Our Story
Community Organizing Alliance (COA) is a newly created organization that seeks to center the experiences and voices of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) to be civically engaged and involved in their communities.
Founder and Executive Director, Safiya Khalid is a young, black woman who has both personal and professional experience in political spaces. From grassroots campaign organizing, youth leadership, community engagement, to holding public office, she has first-hand experience of what changes need to happen in order to build a people powered movement.
In recent years, we’ve been part of the call to re-envision a society that is just and fair, and that starts with our civic duty. Our goal as an organization is to bring marginalized communities together to create spaces that are safe, where people can be vulnerable, and that centers empathy, compassion, and care for each other's issues, challenges and struggles.
We envision a community that is united and empowered to fight and advocate for issues that are central to their daily lives and build a civic engagement movement that resonates with members. COA will accomplish these goals by focusing on relational organizing, deep canvassing, support systems, education around training and workshops. Ultimately, we hope and expect members to use these skills and knowledge to achieve change both at the grassroots and at the institutional level.
We need an organization that is by, for and led by people of color so that the voices and narratives of historically underrepresented groups are clearly present and at the table making change. In order to create a people powered movement, we need people like us to be part of the change and that starts with Community Organizing Alliance.