About Us

CHANGE stands for Communities Helped by Americans Nurturing Grassroots Education.

CHANGE is a nonprofit, non-partisan, community-based organization. CHANGE is founded and led by volunteers. It is an independent organization, not part of any political party, campaign, or special-interest group. CHANGE is non-partisan in that it welcomes members and ideas from across the political spectrum. CHANGE is politically active and encourages everyone to become active participants in their communities.

Our Mission

CHANGE is dedicated to open, accountable, and transparent government of, by, and for the people. CHANGE empowers people to influence their governments by elevating public awareness of political and governmental processes and by fostering civic and political engagement.

CHANGE seeks to achieve its mission by:

1. Educating the public on political and governmental processes;
2. Developing grassroots leaders through training on community organizing principles;
3. Collecting and sharing information on other political, civic, and issue-focused organizations;
4. Connecting people and organizations that share common interests;
5. Advocating for new public policy that supports our mission; and
6. Mobilizing communities to achieve more open, accountable, and transparent governments.

CHANGE is a community organizing group. CHANGE works by nurturing grassroots political activity, civic engagement, and community involvement. We teach the community organizing techniques that originated in Chicago under the leadership of Saul Alinsky and were the foundation of the Obama for American campaign. CHANGE empowers individuals to help their communities by teaching people how to organize, develop relationship networks, and participate in their government and the political process. CHANGE welcomes members of all political parties and activists from other non-profit and community service organizations.

CHANGE’s approach begins at the local level. In your city, town, or township, you have the greatest opportunity to interact directly with your elected leaders. You can attend local meetings and events and speak to them face-to-face. You can volunteer for appointed positions, such as the Planning Board or Environmental Commission. Our organization promotes change from the bottom up, and we support the notion that "ordinary" people can rise to any occasion to accomplish "extraordinary" things.

CHANGE encourages participation in political parties, local government, and other community organizations. CHANGE will serve as a clearinghouse and "connector" for individuals and organizations that share objectives and common ground. We have developed an Events page and will post a variety of community service, government, and political events. CHANGE will establish a broad network of relationships, at both the personal and organizational level, so that we can help make the introductions and connections that lead to successful partnerships and collaborative efforts.