Virginia Organizing Project
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| Founded | 1995 as Virginia Organizing Project |
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| Affiliation | People's Action |
| Key people | Del McWhorter, Chairperson; Joe Szakos, Executive Director |
| Website | virginia-organizing |
Virginia Organizing, formerly known as the Virginia Organizing Project (VOP), is a non-partisan grassroots organization in the state of Virginia. Founded in 1995, Virginia Organizing brings people together to address issues that affect the quality of life in their local communities. Notably, Virginia Organizing engages in community organizing that is both multi-issue and multi-constituency, with a focus on people who have traditionally had little voice in society.
Virginia Organizing coordinates civic engagement and direct action on many different issues at all levels from the local county Board of Supervisors to the White House. Organizers and leaders recruit new members and identify issue priorities through door-to-door canvassing, phone banks, 1-to-1 conversations, and community meetings.
Virginia Organizing focuses on a diverse set of issues each year, based on a power analysis that is completed every spring. In recent years, Virginia Organizing has primarily focused on health care reform, economic justice, and racial justice issues like discriminatory policing and the school-to-prison pipeline. Virginia Organizing added women's issues and climate change to their list of priorities in 2015. Other notable issue campaigns include opposing predatory lending, fighting for restoration of voting rights for former-felons, immigration reform, and protecting Medicare and Social Security.
In 1995, the Virginia Organizing Project (VOP) was formed in Southwest Virginia. From the start, its focus was on building chapters and addressing issues of racial and economic inequality. The first Virginia Organizing chapter formed in Lee County, and the Lynchburg Chapter also hosted the first three-day Dismantling Racism Workshop, kick-starting workshops all across the state. Virginia Organizing's founding statewide convention took place on June 21, 1997, with more than 135 people in attendance.
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