CCO Information Power Project will engage grassroots community organizing constituencies around their own concerns so they are better equipped to solve their own problems using relational database and content driven website technologies.

New Technology Infrastructure; Training; Strategic Technology; New Communications Technology; Database upgrade; Technology Assistance

www.cco.org

$5000

CCO has been one of the most aggressive and effective grassroots community organizing groups in the Mid-west. CCO led a successful campaign to pass the first state legislation to regulate pay day lenders; won passage of a regional sales tax to support drug treatment; secured over 30 million dollars in basic neighborhood services and affordable housing development projects in the last 10 years; successfully fought corruption and mismanagement in the Kansas City housing system which ended in a federal investigations; and won prioritization of city spending for home repair totaling $3 million in the last year.

In the past two years under the leadership of a new executive director, CCO has expanded its organizing staff, developed issue campaigns in health care, education and safety, begun organizing heavily in immigrant communities in North East Kansas City, Missouri and begun developing statewide policy work that complements national appropriation and legislative campaigns benefiting marginalized communities.

To support these efforts CCO staff has been working extensively with PICO’s communication director to assess the organization’s technology needs and develop a plan to better use online and database tools to support the organization’s expanded organizing agenda. As a result of this planning CCO has developed a technology strategy to support organizing and key priority areas to address during 2007. These include:

(1) Implementing an online relational database (through Salesforce) to put all of the organization’s information related to member institutions, events, constituents, donors and funders in one place easily accessible to organizing staff and community leaders; and to provide staff with an effective tool and training to track and analyze relational patterns within the communities in which they organize. Through a grant over the last four years CCO had an outside evaluator track every meeting attendee and one to one visit, which while cumbersome began to unfold impressionable data on CCO’s ability to leverage significant social capital. An online relational database would enable this raw data to be built upon.

(2) Building a dynamic content driven website using a content management system (GetActive) that enables the organization to maintain up to date information on its website and develop www.cco.org as a hub for information exchange about social justice and community organizing in Kansas City. CCO has plans to use streaming video and pod casts on its website to publicize and increase the impact and awareness of large public action meetings that the organization regularly holds in Kansas City.

(3) Doubling the size of CCO’s 2,500 person e-mail list and using an online messaging tool (GetActive) to target and personalize communication to members and allies of CCO. CCO would also like to use messaging and advocacy tools to supplement and support face-to-face direct action organizing campaigns focused on state and local officials.

To accomplish these initial communications technology goals CCO is requesting resources to (a) adapt these technologies to meet the specific needs of CCO, including customizing PICO’s online database system to work for CCO and transferring CCO’s data; (b) develop protocols and systems for tracking organizational data and managing online and off-line communications; and (c) training staff and low-income leaders to use database and online communications tools to support their organizing.

CCO is able to draw on the resources of PICO, which has obtained donations and negotiated steep discounts for affiliates to use Salesforce and GetActive, and has set up systems that federations like CCO can adapt to their organizational needs. For example, PICO has customized an instance of Salesforce to match the organizing process that CCO and other PICO organizations use to build power within communities. Organizers who use this database to keep track of their contacts and work are in the process of collecting data that provides an opportunity to better understand patterns of relationships within the community. This database is available to CCO but needs to be adjusted to meet CCO’s needs and CCO leaders and staff need ongoing training to use this tool.

PTP's partnership with CCO will allow us to advance the following goals among many others:
-- strengthen communication with our current leaders
-- bring more community leaders into CCO's communicaiton hub
-- customize communications with funders and public officials related to issues and legislative priorities
-- save precious staff time through effective data base systems
-- provide innovative policy information and proposals to a large audience that before would not have had access to it
--build social capital through engagement and information sharing
--more effective bring our message to individual donors who believe in community organizing
-- enable staff the web and database systems CCO needs to develop communications and technology trainings around
-- provide a technology model within the PICO National Network other PICO affiliates can build upon
-- build CCO as a go-to organization for information, direct action and long term policy and funding impact

Recently CCO recruited two employees to implement and lead our Information as Power project. Our community organizer trainer who will lead our grassroots Information as Power education and implementation initiative. He carries significant technology capability and web use and development skills, he also is an extremely effective trainer.

The other employee comes from a journalism background and reported for the Kansas City Star. She will lead the gathering of issue content, the implementation of CCO’s technology, database and web systems and the dissemination of information to CCO’s diverse constituencies.

CCO's Executive Director is committed to maximizing technology to support the marginalized communities CCO serves. While CCO has solid technology to build upon and an easily accessible domain name; CCO does not capitalize on its impact in communities through the use of technology. CCO staff are committed to integrating technology trainings and sharing what is learned through local leadership trainings, PICO organizer development sessions and area non-profit mobilization/advocacy workshops particular to legislation organizing and voter engagement.

CCO's evaluation will include:
-- tangible demonstration of a new web and database system;
-- tracking of the increased number of unique persons who are benefiting from the Information as Power project;
-- quantative analysis of the growth in information access by those already tied into CCO's online communication systems (tracking frequency used); and
-- qualitative self and organizational evaluation of the growth of grassroots leadership in their ability to use information to find their own power.

All of these evaluative measures will build upon CCO's tracking of individuals participating in the organizing work and their increased involvment as well as the upcoming results of our organization-wide survey. CCO initiated a communications evaluation through a 4,000+ person marketing survey conducted by University Missouri Kansas City. Results will be ready the first of the year and will gage current communication patterns and how they need to be improved.

CCO will also evaluate our Information Power Project with our peers in the PICO National Network. The community organizer trainers with CCO’s Executive Director will lay out a case study of CCO’s Information Power Project to PICO organizing and national staff at a week long community organizer summit. The case study will name CCO's key information moments over the last few years that have taken CCO from hard data to informational website to marketing communications survey to with PTP's support a relational data base system and content driven and interactive website that more effectively enables organizing in communities in need.