Over the course of the 2020s, we’ve taken over streets and highways, filled email inboxes and voicemails, come together during moments of crisis, and fought for real and tangible change. That was only the beginning. With all manner of crises continuing to unfold, now remains as important a time as ever to build a movement for the long haul. A great way to do that: Join one of the incredible local organizations in the city and continue to be a part of the city-wide, statewide, and nationwide movements for true justice and liberation.
Multi-Issue Organizations
215 People’s Alliance
215 People’s Alliance is a multi-racial collaborative dedicated to fighting for equity and justice in Philadelphia – at the ballot box and in the streets. They are parents and neighbors, teachers and students, union members and block captains, cab drivers and cashiers, working to unite a broad sector of Philadelphians to make meaningful change.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Email info@215pa.com, or join their mailing list.
Black Lives Matter Philly
Black Lives Matter is a chapter-based, member-led organization. Their mission is to build local power and to intervene when violence is inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. Black Lives Matter is committed to struggling together and to imagining and creating a world free of anti-Blackness, where every Black person has the social, economic, and political power to thrive.
Specifications: This organization is for and by Black people.
How to join: Email blmphilly.crd@gmail.com and/or RSVP to attend one of their membership meetings.
Juntos
Juntos is a community-led, Latinx immigrant organization in South Philadelphia fighting for their human rights as workers, parents, youth, and immigrants. They are looking for folks to help support their political campaigns to end the criminalization-detention-deportation pipeline, work for educational justice and youth organizing, as well as support the Latinx community in South Philly through their direct aid initiatives.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Email Juntos at info@vamosjuntos.org or connect with them through social media.
One Pennsylvania
One PA is a multiracial, intergenerational and multi-issue membership organization. Their members are workers, students, parents, seniors, people with disabilities, and retirees excited to learn, collaborate, and build power together. One PA works within a broad coalition of labor, faith, and students’ organizations fighting to make powerful changes that transform our communities. At the center of their work is civic engagement, their members speak at school board hearings, lobby state representatives, deepen voter engagement in their neighborhoods and beyond.
Specifications: All are welcome. One PA’s mission centers folks directly impacted, so the more you are connected to the issues the better. Any knowledge or experience is helpful, but not required.
How to join: Register here to join the Political Committee, serving Southeastern Pennsylvania or email info@onepa.org.
People’s Strike
People’s Strike is a growing coalition of workers, community, and political organizations confronting the COVID-19 pandemic by struggling against inept and corrupt government and the forces of capital (banks, corporations, brokers, etc). that put profit before the people and the planet.
Specifications: Priority to Black and Indigenous people and other People of Color
How to join: Visit their Facebook page.
Philadelphia Neighborhood Networks
Philadelphia Neighborhood Networks, an independent progressive political organization, emerged from the city’s grassroots in 2004 and has grown to include activists throughout the City and into the suburbs. They work on two levels: issue advocacy and electoral politics. Neighborhood Networks works to advance progressive ideas and programs, and they identify and support political candidates who can turn those programs into legislation.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Fill out this form or email info@phillynn.org.
Philly Power Research
Philly Power Research is a group of volunteer researchers investigating the powerful organizations and individuals shaping Philadelphia. They believe that participatory research – where all people are engaged in asking questions about the power structure and seeking solutions to the issues they face in their communities – is a key component of a vibrant local movement for just social change. They partner on research projects with groups organizing for justice and equity at the ballot box, at their workplaces, and in the streets.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Email munira@littlesis.org
PSL Philly – Philly Liberation Center
The Party for Socialism and Liberation is a national working-class party of leaders and activists from many different struggles, founded to promote the movement for revolutionary change. Its Philadelphia Chapter, Philly Liberation Center, is a community hub for solidarity and political education staffed by volunteers.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Apply to Join the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Put People First! PA
Put People First! PA is a grassroots, statewide membership organization of poor, working-class and dispossessed people committed to fighting for human rights in the face of the plagues of inequality, racism, militarism and environmental devastation. Their long-term goal is to build a movement led by the most impacted people. One of their central tenets is we develop leadership across difference, meaning we include everyone—no distinction by race, gender, ability, age or any other source of division. They believe the working class divided cannot win. In the medium term, they fight for specific healthcare rights in PA. They support our sister organizations in struggles against racism, police violence and white supremacy.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: In Philly, please contact Iaan Reynolds, iaan.reynolds@gmail.com; in Montgomery County, please contact Jacob Butterly, jsjb.cwrite@gmail.com or Jen Cox, jenkwru@yahoo.com.
Reclaim Philadelphia Neighborhood Groups
Reclaim Philadelphia leads multiple issue-based and electoral campaigns and task forces. The neighborhood groups are local communities of Reclaim Philadelphia members, supporters and interested neighbors where everyone can learn more about their work citywide, build relationships with each other and suggest ways to organize hyper-locally to bring people power to our neighborhoods.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Register for a Neighborhood Group.
