The Rogue Action Center (RAC) was founded in 2017 as a community-based organizing group to effectively
confront entrenched power structures rooted in white supremacy and exploitation, fill in local gaps in social
justice organizing capacity, and to be a movement partner in the long-term effort to make progress on the
racial and economic challenges our community faces. Housing justice organizing and policy work, the LGBTQ+ Listening Project, and organizing for welcoming and inclusive communities where everyone can feel safe enough to participate in local civic life have been the core issues the RAC has focused on prior to the impacts of Covid-19 and the Almeda and Obenchain Wildfires of 2020. Since 2020, the RAC has joined local partners at SO Health-E and Rogue Climate to set up and run the Phoenix-Talent Fire Relief Center to support wildfire survivors and organize for a recovery that brings all displaced families home as soon as possible.
 

Mission:

Our mission is to grow organizing power and leaders for a more just and thriving Southern Oregon. 

 

RAC builds community power for Housing Justice, Racial Justice, and Queer & Trans Liberation. We do so through base building, youth-centered leadership development, coalition building, and campaigns to change the rules.

 

Leadership:
Our board and staff teams live in our service area of Jackson or Josephine County, and are impacted by the
issues we organize on. We are renters; people of color; queer youth; people with lived experiences of
poverty, houselessness, and disability; community organizers with decades of collective experience; experts
on our community; children of immigrants; rural white racial justice accomplices; low wage workers;
educators; parents; and community leaders. Our experiences as Southern Oregonians guide the RAC’s work
to build a space for rural people to grow and to stand up for strong institutions that benefit our community,
especially those most impacted by housing-insecurity, economic disparity, and white supremacy.
 

Current work:
We run intersectional campaigns focused on building people power for local and state affordable housing
solutions, expanding affordable transit options, Mutual Aid for Phoenix and Talent communities most
impacted by the Almeda Fires, working for inclusive policies and counter-organizing against white
supremacy in Southern Oregon, and working to support and advance LGBTQ+ led initiatives that meet the
needs of the diverse LGBTQ+ communities in our region.
Through these campaigns we are developing new community leadership and capacity through trainings,
internships, and hands-on campaigns. We mobilize to support racial justice and immigrant justice following
the lead of people of color in our community.
 

Stakeholders:
The RAC is led by and prioritizes organizing with folks living in Jackson and Josephine Counties, Black folks,
Latino/a/x community members, Indigenous people, mixed race folks, Asian people, Immigrants,
Undocumented families, Youth, Women + female identifying people, LGBTQ+ community, Working class
white folks, Houseless people, People living with different abilities, Elders, and People at the intersections of
these experiences. Currently we are prioritizing people displaced by the Almeda Fires in our organizing,
many of whom are Latino/a/x, low income, and elders in our community.
 

Racial justice lens:
Our board finalized and adopted an equity statement and a racial justice framework. We implement annual racial justice training for RAC board and staff leadership to keep us accountable to our founding racial justice values.