CEF Advocacy Archives - CEF: Community Empowerment Fund https://communityempowermentfund.org/category/about/cef-advocacy/ Investing in People and Their Potential Thu, 25 May 2023 12:28:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 2022 Annual Report: Joyful Community https://communityempowermentfund.org/2022-annual-report/ https://communityempowermentfund.org/2022-annual-report/#respond Thu, 25 May 2023 12:28:08 +0000 https://communityempowermentfund.org/?p=49473 The post 2022 Annual Report: Joyful Community appeared first on CEF: Community Empowerment Fund.

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A vibrant painting with a cloudy sky, orange sun radiating, and blue, pink, yellow, and black foreground. The words JOYFUL COMMUNITY are in blue in the sky. On the bottom right, the CEF logo and Annual Report 2022 are written in yellow.

2022 was a tremendous year for CEF! Our work was recognized both locally and nationally as we received the highest score on the City of Durham’s American Rescue Plan request for proposals and were honored with GSK’s IMPACT Award and Bank of America’s Neighborhood Builders Award. We were also selected as one of ten organizations to participate in Common Future’s 2023 Accelerator program, which will support our work to expand the first-time homebuyer program (see pg. 4). These recognitions demonstrate the importance of CEF’s work, especially as Members continue to recover from financial hardships related to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In addition to recognition for our work, we also invested time and resources into creating a guide for the next five years. CEF’s new Strategic Plan was created with input from more than 65 community partners, Members, staff, board, and volunteer Advocates. We are so excited to share the plan with you

As we reflect on 2022, we will share stories using our new strategic framework (see pg. 5) as a guide. You will hear from Members about the importance of CEF being a strong & adaptable organization and how impactful organizing and advocacy affects their lives. You will also learn about some emerging programs that respond to Member needs and requests, and how CEF is investing in building a joyful community. 

CEF continues to focus on relationship-based care, with Member/Advocate meetings as the primary way for CEF Members to receive support. The Strategic Plan did not change CEF’s commitment to cultivating opportunities, assets, and communities that support the alleviation of homelessness and poverty–but, rather, it helped us hone in on what is important for CEF to be doing vs. what community partners and other service organizations can do to best support CEF Members. Thank you for being part of this journey with us and trusting us to do the work necessary to best support Members in our quest to end the racial wealth gap and empower the community.

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2022-2025 Strategic Plan https://communityempowermentfund.org/strategic_plan/ https://communityempowermentfund.org/strategic_plan/#respond Fri, 21 Apr 2023 14:05:41 +0000 https://communityempowermentfund.org/?p=49458 The post 2022-2025 Strategic Plan appeared first on CEF: Community Empowerment Fund.

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CEF Strategic Framework. Big Orange Circle with the words Building Joyful Community underneath. Inside the circle is a yellow triangle with the words Strong & Adaptable Organization underneath and three intertwining circles - two are the same size and one, on top, is slightly larger. The two that are the same size are navy and teal. The navy circles has the words Growing Through Partnerships next to it and the teal circles has the words Impactful Organizing & Advocacy. The larger circle is bright blue and says Responsive Member Services inside.

In partnership with consultants Jaclyn Gilstrap and Hope Tyson from A Visual Approach, CEF’s strategic plan is presented using an adaptation of an “Objectives and Key Results (OKR) Framework.” 

At the highest level of the strategic plan, the Big Goal and Key Contribution articulates CEF’s vision of community and its mission. These components are the guiding light of the strategic plan and connect the various areas of CEF’s work to the organization’s mission and its greater purpose in the community. In addition to the Big Goal (CEF’s Vision Statement), the survey data showed that Staff, Members, Volunteers, Board, and Community Leaders across the board saw an essential part of CEF’s efforts to be centered around Building Joyful Community. It was mentioned so often that it has risen to the level of the Big Goal. It is a complement to and expansion of the Big Goal, a doubling down and a re-commitment to this essential component of the organization’s character and culture.

