our Purpose

Electoral campaigns are powerful. With short-term, high-stakes outcomes, they galvanize organizers to go out into their communities to talk with thousands of their neighbors. They knock on doors and leave informational literature, they make phone calls and send text messages, they table at events and gather signatures, and they run social media campaigns. Elections represent rare peaks in awareness and engagement in civic processes. And the energy surrounding them brings people together around the issues they care about most.

Progressive electoral candidates often say “the fight’s not over on election day,” but the powerful movements that propel progressive candidates into office tend to go dormant between election cycles. C4C is bucking that trend by building a civic engagement machine that operates 52 weeks a year, every year, to advance a transformative political agenda in Oakland. In doing so, we are creating a replicable model for increased participation in local governance. 

C4C builds off of the power and relationships created during Carroll Fife’s 2020 City Council Campaign, where community members were inspired and united by her platforms: housing as a human right; divesting from policing to investing in community; climate and environmental justice for all; and taxing corporate wealth to increase city revenue. We know that one elected official can’t solve all the problems, and that city hall is not where all problems can be solved. Using the on-the-ground, person-to-person tactics of electoral campaigns, C4C works with District 3 residents and neighborhood organizations to build sustained community engagement to implement the solutions we want to see.

C4C is a multi-racial organization committed to organizing with all of the incredibly diverse constituencies in District 3. Because of the historical significance of the Black community in District 3, the ongoing mass displacement and disenfranchisement of Black people from District 3 neighborhoods, and our origin story in Carroll Fife’s campaign for City Council, C4C is committed to following Black leadership and prioritizing the needs of the Black community. All of our programming is aligned with the Black New Deal and Community Ready Corps’ Black Solidarity Process.