To learn more about the American Express Building Leadership Award, please visit:
www.independentsector.org/programs/leadership/organizationalaward.htm.
To learn more about the Independent Sector Annual Conference, please visit:
http://www.independentsector.org/AnnualConference/2009.
One Comment
Congratulation CVH. You are a leader among leaders and a pioneer to show the way in a new world! Keep up the wonderful work!