Below are ways you can get involved with your local Democratic party and with organizations working on related issues; particularly issues for communities most likely to be impacted by the 2016 President-elect.
While this list is long, it is by no means comprehensive; and it is compiled by volunteers. If you have a suggestion, please suggest an improvement.
- 1. Local Democratic Party
- 1.1 Find your local Democratic party organizations
- 1.2 Subscribe
- 1.3 Volunteer
- 1.4 Become a PCO
- 1.5 Serve as an Officer
- 1.6 Volunteer on a Team/Committee
- 2. Organizations by Issue Area
- 2.1 Choice
- 2.2 Communities of Color
- 2.3 Criminal Justice - Including Sentencing Reform and Rights Restoration
- 2.4 Education Access and Affordability
- 2.5 Environment
- 2.6 Health Care
- 2.7 Housing and Homelessness
- 2.8 Immigration
- 2.9 Labor and Right to Organize
- 2.10 LGBTQ Rights
- 2.11 Religious Freedom
- 2.12 Women's Economic and Social Equality
- 3. Organizations by Skillset
- 3.1 Law
- 3.2 Technology
Below are ways you can get involved in your local Demoratic party organizations.
In Washington state, the Democratic party is organized at both the county and legislative district level.
For example: if you live in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle,
you would want to get involved with both the King County Democrats and the 43rd Legislative District (LD) Democrats.
Or if you live in East Wenatchee you would want to get involved in both the Douglas County Democrats and the 12th LD Democrats.
Use this tool to find your legislative district: http://app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/
Connect with your local Democratic organizations: https://washdems-public.github.io/Data/orgs.html
Subscribe to the group's email list, Facebook, Twitter, etc. so you can find out about upcoming activities.
Consider attending a volunteering event like voter registration or campaigning for a local candidate.
A Precinct Committee Office (PCO) is a volunteer who organizes people who live near them.
Learn more: http://www.wa-democrats.org/local/pco
Every organization needs volunteers to welcome new members, take minutes at meetings, manage the finances, communicate with existing members, and more.
Find meetings of your local organizations: http://www.wa-democrats.org/page/2016-17-reorganization-meetings
Many organizations have teams or committees for various aspects of their activites.
This might be an event planning committee or a committee with a focus like membership recruitment or voter registration.
Opportunities will likely be announced at meetings and on digital media of your location organizations.
Connect with your local Democratic organizations: https://washdems-public.github.io/Data/orgs.html
Protecting people's rights to make thier own medical decisions
CAIR Project - We provide accurate, non-biased information and referrals, as well as financial help in the form of grants for abortion services.
NARAL Pro Choice Washington - NARAL Pro-Choice Washington works to protect every woman’s right to access the full range of reproductive health options, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion.
National Women's Political Caucus of Washington - Our mission is to identify, mentor, educate, and support women leaders in our community who demonstrate a commitment to Reproductive Freedom and Women's Economic and Social Equality.
Planned Parenthood - The mission of PPGNHI is to support the lifelong sexual health of women and men, and to foster a community where every child is a wanted child.
Surge - Surge works to end reproductive oppression and to ensure access to reproductive health services and economic security for all people.
Advancement Project - Advancement Project is a next generation, multi-racial civil rights organization. Rooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice, we exist to fulfill America’s promise of a caring, inclusive and just democracy. We use innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change.
Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS) - ACRS promotes social justice and the well-being and empowerment of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other underserved communities – including immigrants, refugees, and American-born – by developing, providing and advocating for innovative, effective and efficient community-based multilingual and multicultural services.
CAMP - We seek to create a healthy, thriving world free of poverty by serving low-income individuals and families in central King County including immigrants and refugees, youth, seniors, people with disabilities, and the new poor.
El Centro - As an organization grounded in the Latino community, our mission is to build unity across all racial and economic sectors, to organize, empower, and defend our most vulnerable and marginalized populations and to bring justice, dignity, equality, and freedom to all the peoples of the world.
Inspire Development Centers - To inspire learning, growth and success in life; one child, one family and one community at a time. Inspirar aprendizaje, crecimiento y éxito en la vida: un niño, una familia y una comunidad a la vez.
NAACP - The mission of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination.
Progreso - Progreso's mission is to ensure that Latino communities are fairly represented in Washington State’s social, economic and political systems to improve the quality of life for all Washingtonians.
Rural Community Development Resources - To encourage community development through self employment opportunities for low income entrepreneurs.
Sea Mar - Sea Mar Community Health Centers is a community-based organization committed to providing quality, comprehensive health, human, housing, educational and cultural services to diverse communities, specializing in service to Latinos.
Urban League - We empower African Americans and underserved communities to thrive by securing educational and economic opportunities.
Ban the Box - The Ban the Box campaign was started by All of Us or None, a national civil rights movement of formerly-incarcerated people and our families. We started the campaign in 2004, after a series of Peace and Justice Community Summits identified job and housing discrimination as huge barriers to our successfully returning to our communities after jail or prison.
Project Vote - Project Vote’s mission is to build an electorate that accurately represents the diversity of this nation’s citizenry, and to ensure that every eligible citizen can register, vote, and cast a ballot that counts.
The Sentencing Project - Founded in 1986, The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.
