About
In a nutshell
United Today, Stronger Tomorrow is an organizing project founded by longtime movement leader Paul Getsos with Community Change, a national racial and economic justice advocacy organization. UTST, in partnership with grassroots leaders and organizations in communities across the country, identifies opportunities to create and/or strengthen on-the-ground organizing and build power that can be used to directly improve the lives of Americans.
Mission
At our core, we are building movement and organizing infrastructure in communities where there is little of both – but where there are local leaders who need and want support. We do this to address the most pressing issues of the day as defined by the communities in which we work; and, as a result, restore diminishing faith in the power of Democracy and Democratic Institutions to address existential threats like climate change and globalization. Simultaneously, and with equal energy, we are incubating, developing, and testing innovative hybrid digital to offline organizing strategies and tactics, and sharing them broadly across the greater movement universe, including the training of hundreds of organizers across the country.
Vision
Currently, we are working in the Plains (SD, Western IA, and exploratory work in NE) and the Intermountain West (CO, UT and currently expanding into MT). Across all of our projects, communities share concerns about government accountability and transparency, the workforce crisis in the face of historic job creation, affordable housing, healthcare, K-12 education, and family supports like childcare and eldercare. Specific to the Plains are issues connected to manufacturing, agriculture, ranching, and farming. Specific to the Intermountain West, are issues related to clean air and water, sustainability as a result of population growth, the transition from a fossil fuel economy to clean energy, and drought.
Principles
Embedding our work in local communities and issues. The key to building movement and organizing infrastructure in our regions is to focus on bread and butter issues that people can understand and on which all elected officials must deliver.
Being guided by a local power analysis and being informed by the existing movement ecosystem. A one-size-fits-all approach to building local movement and organizing infrastructure does not work. Each region, state, and community is different.
Building economies of scale through a robust and innovative integration of digital and relational organizing rooted in a regional strategy. We must bring more people into the work to address the biggest challenges of our times. The integration of digital and relational organizing allows us to reach more people more meaningfully in a shorter amount of time. A regional strategy is imperative because issues, populations, politics, relationships, and, in the case of Native American communities, natural resources, cross state lines.
Remaining lean and nimble. Operating nimbly is closely tied to retaining a lean and productive operation. We have found that decentralized structures and distributive models of organizing, funding, decision-making, and campaign building work best.