Mission

Action NC’s mission is to confront and reduce the root causes of poverty, underdevelopment, and social and economic inequality through grassroots education, training, organization and mobilization.

We organize in poor and working-income communities full of talented and committed people looking for an opportunity to work together to build a stronger and more secure future. We reach out to them in a variety of ways to offer them the opportunity to join, organize, fight, and win.

Vision

Structural barriers and disparities continue to limit our constituency’s democratic right to equal opportunity and justice. The progress we believe in and work for will only come about when low and working-income people arm themselves with the political knowledge and skills that make them a force to be reckoned with—at city hall and the legislature, in corporate boardrooms and the halls of Congress, and at the ballot box every election day.

This struggle for justice and equality is as old as our nation. It reflects our highest democratic ideals, and holds the promise of a better future for all Americans whatever their social and economic circumstance. We encourage anyone who shares this vision to join us in organizing the unorganized. We are the majority, but only when we organize, vote, stay engaged, and take action together.

Methods

The purpose of these campaigns is to win improvements and to build power. Wins are good. They are even better when they boost confidence and determination, and lead to increased civic engagement, political awareness, and electoral participation.

As part of the organizing process our members determine which issues are priorities to improve their communities, and they then wage grassroots campaigns to get action on those issues. In these campaigns they represent themselves directly to those in power who are responsible for working with them on solutions. Campaigns we are currently organizing target improvements in affordable housing and tenant rights, public education, health care access, immigrant rights, consumer justice, employment opportunities, tax and revenue policy, and more.

To that end, we work with community leaders so that they can educate and train themselves and each other, and develop the skills they need to make a difference. An educated and empowered community is a community that can and will make a lasting change.

This progress will not come about through our work or through organizing alone. We know that to move us forward it takes many good groups and individuals working to address the same challenges on different fronts as advocates, policy experts, service providers and organizers. For that reason, as our members work to build our organization, we also look for opportunities to partner effectively with others so that we can present a stronger and more united front in our specific campaigns, and in our collective drive for justice and equality.