About We Are Down Home

About Down Home North Carolina

Down Home North Carolina’s is a growing statewide organization of rural and small town communities that advocate for economic, gender, and racial justice. We will move North Carolina toward the values of dignity, safety, and inclusion through leadership development, strategic campaigning, multiracial movement building, and civic engagement that advances positive, life-changing reforms for rural communities.

We are unique in our focus on building permanent, statewide organizing infrastructure in North Carolina’s rural places. Through our growing network of member-led, county-based chapters, we are engaged in year-round organizing. Our member-leaders, deeply rooted in their communities, are the heart and soul of We are Down Home’s work. Our organizational mission includes a deep commitment to building multiracial and working-class member leadership, and our chapter culture inspires the deep and necessary commitment required to transform small towns and rural places.

Founded in 2017, Down Home has built a strong organizational track record, including:

Helping to elect the first Latinx state legislator in NC history
Winning local campaigns to raise the minimum wage for city workers (Waynesville) and oppose the expansion of local jails
Growing a statewide membership base that includes all 100 counties of North Carolina
Anchoring the first southern, rural deep canvass and race-class narrative tests
Driving statewide coalitions to fight for a just COVID-19 recovery and for Medicaid expansion