Accomplishments

Since our founding in 1994 Community Voices Heard has continually won concrete improvements for low income communities.

Organizational

Educated 35,000 low-income people about their rights and how they relate to pertinent policy issues.
Contacted and mobilized over 12,000 voters in East and Central Harlem, South Bronx and Yonkers in over 50 electoral precincts.
Mobilized over 9,200 low-income people to take a step toward action, engaging injustices in their communities in a more critical way.
Developed the skills of 3,400 low-income people in organizing for social change through trainings in campaign development, power analysis and other tools necessary to successfully create change in their communities.
Empowered hundreds of members to take leadership roles in the organization.
Released ground-breaking reports on New York City's Welfare-to-Work programs (including WEP, POP, ESP and WeCARE) and Back to Work program.

Poverty Issues

Pushed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to create a new Deputy Mayor position to focus on Health and Human Services (HHS).
Got New York City to create the Commission for Economic Opportunity to focus on poverty and joblessness.

Welfare Reform Campaign

Worked with coalition partners to identify $20 million in stimulus resources from the Emergency TANF Contingency Fund.
Won a total of over $15 million in the NY State budget for the creation of statewide career pathways and $7 million for paid transitional jobs.
Got HRA to increase monitoring of the WeCARE program (a program for those with mental and physical barriers to employment) and encourage vendors to do more thorough assessments, train staff in spotting mental health challenges, and alert program participants about how to change appointments rather than getting sanctioned for not attending them.
Won positions for welfare recipients on the Human Resources Administration (HRA) Citizens Advisory Committee.
Got the City Council to pass the City Access to Training & Educate Law that allows welfare recipients to go to school.
Stopped a 25% benefit reduction in welfare grants & saved welfare for childless adults.

Building Workforce Development

Organized local elected officials to support Federal Community Jobs bill.
Pushed the City to create more than 20,000 plus paid transitional jobs for welfare recipients through a legislative and implementation campaign.
Assured that Department of Transportation (DOT) workers were rehired to finish out yearlong postings in the Parks when DOT let them go.
Got HRA Commissioner Robert Doar to expand the Parks Opportunity Program (POP) into the Department of Sanitation.
Secured an $18 million City Council appropriation for community-based programs to assist unemployed people to move into jobs.
Won extensions for some POP workers so that they could complete educational credentialing programs.
Stopped the privatization of the Parks Opportunity Program, which would have cut the wages of 3,500 workers by $2.00/hour.
Got the state to put create and then invest $70 million into a Wage Subsidy Program (WSP) for welfare recipients.
Got the Commission for Economic Opportunity (Mayor's poverty commission) to focus on the integration of the city's workforce development systems as a priority moving forward; and successfully inserted paid transitional jobs and CUNY/ SUNY access into the anti-poverty agenda.

Public Housing Campaign

Part of an effort to secure $4 billion in economic stimulus funds from the federal government for public housing through the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act.
Secured $3.5 million in funding for the NYC Housing Authority from the state for operating subsidies for the first time in ten years.
Stopped NYCHA from getting the Federal Moving to Work Waiver which would have potentially allowed them to privatize the buildings, add time limits for residence, and/or demolish public housing.
Pushed then-Governor Eliot Spitzer to sign the Shelter Allowance Bill which will provide $47 million annually for NYCHA’s operating budget.

Awards

2009 - Frederick Douglass Award, North Star Fund

The North Star Fund Frederick Douglass Award recognizes grantees making exceptionally innovative community-driven change. CVH and long-time ally and partner organization VAMOS Unidos received the award in 2009.

2009 - Distinguished Honoree, National Center for Law & Economic Justice

NCLEJ works to advance the cause of economic justice for low-income families, individuals and communities across the country. CVH Executive Director Sondra Youdelman was honored with Michael D. Fricklas, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Viacom, Inc. and John DeWitt Gregory, NCLEJ Board member and Sidney and Walter Siben Distinguished Professor of Family Law at Hofstra University.

2009 - American Express Building Leadership Award, Independent Sector

The American Express Building Leadership Award, formally known as the Leadership IS Award, is sponsored by American Express. The award, which was established in 1999, recognizes the importance of investing in leaders of the nonprofit community by celebrating an organization that embodies this principle in spirit and practice.

2001 - Leadership for a Changing World

Leadership for a Changing World seeks to recognize, strengthen and support leaders and to highlight the importance of community leadership in improving people’s lives. Awardees are provided with shared learning and networking opportunities; financial support for their work and; an opportunity to research how leadership is preceived, created and sustained.