About

Welcome

Welcome to the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative’s website. We invite you to use this website as a valuable tool – to link with other community leaders, to obtain the latest research and policy briefings, to learn about the craft and tools of organizing, and to learn how you can become involved in the work of MVOC.

"At the heart of MVOC is belief that ordinary people themselves hold the solutions to the problems they face. This organization is collectively owned and directed by all of us – through organizing people and money effectively to carry out issue campaigns, research, training, and to hire and employ professional organizers to work in our neighborhoods and with our organizations."

Currently, MVOC works with over sixty churches, neighborhood groups, block clubs, youth organizations, and labor unions in the Youngstown and Warren area to address issues such as vacant properties, health care, corner stores, felony expungement, and community labor partnerships.

We hope that you will join us.

Sincerely,

Pastor Michael Harrison Senior Pastor, Union Baptist Church Chair of the Sponsoring Committee	Bill Mullane Education Leader, Warren OH Vice Chair of the Sponsoring Committee

Who is MVOC?

The Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative (MVOC) was launched in summer of 2007. MVOC is a broad-based community organizing effort that seeks to reweave the fabric of communities in Mahoning, Trumbull, and Columbiana Counties. MVOC uses a model of broad-based organizing that blends both institutional (a membership base of churches, schools, neighborhood associations, unions, etc.) with direct door to door grassroots organizing. Currently MVOC works with more than 60 churches, neighborhood organizations, unions, and other grassroots groups.

A community organization is a vehicle for everyday people to have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives. Organizing involves finding and developing grassroots leaders, uniting diverse institutions such as churches, schools, and neighborhood groups, and building power to be able to achieve a vision for the community and create systemic change. In many ways, a good community organization is like having a professional lobbyist working for you, your family, and your neighborhood.

Most corporations employ a lobbyist to ensure their voice is heard and that their interests are met. Every day people tend to be on the sidelines when the deals get cut for the future of their neighborhoods, jobs, and cities. Community organizations are built to lobby for everyday people’s interests and to force decision makers, corporations, and others to craft policies and allocate resources in a way that meets our needs.

Our Community Organizing Model

Begins with: Hundreds of One to One Meetings/Door to Door Canvassing; Surfaces people who have talent/anger, the willingness to act. The uncovering of new leadership; Local Trainings, Local Actions, Clergy Caucus, Local Issue Work; Leadership Caucus (Collective Leadership); House Meetings, Listening Campaigns, Door to Door Outreach; Broad-Based Organizing Agenda; Research and Power Analysis; Issue Campaigns/Actions; Large Assemblies/Conventions

Building Social Capacity

MVOC seeks to build social capacity by training and developing leaders, teaching strategies to build or rebuild networks of relationships, and assisting institutions to look outward and use creative strategies for community engagement.

Second, we serve to link a broad range of institutions to collaborate, share resources,and examine problems with a comprehensive approach. Our analysis is that there is often very good work going on in communities but it is usually fragmented and happening in isolation.

Third, we organize institutions to have a collective voice in the decision making process to tackle social justice issues such as reducing concentrated poverty, improving the quality of life in the Mahoning Valley, and fighting racism and inequities based upon where one lives.