Grassroots power is at the core of our model. At Community Spring, we believe the answers to the community’s problems need to come from the people experiencing those issues.
Our campaigns
Community Spring’s campaigns are designed and implemented by impacted people. Every year the campaign issue area will change depending on who makes up the fellowship class. Issue areas could be anything from affordable housing to criminal justice, education to healthcare. The focus of each campaign is always determined by the fellows.
The focus area is determined at the beginning of each fellowship class through a consensus-based process. This involves several days of facilitated discussions and storytelling exercises that provide space for fellows to identify the most significant problems in their communities, see how their experiences overlap, and consider solutions to those problems. Then they design the goals and activities. Campaigns are generally organized around three types of activities: 1) community-led service or engagement, 2) narrative shifting communications, and 3) advocacy for institutional or policy change.
Decriminalize Poverty!
The Decriminalize Poverty! campaign envisions a community that maintains public safety without relying on the criminalization of poverty and overpolicing of low-income individuals and neighborhoods.
Links Not Locks
The Links Not Locks campaign envisions a community that doesn’t use incarceration as the answer to public health issues but instead connects people to mental, behavioral, and cultural resources that are rooted in the community.
The Lighthouse Initiative
The Lighthouse Initiative envisions a community where everyone has access to stable, affordable housing where they can feel at home. Removing structural barriers to housing will spur economic mobility community-wide.
Torchlighters Re-Entry Support
Torchlighters Re-Entry Support envisions a community where formerly incarcerated people are welcomed with open arms and given support to thrive in their new lives.
COVID-19 Recovery
COVID-19 shed light on inequities in our broken systems that we have been feeling for a long time. How we respond to this crisis and rebuild our communities must be guided by people’s experiences.