CIOP empowers low and moderate income families and their congregations and organizations to become full partners in decision-making process on justice issues. Issues are addressed by member groups and are organized around: Living Wage; Affordable housing; Banking Reinvestment (CRA); Access to Transportation; Neighborhood Safety; Predatory Lending; and Saving Family Farms. For more information on these issues and to learn more about CIOP, please visit our "About Us" page here...

At 1:30, Thursday June 19, over 100 CIOP members and friends came out to support Senior Citizens Vernell and Valeria Armour who were facing home foreclosure from Countrywide. Countrywide had been invited to the public meeting in front of the Armour's home. When they failed to show, CIOP leaders boarded a school bus and assorted vans and cars and took the meeting to the local Countrywide office. The office manager refused to meet with us. Vernell and Valeria Armour were disappointed but we told them we weren't done yet. Leaders passed out handouts with the telephone numbers of three Countrywide VPs and asked participants to call the numbers with our demands: 1) Forgive the Armour's loan, 2) Halt the foreclosure proceedings, 3) meet with CIOP.

Within one hour, CIOP had received a call from Angie Lathrop, Senior Vice President of Community Affairs at Countrywide who agreed to halt the foreclosure and engage in negotiations. Keep the phone calls going. Organizing works!

Thanks everyone for a great action. Thanks especially to leaders Joan Edgren, Laurie Bergner and Julie Buckles who played up-front roles, Rev. Marty Eckert and Rev. Charlotte Dotts for their inspirational prayers, and for the leaders who coordinated vans and cars from Springfield, Peoria and Decatur. We appreciate the extra effort it took to come from afar to support this action in Bloomington. Finally, thanks to special guest, Debbie Halvorson, U.S. Congressional District 11 candidate, for coming out to support CIOP's efforts to stop foreclosures in our communities.

CIOP IN D.C.

The Central Illinois Organizing Project attended the National People's Action (NPA) conference and foreclosed on the White House - Washington, DC April 14-16. See more pictures from the trip.