ORGANIZING PROGRAM
MISSION
Local Democracy Action (LDA) Organizing Program recruits and equips working-class leaders with the skills, confidence, and networks to build local power and drive community-led change. Through teaching organizing fundamentals and providing hands-on experience, the program fosters a more inclusive and resilient democracy from the ground up.
THEORY OF CHANGE
Local Democracy Action is focused on building organizing infrastructure that elevates the voices of working-class people. To ensure that communities are represented in the halls of power, and that policies reflect the needs of everyday people, we must build local power where it has been historically overlooked.
Through this program, people will be trained to fight with the tools, skill sets, and the guiding wisdom of those who have gone before them to achieve the changes they want to see now. The country is stronger and our democracy more solid when skilled organizers in rural and exurban communities drive change where it is needed but often neglected today.
As fellows participate in the program, their feedback informs Local Democracy Action’s broader strategy, helping identify missing infrastructure, pressing local issues, and areas where continued organizing is needed. Upon program completion, our team fosters the transition from training into the emergence of leaders prepared to build new community power.
DEFINING SUCCESS
The success of the program is measured by the impact of our graduates and the communities they serve. Fellows leave the program with the skills and confidence to lead change, whether by:
Launch and lead LDA issue-specific committees on housing, climate injustice, childcare, immigration, or economic equity that move into action with mentorship and ongoing organizational support.
Participating in future LDA campaigns or civic programs as trained organizers.
Accessing job and volunteer opportunities through LDA’s growing network of allied organizations, including direct placement, newsletters, and networking events.
Through this approach, the program strengthens both the local talent pool of organizers and the broader volunteer and leadership infrastructure in communities that have historically lacked support.
PHASE 1: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S INLAND EMPIRE
Home to 5 million people, the inland empire (San Bernardino and Riverside counties) offers one of the most promising opportunities for long term civic investment in California – – end of the United States – – as it shifts politically from rural conservative to suburban liberal. The region is economically essential, handling 40% of the nation's imports. Today's logistics powerhouse will be tomorrow's solar power plant.
Our heightened presence in the Inland Empire must be built now. As one of California's last bastions of more affordable housing, the Inland Empire is drawing working class families out of Los Angels and beyond. We must be a participant in the rapidly reshaping of the region's civic landscape. We understand civic action, we have civic leadership, our trained leaders must be the ones who guide this region to a survivable and more broadly prosperous future. This program starts that leadership wave now.