Census Outreach Kicks New Alliance Into Gear

censo_finalAs census outreach winds down, a new vehicle for civic engagement has kicked into gear. The San Francisco Electoral Alliance brings together day laborers and domestic workers, low-income tenants and low-wage workers, families fighting displacement in the Bayview and youth fighting for justice in their schools. The SF Electoral Alliance will work towards changing the balance of power so that working class communities of color in San Francisco have a stronger voice and a more decisive impact on local elections.

Getting our communities counted was among the first projects that our organizations took on, and over the course of six weeks, Causa Justa :: Just Cause members and allies went door-to-door talking to their neighbors about the census. As Causa Justa’s first coordinated cross-bay effort, our census outreach was an amazing success! Our outreach teams talked to 8,500 people in San Francisco’s Mission and Excelsior Districts and in West and East Oakland, neighborhoods that have historically been undercounted by the census. In fact, initial reports show that people living in neighborhoods visited by Causa Justa teams participated in the census at a higher rate than people in neighborhoods that did not receive our door-to-door outreach.* With the launch of the San Francisco Electoral Alliance, we are looking ahead toward building on this sucess and on the growing progressive social movement in San Francisco, from the ground up.

The organizations involved in the SF Electoral Alliance are: Causa Justa :: Just Cause, Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), Coleman Advocates for Youth and Children, Filipino Community Center (FCC), Mobilize the Immigrant Vote (MIV), Partnership for Immigrant Leadership and Action (PILA), People Organized to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights (PODER), People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER), San Francisco Day Labor Program, and South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN).

* Based on a census data analysis conducted by the Advancement Project