Carolina Alliance

        For Fair Employment

           (C.A.F.E.)

FMLA

CAFE Youth and Allies Reaching Out

   For much of the summer (2005) in CAFE, young people and adults have been going out in the community and working on getting the word out about CAFE.  This mode of team community outreach has been done all over the state, and every team has included a young person in its midst.

    This kind of community outreach allows young people to get a true taste of classic, grassroots organizing.  The outreach entailed actually going into different neighborhoods, oftentimes without any knowledge of its residents, and knocking on the doors of homes. 

    CAFE youth and adults then gave out flyers with CAFE information on them, including the time, date, and location of the next meeting in that area.  In return, community members were asked for their names, addresses, and telephone numbers so that they could be added to the organization's mailing list and contacted with further information.  This method of community outreach was replicated in all 15 chapters across the state, in each geographical area some of which included Low Country, Pee Dee, Upstate, and Midlands.  Low income and minority youth and adults were particularly targeted, although people from all backgrounds were available to be talked to.

    The outreach continues to be very successful.  The communities in which CAFE youth and adults visited were quite accepting of the organization.  A good number of residents had stories to tell about mistreatment and injustice on the job, in school, and with elected officials.

    These new activists also seemed to have an urge to work toward making the conditions in which they lived better, and many of the people on the CAFE mailing list responded well to follow-up.  One of the most important successes, however, was the fact that all-in-all, the CAFE young people received a dose of good, old-fashioned, field organizing and appeared to enjoy and benefit from it.