What We Do
We build relationships, we build leaders, and we build power through community organizing and civic engagement. FaithActs is committed to creating equitable communities for the people we serve.
We aim to eradicate the unjust systems that do not prepare Black and brown children to be free. We also aim to address the institutional racism and classism that perpetuates cycles of poverty and suppresses communities’ agency to solve their own problems.
Most importantly, we believe that true liberation means the people closest to the problem are leading the way.
- Building relationships with congregants through one-on-one meetings, listening to their stories, uncovering their self-interests, and understanding issues they care about.
- Building leaders in communities through research meetings with decision makers so that they can be their own experts on policy issues, fight their own battles, practice applying pressure to decision makers, and create issue campaigns that command support from the broader community.
- Building power through direct action by turning out members to make public demands and secure wins from decision makers
Theory of Change
If we organize churches to make public demands of decision makers and turn out voters to hold those decision makers accountable → then decision makers who want to maintain their power and position will concede to our demands → and ultimately, our communities will reclaim the power to determine their destiny; opportunities and outcomes for their children will improve; and reforms will persist in the face of opposition.
Community Organizing
We don’t move without our people. And we are reshaping the way community organizing is done in Connecticut.
Civic Engagement
Our votes are our voices. And we have more than 6,000 committed voters.
Organizing Institute
Our unique cohort of homegrown community organizers feed a statewide network of informed, engaged leaders work together to eliminate barriers and reshape systems that oppress communities
How we do what we do is even more important than what we do. FaithActs is committed to do work “with” and not “to” our community. We listen to and learn from the people we serve, building relationships, developing leaders, and making decisions with our members. We build the ground game necessary to secure and protect wins, and we generate ideas for policy solutions with our members. We believe that their experience, proximity, and multiple forms of intelligence, reinforced by access to national data and policy trends, uniquely positions them to create policy solutions for their community. And we don’t move without our people. We win together because we don’t tell people what they care about most – we create campaigns around issues they voice concerns over and are willing to sacrifice for. We develop leaders who can guide change in our communities.