Jeremy Ziskind

PICO California

PICO California is a multi-racial, multi-faith state network comprising ten local affiliates who organize across 18 counties, representing 500 congregations and nearly 650,000 Californians. Our mission is to catalyze faith-based and spiritually-centered people power in California to create systemic change for the most vulnerable so that all Californians thrive. We are a network of organizations that, through community organizing, builds power across race, faith, and class with congregations and faith-based, spiritually-rooted individuals who take action for racial and economic justice in California. Over the past 30 years, our organizing and policy advocacy has resulted in increased investments in healthcare, education, and restorative justice, safe neighborhoods free from gun violence, affordable housing, support for those aspiring to American citizenship, and other programs and services that are critical for families. At PICO California, we: Invest in the formation of people. We teach people about the power structures around them, the power they harness within, and the power of mobilizing others to create better living conditions for themselves and their communities. Reclaim faith in the public sphere. Faith should not be synonymous with bigotry, greed, and othering. We change hearts and minds under the premise that the core of belief is love, justice, and dedication to the dignity and worth of every person. Commit to an ethic of love. The means of inclusion and belonging are as important as the ends of liberation. We believe in salvation and reconciliation, not victory for the sake of power. We see the stories of others in ourselves.