This year’s theme? Power in numbers,” said Community Voices Heard executive director Juanita Lewis, as she launched the New York State organization’s “Summer of Power” campaign at their Bronx headquarters on July 19.
CVH members from all four of the organization’s chapters – in New York City, as well as Westchester, Dutchess and Orange Counties – gathered to chart a shared course to expand their membership and push back at the state level against the Trump administration’s budget cuts to health, housing and food aid.
At the gathering, CVH’s members collectively committed to conduct more than 300 one-to-one conversations and over seventy doorknocking shifts across the state, and to recruit over a hundred new members.
The organization also had reasons to celebrate, with the primary wins of endorsed candidates in Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, and New York City – with multiple candidates to the city council and the leading candidate for mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
On August 5th in Yonkers, they participated in National Night Out, where they engaged community members about how to improve public safety and expand access to community resources.
Then on August 13th, they rallied in Manhattan’s Foley Square, along with fellow People’s Action member groups VOCAL-NY and Citizen Action of New York and allies, to demand state lawmakers defend New Yorkers from the Trump administration’s planned deep cuts to essential services.
