Wall Street, real estate, oil companies, and giant corporations continue to spend billions to buy political power in both major parties (made especially possible given California’s “top two” primary system), and use that political influence to reduce consumer protections, give out corporate subsidies, and reduce corporate taxes. As a result, corporations, hedge funds, and real estate developers spend more and more in each election to support issues and candidates that share their vision of profits over people, essentially attacking our communities in every election!
But, we have proven that when we create strategic alliances to broaden our base of power, not only can we defeat their attacks, but we can pass strong proactive policies that benefit our communities! That is why ACCE Institute is part of the Million Voters Project (MVP) - an unprecedented collaboration of California’s strongest community-based networks organizing to expand California’s electorate. We are uniting all of California - low income families, parents, young people, Black, Latino and Asian Pacific Islander communities, immigrants and refugees, people of faith, and the formerly incarcerated - to build our political power as the new California majority.
ACCE Institute is also the founder and a proud steering committee member of Housing NOW! – a statewide coalition that is building power to make housing affordable and combat the displacement crisis that is disproportionately impacting working class communities of color. Led by tenants, our coalition also includes allied landlords, realtors, and dozens of community, faith and labor organizations.
The Community Budget Alliance is a coalition of local organizations and community members who believe the City budget should be a people's budget. We are standing up for equitable public investment that will increase community wealth, health and justice for all, especially for communities of color. We believe that the city can and must simultaneously provide vital services and programs, invest in high quality infrastructure and use public dollars to support good jobs.
For a generation, San Diego County has under-invested in staffing and services and San Diegans have suffered. Invest in San Diego Families is a coalition of community groups challenging San Diego County to invest in people, services, and policies to improve the well-being of the County’s diverse communities and stimulate the local economy. Because of our collective work, the County Board of Supervisors took a step in the right direction by approving a budget that includes more investment in critical areas including child welfare, behavioral health, public health and self-sufficiency services. But it is still not enough. We will keep fighting to make sure that the Board invests in a San Diego that works for everyone.
Beginning in 2010, local area leaders in civil rights, social justice, health, and environmental organizations have worked together to bring to life a nonprofit network focused on nonpartisan civic engagement called Engage San Diego. Our collective vision is a San Diego where our electorate and leadership are reflective of the people who live and work here. Engage San Diego is a network that builds power to win social and economic justice through integrated voter engagement and organizing.
An unending challenge of democracy is the unequal distribution of representation, influence, and power. Communities of color, women, and LGBT populations have historically been underrepresented in elective office and appointed positions. Demographic shifts in San Diego, including increasing numbers and diversity of refugee communities, have added other population groups to the patchwork of underrepresented communities. Therefore, the region’s leadership does not keep pace with the change in demographics. The San Diego Leaders coalition works to evolve our systems of choosing decision-makers to give people from all communities in San Diego the opportunity to have a seat at the table so they can begin to overcome the barriers that have prevented those in their communities from becoming decision-makers.
Fix LA is a coalition of community groups, faith-based organizations, working families and others who are collectively calling on Los Angeles City leaders to restore vital City programs and services that have been cut. Established in early 2014, Fix LA held its official launch in March when it released its “No Small Fees” report. The report gained national attention as it exposed how Wall Street banks are gouging the City of hundreds of millions of dollars in excessive fees – money that should instead be spent on repairing streets, fighting blight, and restoring our community services that were cut during the recession.
It’s time we hold Wall Street accountable. It’s time that working families are our City’s priority. It’s time we fund our neighborhood needs, not Wall Street greed. It’s time we Fix LA!
Given the extent of the housing crisis in California tenants across the state are organizing to win protections like rent control, eviction protection, and right to counsel. We know that we are stronger when we work together and support one another which is why ACCE is a partner in both Unincorporated LA Tenants United and the Southern California Rent Control Solidarity Group. Both spaces draw from the strengths of organizations and advocates across the LA region to win real relief for tenants through meaningful protection policy fights.
We are a coalition of students, faculty, alumni, and community fighting for a better USC. For years we’ve witnessed skyrocketing tuition put higher education out of reach for many in our city. We’ve seen our faculty and graduate students’ work go under-rewarded and under-appreciated, teaching and conducting research without an adequate voice in the decisions affecting their work and their students. We’ve seen our university shift from an institution of higher learning to a business – focusing on profits over quality education.
Our university is becoming a luxury for the wealthy instead of a pathway to the American Dream. Students spend their entire lives trying to pay off debt, yet too many professors are paid so little that they qualify for food stamps – all while top administrators pay themselves millions. Together, we are fighting to restore the promise of higher education: a commitment to quality, accessible instruction that graduates students without debt, pays our educators a living wage, and generates more opportunities for everyone in our communities.
