How It Started

CPC was founded and co-directed by Paul Castelloe and Thomas Watson. Participatory Change Model: Developed a 3-part Participatory Change Model focusing on grassroots empowerment. Craig White joined as Director of Capacity Building.

Mission: Empower grassroots groups through community organizing, leadership development, training, network building, and microgrants.

Vision: Transforming Western North Carolina into just and inclusive communities.

Within the First Year

Worked with 6 groups in low-wealth communities in Cherokee County.

Expanded to include more communities of color across Western North Carolina.

Focused on economic justice through collective entrepreneurship.

Network Building

Established the Western Carolina Self Development Fund, the first grassroots-controlled, grassroots-focused grants program.

Hosted Gather Together events to build networks for grassroots groups across racial, cultural, and geographic lines.

Welcoming New Friends and Saying Goodbye to Old Ones

Hired first bilingual organizer, Jeanette Butterworth.

Expanded staff with Andrea Arias and Molly Hemstreet.

Initiated language justice efforts for monolingual Spanish speakers.

Hosted the first Encuentro gathering, leading to the formation of COLA (Coalicion de Organizaciones Latino-Americans).

Identifying Areas of Focus

Focused on racial justice, economic justice, community support, and strengthening the grassroots sector.

Unafraid to be Called Out

During the 3rd Evaluation Process, CPC responded to concerns, committing to take more risks and be transparent.

Grew to support 102 groups across Western North Carolina.

Addressed WNC’s growing diversity, focusing on racial and economic justice.

Publicly took a stand against racism and supported immigrant civil rights.

Challenging Power Dynamics

Adopted a non-hierarchical staff structure and hosted events like the Financial Management Workday.

Supported grassroots partners like PCDC in reclaiming control of facilities and promoting multicultural initiatives.

Honoring Old Friends and Welcoming a New One

Experienced staff transitions, including the passing of Juan Ignacio Montes and farewell to co-founder Paul Castelloe.

Welcomed new staff member Tami Forte Logan.

A Decade Later

Marked 10 years of grassroots organizing, supporting over 150 groups, and celebrating social justice achievements.

Initiated the 100 Stories Project documenting immigrant rights abuses.

Managed the WNC Grassroots Support Project, supporting grassroots partners with AmeriCorps VISTA volunteers.

Standing in Solidarity with the LGBTQ Community

Actively supported LGBTQ rights, partnering with campaigns and participating in the Human Rights Institute.

Honoring the Past and Healing the Future

Staff transitions with a goodbye to Molly Hemstreet and Andrea Arias.

Co-sponsored the Journey of Forgiveness and Healing organized by the Cherokee Healing and Wellness Coalition.

Emphasized social justice in multilingual work, expanding interpretation services and hosting workshops.

Committing to Naming and Analyzing Oppression and Superiority

Committed to naming and analyzing internalized oppression and superiority.

Shifted from an "expert" role to the WNC Peer Support Network.

Focused on popular education processes to amplify voices and experiences.

Circles of Change

Organized the WNC Peer Network through Circles: Cooperative Economies, Language Justice, Popular Education, and Racial Equity.

Expanded the board and staff to foster multicultural, multiracial collaboration.

Addressed tangible needs within cooperatives and focused on language justice and racial equity.

Adapting a New Organizational Structure

Revised mission, vision, and organizational strategies.

Transitioned from a flat/horizontal to a circular structure.

Engaged in the "Language Tour" project documenting immigrant realities and relationships to language.

Timeline Highlights: Building Capacity and Fostering Equity

Black Love Learning Exchange

Initiated by CPC to address the urgent need for healing in Black communities.

Trained Black leadership to become racial equity facilitators and develop a curriculum around racial equity.

Provided a crucial intergenerational gathering and healing space for Black folks in Asheville.

Black Love and Racial Equity

Hosted 24 Black Love participants, supporting healing, relationship-building, and community celebration.

Collaborated with Faith 4 Justice, supporting racial equity learning in local churches and organizations.

Engaged with 19 organizations, including 12 churches, 2 synagogues, and Carolina Jews for Justice.

Popular Education Circle (PEC)

Believed in integrating youth voices and centered youth leadership for movement work.

Through Seeds of Hope/Semillas de Esperanza (SOH/SDE), trained youth workers to become popular educators.

Organized 45 youth programming events, involving themes like language justice, racial equity, LGBTQI+ justice, and more.

Trained 13 new popular educators with workshops on social change, racial equity, language justice, and more.

Language Justice Circle (LJC)

Focused on developing the capacity of interpreters, translators, and language justice workers.

Launched the Language Justice Curriculum used across the US and abroad.

Trained 15 young interpreters, engaged 4k podcast listeners with "Se Ve Se Escucha," and conducted a four-week Spanish class, Serpent’s Tongue.

Hosted a gathering of speakers of Native Languages, addressing language preservation.

Overall Impact

These initiatives reflected CPC's commitment to healing, racial equity, and community building.

The organization emphasized intergenerational spaces, collective learning, and linguistic diversity.

Achievements in training facilitators, popular educators, and language justice workers contributed to creating inclusive and equitable movement spaces.