PA Debt Collective
The Pennsylvania Debt Collective is a membership organization working to transform our individual financial struggles into a source of collective power. Debt Collective offers services to empower people to dispute debts. Over the long term, they are conducting direct actions and campaigns of non-cooperation with the finance industry. They work toward broad debt cancellation while fighting for policies to end mass indebtedness, including free public higher education, universal healthcare, worker-owned businesses, fair wages for everyone, decarceration and reparations for racial justice.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Sign-up to be a member.
VietLead
VietLead is a grassroots community organization in Philadelphia and South Jersey that is creating a vision and strategy for community self-determination, social justice, and cultural resilience. They are staffed and led by community members with collectively over 25 years serving their community and are committed to working from love and solidarity. Their community programs include intergenerational farming, youth organizing, health navigation & healing, civic engagement and community defense. They do this through a Heal.Resist.Grow. framework that focuses a pathway to healing trauma in their communities, contesting for power to make systemic change, policy advocacy/campaign, and growing community-based solutions.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Fill out this form.
Policing and Criminal Justice Centered Organizations
Amistad Law Project’s Rapid Response Network
Amistad Law Project advocates for the recognition of the human rights of all people and believes in the intersection of movements against systemic oppression. They are prison abolitionists who view the prison industrial complex as directly related to the massive divestment from our communities and the things that make them safe and strong. Join their rapid response network to be notified about actions, events and other ways to fight for liberation.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Sign-up for the Rapid Response Network.
Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration
The Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration (CADBI) is a grassroots campaign to end life without parole sentences, otherwise called death by incarceration, in Pennsylvania. They believe that sentencing people to death by incarceration is a violation of human rights and an affront to the humanity of us all. CABDI is an all-volunteer effort.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Email cadbiphilly@gmail.com or cadbi-membership-committee@googlegroups.com.
Frontline Dads
Frontline Dads Inc. is a community based non-profit organization focused on social justice advocacy, criminal justice reform, and community empowerment via political education, economic development, violence prevention, mentoring, leadership development, mutual aid, and re-entry support in marginalized communities directly impacted by poverty, crime, violence, unemployment, addiction, and mass incarceration. Frontline Dads Inc. is an organization committed to fighting against racism and injustice while working to create social equity for marginalized communities.
Specifications: They are interested in people committed to ending mass incarceration and all of its collateral consequences. All are welcome to join, support, and/or participate.
How to join: To volunteer, or to get more information, email them at: frontlinedads@aol.com or call (484) 532-8773.
Participatory Defense Hubs
Participatory Defense (PD) is a community organizing model for people facing charges, their families, and communities to impact the outcome of cases and transform the landscape of power in the court system. PD Hubs tell stories about accused people’s entire personhoods, and help mobilize our communities to end mass incarceration. There are spaces for these hubs located in Kensington, North Philly, West Philly, and South Philly.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Visit their Facebook pages to find out more.
Reclaim Philadelphia’s Mass Liberation Campaign
The Mass Liberation campaign’s vision is to build the leadership of formerly incarcerated people and those otherwise impacted by the criminal legal system in pursuit of ending mass incarceration. Members work to transform the criminal legal system to center healing and accountability while also investing in programs that break the cycle of poverty and provide pathways to healthy and safe communities.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Sign-up to become a member.
Workers Rights Organizations
The National Domestic Workers’ Alliance – PA Chapter
The National Domestic Workers Alliance – PA Chapter exists to build power, recognition, and respect for nannies, house cleaners, and caregivers, beginning with the 16,000 domestic workers in Philadelphia. They are a chapter of the National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), the nation’s leading voice for dignity and fairness for the millions of domestic workers and home care workers in the United States, most of whom are women.
Specifications: NDWA-PA is looking for house cleaners, nannies, and caregivers in PA, but allies and supporters are also welcome.
How to join: Email marissa@domesticworkers.org
Housing + Health Centered Organizations
ACT-UP Philadelphia
ACT UP is a non-partisan group committed to ending the AIDS crisis through direct action. Since its inception, ACT UP has used a diversity of direct action tactics to address social inequities that threaten people living with HIV/AIDS and those at risk of infection, both in Philadelphia and around the world. They continue to strive to end the AIDS crisis within the context of ending health disparities that are a clear result of inequality and injustice.
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Visit their Facebook page.
Reclaim Philadelphia’s Housing Taskforce
Reclaim Philadelphia believes that home is a human right, and they’re holding our elected leaders accountable to ensuring that everyone in the city has access to a safe, accessible and affordable home wherever they choose to live! They are organizing campaigns to fundamentally transform renter’s rights (including winning rent control) as well as radically transform homeless services. Join them for their biweekly call to get involved & learn how you can join their campaign work!
Specifications: All are welcome
How to join: Sign-up to become a member.
Women’s Community Revitalization Project
The Women’s Community Revitalization Project (WCRP) is committed to social and economic equity for low-income women and their families. They develop affordable housing; provide supportive services; advocate for policy change; and honor and promote leadership, dignity, and justice in local communities.
Specifications: Priority to people who have experienced housing insecurity
How to join: Contact WCRP and attend their next monthly meeting.
If you are part of a community organization that would like to be added to this list please reach out to us at admin@pwr.tadpole.cc.