Arise for Social Justice
Arise for Social Justice was founded 30 years ago by women on welfare. Over the next ten years, we expanded our definition of ourselves: first, to become a poor people’s rights organization, and second, to organize low-income people to fight oppression in all its manifestations. We have always located ourselves in the heart of the inner city, among the city’s poorest people, and the issues we take on are those that affect poor people either solely or, that while everyone is impacted, poor people are affected the most.
Today, Arise for Social Justice is a member-led community organization dedicated to defending and advancing the rights of poor people. Arise has worked on issues such as housing, homelessness, criminal justice, environmental justice, and public health.
Our mission is to educate, organize, and unite low income people to know what our rights are, to stand up for those rights, and to achieve those rights; to educate the community at large as to its common interest in social justice for all; to promote involvement in the electoral process, to develop self-esteem, and to teach ourselves to fight oppression in all its manifestations.