Rural Organizing Project

Mission

Rural Organizing Project (ROP) exists to "strengthen the skills, resources, and vision of primary leadership in local autonomous human dignity groups with a goal of keeping such groups vibrant source for a just democracy."

History

ROP is a statewide organization of locally-based groups that work to create communities accountable to a standard of human dignity: the belief in the equal worth of all people, the need for equal access to justice, and the right to self-determination.

Starting in 1992, ROP's challenges to the anti-democratic right have earned ROP a national reputation for being an effective grassroots organization that takes on the hard issues. The catalyst for ROP was the Oregon Citizens Alliance and their outrageous Abnormal Behaviors Initiative, which targeted gay and lesbian Oregonians for legalized second-class citizenship. Oregonians in small towns across the state were mobilized, many for the first time, as basic tenets of the Constitution were at risk through this ballot initiative. ROP stepped into this organizing opportunity to fill a niche the radical right was trying to claim.

ROP today works with 60 member groups to organize on issues that impact human dignity and to advance inclusive democracy.

To read more on ROP's history, click here.   For a more current history, click here.

For more information on our recent projects, click here.