SOMOS Mayfair’s 2023-2028 Strategic Plan represents our collective vision and focus areas for the next 5 years as we work to build power in our neighborhood.
Our In Our Hands campaign, spanning the last decade, brought our Promotor model, our commitment to popular education, and a wealth of community-driven projects that blossomed in our neighborhood. Today we expand on this work with a sharper analysis of the larger racial and economic systems at play and a deep leadership base trained and ready to fight back. Now that we’ve learned to harness our power, we are positioned to Build Our Home as a place where we will organize, heal, laugh, learn and build together for generations to come.
The plan is laid out as a set of strategic goals and milestones that were co-created over a 10-month process with staff, community, Board and partner input. It grounds us in our core organizational competencies, responds to the real needs of our community, and looks forward towards our vision of a more vibrant East San José.
Strategic Goal 1
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Strategic Goal 1 ·
La vivienda es un derecho humano, hagámoslo realidad
People of Mayfair and the Eastside have access to affordable and dignified housing. Our communities and neighborhoods are thriving because people can stay in their homes, collectively control the places they live, and continue to nurture their roots and traditions.
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· We’ve launched alternative community-controlled housing projects in East San José, by responsibly stewarding the land and taking properties off the speculative market, to care for living systems and our health.
· There is a robust and thriving preservation ecosystem in East San José including strong partnerships
· We’ve passed policies that fight displacement
· Tenants are organized
· We’ve shifted culture and public narrative through popular education to establish community-owned properties as a proven solution
· Community and partner education, including environmental justice and land stewardship
· Within our Collective, we’ve shifted our understanding and see housing as a basic human right
Strategic Goal 2
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Strategic Goal 2 ·
Gobernanza comunitaria en acción
SOMOS is governed by our Collective and we have strong decision-making practices. We have personal and community autonomy on the issues that affect us to get solutions that our community needs to protect current and future generations.
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· We have clarity on who is a part of the SOMOS Collective, and what it means to belong and tied to our governance
· We have clear decision-making structures and processes in SOMOS and we utilize them for decision-making
· We continue exploring different electoral governance strategies and our organizational infrastructure needs
· Our Collective is represented in external decision-making spaces on our issues
· We have strong political education spaces and partnerships that center community to take part in governance
Strategic Goal 3
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Strategic Goal 3 ·
Un hogar de líderazgo
We strengthen our Collective’s compañerismo and we deepen and sustain many forms of leadership, rooted in our commitment to justice for our communities.
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· We prioritize and practice our leadership model across the organization with consistency and rigor
· Build deep networks of relationships with our base in East San José
· We have a robust youth leadership base that is active in integrated into our model
· We have a thriving community learning institute (UPM). Our Collective (including, staff, community, and our Board) can teach and learn what we want together and are engaged in ongoing learning
· We have the tools, training, information, and practices to thrive in our different leadership roles
· People feel a sense of belonging and that SOMOS is their political home
Strategic Goal 4
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Strategic Goal 4 ·
Justicia económica y bienestar comunitario para nuestra gente.
We exercise our human rights by strengthening hubs as sites of community-led collective wellness, redistribution of resources, and advocacy for dignified and sustainable work.
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· Our Family Resource Centers are sites for the community-driven reclamation and redistribution of resources, where communities have access to the resources they need
· We have a unifying vision for our FRC’s that embodies our unique approach
· We have a vision of economic justice as SOMOS and we foster and steward a collaborative of economic justice partners in alignment with that vision
· We’ve shifted the local landscape through worker-led advocacy to expand access to just, dignified, healthy, sustainable work and resources for excluded workers in East San José
· We’ve shifted culture and public narrative through popular education to advance our economic justice points of unity
· East San José is a cooperative hub with an ecosystem that supports and sustains different kinds of cooperatives.
Strategic Goal 5
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Strategic Goal 5 ·
SOMOS como sistema alternativo
We strengthen our internal practices and policies to honor our SOMOS cultural identity and worldview to continue disrupting white supremacy and challenging systems of oppression. We use our strength as a convener to challenge systems and nurture a local regenerative ecosystem.
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· We have a shared culture at SOMOS and reclaim old and cultivate new SOMOS traditions to celebrate and honor our values
· There is alignment between our administrative teams and our programmatic teams
· SOMOS’ structures, practices and culture supports and sustains our SOMOS model and facilitates our collective wellbeing and impact
· We center our most vulnerable folks in our policies and practices and continue uprooting white supremacy
· Our Collective members are centered and we’ve removed barriers to access to work and leadership opportunities through or within SOMOS
· We use our power and influence as a convener to steward a vision that is community centered and promotes the common good. We are a leader in collaboratives that are committed to a thriving Mayfair
· We implement a community-centric resource development strategy that influences funding institutions and individuals to create deeper alignment with our vision
