Let’s celebrate Common Ground’s accomplishments and make an investment in our vital work in Solano & Napa counties!
11/22/21 7pm @ the Beaux Arts Bank Building,
332 Georgia Street, Vallejo
Since our last large in-person gathering at St. Basil’s in January of ’20, we have been a driving force to make life better for thousands of people in our communities. When the pandemic hit, we were able to achieve significant wins in public safety, housing, and more…
**In the wake of years of police shootings in Vallejo, we launched an effort to establish a civilian oversight board for the police department and opened a dialogue with other community organizations, the Police Chief, the Mayor, and City Council members. We completed a year of research to develop a draft ordinance for oversight that will create true accountability, and are organizing to take it across the finish line.**
**We successfully worked with Solano County Supervisors and Legal Services of Northern California to pass a strong eviction moratorium and doubled the first round of CARES Act funds for rental assistance from $2 to $5.5 million for renters impacted by the pandemic.**
**In October, County Supervisors allocated the very first $250,000 of Solano’s American Rescue Plan to Common Ground’s proposal to hire two paralegals for the Solano County Court to aid desperate tenants who are facing eviction.**
**We got the ball rolling on a revamp of Solano’s disaster response coalition, and sparked a conversation that resulted in a new program of Spanish-speaking community health workers.**
**We worked with the Vallejo City Council to pass a Vacant Lot Ordinance that will help clean up blighted lots, and are currently working on a program to convert blighted properties to houses for first-time, low-income homeowners.**
**We are forming a “Napa Cluster” so we can build membership and gain power in Napa County**
THESE ACTIONS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN TAKEN WITHOUT THE ADVOCACY OF COMMON GROUND AND THE SUPPORT FROM OUR MEMBER INSTITUTIONS!
Common Ground is owned and run by us, its members. We are the ones who decide on the issues we want to work on: not some think tank or foundation. Please consider an investment in Common Ground’s future. Be a part of sustaining our power-building activities so we can expand on what we have already achieved.
Common Ground is a low-overhead organization and most of our dollars go to pay for the salaries of our professional organizers, and our membership in the nation’s most established and successful community organizing network, the Industrial Areas Foundation. Our work would not succeed without their professional expertise, teaching, and coaching. Here is what we get with our dollars:
- Years of experience helping organizations like ours grow in membership, power and influence
- Strategic insight on how to approach issues to build power and maximize our chance to succeed
- Patient coaching and teaching so we can learn and grow as leaders
- Access to IAF training, and a national network of congregations and leaders just like us who are transforming communities across the United States