For 45 years, Bread for the City has helped Washington, DC residents living with low income to develop their power to determine the future of their own communities. They offer direct assistance — food, clothing, healthcare, legal assistance, and social services — that reduce the burden of poverty for 32,000 local adults and children. But knowing their vision of long-term change is stymied by racism and an inequitable distribution of power, Bread for the City seeks justice through community organizing and public advocacy. Their client-led campaign, #Right2DC, aims to end displacement and the drain of affordable housing in the nation’s capital.

CASA was founded in 1985 and is today the premier Latino and immigrant organization in the mid-Atlantic region. CASA’s mission is to create a more just society by building power and improving the quality of life in working class and immigrant communities. Across their three-state footprint (Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania), they operate dozens of high-quality programs spanning focus areas of economic success, stable and thriving lifestyles, education and youth success, neighborhood transformation, and advocacy and progressive action. CASA has been providing services and support to northern Virginia communities since 2013 and currently assists 10,000 VA residents annually.

Diverse City Fund nurtures community leaders and grassroots projects that are acting to transform DC into a more just, vibrant place to live. Through small grants and capacity-building support to grassroots social justice projects led by people of color and a community-led grantmaking process, Diverse City Fund works toward a vision for a DC that is as rich in its present diversity as in its history, grounded in respect for the work that has brought so many neighborhood institutions into being, and with a readiness to support a new generation of community leaders.

Identity creates opportunities for Latino and other historically underserved youth to believe in themselves and realize their highest potential. Through its Community Engagement and Advocacy program, Identity expands Latino civic engagement through a formal, culturally and linguistically competent leadership-training program for Latino parents and youth that includes opportunities to increase involvement in issues critical to academic success, including in the Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence in partnership with the NAACP Parents’ Council and others. Identity envisions a just and equitable society that nurtures all youth and is enriched by their contributions.

The mission of Justice for Muslims Collective (JMC) is to dismantle institutional and structural Islamophobia through raising political consciousness and shifting narratives, community empowerment, organizing and healing, and building alliances across movements with a focus on the greater Washington region. JMC works to build the power of Muslim communities and individuals impacted by Islamophobia through a comprehensive and holistic organizing model for community members that centers the humanity, sustainability and wellbeing of Muslim people for attaining freedom and liberation. JMC’s goal is to build a community under the leadership of Muslim women that offers a political and organizing home where transformation occurs at the level of self, community, and society at large. JMC seeks to build a space for the self-determination of Muslims where they can vision their futures of freedom, healing, transformation, and liberation for Muslim communities and beyond.

National Korean American Service & Education Consortium – Virginia (NAKASEC-VA) organizes Korean and Asian Americans to achieve social, economic, and racial justice. Their model deepens relationships, widens consciousness, develops skills, and creates opportunities for community members to encourage all forms of democratic participation, build base, give service, and win policies that are equitable and just.

New Virginia Majority is a leader in the movement for transformative change. Working class
communities of color have been shut out, silenced and ignored in Virginia, fueling widespread injustice in the state. New Virginia Majority, together with Tenants & Workers United, and Virginia Student Power Network, builds the power of marginalized communities to change the political systems that aren’t working for our communities, organizing within Latinx, African American, Asian American Pacific Islander and youth communities, centering the leadership and demands of working-class women of color. Together, they vote, mobilize and engage to end mass incarceration, build just economic policies, protect immigrants, and preserve the environment.

ONE DC exercises political strength to create and preserve racial and economic equity in the District. Through a member-led organizing model, shared leadership structure, popular education and leadership development, ONE DC works to build a movement capable of transforming the nation’s capital into a place where working class, immigrant, and communities of color are organized, educated, and trained to take action for our human rights to housing, income, and wellness.

Progressive Maryland provides statewide leadership and coordination in a range of national, state, and regional campaigns, leading the fight for progressive change in Maryland. Through grassroots organizing, public education, and legislative advocacy, Progressive Maryland is shaping a society and economy that works for all Marylanders, with special emphasis on traditionally marginalized groups–low and moderate-income residents, people of color, women, LGBTQ+, and all oppressed and exploited people.