Many think the primary responsibility of a citizen in a democratic society is voting. At Dallas Area Interfaith, we believe that is just the first step to participating in, and building, a community. We also believe every citizen has both a right and an obligation to act beyond voting, and to engage in our community in every aspect of the democratic process.
From securing funding for the first after-school programs at DISD, to creating the political will to hire more Dallas police officers to bring down the crime rate, we work within a model of democracy in which ordinary citizens work together to solve problems that elected officials and bureaucrats may not.
We’ve accomplished much, but we still have work to do.
In the belief that democracy requires the full engagement of all in the community, we train leaders in the art of acting on their values, connecting with others and finding creative solutions to issues affecting the Dallas area.
We do this by:
- Conducting thousands of individual and small group meetings.
- Training member representatives in understanding and impacting local and regional political processes.
- Developing a large leadership core from those representatives.
- Identifying issues of concern to all sectors of the community.
- Strengthening relationships within and between members.
- Forging alliances across the lines of religion and ethnicity to develop a broad-based vision for the Dallas area.
- Moving that vision into a multi-issue agenda of action for Dallas Area Interfaith.
