CLOUT

Citizens of Louisville Organized and United Together

Mission

Our mission is to build a strong, grassroots community organization, composed of diverse religious congregations within low- to moderate-income communities of Louisville and Jefferson County. The organization will be a vehicle for positive action, empowering us to act together on our own behalf to negotiate the interests and issues of our communities.

Past Accomplishments

Since our beginning in 1991, CLOUT has accomplished much in terms of community empowerment and improvement. We have brought together hundreds of persons from many different religious denominations, different areas of the community, and different races, to work together on issues of common concern. Just a few of the specific community improvements won by CLOUT are as follows:

• We got the Louisville Department of Public Works to make improvements in several dangerous traffic locations (installation of a stoplight, removal of trees, installation of signs, stripes, reflectors, etc.) that resulted in fewer traffic accidents.
• We got TARC, the local bus service, to install 6 bus shelters up and down Dixie Highway where there were none, so that people no longer have to stand out in the rain and snow to wait for a bus.
• We got the narcotics department of the Louisville Police to make over 150 arrests of drug dealers in the California neighborhood, which cleaned up the open street sales of drugs in that area.
• We got the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) to develop a program of supervised suspensions, so students on suspension would not simply be out in the community during the school day getting into trouble and falling further behind on their schoolwork.
• We got the JCPS to implement Direct Instruction (DI) reading curriculum in struggling elementary schools; the result is that several of the most struggling schools in the county showed dramatic improvement, and thousands more school children are reading at grade level.
• We got the Housing Authority of Louisville to commit to replace one-for-one the 728 public housing units that are being demolished for the redevelopment of the Clarksdale Housing Development, meaning that our city will not lose any badly needed affordable housing units.
• We got the Family Health Centers to hire more bilingual interpreters, translate key documents into Spanish, and have all their 270 employees participate in cultural sensitivity training, resulting in improved access to health care for the growing Hispanic community.
• In 2004, we initiated the effort to get an Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) established in Louisville Metro to address the serious lack of affordable housing in the city, and worked with several local organizations to finally get it established in 2008. We also worked with organizations across the state to get an ongoing dedicated source of public revenue for the existing state AHTF.
• In 2007, we won several changes in the criminal justice system to create more of a focus on drug/alcohol treatment in order to stop the "revolving door" of the system; they included doubling the size of the Drug Court program, providing more training for local judges and for all probation & parole staff statewide, and establishing a new drug treatment program in the local jail.

Year End Report

• Child Health Issue:
  In March 2008, at our Nehemiah Action Assembly, attended by over 1,150 of our constituents, we won a commitment from 13 different state & local health officials to enroll 6000 more children in Medicaid & KCHIP in the next three years, in order to deal with the problem of children falling through the cracks of the healthcare system.
• Listening Process & Issue Selection:
  In fall 2007, CLOUT conducted a grassroots listening process involving over 400 persons in House Meetings all across the city, creating a 60% increase in the number of Justice Ministry Network Members in member congregations.
• Leadership Training:
  Over the past year we have trained 244 leaders in various local training sessions and sent 19 leaders to national DART training.
• Fundraising:
  CLOUT's 2007 Support Drive raised over $112,000, which included investments from 29 corporations, 14 small businesses/organizations, and 210 individuals.

Current Membership

CLOUT's membership consists of 16 member congregations representing a broad range of inner-city, suburban, and downtown locations. Denominations represented in CLOUT to date include: A.M.E., Catholic, Pentecostal, Baptist, United Methodist, and United Church of Christ.

Benefits to Membership

• Be a part of an effective vehicle for living out the biblical commandment to do justice (Micah 6:8; Amos 5:24; Matthew 23:23; et al.)
• Solve critical community problems by winning concrete, systemic changes
• Develop skills to be effective leaders in the public arena
• Build relationships with people from other traditions, communities, and backgrounds

Contact Info

CLOUT Office
1113 S. 4th Street
Louisville, KY 40203
(502) 583-1267