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Community to Community Development

Community to Community Development    Our beliefs are based on the notion that society should arrange its relationships so that everyone has equitable access to fundamental democratic processes affecting their everyday lives. C2C is led by women of color that have lived the reality that U.S. history reveals; that people of color, women, and poor and low income communities have been excluded from the promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” so eloquently expressed in our great country’s Declaration of Independence. We also know that many have been denied access to the justice guaranteed in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Because of this knowledge based on real life experience; Community to Community’s mission and work is influenced by the community organizing model of Cesar Chavez and the Farm Worker’s movement in California and Washington State and the values and principles of the World Social Forum process developed in Porto Alegre Brazil. At C2C we strive to develop projects that come from and are led by the folks from communities that need to affect change for improving the lives of their families and future generations. We work to identify common goals and actions among people from marginalized communities and those that believe in sustainability with social justice as a way of life. We strive for solutions with dynamic participatory processes with equity that will guide our communities beyond the shifting of power and towards system transformations. We are inspired by the successful participatory democracy models in Porto Alegre Brazil and strive to enact its principles both within our organization and as a fundamental piece of our community building efforts. Our social justice work is focused on creating movement towards the creation of communities that: empower under-represented peoples to have an equal voice in decision making processes that affect their lives; develop and strengthen cross cultural awareness; restore justice to our food, land and cultural practices, promote community relationships towards self reliance and stand in solidarity with organizations working for human and civil rights. At the core of our programmatic work is the belief in and commitment to eco-feminism and food justice. Our program work is structured in three major program areas: Participatory Democracy, Food Justice and Movement Building. The program areas are taken to action via projects that are hands-on, community based and led. They are linked to each other and eco-feminism and food justice in an intersecting circular process.