Stories bring us together. They are the roots in our family tree. They are the narratives that help us remember our common history. They are the inspiration that helps us imagine the change we want to make happen. And they are the base upon which we can build a shared vision for the future.

Every Marguerite Casey Foundation grantee has a compelling story to tell. Each one may be different in character and setting, but they share a common power to teach, inform and inspire. These grantee stories strike a responsive chord. They resonate with the courage and commitment of communities working together against remarkable odds. They reveal a sense of optimism that things should, and will, be better. They document personal struggles and collective triumphs. And they capture the spirit of a movement in which families nationwide are working together to build a more just and equitable society for all.

Below we share a few of these stories to illustrate some of what is possible. While Marguerite Casey Foundation cannot possibly tell the story of every organization we fund, we invite grantees to let us know if your group or community would like to share your story with others.

Clinca Monseñor Oscar A. Romero, Los Angeles, CA (September, 2004)
In l983 survivors of mass killings of civilians in El Salvador’s civil war arrived in west central Los Angeles with little besides their lives. Many were startled and amazed to find a clapboard house hung with a picture of San Salvador’s assassinated archbishop, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, who had spoken out for them against the violence. “This must be a safe house,” they said. Inside they found volunteer medics who treated families without regard for ability to pay, and heard they had certain rights, no matter what their immigration status. Today Clinica Monseñor Oscar A. Romero has grown to 100 providers and tens of thousands of medical and dental patient visits per year, but remains rooted in the same spirit, serving the neighborhood’s multiple poor communities while nurturing civic activism.

Chinatown Community Development Center, San Francisco, CA (September, 2004)
In San Francisco, with some of the most astronomically high priced real estate in the country, thousands of low income residents including the elderly and immigrant families constantly face effective banishment from the place they feel they might best survive: Chinatown. Twenty-five years ago, grassroots volunteer groups banded together to preserve housing and advocate for residents. Today the Chinatown Community Development Center not only has become a city-wide force for tenants rights, housing and transportation safety and civil liberties; now the residents it works with take the lead in lobbying for decent living conditions and even political initiatives that affect affordable housing.

Alianza Para El Desarollo Comunitario, San Elizario, TX (January, 2004)
On the U.S. side of the border with Mexico, thousands of families live in subdivisions without paved roads or basic utilities like water, bearing only shaky “contracts for deed” that withhold ownership until purchase price and interest are paid in full. La Alianza Para El Desarrollo Comunitario (Alliance for Community Development) began working with residents in these “colonias” four years ago to deliver potable water by truck; to assist with natural gas and sewage service; to transform contracts into manageable deeds; and most importantly, to provide education and training so residents might advocate and organize for themselves around daunting everyday issues of children’s health, environmental protection, and basic services.

Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment, Los Angeles, CA (January, 2004)
In 1990, when South Central Los Angeles was riven by crack cocaine, the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment was founded to organize residents to transform the social and economic roots of drug addiction, and the poverty, crime, and violence that come with it. Members, including a growing number of youth, find support and become neighborhood organizers themselves, identifying key needs and developing leadership skills to effect change.

Metropolitan Tenants Organization, Chicago, IL (January, 2004)
For more than 20 years the Metropolitan Tenants Organization has been educating and organizing renters to demand their rights from landlords and authorities, and participate in public debate about decent—and affordable—housing. Its volunteer tenants’ rights hotline counsels hundreds of families each week. Tenants themselves become organizers, and it could not be happening at a more critical time. The city’s housing authority is demolishing thousands of public units, HUD contracts are expiring, and landlords are seeking to gentrify, which means the working poor who cannot afford to buy are squeezed out.

Newtown Florist Club, Gainesville, GA (January, 2004)
In the 1950s housewives in the African American neighborhood of Gainesville, Georgia, started a social service club to collect money for funeral wreaths. Eventually the question loomed: “Why are so many of us dying?” Over the years the women of the Newtown Florist Club, located in a neighborhood described as “an industrial fallout zone,” have become a force for environmental justice and against racism through legal challenges, lobbying, media coverage, and testing of toxic levels. Youngsters are being groomed as the next generation of grassroots leaders. Members still attend funerals together in community solidarity, bearing roses, wearing crisp white in summer, black in winter.