Meet a Commuity Organization: PICO National Network

In day three of our Meet a Community Organization series, we will take a look at the PICO National Network. They can be found at www.piconetwork.org.

Based in Oakland, CA, PICO is a national community organizing network of faith based organizations working to create innovative solutions to problems facing America's communities. Founded in 1972, PICO has successfully increased access to health care, improve public schools, make neighborhoods safer, build affordable housing, redevelop communities, and keep the wheels of democracy churning. They engage common people through community organizing that has created a leadership legacy of thousands of people throughout the country. PICO allows faith organizations to translate their faith into action by working with over 50 different faith traditions. They have over 1,000 member institutions representing 1 million families across 150 different cities and 17 different states. (They are in AK, AL, CA, CO, FL, KS, LA, MO, NJ, NM, NY, PA, VA, VT, and WY). They also assist 6 organizations in community organizing development in Central America and Rwanda.

Among their issues and campaigns is the New Voices Campaign. This campaign, started in 2004, seeks to bring the voices and values of American families into the national public policy debate. Its an attempt to take the local to the national on issues such as education, immigration, housing, jobs, and health care.

They maintain daily news reports of the media covering their member institutions. Some recent victories include congregations winning $4 million dollars for safety and green job creation and the Queens, NY, congregations winning affordable housing for people who make between $23,000 and $38,000. They also maintain research and training resources on their web page.

PICO also is very candid about their funding sources for a community organizing network. They publish a full list of all their funders on their site (http://www.piconetwork.org/ab_funders.html). Some of the notable funders are Ben and Jerry's, the Cititgroup Foundation, and the William Randolf Hearst Foundation.

You can contact PICO at 886-550-7426.