About Us
Our Journey
OVNV was founded in 2015 to organize parents to expand quality educational access for students in New Orleans. We needed to create a more equitable system, and we needed to ensure that any reforms, recommendations, or campaigns we executed were grounded in what parents and communities identified as needs. In order to identify those needs, we needed to organize parents and hear their voices. We focused our initial efforts in the Latinx community given it was the community with the greatest need. By approaching parents in car lines and conducting one-on-one meetings with parents, we set out to build authentic relationships in the Latinx and Spanish speaking communities, learn about the obstacles they faced, and devise solutions for providing a better education for Latinx learners.
Since our founding, we have expanded to focus our work on the issues faced by both Black and Brown communities. Acknowledge the intersection of issues we have also expanded our work to focus on criminal justice and immigration in addition to education.Black and Brown communities are growing and will soon be the majority in America. This is an opportunity to build a collective power, as both communities face similar, systemic challenges. American political, social, and economic systems have categorically and systematically disadvantaged our communities. We must organize to tear down those oppressive systems and concurrently develop the leadership to build new systems of governance that prioritize equity and justice.
Our Mission
Our Voice Nuestra Voz (OVNV) is an issues organizing effort in New Orleans. We build the capacity of community members to act as advocates in order to create a more equitable city. While focusing primarily on education, we recognize the intersectionality of issues and work in other areas that also affect our community such as criminal justice and immigration.
Our Vision
We envision a world where Black and Brown people live without harm, practice liberatory education, and restorative justice. Through community organizing, we dismantle systems of oppression and develop self-determined communities. We work to identify, recruit, and develop community leaders while also setting the stage for Black and Brown people to build a strong and active political identity. With this, we pass policies and increase our representation. We measure our success through the number of community leaders we have developed, the number of wins for our community, and our ability to fully fund our efforts. These efforts help to end the lack of agency and self-determination that Black and Brown communities in New Orleans have experienced due to systems of oppression that have been in place for centuries.
Our Team
Our amazing team of organizers are dedicated to dismantling systems of oppression and fighting for our communities.