What We Do

POWER's work is guided by our theory of social change which sees that those people who are most affected by the problems of society- low-income and working class people, people of color, women, queer and transgender people- must lead a movement of millions to eradicate those problems. By building power from the bottom-up, POWER is able to ensure that public policy and public institutions serve the interests of everyone.

Our work resolves around five components:

• Grassroots Organizing, including the Women Workers' Project, 
  the Bayview Organizing Project and Youth in Power.

• Leadership Development

• Campaigns

• Research and Analysis

• Movement Building

This dynamic model of organizing is a pathway to change. Since POWER's founding in 1997, we have waged and won numerous campaigns resulting in important victories, including:

• Winning free transportation for all welfare recipients in San Francisco;

• Forcing San Francisco's Department of Human Services to provide language interpretation and materials in multiple languages;

• Playing a lead role in creating San Francisco's Living Wage Ordinance in 2001, the most comprehensive living wage ordinance in the country; and

• Leading a community and labor coalition that succeeded in raising San Francisco's minimum wage from $6.75 to $8.50 per hour in 2004. This campaign also won annual adjustments to the minimum wage for increases in the Consumer Price Index. This victory increases the earning power of low-income workers and families by more than 180 million dollars.

• Work with the City to create a 500-slot apprenticeship program allowing workfare workers to transition into permanent, union jobs;

• Blocking the City's attempt to displace low-income home owners and residents by forcing them to subsidize the cost of a project to underground utility wires in Bayview Hunters Point. POWER convinced the City to increase funding by $750,000 for a program to help low-income home owners to pay for the beautification project;

• Pushing the City to create a Task Force to resolve violations of health and housing codes in public housing units;