Juneteenth 2023

The Juneteenth Celebration held in Lewiston on June 20th was a resounding success! We are grateful to everyone who contributed to the event, from the community elders who prepared delicious food to our esteemed panelists, who are policymakers at both the state and local levels, as well as those working closely with the municipality.

March LEO cohort!

Youth from the Greater Portland area gathered to organize around housing, parking, after school youth programing and more! These youth were passionate, energetic to be involved and engaged in community!

COA at the State House!

Feb. 21st 2023
We had an incredible time at the Maine State House where we spoke with Senate President Troy Jackson, Secretary of State  Shenna Bellows, Senators and House Representatives while touring the State House and sat in the Appropriations Committee! Thank you to Maine Equal Justice for hosting us, excited to do these advocacy more often in the future! This was done and coordinated through our Community Advocacy Project in which we focus more action orientated advocacy and presence at the municipal and state house!

Tenant Rights Workshop

Feb. 10th 2023

In partnership with Maine Equal Justice, we held a workshop to tackle and answer all the  numerous housing concerns and needs. Since starting the LEO program, one of the biggest concerns was housing affordability, tenant rights, eviction laws, language barrier and more.  MEJ policy advocates were able to answer questions from community members but also discussed legislative policies!

The Start Summit: Social Innovation

Feb. 3rd 2023

The Start Summit: Social Innovation was a great success in Lewiston, thanks to the participation of the entrepreneurial community in Maine. This was an opportunity for the Lewiston-area community to transform ideas into prototypes. We appreciate the support from Lewiston Public Library and City of Lewiston for providing the space and support and Roux Institute for being a lead partner to make the event possible. It was a fun and interactive event that brought many individuals together!

LEO Jan. Cohort

Listening, Education, Organizing (LEO) program was held in Lewiston where we had 15 people from across Lewiston-Auburn participate in the three day training focusing on civic engagement, grassroots participation, focus groups and relationship building. This cohort was sponsored by Maine People’s Alliance! This cohort top issues were more equity and system change in schools, youth support/mentoring and concerns of violence and crime due to various issues happening in the city. For the next several months, COA and this cohort will find ways to take action and support one another addressing these issues.

Creating economic opportunity !

J.D Irving joined us to provide a workshop and discussion with community members around job opportunity, career exploration and the importance of using social media platforms for those seeking to broaden their professional network.

If you or your organization are interested discussing job/career opportunities within your company, please email us!

December Women’s Circle

We recently concluded our first women’s circle , centering the voices and experiences of BIPOC women to discuss reproductive health and preventative healthcare. This was made possible by our partner, Maine Family Planning. We intend to hold these gathering bimonthly or monthly depending on capacity.

COA partners with Bates- Interns

Hi! We are Kellen and Ethan, two sophomores at Bates college. The goal of our project is to implement a BIPOC Student Union in the Lewiston Middle School as a safe space for the students. We‘re working to try and be mentors for the children by working with the faculty, COA, and potentially the Harward Center.

My name is Maria Femia and I am a sophomore at Bates College. This semester I worked with COA on a marketing and advertising project. I used multiple platforms to create a newsletter, summarizing all of the work COA has done since May. I choose to work with COA because of their engagement with the community and commitment to their mission statement of investing in the people of Lewiston to change the landscape of their community! 

My name is Margaret Horvat from Philadelphia and I am a current senior at Bates College majoring in Rhetoric Film and Screen and minoring in History. I am working on a podcast highlighting the voices of LEO program participants and COA leaders as well as a research report on community based organizations for COA. I wanted to work with the Community Organizing Alliance because of its emphasis on empowering people to engage in their own communities.

November LEO cohort

The third LEO cohort was held in Portland sponsored by Androscoggin Bank! Although we had 15 spots available, we’ve had more than 24 people apply! The Listening session was well liked that we ended up continuing into the education session. During the focus groups, we’ve heard issues from affordable, sustainable housing, workforce development, a more inclusive, welcoming schools and more!

Evening for the Environment

Maine Conservation Alliance, the fiscal sponsor of Community Organizing Alliance (COA) held its Evening for the Environment event in Portland! Safiya Khalid, Executive Director of COA was invited to speak about the work COA is doing in the state and the story behind the creation of COA!

Civic Engagement & 2022 midterm election

One of the key principals and values of COA is to create an inclusive, just, equitable society that brings all people regardless of creed to engage socially and civically in their communities. We’re glad COA and it’s volunteers took part in voter turnout this election season!

There were over 30 volunteers who supported COA and engaged actively in the 2022 mid-term election! Thank you so much for all your efforts, passion and dedication!

COA Launch Party!

What an incredible gathering at the launch event of COA ! Friends, family, community members and supporters came to celebrate the launch of Community Organizing Alliance! Thanks to our sponsors for making the event possible and thanks to our community members who made variety of food!