Sowing Seeds of Justice and Empathy

Language Justice Circle

Focus on developing the capacity of interpreters, language justice workers, and multilingual individuals for social justice movements.

Popular Education Circle

Trains community members as popular educators through the Seeds of Hope/Semillas de Esperanza programming, fostering intergenerational learning.

Racial Equity Circle

Creates an intergenerational gathering and healing space for all Black folks in Asheville, promoting community building and celebration across lines of difference.

interCAMBIO/exCHANGE

New program intentionally bringing together Black, Brown, and Latinx people to learn about each other’s languages, identities, and cultures.

Online Language Justice Interpreter Training

Five-week training with 20 participants from across the South and Puerto Rico, covering interpreter vocabulary, queering language, and ethics.

El Sur Tiene Algo Que Decir

Gathering of 24 language justice workers strengthening the language justice movement in the South through knowledge sharing.

Annual CPC Language Justice Interpreter Training

20 participants engage in CPC’s 5th Annual training, focusing on language justice, interpretation, and creating multilingual spaces.

Se Ve Se Escucha

Season 2 of CPC’s language justice podcast with 7 new episodes, broadening the meaning of language justice.

Serpent’s Tongue: Sin Binario, Sin Límite

Workshop organized by CPC and SONG, involving 14 people practicing non-binary Spanish.

Community Participation

Supported by CPC’s Racial Equity Circle, participants attended various events, including the Southern Movement Assembly and NC Black Leadership and Organizing Convergences.

Black Learning Exchange (BLE)

Deconstructs legacies of racial trauma, resources members for greater Asheville area work, and pursues decolonization as liberation.

Black Love

Serving as an intergenerational safe space for Asheville's Black community to gather, heal, and build together.

Seeds of Hope

Provides 24 jobs, using popular education to involve children and youth in movements for social justice.

Youth Training and Collaboration

Conducted Level 1 Training, trained 10 new popular educators, trained 2 youth popular educators (under 18), and hosted a panel of local youth workers.

Day of the Dead/Día de los Muertos

Hosted by the Popular Education Circle, celebrated with the community, creating an altar for ancestors.

interCAMBIO

A new program bringing together the three Circles, facilitating a 6-week youth curriculum covering Self & Identity, Family, History & Race, Food, and Spirituality.

Impact of CPC

Participants express how CPC enables critical thinking about language justice, provides perspectives beyond their own, supports racial equity efforts, and fosters a sense of connection, compassion, and community.

Navigating Unprecedented Challenges

CPC navigated the challenges of the pandemic and racial violence with community support, emphasizing staff well-being for collective resilience.

Collective Care

Emphasized collective care for staff well-being to ensure collective resilience during challenging times.

Acknowledged the importance of compassion for oneself as an expression of love for the community.

Community Support

Experienced unprecedented community support, showcasing a commitment to collective liberation.

The community's backing empowered CPC to stand together with communities, demonstrating resilience and perseverance.

Reclaiming

Culebritas: Popular Education Circle

Hosted Culebritas, a language reclamation workshop for kids of Latinx/Hispanic parents, focusing on language as part of a bicultural identity.

Serpent’s Tongue: Language Justice Circle (LJC)

Hosted a Spanish class for native speakers, reclaiming language in a healing space and recognizing unique experiences.

Black Love: Racial Equity Circle (REC)

Adapted Black Love gathering to address structural racism's impact on Covid-19 and racial violence on Black communities, providing essential space for healing.

Gathering

Blackity Black Cinema: REC

Hosted Blackity Black Cinema, a gathering for Black folks to watch movies by Black artists, creating intentional space for sharing stories, collective analysis, and healing.

Language Justice & Beyond: LJ

Collaborated to host the Language Justice & Beyond Network Gathering at the 2020 Allied Media Conference, focusing on the past, present, and future of the language justice movement.

Building Skills

Online Interpreter Trainings: LJC

Collaborated with organizers to skill up interpreters, language workers, and advocates, covering trauma, Zoom interpreting, and language justice in remote settings.

Black Learning Exchange: REC

Created a training and networking space for Black facilitators, supporting each other and sharing resources with their communities.

Popular Education Workshop: PEC

Created and adapted an Advanced Leadership workshop, bolstering skills in online facilitation for intergenerational BIPOC communities and building the Culebritas curriculum.

Se Ve Se Escucha (SVSE): LJC’s Podcast

Discussed language justice and being an interpreter, organizer, and bilingual speaker in the US South, with six new episodes highlighting the stories of language justice workers.

Building strong Partnerships

Formed strong local and regional partnerships with BIPOC-led organizations including Faith 4 Justice, Umoja, YMI, Racial Justice Coalition, Co-Thinkk, Black Wallstreet Asheville, and Noir Collective.

Shared strategies, re-imagined new systems, and co-created solutions for systemic change in Western North Carolina.

Inclusion and Equity at the Heart of CPC’s Work

Led by three co-executive directors and a diverse board.

Advocated for a non-hierarchical nonprofit model and invested in shared leadership.

Formed strong partnerships with BIPOC-led organizations in Western North Carolina.