Metro IAF, Inc

Build power to improve the lives of our families, communities, regions, and nations within the framework of all the issues we are tackling.

We are leaders and organizers who use the power we build to improve the lives of our families, communities, regions, and nations.

We marshal the two universal sources of power -- organized people and organized money -- so that our organizations can collaborate with or confront powerful institutions in the governmental and private sectors.

We are non-ideological and pragmatic -- building working relationships, based on shared interests, across many of the lines that divide individuals and institutions. We are also strictly non-partisan, not favoring or supporting any party, but fiercely favoring and supporting those issues and strategies that bring more dignity and greater opportunity to an every-widening circle of society.

We challenge people to imagine the change they can accomplish, connect individuals and organizations to multiply their power, and organize people by the thousands to make their voices heard. We set high goals, design innovative strategies, and stick with issues until they are fully addressed. Our time frame is not the market cycle or the news cycle or the election cycle, but the generational cycle of families and institutions.

Metro Industrial Areas Foundation (Metro IAF) is affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the first and largest
network of multi-faith, broad-based citizen organizations, which has seven decades of experience winning tough battles on
housing, health care, education, living wages, immigration rights, and other issues in the US and abroad. Metro IAF’s 22
affiliates are in the East, Midwest, and Southeast United States (CT, DC, IL, MA, MD, NC, NJ, NY, OH, VA, WI).

We have organizers on the ground at each of our affiliates engaging residents, building leaders and raising money. They help the leaders identify and work on issues to affect positive change within their communities.

Won statewide Criminal Justice Reform in MA reducing use of mandatory minimums for drug sentencing, reduction of fines and fees for probation and parole, bail reform and regulating and reducing use of solitary confinement. Won $2.2 billion to repair NYC Public Housing Authority (NYCHA) units where 500,000 black and brown New Yorkers live with mold, rats, no heat and many other code violations; Forced NYCHA to agree to tough new standards for fixing mold and leaks in the 186,000 units of NYCHA public housing. Secured $500 million from NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and City Council to begin construction on 15,000 senior units on vacant NYCHA land, which will free up NYCHA units to house 150,000 low income New Yorkers. Won $250 million in dedicated funds for affordable housing in DC, MA, MD, NC & VA, which financed 9,590 units; Built/preserved through organizing 3,500 units of affordable housing in DC, IL, MA, MD, NC, NJ, NY & VA. Won $500 million in new money annually to fund public transit infrastructure upgrades for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), which serves over 350 million transit riders a year, through a two-year campaign led by Metro IAF’s 5 affiliates in the DC, MD & VA region and the Amalgamated Transit Union/ATU Local 689. Victory will yield $15 billion in upgrades for transit infrastructure for the region and protects 13,000 living wage jobs for African American workers. Do Not Stand Idly By (DNSIB), in partnership with Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), won shareholder victories at Sturm Reuger and American Outdoor Brands (AOBC) annual meetings requiring companies to issue reports on the deadly impact of their products and actions taken to mitigate those impacts. Trained 2,000 Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) local union presidents, stop stewards and key leaders from 65+ locals across the US on creating and implementing strategies to engage and build power among workers who operate and maintain buses, trains and transit facilities. Secured pledges from law enforcement & school officials NOT to act as ICE agents in CT, DC, IL, MA, MD, NC & VA. Won commitments from Attorneys General in VA, MD, MA & DC to fight against family separations of US citizen children with undocumented parents and to oppose Federal actions to penalize immigrant families that use public services to which they are legally entitled. Won creation of parish ID’s to be recognized by Baltimore City law enforcement and other agencies . Turnaround Tuesday/BUILD jobs movement in Baltimore secured 635 job placements through the organizing and training of unemployed, underemployed and returning citizens at Johns Hopkins Hospital and other anchor institution employers with a 82% retention rate. Created Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training programs in Metro Chicago, training 1,101 law enforcement officers with 1,000 more in pipeline. Moving forward on all these types of issues & more as they are identified.