Community Service and Civic Engagement

I believe it is important for all citizens to participate in governmental decision-making and community development. Since coming to Virginia in 1992, I have worked with both local and state-wide LGBT civil rights organizations. Also, for several years, with training and support from the Tri-City Literacy Council, I taught English to immigrant laborers at a local meat-packing plant. At present I serve as vice chair of the state governing board of Virginia Organizing.

Virginia Organizing is a multi-issue, grass-roots organization. We employ ten full-time community organizers around the state and dozens of interns part-time to knock on doors help local communities and civic organizations come together to effect change in the policies, programs, and environments that affect their lives. We have thousands of members across the state of Virginia.

Over the past couple of years my primary activities with VO have centered on supporting the new movement Health Care for America Now and lobbying for changes in the law regulating Car Title Lenders. VO is also working for fair housing around the state, to restore voting rights for ex-cons, to stop racial profiling, and to make the state tax structure more progressive and less regressive. We also serve as an umbrella for organizations around the state working on environmental and civil rights issues as well as specific issues that affect workers, children, and seniors.

I also serve as the (at present informal) faculty advisor to a college chapter of Virginia Organizing on campus. For information on how to get involved in the UR chapter, email me.

If you would like to learn more about the work done by community organizers, you might like to read the book We Make Change, by Joe and Kristin Szakos. You can order the book online, or you can read copies available in Boatwright Library and at the Center for Civic Engagement and the Office of the Chaplaincy.

The VO web site is also a great place to get information on the Virginia legislative process, local campaigns, and issues that affect people you care about.