Stanford Justice Advocacy Project - The Stanford Justice Advocacy Project (formerly the Three Strikes Project) represents inmates serving unjust prison sentences for minor crimes, assists released prisoners successfully reentering their communities, and advocates for fairer and more effective criminal justice policies in California and across the country.
College Access Now - Empower students from low-income families to access, enroll, and graduate from college at rates equal to their more advantaged peers.
// TODO: Add more organizations
// TODO: Add organizations including Feet First, Transprotation Choices Coalition, Transportation Riders Union, and WA Environmental Council
// TODO: Add organizations
Downtown Emergency Service Center - The Downtown Emergency Service Center (DESC) works to end the homelessness of vulnerable people, particularly those living with serious mental or addictive illnesses. Through partnerships and an integrated array of comprehensive services, treatment and housing, we give people the opportunity to reach their highest potential.
Friends of Youth - Friends of Youth delivers a broad range of services to youth and their families to improve their emotional stability and self-sufficiency.
Hopelink - Hopelink's mission is to promote self-sufficiency for all members of our community; we help people make lasting change.
Plymouth Housing Group - Plymouth Housing Group works to eliminate homelessness and address its causes by preserving, developing and operating safe, quality, supportive housing and by providing homeless adults with opportunities to stabilize and improve their lives.
Washington Low Income Housing Alliance - The mission of the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance is to lead the movement to ensure that all our residents thrive in safe, healthy, affordable homes. We do this through advocacy, education, and organizing.
Walla Walla Alliance for the Homeless - We are a non-profit organization dedicated to recognizing and resolving the unmet needs of the homeless population of Walla Walla.
Kids in Need of Defense (KIND) - We provide pro bono attorneys to represent unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children in their deportation proceedings, as well as legal screenings, and Know Your Rights presentations.
Northwest Immigrants Rights Project - Immigrant Rights are Human Rights.
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project promotes justice through
defending and advancing the rights of immigrants through direct legal services, systemic advocacy, and community education.
OneAmerica - OneAmerica advances the fundamental principles of democracy and justice at the local, state and national levels by building power within immigrant communities in collaboration with key allies.
AFL-CIO - The AFL-CIO exists to represent people who work. The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations is an expression of the hopes and aspirations of the working people of America.
Change to Win - Through innovative organizing campaigns in the private-sector economy, we work every day to ensure that working and middle class Americans can use our strength in numbers to reclaim the American Dream – a good American job with good American benefits for everyone who wants it.
Puget Sound Sage - Our vision is a region that includes a robust economy in which all jobs provide working people the wages and benefits needed to grow and support a family. We believe that, regardless of race or status, people should have access to good jobs and dignity at work, as well as a clean environment and safe, affordable housing.
Washington State Labor Council - Widely considered to be the "voice of labor" in our state, the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, represents and provides services for hundreds of local unions throughout Washington state.
Working Washington - Working Washington is a statewide workers organization that fights to raise wages, improve labor standards, and change the conversation about wealth, inequality, and the value of work.
Gender Justice League - To empower trans activists and our allies to fight oppression based on gender & sexuality in Washington State and to create a community where trans people can live their lives safely, true to themselves, and free from discrimination.
Lambert House - Lambert House is a center for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning youth that empowers youth through the development of leadership, social and life skills.
YSPP - To reduce youth suicide attempts and deaths in Washington State.
ACLU-WA - The ACLU is the nation's premier organization dedicated to defending and expanding civil liberties and civil rights for all people in America.
ADL - Our efforts include investigating and exposing extremism, educating law enforcement regarding nuances of hate crimes, and handling victim complaints of anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination.
CAIR-WA - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group.
Military Religious Freedom Foundation - The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is dedicated to ensuring that all members of the United States Armed Forces fully receive the Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom to which they and all Americans are entitled by virtue of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
National Women's Political Caucus of Washington - Our mission is to identify, mentor, educate, and support women leaders in our community who demonstrate a commitment to Reproductive Freedom and Women's Economic and Social Equality.
YWCA Seattle | King | Snohomish - YWCA is on a mission to eliminate racism, empower women, stand up for social justice, help families, and strengthen communities. A regional leader for change since 1894, YWCA Seattle | King | Snohomish operates 30 program sites across two counties and serves 15,000 people each year.
Columbia Legal Services - Columbia Legal Services advocates for people who face injustice and poverty. We seek to achieve social and economic justice for all, using policy reform, litigation, and innovative partnerships to reveal and end actions that harm the communities we serve. Get Involved Pro Bono
Northwest Immigrants Rights Project - Immigrant Rights are Human Rights.
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project promotes justice through
defending and advancing the rights of immigrants through direct legal services, systemic advocacy, and community education.
Take a Pro Bono Case
Progressive Coders Network - We're building a sustainable network of volunteers: creating open-source tools for the progressive movement; helping progressive candidates compete without needing millions of dollars in funding; enabling them to champion a platform centered in social and economic justice without big money's influence.
SVP Seattle - Social Venture Partners does more than give money. We amplify the impact of those out to do good... our mission is to cultivate effective philanthropists and strengthen organizations driving community change – building powerful relationships that advance shared community goals.
TEALS - TEALS (Technology Education and Literacy in Schools) helps high schools build sustainable computer science programs by pairing trained computer science professionals – from across the tech industry – with classroom teachers to team-teach computer science in high schools throughout the US.
WashDems Tech Discussion - This is where WA Democrats Technology implementers can share best practices with their peers.