[COMM-ORG] New Website: Community Organizing and Family Issues

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

From: "Ellen Schumer" <eschumer at cofionline.org>


Dear Friends:



Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI) is thrilled to announce 
the launch of our new website: www.cofionline.org



COFI's unique model of Family Focused Organizing builds the leadership 
of low-income parents (mostly mothers and grandmothers) and engages them 
in action campaigns to transform their communities and the policies and 
institutions that impact their families. COFI's model emphasizes the 
interconnection between personal struggles and broader community issues 
and builds leaders’ capacity to address these issues at both a personal 
level and through public action.



Over the past decade, COFI has successfully built the leadership and 
power of over 2,200 low-income parents – primarily African American and 
Latino women, including recent immigrants, single parents, TANF 
recipients, and public housing residents. These parent leaders in turn 
have been able to successfully eliminate "Zero Tolerance" language from 
the Chicago Public School discipline code and replace it with a 
philosophy of restorative justice. They are working to reinstate recess 
in public elementary schools in the city, and to address barriers for 
low-income families to access early learning programs in Illinois - 
among other community and policy issues.



Based in Chicago, COFI offers training and technical assistance to 
organizations across the country who want to learn the Family Focused 
Organizing model and implement it in their own schools and communities. 
Through COFI’s new website, you can get more information on upcoming 
trainings and order from a series of step-by-step training manuals to 
enable organizers, trainers, social service agencies, and community 
development organizations to incorporate Family Focused Organizing into 
their work.



President-elect Barack Obama was one of COFI's founding sponsoring 
committee members (a fun factoid that you can read about on the new 
website). As Obama’s victory demonstrates to the world the incredible 
power of organizing, COFI is pleased to be able to share our model with 
a broader audience through www.cofionline.org.



- Ellen


Ellen Schumer, Executive Director
Community Organizing and Family Issues (COFI)
954 West Washington, Box 42, 4th Floor
Chicago Illinois 60607
312/226-5141
Fax - 312/226-5144
eschumer @cofionline.org