The driving vision of Movement Matters is to ensure the development of greater infrastructure and capacity for progressive community organizing and social change work. Created by David S. Haiman and Marta Vizueta Bohorquez, Movement Matters works directly in partnership with organizations and individuals doing or moving towards progressive social change work to provide culturally competent training, technical assistance and mentorship that strengthens their work.
We also seek to identify larger opportunities to serve as a catalyst for groups to come together to strengthen the local organizing infrastructure in ways that are beyond the mission and scope of any one organization. In these instances, Movement Matters identifies and proposes ideas, vets these ideas with members of the organizing community and serves as the mortar for these ideas to reach fruition by providing the staff and support necessary for their development.
Movement Matters is committed to the use of anti-oppression, values-based approaches to organizing and movement building. Our educational approach and capacity building framework is firmly based on liberatory pedagogies, with the ultimate goal of developing local community organizing leaders from the ground. Though our main focus is the District of Columbia, we also work locally in other communities and on a national scale when appropriate.
.:. An Example of Our Work
For the third year, Movement Matters is providing technical assistance to grantees through the Collaborative for Education Organizing (CEO). CEO, a funding collaborative (including Gates, Meyer, World Bank, Community Foundation, Hill Snowdon), is designed to develop the District's community-led organizing capacity for education reform. In partnership with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform (NYC), the Movement Matters team is leading the building of staff and organizational capacity in six area non-profits to engage parents, students, and community members in coordinated efforts to increase the effectiveness and equity of the D.C. public and charter school system.
