Stand Up for Ohio - Youngstown and Warren

Stand Up for Ohio (Stand Up) was founded in 2007 as a coalition of community, labor, civil rights, and environmental groups constructing a coordinated movement that can mobilize Ohioans around issues of civic engagement and economic opportunity in our state.

Stand Up has run large-scale 501(c)4 electoral programs in seven Ohio cities. Our organizers directed the allied outreach work for We Are Ohio, the community-labor coalition that successfully repealed Ohio’s anti-collective bargaining legislation in 2011. Following that campaign, organizers knocked on over 25,000 doors in 2012, directly engaging several hundred people in trainings, house meetings, direct actions, and electoral work related to economic justice and job creation. That campaign culminated in the spring of 2013 with an eight-city bus tour engaging 2,600 Ohioans. In 2014 and 2015, we continued to organize students, seniors, communities of color, and working class voters – engaging them in a key set of economic issues including student debt, workers’ rights, and increasing the minimum wage.

In order to shift Ohio’s current political paradigm, we are crafting a long-term strategy that solidifies a permanent alliance between labor and community groups, while capturing the imagination of everyday Ohioans, energizing a diverse leadership base, engaging voters, and advancing a joint progressive narrative. Our three-year strategy is built upon an economic fairness campaign that includes raising the minimum wage, supporting paid sick leave for individuals and families, and addressing rising poverty through public investment.