  • Big Goal: Ending the Racial Wealth Gap, Empowering Community
  • Key Contribution (CEF’s Mission): Cultivate opportunities, assets, and communities that support the alleviation of homelessness and poverty

In order to achieve the Key Contribution, CEF believes that it must work towards all of the Objectives outlined in the strategic plan. The Objectives are significant and concrete, and there is a word attached to each that explains not only what the goal is but how it should be achieved (responsive, strong, adaptable, impactful, growth). As a whole, the Objectives make up the key areas of CEF’s work. The relationship between them is illustrated by the visual framework (FIG 1).

As we move forward in the direction of 2025, our organization is sure to experience many shifts and changes. This document is meant to help us navigate those changes, assisting us during times when decision-making feels hard and priorities are overwhelming. We thank each and every voice that contributed to this collective vision for CEF.

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2021 Annual Report: Hope Abounds https://communityempowermentfund.org/2021-annual-report/ https://communityempowermentfund.org/2021-annual-report/#respond Thu, 05 May 2022 13:29:09 +0000 https://communityempowermentfund.org/?p=49280 The post 2021 Annual Report: Hope Abounds appeared first on CEF: Community Empowerment Fund.

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Hope Abounds: CEF Annual Report 2021

2021 was another difficult year. With the ups and downs of feeling like life was getting closer to pre-pandemic times and then going back into lockdowns and separation, CEF offered stability and companionship to Members. We stayed committed to remaining open, enforcing a vaccination or testing mandate for all staff and volunteers and continuing with COVID safety protocols to ensure that Members, staff, and Advocates could continue to meet safely. 

In this report you will learn more about CEF’s activities throughout 2021 — including information about our support of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, the creation of the House Us Now coalition, and the joy experienced through the Share the Love: Art Show. In addition, you will hear stories from Members and Advocates–uplifting the hope they experienced as they worked alongside CEF to ensure that everyone in our community has access to safe, affordable housing and the opportunity for financial freedom.

As you read through this report I hope you will feel that hope too, that you can see the potential hiding just below the surface. Thank you for being a part of this incredible community and for continuing to offer support as we learn to adapt to a new reality. We are so grateful for each and every contribution. Thank you for supporting this work!

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House Us Now! https://communityempowermentfund.org/house-us-now/ https://communityempowermentfund.org/house-us-now/#respond Mon, 16 Aug 2021 18:08:17 +0000 https://communityempowermentfund.org/?p=49179 The post House Us Now! appeared first on CEF: Community Empowerment Fund.

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House Us Now! March for Affordable Housing at or below 30% AMI Rally in Chapel Hill Saturday, August 28 from 1pm to 5pm Meet at Peace & Justice Plaza, 179 E Franklin St. March to the Jackson Center, 512 W Rosemary St. For transportation info call CEF at 919-200-0233

Join us Saturday, August 28, to march for affordable housing for our community members who are at or below 30% AMI. There will be opportunities for folks with lived experience to speak out at the Peace & Justice Plaza. LOVE Chapel Hill will be providing transportation to the rally. Call the CEF Chapel Hill office at 919-200-0233 for more info on transportation. Live music at the Jackson Center will be provided by Chapel Hill’s Finest as well as food from Gametime Hot Dogs!

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2020 Annual Report: We are a Resilient Community https://communityempowermentfund.org/2020-annual-report/ https://communityempowermentfund.org/2020-annual-report/#respond Wed, 19 May 2021 17:10:03 +0000 https://communityempowermentfund.org/?p=49121 The post 2020 Annual Report: We are a Resilient Community appeared first on CEF: Community Empowerment Fund.

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CEF Annual Report We are a resilient community 2020

As CEF has grown and blossomed over the years, we have been reminded, time and again, of the importance of being nimble and adaptive as we grow. As you will see in this report, 2020 was no different. In the enclosed stories you will learn how CEF responded to COVID-19 through articles and reflections from CEF’s staff. The report also shares more information about our quantitative impact and our year-end financials. This report is dedicated to the CEF Members who moved on in 2020, we hope you will hold them in your hearts and minds as you read.

