Action for a Better Community

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T H E W H I T E H O U S E

One America - Action for a Better Community

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Program:

Action for a Better Community, Denver, CO

Contact(s):

Gloria Yellow Horse, Staff Community Organizer: (303) 893-9710

Purpose:

To unite communities from various racial and ethnic backgrounds through grassroots organizing

Action for a Better Community (ABC) was founded in 1992 to campaign for the improvement of living conditions of minorities in Colorado. ABC membership is composed of people from various ethnic and racial backgrounds. ABC organizes communities around issues that affect low-income, minority communities. ABC hosts monthly meetings for members to share information on community developments, and it organizes speaker forums and entertainment events throughout the year to encourage community-building efforts.

Program Operations

ABC has several committees, including: the annual dinner/ad book campaign committee, the youth committee, the Latino committee and the elections committee. ABC members participate in advocacy-training sessions to prepare them to be community organizers. Past training sessions included fund raising, recruiting, public speaking and door-to-door campaigning. ABC believes in providing its members with actual experience in advocacy work. Therefore, members run community meetings, hold press conferences, recruit members, and travel to national and local conferences as ABC representatives.

Outcomes and Significant Accomplishments

ABC has played a key role in organizing several community-led efforts. In 1993, ABC led a campaign to minimize lead contamination. As a result, members were able to convince the state's director of public health to provide free lead testing to children under the age of six, as well as convince the local housing authority to work on lead abatement. ABC also organized the Youth Policing in the Schools Campaign in Boulder to investigate school strategies for addressing student hate crimes. ABC is currently working on issues dealing with immigrant rights and the allocation of drug asset forfeiture money toward social welfare issues.