Founded in 1980 with a mission to empower the disenfranchised of the southwest to realize racial and gender equality and social and economic justice, SWOP is the oldest, largest and most successful social justice grassroots organization in the region. As a community based statewide membership organization that does direct community organizing, we work to build leadership in communities of color by organizing low-income families to impact the decisions that affect their lives and futures both on the local and statewide level.We organize people, not problems or issues. We use the issues and problems facing low income families as a vehicle to do political education and leadership development. As part of the process, family members who work to transform their community also undergo a level of transformation that leaves them ready and willing to advocate for social change. We organize on the local neighborhood level in order to strengthen our advocacy work on the statewide level. We place particular emphasis on providing resources to youth and children as part of our long term strategic plan and our intergenerational model. This emphasis is evident in our organization: our past and current Executive Director as well as three former and one current staff members began their involvement in SWOP as youth interns.SWOP works for environmental health and justice, economic justice and corporate accountability, and youth rights throughout New Mexico. We recognize that low income families need resources, training and experience to organize around their concerns and to make systemic changes. This includes organizing to change policies, encouraging full participation in the decision making process and developing accountable leadership.Our recent successful efforts include: raising the state minimum wage to $7.50; enacting a system of public financing of elections in the City of Albuquerque; expanding access to health care for uninsured families; reinvesting millions of taxpayer dollars into social services that would have gone toward corporate subsidies; enacted stricter environmental regulations aimed at protecting low income and families of color and made schools safer by limiting the presence of firearms carried by law enforcement officers. SWOP has also been a leader locally, regionally and nationally in building a movement of low income and people of color at the forefront of creating social change in this country. In addition to helping start many local organizations in New Mexico, SWOP was instrumental in the founding of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice, Grassroots Global Justice and the Pushback Network. Additionally, SWOP has played a critical role in national movement building efforts including the First People of Color Summit on the Environment held in Washington D.C. in 1991 as well as the first U.S. Social Forum held in Atlanta in 2007. SWOP has been recognized as a national leader in the areas of environmental justice, corporate accountability, civic participation, youth organizing and generational change.
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