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Time + Talents Podcast: All Things Housing https://communityempowermentfund.org/time-talents-podcast-housing/ https://communityempowermentfund.org/time-talents-podcast-housing/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2020 12:54:17 +0000 https://communityempowermentfund.org/?p=48923 The post Time + Talents Podcast: All Things Housing appeared first on CEF: Community Empowerment Fund.

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CEF Presents Time + Talents Podcast

CEF is excited to share the first episode of the Time + Talents podcast. In this episode, CEF Advocates Lily Levin and Lizzy Kramer interview a number of people involved in housing in Durham County to help listeners learn more about how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting people’s housing situations and what services are available for people who may need support.

This podcast was arranged by Durham Office & Community Organizer Rosa Green.

We hope you enjoy the podcast. Please share with your networks.

Time + Talents is CEF’s member-driven advocacy platform in Durham. Members chose the theme of this podcast and will continue to be involved in choosing future themes to ensure that the podcast is relevant to their needs and interests.

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2019 Annual Report: We Grow Together https://communityempowermentfund.org/2019-annual-report-we-grow-together/ https://communityempowermentfund.org/2019-annual-report-we-grow-together/#respond Tue, 16 Jun 2020 16:39:07 +0000 https://communityempowermentfund.org/?p=48825 The post 2019 Annual Report: We Grow Together appeared first on CEF: Community Empowerment Fund.

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Cover for 2019 Annual report: collage representing community with the words hope, community, courage, and togetherness around the outside. Heart with houses, green space, and a gazebo in the middle

As CEF has grown and blossomed over the years, we have been reminded, time and again, of the importance of being nimble and adaptive as we grow. As you will see in this report, 2019 was no different. In the enclosed stories you will learn more about CEF’s deepening advocacy work; read about the programs we’ve built and strengthened; hear directly from Members, Advocates, and Staff about their connection to CEF; and see our quantitative impact.

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Annual Report 2018 : “it takes a collective” https://communityempowermentfund.org/collective/ https://communityempowermentfund.org/collective/#respond Mon, 02 Sep 2019 22:09:07 +0000 https://communityempowermentfund.org/?p=48646 “It takes a collective. Each person here at CEF holds a different part, and everybody is working together towards the same goal: to make sure that the people are cared for.”

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“We are overwhelmingly grateful for the opportunity to grow with the over 1,000 Members and 250 Advocates who show up every day to care for each other. It encourages us to learn from and lean on one another as we move forward together. Thank you for believing in this community of boundless support as we grow towards the abundant possibilities we have before us.”

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CEF Summit 2019 Reflections https://communityempowermentfund.org/summit19/ https://communityempowermentfund.org/summit19/#respond Fri, 05 Apr 2019 21:25:45 +0000 https://communityempowermentfund.org/?p=48494 “Stay in school, stay in the Movement.” — Reverend Liz Theoharis of the Poor People’s Campaign, On the first weekend in March, CEF Advocates from UNC and Duke put aside their rivalries, to come together and co-host the 2nd annual Summit on Homelessness and Poverty! The three-day summit brought together over 100 students from  25 […]

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Written by Joyce Yao and Connie Longmate

“Stay in school, stay in the Movement.”
— Reverend Liz Theoharis of the Poor People’s Campaign,

On the first weekend in March, CEF Advocates from UNC and Duke put aside their rivalries, to come together and co-host the 2nd annual Summit on Homelessness and Poverty! The three-day summit brought together over 100 students from  25 schools from across the country to share experiences, workshop ideas, and learn from longtime local community organizers. Their collective goal was to continue to grow a national coalition of student organizations dedicated to dismantling systems that perpetuate hunger, homelessness, and poverty.


