Grassroots group eyes reform

While the controversies surrounding ACORN continue to give politically-charged community organizing groups a bad rap, the Virginia Organizing Project is maintaining the grassroots work it began in 1995.

The Charlottesville-based, nonpartisan, nonprofit VOP has a dozen chapters across Virginia, including Danville, and more on college campuses. More than 8,000 VOP members go door-to-door and hold events within communities to raise voter awareness, discuss issues facing residents and work toward progressive policies for health care, tax fairness, climate change, green jobs and other social justice issues.

According to its mission statement, VOP “is a statewide grassroots organization dedicated to challenging injustice by empowering people in local communities ... VOP especially encourages the participation of those who have traditionally had little or no voice in our society. By building relationships with individuals and groups throughout the state, VOP strives to get them to work together, democratically and non-violently, for change.”

VOP’s 2008 IRS tax forms indicate that the group is a 501(c)3 and receives more than 98 percent of its funding from public support and granting foundations. In 2008, VOP and its 25 partner groups across the state operated under a $5.2 million budget, although Communications Director Julie Blust said the budget specific to VOP was $1.2 million. Funding comes from grassroots donors and granting foundations.

According to the tax forms, the group’s overall budget has grown from $591,445 in 2004 to more than $5.2 million in 2008. Blust said the spike was a result of increased support from different communities and the addition of more partner groups under VOP’s “Joint Plan of Work.” Those groups pool their resources, covering a variety of issues, and include Adopt a Soldier, Food not Bombs, Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and Interfaith Gay/Straight Alliance, among others.

When asked, Blust was clear that VOP had no connection with the troubled ACORN (Associations of Community Organizations for Reform Now), despite an online reference aligning the two.

“There is absolutely no affiliation with ACORN,” she said. “That’s really strange.”

The top five granting foundations that fund VOP are the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in Michigan, focused on environmental and social justice issues; the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation in Winston-Salem, N.C., focused on expanding economic opportunity in low-wealth communities; the Public Welfare Foundation in Washington, D.C., focused on health reform and civil rights; the Needmor Fund in Ohio, focused on social justice; and the Unitarian Universalist Veatch Program in New York, focused on grassroots efforts to address social problems.

In 2009, college students interning for VOP registered more than 300 new voters statewide and canvassed more than 140,000 doors, including 13,000 in Danville. VOP has held rallies in favor of health care reform outside Rep. Tom Perriello’s Danville office and held a bake sale for the state budget cuts on Main Street in March. Most recently, Danville organizer Nik Belanger organized two tax workshops to help residents understand where their tax dollars go to raise awareness for tax reform.

“I’m not a tax expert,” Belanger said. “I don’t have a real nuanced understanding on this, but working on this together, we can figure this out … We have a voice in this process, in this decision making. That clicks with people.”

Belanger, a recent college graduate who moved to Danville to work for VOP full time, said he builds connections and relationships within the community by knocking on doors and listening to residents’ concerns — which he said center around jobs and the state budget.

To address those issues, Belanger and the VOP tout jobs bills moving through Congress and progressive tax reform — “shifting the burden from the backs of the working class and lower-income people.” And with the success of health care reform, people are realizing they have a voice, Belanger said.

“People aren’t going to get active in something if they don’t think it’s going anywhere,” he said. “…We’re really trying to engage people in a way so they realize their problems aren’t just their own problems … It’s bold, but it works. People are really starting to see that coming together, working together to create positive social change.”

Because the VOP pushes liberal-leaning issues and solutions, some might argue against their nonpartisan claim. But Blust said that what makes VOP nonpartisan is the fact that the group focuses on legislators from both parties while advocating for an issue. While they held a “thank you” event for Perriello’s health care vote, VOP members also held a “no thank you” event for Reps. Glenn Nye, D-2nd District, and Rick Boucher, D-9th District, both of whom voted against health care reform.

Blust said VOP has also developed Republican allies in the General Assembly to combat predatory lending, and the VOP has thanked Republicans for supporting reforms.

“Accountability works both ways,” she said. “...We will work with legislators on both sides of the aisle who support the issues that our members care about … Sometimes party affiliations do not always indicate the issues a legislator will care about. We work with everyone.”

Blust said VOP has also accepted leftover campaign contributions from both sides of the aisle.

But in Danville, the VOP does not collaborate with either the local Democrats or Republicans. Republican Committee Chairman Nick Fowler said he had heard of the group but was not really aware of their work in the community. Democratic Committee acting chairman Bernard Baker said he had not been to any events.

“From what I can tell … they’re hitting on issues that appear to be very important to the community, like jobs and health care,” Baker said. “I would applaud them on that front.”

Belanger said the next meeting would be Tuesday to attend the Danville City Council meeting as a group and see how things work. The group will meet at the Danville Public Library at 6:30 p.m. before the meeting at 7.

“I can say that I’ve seen things succeed a lot more whenever you’ve got people working together,” Belanger said. “It’s not a question of winning, but winning the right way … The more you have people in conversation with each other, the less hostility you’ll see and you’ll see real change happen.”