DC Chapter

Below is a list of issues and resources active in 2017 in DC. Click on each name for more info. If you have any feedback, suggestions or more issues/resources/orgs to write about, or if your organization is listed and you would like us to remove/edit your info, please email responsibleconsumer1@gmail.com.

Crisis and Mediation Hotlines
Help Make a Difference Now
Public Housing, Unregulated Development and Gentrification
Policy Issues
Metro Issues
Organizations that Advocate and Campaign in DC
Resources
Events
Local Responsible Consumerism
Social Media to Stay Informed

Crisis and Mediation Hotlines

List is primarily from the Petworth Immigrants Rights & Police Accountability resourse list called, “Alternatives to Calling the Police: Washington DC“

***Always consider calling a hot before the police. Click to learn why***

Mediation: Community Mediation DC (240) 766-5311 M-F 9:00 AM – 8:00 PM Mediation offers a chance to listen and to be heard, to build relationships, and to develop your own solutions to your own conflict. Mediation works because when people develop their own solutions, these solutions last longer. Mediators are professionally trained volunteers who reflect the diversity of your community. Call or email communitymediationdc@gmail.com for more information.
Mental Health: Mobile Crisis Services (202) 673-9300 every day 9:00 AM – 1:00 AM Teams respond to adults throughout the District experiencing a psychiatric crisis. They provide crisis stabilization including dispensing medication, assessing for voluntary and involuntary hospitalizations, and link to other services such as crisis beds and substance abuse detoxification. The teams work with family members to help with follow up.
Human Trafficking: National Human Trafficking Hotline (888) 373-7888 24/7 200+ languages. A trained and experienced Anti-Trafficking Advocate will speak with you about your needs, your options, and the resources. Anonymously report tips, seek services, and ask for help.
Victim Support: DC Victim Hotline (844) 443-5732 24/7 by telephone, text, or online chat. The hotline provides comprehensive information, resources and referrals in D.C. to connect victims of crime to free resources and help them navigate the physical, financial, legal, and emotional repercussions of crime.
Sexual Assault: DC Rape Crisis Center Hotline (800) 656-4673 24/7 The Center, committed to the belief that all forms of oppression are linked, helps survivors and their families heal from the aftermath of sexual violence through crisis intervention, counseling, advocacy, community outreach, education, and legal and public policy initiatives. They will connect you to an advocate and other survivor resources.
Severe Heat or Cold: Hypothermia Shelter Hotline (800) 535-7252 24/7 They will dispatch a van equipped with water, blankets, gloves and jackets. When it is 32 degrees or below the van can take the person from the street to an emergency shelter or to a hospital if needed. When it is 95 degrees or above the van can transport the person to cooling centers. Transportation is always voluntary.
Runaway Support: National Run Away Safe Line 1-800-RUNAWAY 24/7 NRS provides education and solution-focused interventions, offers non-sectarian, non-judgmental support, respects confidentiality, collaborates with volunteers, and responds to at-risk youth and their families.

Help Make a Difference Now

Sanctuary DMV Accompaniment Project

Volunteering to accompany migrants to ICE check-ins, immigration, and other court hearings to prevent deportation

Fight food waste by becoming a Food Rescue US food runner
- app that coordinates volunteers to transport donated food to pantries
Petition: Demand justice for Terrence Sterling
Petition: Demand Mayor Bowser discipline officers who beat, arrested & overcharged inauguration day protestors
SUPPORT DC’S “SAVE GOOD FOOD AMENDMENT ACT OF 2017”
Say NO to Displacement! Brookland Manor Rally & Zoning Hearing
Fully Fund the NEAR Act
- The law, which passed the D.C. Council unanimously, was the product of a District-wide conversation around policing and public safety. The NEAR Act sought to establish a framework to ensure residents safety while also addressing police abuses.