“The cost of poverty, broadly, is so much higher than the cost of paying people fairly.”
—Jill Johnson, Mayor Pro Tem

Last year, students at Brown University held the inaugural Summit on Homelessness and Poverty that brought together a coalition of student organizations from across the country dedicated to dismantling systems that perpetuate homelessness and poverty. In the 8 months of planning, the summit vision truly came together when Megan Miller and Olivia Simpson proposed that the theme of the Summit be “Abundance,” with the idea that the communities we work within have an abundance of love, resilience, and (as CEF likes to say) people who are “creative resourceful and whole”— and therefore our work should be about uplifting and celebrating that abundance. Hosting this summit meant that we got to help to create a unique space for students to reflect on and share about the abundance in their own communities.

“Joy can be an act of revolution!”
—George Barrett, The Marian Cheek Jackson Center

The weekend was a tremendous labor of love. A true test of the commitment to the work we do, as well as of our ability to open ourselves up to new forms of the pursuit of social justice, which is important perspective when you find yourself debating seemingly trivial things like the number of coffee cups to order and the most fitting genre of music for the welcome reception. We succeeded in bringing together students from different regions of the country involved in all kinds of anti-poverty and homelessness work, effectively connecting one another to a network of students engaged in demanding work that requires the solidarity and accountability that community offers. I’m especially proud of the fundraising we chased extra hard with the goal of lowering financial barriers for folks to participate.

“If you don’t know you don’t know, but once you know, I’m going to hold you accountable.”
— Andrea Hudson, Community Bail Fund

We created sessions around Race Policing and Poverty, Vulnerable Populations, Public Health, Urban Renewal & Displacement (watch the video below), Social Service Gaps and How We Fill Them, Advocating for Policy Change to facilitate a space where students could share, learn, and grow from peers. Hosting the summit also gave us the opportunity to spotlight longtime community organizations and organizers who shared their brilliant wisdom and experiences of organizing in the South.

We are so grateful for our community partners and all of the students who are working alongside their communities to fight for justice through the celebration abundance. It was an honor to host the 2nd annual summit and we’re excited to continue to build the Student Coalition Against Homelessness & Poverty.

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In Durham NC Land Use Policy is the Blind Spot in White Progressive Politics https://communityempowermentfund.org/blind-spot-in-white-progressive-politics/ https://communityempowermentfund.org/blind-spot-in-white-progressive-politics/#respond Tue, 19 Mar 2019 01:56:05 +0000 https://communityempowermentfund.org/?p=48469 Land use policy is the blind spot in white progressive politics. Durham NC is debating a city-wide change in its zoning ordinance to address housing affordability. As larger cities like Minneapolis undertake radical rezonings to create more equitable housing, smaller progressive communities like ours are inspired to align its land use policies with our liberal […]

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CEF Members, Advocates, and staff will be talking about the Expanding Housing Choice Initiative and much more  at the monthly Time + Talents meeting on 4/16 at 5pm. Time + Talents meetings occur on the third Tuesday of each month in the CEF Durham office and are open to all. Contact lizb@communityef.org for more information.

a guest post by Durham architect and urban developer Scott Harmon
Reading time: 6 minutes

Land use policy is the blind spot in white progressive politics. Durham NC is debating a city-wide change in its zoning ordinance to address housing affordability. As larger cities like Minneapolis undertake radical rezonings to create more equitable housing, smaller progressive communities like ours are inspired to align its land use policies with our liberal world view. These initiatives will continue across the country and the blind spot will always appear in the same place: the back yards of powerful white progressive leaders.

In November, the Durham Planning Department presented its first vision of an initiative called Expanding Housing Choices. The recommendations were transformative and sensible, focusing on increased opportunities for accessory dwelling units, infill, duplexes, and smaller lots sizes. I would call them, indeed, progressive.

The version now before the Planning Commission, however, has been gutted by leaders in the white progressive neighborhoods that wield the most power in these land use debates. When faced with a choice between progressive policies and neighborhood protection, protection wins every time; power trumps policy. I urge my fellow progressives to pay close attention to some key historic and environmental context as we start this debate.

