Activist Group : Valley VOICE Raised by 15 Congregations

About 1,200 church and synagogue members, who joined hands and chanted “raise our voice,” inaugurated a broad-based organization Tuesday night committed to improving the quality of life in the San Fernando Valley.

Organizers of VOICE, for Valley Organized in Community Efforts, said the group’s immediate goal will be to develop programs to stop blatant drug dealing outside homes and liquor sales to minors, and get rid of abandoned cars on their streets.

The organization eventually will get involved in transportation issues and will develop programs to battle gang problems and fight religious and racial discrimination, organizers said.

At VOICE’s first meeting at the Cal State Northridge Student Union, organizers said the group has a membership of 20,000 families from Pacoima to Tarzana. That number is derived from the memberships of the 15 participating churches and synagogues, organizers said.

“Our individual, isolated voices have not been heard; there are many special interests in the San Fernando Valley, but no organization that would embrace us all,” said Father Paul Waldie, pastor of St. Ferdinand Catholic Church in San Fernando. “Tonight we come together to say that from this day forward our voices will be heard.”

$187,000 Budget

The organization has an initial budget of $187,000, which organizers said will be used to hire professional organizers, open an office and send members to leadership training courses. Most of the budget comes from annual membership dues--ranging from $500 to $7,000, depending on the size of the congregation. The rest is derived from grants from nonprofit organizations, including the Campaign for Human Development, a Catholic charity.

VOICE was endorsed Tuesday night by Archbishop Roger M. Mahony of the Los Angeles Roman Catholic Archdiocese; Rabbi Paul Dubin, executive vice president of the Southern California Board of Rabbis, and Bishop Jack Tuell of the United Methodist Church.

“You represent thousands of different races, incomes and neighborhoods,” Mahony said. “And you have decided to stand together. . . .”

With support rooted in religious congregations, VOICE adds a new dimension to grass-roots activism in the Valley, where residents have long organized in homeowner associations to deal with issues such as development, crime and transportation.

VOICE is the fourth such broad-based organization of church memberships in Los Angeles County. Others include the East Los Angeles-based United Neighborhood Organization, the South Central Organizing Committee and the East Valley Organization in San Gabriel and Pomona Valleys.

The Valley group lauded their “allies” in other parts of the county whose confrontational tactics have pressured politicians and business owners to clean up supermarkets, tighten city laws on liquor stores, reduce Eastside auto insurance rates and secure $1 million in surplus Olympic funds for youth sports programs.

The Industrial Areas Foundation, a nonprofit foundation of professional community organizers, helped to set up each of the four groups. The foundation was founded by the late Saul D. Alinsky, a social reformer and labor organizer.

VOICE organizers said congregations will begin meeting today in committees to pinpoint the locations of unswept streets, drug dealing and problem liquor stores, organizers said.

VOICE plans to hold another mass assembly in about 4 months when politicians and business people will be publicly asked to get involved in solving the problems.

“We will attempt to take on issues we can handle,” Waldie said. “We will not take on the drug problem as a whole, but maybe the drug problem at one neighborhood park or problems at one particular liquor store.”

It took VOICE more than 3 years to garner the support of the 15 congregations because some Valley churches and synagogues were reluctant to join a vocal social movement, organizers said.

With an initial $27,000 donation from the South Central Organizing Committee, the pastors of three large Roman Catholic churches--Santa Rosa, St. Ferdinand and Mary Immaculate, all in the predominantly Latino northeast Valley--were the first to push for creation of the group.

It was not until several synagogues and Protestant churches in the West Valley joined that the group began a series of “house meetings” to come up with a list of goals.

Other congregations enlisted in the organization are: the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation Council, Canoga Park; El Mesias Methodist Church, Pacoima; Kirk o’ the Valley Presbyterian Church, Reseda; Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Church, Sun Valley; Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church, Canoga Park; St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, Reseda; St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church, Canoga Park; Sol del Valle Christian Reformed Church, Sun Valley; Temple Beth Hillel, North Hollywood; Temple Judea, Tarzana, and United Methodist Church, San Fernando.