We’re coming to a town near you
People are starting to make change.
This summer and beyond, The Connecticut Project is knocking on doors, talking to people, and jump-starting neighborhood conversations about the things that people most care about in our communities. We’re starting off in Waterbury and New Britain, and we’ll soon be in every corner of the state. Here’s why.
The Connecticut Project aims to advocate for and create big, lasting, positive changes that enable low-income people to thrive. And we want to do this in a real way, by forcing elected officials and others to really listen to low-income people about what communities need. Too often, people in power don’t take advice straight from the source, but from their own ideas and assumptions about low-income people. We’re building up a statewide network of community leaders and power to change that.
That’s why we’re doing “deep listening:” showing up consistently and intentionally, and listening deeply and forming real relationships, to activate and amplify people. This goes beyond the conventional door-to-door campaigning and focuses on delving into the heart of a community (at times, one they’re already part of themselves) to build trust, and truly understand the experiences and challenges people face. By being a reliable, trusted presence and having meaningful conversations, our field organizers are making connections that become the foundation for everyone to make change together.
One of the biggest challenges and strengths of this approach is that we’re not knocking on doors for a candidate or even a specific cause. Instead, we’re asking people to come together to identify, together, what they care about most. When a conversation starts with a candidate or specific cause, it doesn’t often leave enough space for the power of individual stories about what people really want.
Through deep listening, community members control the narrative. They decide what we talk about at the door and in neighborhood meetings, how we build a relationship, and what the focus of our future conversations should be. Organizing work should be focused on uplifting the problems of community, not leveraging the community to lean into problems they don’t actually see day to day. We’re having open-minded conversations so all of us can learn and act together.
At the end of the day, the goal is to build powerful neighborhood action groups across the state, led by people in those neighborhoods, who are speaking truth to power about low-income people’s needs.
We all know unspoken leaders in our communities, and how powerful our neighborhoods are, especially when we have support. Community leaders are stewards of information for people on their street or block and are the connective tissue who keep neighbors informed and active. The north star of The Connecticut Project’s deep listening effort is to develop a pipeline of these leaders in communities across the state by supporting them, connecting them together, and amplifying them to people in power.
This is a long-term commitment to communities. The key to successful deep listening is continued presence. Trust is going to take a lot of time to earn, and it won’t happen in a first or even second conversation. It takes time, it takes back and forth, it takes work, and it takes follow-through on the promises we make.
In Waterbury, people are just starting to come together for neighborhood conversations about what change we can make together. So far, we’re talking about rent and housing, transportation challenges, and creating opportunity for youth. People are fired up and making connections, and we’re excited about what’s next.
Our mission is to empower people take back their power and realize the potential of what active and engaged democracy looks like. This isn’t easy task, but we are committed to doing our part, learning with and from everyone we meet, and working together toward a better future for all.
