2021 Community Organizing Fellowship

For the last 30 years, Community Coalition (CoCo) has been organizing African American and Latinx youth and residents to influence, change and create public policy that can improve the quality of life in South LA. The organization successfully pioneered one of the first large-scale action campaigns in the nation to use land-use policy for social justice, made college prep classes a civil right for all students attending the Los Angeles Unified School District, and altered the public debate on foster care to support keeping children with relatives in kinship care. The organization has built a groundbreaking, community-driven approach to creating systemic social change. Building from successful organizing fellowships over the last three years, CoCo will coordinate its third Community Organizing Fellowship to contribute to the social justice movement by investing in the next generation of BIPOC organizers committed to transforming social and economic conditions and advancing equity and opportunity for Black and Brown communities. A cohort of 8 fellows will receive intensive training in theory of social change, social movement history and the art and science of community organizing through hands-on application in a policy action campaign. The Community Organizing Fellowship will be composed of a diverse group of people contributing to the social justice movement. Fellows will have the opportunity to learn and engage with organizing experts with decades of experience. Additionally, fellows will learn organizing through field practice where they will apply power building strategies that address the root causes of poverty, mass incarceration and the school-to-prison pipeline. Engagement with other fellows, faculty, staff, and community members will be facilitated in a hybrid model (in-person and digital). We will observe and follow CDC safety guidelines and protocols around COVID-19.