We are all leaders.
Our Belief:
When people join together around a common purpose they can accomplish great things through planning and action.
Our Vision:
We envision an Arkansas and nation where every person has access to affordable healthcare, secure housing, a livable income, and a nurturing community.
Our Method:
We are a grassroots organization that brings low-income and working families to together to fight for social and economic justice. We believe that those who are most directly affected by policies or problems are the ones who can speak most powerfully about the need for change, by sharing their experiences and leading successful campaigns for system change. We build community among those who need better healthcare coverage, or healthier housing, or more services in their communities.
At Arkansas Community Organizations, we help:
build communities around problems that need to be solved,
develop an action plan for creating the change communities need,
train people on how to share their stories to make the case for change,
bring that case to those with the power to make changes through direct action campaigns, and
stand together with persistence and hold those in power accountable until we get the changes we need.
From the Chief Organizer Blog
Don’t wait for change to happen. Make the changes you want.
Our History
At its peak, ACORN was the most effective grassroots organizing network for low-income people in America, with a People’s Agenda that developed community leaders to win victories on housing, workers’ rights, education, representation, healthcare, and other issues. Many of our local leaders cut their teeth learning community organizing under the ACORN model. We were the Arkansas chapter of ACORN.
After the fall of ACORN due to attacks by the far right as well as internal strife, community leaders in Little Rock and Pine Bluff officially incorporated Arkansas Community Organizations on December 7, 2009.
With few resources, ACO has continued to make a difference for low-income and working families in Arkansas.
See OUR IMPACTS.
Our Organizing Philosophy:
Build New Leadership: the people most impacted by injustice should be leading the charge.
Tie National and Local Organizing Together: sometimes a unified voice can move us forward toward social justice. This is why ACO partners with the Center for Popular Democracy and other local organizing groups across the U.S.
Register and Engage Voters: Politicians need to be accountable to ALL their constituents.