Public Housing, Unregulated Development and Gentrification

A significant issue happening in DC is gentrification and unregulated development. Below are a list of housing campaigns

McMillan Redevelopment

Chinatown Museum Square Apartments

City Paper: Life Is Hell for Tenants of Giant D.C. Slumlord Sanford Capital

If you would to learn more about gentrification in DC follow these links

DC Gentrification Resources

Policy Issues

Affordable Housing

Animal Welfare Laws

Automatic Voter Registration (Passed! 11/2016)

Campaign Finance Reform

DC Carbon Tax

DC Estate Tax

DC’s Missing Teens: What’s True and What’s Not

D.C. Mayor Bowser creates a task force on missing children after a public outcry

DC Statehood Campaign

Food Apartheid

Food Waste

MPD Violence and White Supremacy

Paid Family Leave

Pay-to-Play

Universal Child Care

Urban Farming and Food Security Act of 2014

Welfare Extension

Metro Issues

DC Metro Board Proposal to Cut Late Night Service

Metro Safe Track Surge

Washington Post: Metro Sank into Crisis Despite Decades of Warnings

Organizations that Advocate and Campaign in DC

*Many of these organizations work in multiple categories

DC Vote and Autonomy Advocacy

DC Fair Elections Coalition
Working towards passing meaningful campaign finance reform in D.C.

DC Vote
Fights for DC equal representation and statehood

Democracy for DC
Working towards progressive local gov changes and DC statehood

Hands Off DC
DC group organizing to resist GOP attacks on DC Autonomy

Environmental Justice

Sierra Club DC Chapter Environmental Justice Committee (EJC)
Supports and leads community campaigns that address environmental inequality, championing local community leadership by urging diverse participation and strengthening environmental stewardship.

Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN)
Dedicated to educate and mobilize citizens of this region in a way that fosters a rapid societal switch to clean energy and energy-efficient products, thus joining similar efforts worldwide to slow and perhaps halt the dangerous trend of global warming

Rising Hearts
DC based women led/indigenous group, organizing & mobilizing on a variety of issues! We are devoted to empowering the people, defending our human rights, organizing and partnering with groups to elevate the voices and issues that the people are facing.

Fair Budget Advocacy

DC Fiscal Policy Institute (DCFPI)
DCFPI conducts research and public education on budget and tax issues in the District of Columbia, with a particular emphasis on issues that affect low- and moderate-income residents

Fair Budget Coalition
Advocates for a more socially just budget and public policy initiatives

General Advocacy

DC Action Lab
Worker-owned collective of experienced organizers for equity, justice, and sustainability to help with mass mobilizations and direct actions to long-term strategy and coalition building

D.C. Local Ambassadors
Volunteers who aid in logistics, organizing, and providing a warm welcome out of state protests

DC Child Care Collective
Provides childcare to parents involved in social justice activism in DC

The Emergence Community Arts Collective (ECAC)
Community first community center designed to rebuild social networks, empower people and organize around a common vision.

Jews United for Justice
Community Justice organizations mixed with Jewish values working in DC, Montgomery County, Baltimore, and beyond

Movement DC
The Movement is a grassroots activist group fighting for justice and democracy in the DC-area.

Takoma Park Mobilization
A coalition of working groups in the Takoma Park area working on a variety of social justice issues.

Washington Peace Center
An anti-racist, grassroots, multi-issue organization working for peace, justice, and non-violent social change in the metropolitan Washington D.C. area since 1963.

Historical Justice

Prologue DC
Washington based historians working on historical DC projects such as Mapping Segregation

Housing Advocacy

The Coalition for Nonprofit Housing & Economic Development (CNHED)
Fosters just and equitable community development solutions that address the needs and aspirations of low- and moderate-income District residents by convening, advocating, and educating diverse stakeholders

Housing For All Campaign
CNHED led campaign of nonprofit community development organizations in ensuring that residents with low and moderate incomes have housing and economic opportunities

Empower DC
Working to enhance, improve and promote the self-advocacy of low and moderate income DC residents, in order to bring about sustained improvements in their quality of life through organizing around Affordable Housing, Public Education, and community empowerment.

ONE DC
Community Justice organization around 3 areas: One Right to Housing, One Right to Income, and One Right to Wellness

Roots to Roofs
Resource website for housing programs and assistance in DC

The Way Home Campaign
The Way Home is a campaign to end chronic homelessness in the District of Columbia by 2017

Hunger and Food Systems Advocacy

DC Fair Food
DC’s local Student/Farmworker Alliance Fair Food Group – students, youth, people of faith and community members organizing in solidarity with the The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW).

DC Food Policy Council
The DC Food Policy Council is a coalition of stakeholders and government representatives who have come together to identify regulatory burdens on the local food economy, collect and analyze data on the food economy and food equity, promote positive food policies, and guide organizations and individuals involved in the food economy.

DC Hunger Solutions
Working to create a hunger-free community and improve the nutrition, health, economic security, and well-being of low-income District residents through policy, education and maximizing participation in all federal nutrition programs.

