Rural Organizing Project is a state-wide organization that supports a multi-issue, rural-centered, grassroots base in Oregon. We work to build and support a shared standard of human dignity: the belief in the equal worth of all communities, the need for equal access to justice and the right to self-determination.
Mission
Our mission is to strengthen the skills, resources, and vision of primary leadership in local autonomous human dignity groups with a goal of keeping such groups a vibrant source for a just democracy.
History
ROP began as a response to the 1992 Oregon Citizens Alliance’s outrageous Abnormal Behaviors Initiative, which targeted gay and lesbian Oregonians for legalized second-class citizenship. ROP’s challenges to the anti-democratic right have earned us a national reputation for being an effective grassroots organization that takes on the tough issues. ROP began with 30 human dignity groups and is now a network of over 80 groups across 35 Oregon counties and one tribal community. See the full list of member groups here.
Our Community Organizing Center in Cottage Grove is home to our main office, but staff, local leaders, and Rural Organizing Fellows work and organize from their own communities across the state.ROP’s structure of autonomous groups both enables and requires our organization to focus on supporting and strengthening volunteer leadership to maintain the depth and breadth of work our network is engaged in. Today we are a small staff backed by hundreds of volunteer group leaders, thousands of supporters, Rural Organizing Fellows, interns, and office volunteers.
ROP’s programs are guided by three key principles:
- Every community matters
- Every issue is interconnected
- It’s all about transformational organizing
These three guiding principles can be seen throughout our work historically and today. During the 2007 Cost of War initiative, we held People’s Town Halls in Oregon’s four rural congressional districts, exposing the true financial and human cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. To save rural post offices in 2011, we worked with long-time organizers and newly inspired leaders to draw the connections between access to basic services, the defunding of public infrastructure, and privatization due to corporate greed.
This work continues today as we Foster Strong and Healthy Groups, Build Rural Leadership, Defend Human Dignity, Advance Democracy for All, and through our Rural Media Center.