Building the road to a thriving rural Oregon!
ROP is turning 30 years old and we’re gearing up for a full year of celebration, building rural power and strategizing for the next 30 years of rural organizing across Oregon! 2022 will mark the third decade since a grassroots network of rural human dignity groups joined together to fight a homophobic statewide ballot measure put forward by the Religious Right in 1992. Recognizing from the beginning that the struggle for LGBTQ+ liberation was (and continues to be) intertwined with the battles against racism, sexism, imperialism, and economic exploitation, human dignity groups decided to continue to work together as an ongoing network of rural freedom fighters even after they defeated Measure 9. Since then, we have built a network of more than 80 rural human dignity groups who push back against threats to democracy and organize toward a vision of communities where we can all live with safety, dignity, and justice!
ROP’s 30th Anniversary Campaign:
For 2022, we’re currently creating a traveling exhibit called Bridging Divides, Defending Dignity: 30 Years of the Rural Organizing Project, which many local groups are already gearing up to host in communities across the state. The exhibit will feature reproductions and original materials from ROP’s archives selected in collaboration with the ROP network, a kid-friendly interactive activity, and a feedback station so visitors can share the insights this fascinating history sparks for them!
Does your group want to host the exhibit? We’d love to send it to your community! By lifting up stories of rural organizing, the exhibit will create space for people to connect with each other, share their own memories and experiences of this important movement, and relate the past to our present moment while strategizing and dreaming together of the world we are building for future generations.
We’re also planning and supporting Living Room Conversations that are happening across the state to help us reflect on and celebrate our past work and wins, and to build our vision for a thriving rural Oregon.
We hope you will join us in celebrating 30 years and supporting our next 30 by:
- Making a personally significant donation today using the enclosed return envelope. We especially appreciate monthly sustaining donations we can count on!
- Working with your local human dignity group to host the 30th anniversary exhibit. Please reach out to us if you are interested!
- Inviting your friends to join you at the exhibit and in supporting ROP!
With your support, ROP will:
💗 Answer every call and prioritize the most rural and under-resourced communities for support!
💗 Provide a different and community-building story to counter the rhetoric and power-building of the far-Right as they try to build white supremacist movements, spread disinformation, and scapegoat rural folks of color for the economic crises our communities are experiencing.
💗 Offer food, resources and life-saving information to farmworkers at our Community Building Center in rural South Lane County and offer the Center as a resource and hub for local and statewide rural organizers.
💗 Fight to end deportation and detention across all of rural Oregon.
💗 Uplift and support young, rural Organizers through our Rural Organizing Fellowship.
💗 Support a network of more than 80 autonomous, rural human dignity groups working for justice, democracy and dignity in their own communities and collectively across the state.
💗 Produce media that is created by and for rural Oregonians. Support and share a vision of neighbors taking care of and standing up for each other – through COVID, wildfires, disinformation and more.
💗 Build a vision for a thriving rural Oregon and then organize together for the policies and resources that support that vision!
We can’t do all this vital work without your support – thank you for supporting our work today!
If you’re interested in ROP’s history and archives, you can contact us anytime at office@rop.org or by calling 503-543-8417. Thank you!
Questions?
For questions about supporting ROP, please contact us at any time at office@rop.org or by calling 503-543-8417. Thank you!