The ACT LA coalition members envision a Los Angeles that is transit-rich, where all people have access to quality jobs, affordable housing, necessary social services, ample transportation options, and a voice in decision-making. We believe in building a sustainable community through the reduction of toxic air pollution, the promotion of public health, and the strengthening of community culture and heritage.
We are a Los Angeles coalition of parents, educators, students, and community members working to improve access and advance opportunities in public education for all students so they thrive in the classroom, in their communities, and beyond.
Community and Labor groups are coming together as one to call for our city leaders to reInvest tax payer dollars in Oakland by standing up to Wall St. & Corporate Interests and their impacts on local governments.
The Citywide Anti-Displacement Network was formed in 2015 as a way for community groups and labor organizations to share campaigns, strategies and information that serves low-income families and communities of color through promoting equitable development, strengthening tenant protections, and increasing access to quality, living wage jobs.
Bay Area for All is a regional coalition organized to advance a shared vision of community-driven development in targeted, transit-rich neighborhoods across the Bay Area using tailored place-based strategies, and focused on advancing community-driven development that prioritizes preservation of existing affordable housing and utilization of public land for community benefits.
Close The Loopholes is a coalition of grassroots community organizations, tenant rights attorneys, and housing and tenant advocates uniting together to ensure ALL Oakland tenants have the strongest protections possible from gentrification and displacement forces.
School and Community Partners is a coalition of parents, community organizations, and education leaders working to grow and strengthen community schools and expand family/labor partnerships through bargaining for the common good.
Lift Up Contra Costa is a county wide civic engagement table dedicated to amplifying the voices of Black people, people of color and working families. LUCC includes ACCE, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Communities for a Better Environment, the Contra Costa County Central Labor Council, SEIU Local 1021, SEIU Local 2015, the Safe Return Project, the Richmond Progressive Alliance.
The Raise the Roof Coalition, a Concord coalition that has focused on organizing community support for Tenants Rights and Immigrant Rights, is made up of ACCE, the California Nurses Association (CNA), the Contra Costa Labor Council, Central County Regional Group (CCRG), First 5 Contra Costa, the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), Ensuring Opportunity, the Campaign to End Poverty in Contra Costa County, The Faith Alliance for a Moral Economy (FAME), Monument Impact; Multi-Faith Action Coalition, and Tenants Together.
One Contra Costa is a county wide coalition that has come together to push for quality affordable health care for everyone in Contra Costa County regardless of their immigration status. One Contra Costa has been the biggest proponent countywide for the Contra Costa CARES program, a health care program that serves 4,100 low income undocumented adults in the county. One Contra Costa is comprised of Brighter Beginnings, Community Clinic Consortium, Ensuring Opportunity, Familias Unidas, Health Access, Healthy Richmond, Multi-Faith ACTION Team, Organizing for Action, Contra Costa Planned Parenthood NorCal, The California Endowment, United Way Bay Area
The Mission of the Richmond Our Power Coalition is to advance a just transition in Richmond, California to a regenerative, non-extractive economy, democratically governed by frontline community leadership and grounded in racial justice. Our Power member organizations include: ACCE, Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Communities for a Better Environment (CBE), Cooperation Richmond, Idle No More Bay Area, Rich City Rides, The Safe Return Project, Urban Tilth
Over the last year ACCE members and staff have participated in the Contra Costa County Racial Justice Coalition and attended the Racial Justice Task Force meetings. The purpose of this work is to push the county to adopt policies to reduce racial disparities in our county’s criminal justice system. Members of the Contra Costa County Racial Justice Coalition include ACCE, the Safe Return Project, the Public Defenders Association, SEIU Local 1021, the California Nurses Association and the Richmond Progressive Alliance.
Sacramento for Real Rent Control is a coalition of community and labor organizations pursuing real rent control through the Sacramento Community Stabilization and Fair Rents Charter Amendment on the 2020 ballot. This coalition includes the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) and Tenants Together, both statewide and local tenant organizing groups which have fought for and won rent control in various cities across the state; SEIU 1021, a public sector union representing 54,000 workers and tenants across Northern California. The Sacramento chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, who have been working in collaboration with organizing and tenant groups over the last 3 years to fight against the record levels of displacement and resulting homelessness that communities across Sacramento have been plagued with in recent years. And the Sacramento Tenants Union; a tenant-led organization also fighting for fair and affordable housing in Sacramento.
A donation to ACCE Institute is an investment in individual and systemic transformation. Every dollar we receive is put to work in the fight to create an equitable, inclusive, and just California. Your tax-deductible donation will help provide research, training, and education in support of powerful grassroots leadership.