DC Greens
Working through education, access, and policy to increase DC’s equitable access to healthy food.

Fair Farms Maryland
Fair Farms is a movement of Marylanders working together for a new food system that is fair to farmers, invests in healthy food, & restores our waterways.

Immigration Rights

Auyda
Legal and social services help for immigrant

Capital Area Immigration Rights Coalition
Services include legal representation, educational outreach, impact and advocacy work, and the training of attorneys who defend immigrants in immigration and criminal justice

CASA
Advocacy for equal treatment and full access to resources and opportunities for low-income Latinos and other low-income immigrant communities.

Labor Advocacy

DC Jobs with Justice
DC Jobs with Justice is a dynamic coalition of labor organizations, community groups, faith-based organizations, and student groups dedicated to protecting the rights of working people and supporting community struggles to build a more just society

Employment Justice Center
Nonprofit focused on securing, protecting and promoting workplace justice in the D.C.

Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) – DC
Organizes to improve wages and working conditions for the nation’s restaurant workforce

Racism and Harassment Advocacy

Black Lives Matter DMV
Black Lives Matter DC is a collective of organizers, activists, and artists in DC who work to combat anti-blackness and racialized oppression in all of its manifestations as experienced by Black and African diasporic people

Black Youth Project 100 DC Chapter
Black Youth Project 100 is a member-based organization of Black 18-35 year olds, dedicated to creating justice and freedom for all Black people. We do this through building a network focused on transformative leadership development, non-violent direct action organizing, advocacy, and education.

Collective Action for Safe Spaces
Working to empower people in the DC metropolitan area to build a community free from public sexual harassment and assault.

WMATA Anti-Sexual Harassment Campaign
Safe Bars: Advocate against harassment in DC bars
RightRides DC: Free ride program for women & LBGTQ experiencing harassment

DC Trans Coalition
Volunteer, grassroots, community-based organization dedicated to fighting for human rights, dignity, and liberation for transgender, transsexual, and gender-diverse (hereafter: trans) people in the District of Columbia

Stop Police Terror Project DC
Working to change DC’s system of racist, militarized policing

Showing Up for Racial Justice DC (SURJ – DC)
SURJ-DC is the DC chapter of Showing Up for Racial Justice, a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial justice

Resources

Housing

DC Tenant Bill of Rights
Rights for tenants in DC

DC FIVE YEAR CONSOLIDATED PLAN: Fostering the Development of Strong, Equitable Neighborhood

DC’s five year plan to build equitable neighborhoods

DC for Reasonable Development: Fair Development Resources
Resources to understand and advocate for more fair development

DCFPI Areas of Research

Reports on topics effecting poor people in DC from housing, to education to budget etc.

The 1978 Residential Real Property Transfer Excise Tax

CNHED’s summary of the failed 1978 DC council temporary anti-speculation tax

Additional Information about anti-speculation tax

Food

CAFB The Food Bank Network
A comprehensive database search engine, created and maintained by the Capital Area Food Bank, to find a list of services nearest to you from food assistance, healthcare, job training, transit, etc.

DC Greens Food Policies
List of important food polices and legislation for DC

DC Hunger Solutions: D.C.’s Grocery Store Gap
Summary of the disparity of access for grocery stores in DC

Additional Food Access Articles
As D.C. prospers, supermarkets proliferate — except in poor areas
Life Expectancy In D.C. Differs Greatly By Race
DC is America’s “healthiest city,” but its African Americans are being left behind

DC Food Recovery Working Group Food Donation Map
Map of the nearest food pantries to donate to.

DUG Network
Database and newsletter for over 500 local organizations working in urban Ag, food security, food justice and environmental issues.

Activism

Washington Peace Center DC List of Resource Guides
List of amazing resource guides from Disability Rights to activism

Events

Office of the Tenant Advocate’s Annual Tenant And Tenant Association Summit
Yearly conference about Tenant rights

DC Food Justice Youth Summit
DC Youth Summit to build awareness about food justice issues, both nationally and locally, and how to advocate on these issues.

Afro-Ecology Series
The series is part discussion, political training, and a community- and movement-building exercise conducted by Black Dirt Farm Collective and hosted by Dreaming Out Loud, Soilful City, and THEARC Farm.

Rootscamp
RootsCamp is a gathering of progressive organizers from across issues and around the country who learn, celebrate, and grow together

DUG Network List of Annual Events
Annual events for Urban Ag, Food Security and Environmental Issues