In The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein explains how zoning became the legal foundation of housing discrimination in our country. The first zoning ordinance appeared in 1908 in Los Angeles with the sensible goal of separating residential and industrial properties. In 1910 racial zoning laws sprung up throughout the country as communities used this new legal tool to protect their neighborhoods from blacks and immigrants. In 1917 the Supreme Court ruled that racial zoning is a violation of the 14th amendment, but in 1919 the city of St. Louis finessed the technicalities of that ruling and adopted the first “economic zoning” ordinance; what we call today “exclusionary zoning”. By excluding multi-family housing types from single-family neighborhoods (which most blacks and immigrants could not afford), St. Louis maintained the racial and economic primacy of its white communities. The racial motivations of these laws were obvious and were again challenged at the Supreme Court in 1926. But the court ruled that the 14th Amendment is not violated because the laws contain no explicitly racial language. Exclusionary zoning thereby became the established precedent for protecting our most advantaged neighborhoods from undesirable people by excluding undesirable housing. Add to this legal foundation the policies of the New Deal and the FHA, which required red-lining and racially restricted neighborhood covenants for its mortgage insurance programs. You now have, at the end of World War II, a complete system of local laws and Federal policies that explicitly exclude non-white people from the benefits of the largest housing and economic expansion in the world’s history. While the Federal policies finally met their demise with the Fair Housing Act of 1968, our local exclusionary zoning laws persist.

This history explains two things about today’s affordability crisis. First, it explains why certain people have enjoyed generations of wealth building and others have not. In other words, if more people could afford a home, the housing crisis would be less severe. Second, our zoning laws continue to treat certain kinds of housing (the more affordable kinds) as “undesirable”. This limits the supply of housing in general and limits affordable housing in particular, thereby making all housing more expensive.

The environmental context is easier to explain because the math is unavoidable. The population is growing, globally and locally. Should we house more people per acre of land, or fewer? Should we be more efficient with our land, or less efficient? Which choice protects our watersheds, natural areas, and farmland from outward expansion (aka sprawl)? Which choice supports better transit systems? Which choice promotes walkable, healthy lifestyles? Which choice assures that every roadway, pipe, wire, and infrastructure investment is used most efficiently? Which choice reduces the carbon footprint of each human?

Let’s be clear how “density” became a bad word. This country protected its neighborhoods from undesirable people by restricting density (see the history above). But many other nations enjoy thriving cities with density, beauty, desirability, and diversity. As our mayor Steve Schewel rightly points out: density is not the problem; it’s the solution.

Land use policy is the blind spot in progressive white politics. Our commitment to equity, inclusion, fairness, and affordability is hijacked by our instinct for comfort, power, and advantage. Most of us don’t see it. While we enthusiastically support the right causes with our time, talent, and money, our resistance to change in our neighborhoods is tenacious.  Neighborhood protection is a deeply held tradition that, on the surface, looks like a gallant fight against developers, builders, slumlords, students, renters, and traffic. The origins of this tradition, however, are not so noble. Even when we’re not consciously excluding certain types of people, we’re still using a system with intentions and rules of engagement that were established a century ago. Our families and fortunes continue to benefit from that system.

So, here’s the “ask” of my fellow white progressives in Durham and other communities. Resist the temptation to resist change, because preserving the status quo is not progressive. Our white leaders live in the neighborhoods with the most power when it comes to land use debates. How will we use that power? Will we advance our progressive agenda for the benefit of everyone in the community, or will we ask everyone else to advance the agenda for us? Will we support our elected leaders as they navigate a precarious political transaction that may be uncomfortable for us personally, or will we lobby to maintain our privilege? If we’re not prepared to forgo our privilege, we can at least leverage it for the benefit of the entire community. But this can’t happen if we “protect” our own neighborhoods from the changes that the rest of the community desperately needs. Because that’s not progressive; that’s NIMBY.

“Acting in a way that prevents everyone else from living in your pretty little city because you already have a place that you like does not make you a progressive. It makes you greedy.” – Hamilton Nolan Scott

Scott Harmon is an architect and urban developer with Center Studio Architecture in Durham NC.

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