Dear ROPnet,
As we wrap up 2024 and reflect on all that we accomplished together as the 91 Human Dignity Groups that make up ROP, we want to highlight some inspiring victories of rural Oregonians.
The 2024 Annual Report is now on our website here, and you can also read the full report below.
We are grateful to the leaders who are building strong and resilient rural communities across Oregon! You can support our work building the rural movement for democracy and human dignity today by donating online at rop.org/donate or by mail at PO Box 664, Cottage Grove, OR 97424!
Warmly,
Sam and the ROP Team
FOSTERING RURAL LEADERSHIP
150 rural community leaders from 27 counties came together in Woodburn for our 33rd annual Rural Caucus and Strategy Session, where we celebrated our movement history with longtime partners Capaces Leadership Institute and PCUN, Oregon’s farmworker union.
After training nearly 200 people in Strategic Messaging 101, we launched the Rural Roots Rising Communications Cohort to help leaders deepen their skills and support one another in media creation.
ROP partnered with Hood River Latino Network to open the Immigrant Help Center in Hood River!
ADVANCING DEMOCRACY
In Deschutes County, local organizers and ROP jumped into action to prevent election interference by People’s Rights, a far-right paramilitary organization, during the May primary. Across the state, groups talked to their neighbors about the issues, opposed threats and intimidation, and spread information about the Our Vote election protection hotline.
ROP hosted 14 Defend Democracy Living Room Conversations with participants representing 20 counties. One Josephine County participant reflected:
“One of the biggest things that happened is that ROP named some pillars of democracy and asked what we are already doing to protect democracy, and then we did some visualizations into the future, and I found I had so many more ideas and thoughts and there was a different quality to the conversation than me at home listening to the news […]”
25,000 STAND (Small Town Actions for New Democracy) Election Guides were distributed in all 36 Oregon counties.
In the 2024 legislative session, groups in every region of the state organized with their neighbors to pass powerful bills, including investments in Employment Related Day Care (ERDC), homelessness prevention, and restorative justice.
JOY & DIGNITY FOR ALL
We’re reaching more people than ever with Know Your Rights information and resources in their native languages using our Facebook pages, “Hood River Latino Network” and “Proyecto de Organización Rural”, which shares videos in Mam.
The Mam community is one of the most targeted for detention and deportation in the state.
Rural leaders centered joy and community building in their organizing to connect with their neighbors and help keep temperatures low during election season. Human Dignity Groups hosted Prides and Juneteenths, fair booth games, and summer festivals.
Rural leaders centered joy and community building in their organizing to connect with their neighbors and help keep temperatures low during election season. Human Dignity Groups hosted Prides and Juneteenths, fair booth games, and summer festivals.
Dozens of groups across rural Oregon rallied, lobbied, fundraised, and organized to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, reproductive rights, and more!
ROP supported 52
Oregonians in accessing the Oregon Worker Relief Fund.
WHO IS THE RURAL ORGANIZING PROJECT?
More than 90 Human Dignity Groups and thousands of community leaders working together to advance democracy in small-town and rural Oregon.
Click here for a complete list of groups.
