Building Florida's future from the ground Up
Miami Workers Center and Power U for Social Change are joining together as the Center for People Power to build the collective power of working-class communities in Miami-Dade County.
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1999 – 2026
Decades of influence
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MWC Members present at the signing of the Miami-Dade Tenant Bill of Rights (2022)
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Power U Center and Advancement Project release Miami-Dade County Public Schools: The Hidden Truth, a report that details the improvements still needed to transform MDCPS into safe create a supportive climate for students. (2017)
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MWC Members in the annual Martin Luther King Jr Day Parade in Liberty City (2008)
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Power U youth-led education and advocacy for sexual education and hygiene resources for students (2016)
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Miami Workers Center members march in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (2007)
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Power U member advocating at the School Board for increased resources and support for students (2022)
What we're up against
Today, we are operating in a rapidly shifting political and economic landscape. Florida, the third-largest state by population, has become a testing ground for some of the most regressive policies in the country, resulting in escalating threats to tenants, workers, immigrants, reproductive freedom, and civil rights. At the same time, movement organizations in Florida face shrinking funding, a shortage of seasoned organizers, and increasing pressure to prioritize short-term visibility over durable, long-term infrastructure. We cannot meet this moment with fragmented efforts or short-term campaigns alone. This moment demands more than individual organizational responses; it requires ecosystem alignment, scale, and strategic clarity.
Fusing our forces
In response to this historic political moment, two powerhouses, Miami Workers Center (MWC) and Power U for Social Change (Power U), are seizing a shared strategic, economic, and political opportunity to come together, formalizing an informal structure, through an organizational merger that aligns our strategy, leadership, and organizing infrastructure into one unified organization focused on building long-term, people-powered transformation across Miami-Dade County.
As part of this transition, Miami Workers Center and Power U: Center for Social Change will move toward a unified organizational structure that aligns our leadership, organizing strategy, and operational infrastructure.
This step formalizes the close collaboration our organizations have maintained for years and allows us to coordinate our work more intentionally across campaigns, leadership development, and movement-building efforts throughout Miami-Dade County. Existing campaigns, leadership development programs, and organizing priorities will continue uninterrupted throughout this transition, ensuring continuity in the relationships and work that communities rely on.
This power-building merger will leverage our shared legacy, organizational resources, and deep leadership expertise, alongside a critical political window of opportunity, to build a locally rooted institution that models what a pro-ecosystem, movement-facing organization can look like: one that runs authentic working-class campaigns, recruits and develops new leaders, and strengthens working-class politics across Miami-Dade County, a key region in Florida.
By joining forces, we are not only strengthening the broader movement ecosystem, but we are also accelerating our collective ability to win durable, structural change for working-class Black and Brown communities, now and for generations to come.
Focus Areas
pillars of the center for people power
These four pillars outline the strategic priorities that will guide our work in the years ahead.
Leading Campaigns that Improve the Lives of Everyday People
Through intentional site-based organizing in tenant unions, schools, and care associations, we will build lasting infrastructure and provide a resilient, self-sustaining movement that uplifts all of Miami-Dade. We will lead working-class campaigns that challenge local power structures and fight for economic justice in housing, carework, and education, ensuring tangible benefits for Miami-Dade’s working people. By developing working-class leadership and establishing democratic, member-led structures, we will build a base that is politically engaged, organized, and increasingly self-sufficient. As a result, large numbers of community members will play active and visible roles in advocacy, turning out to county and city commission meetings, budget hearings, parent–teacher associations, and childcare association meetings, and driving sustained increases in voter registration, voter turnout, and issue-based civic participation that directly shape local decision-making and public investment.
A Training Hub that Raises Organizing Standards & Strengthens Our Local Ecosystem
Our center will serve as a local training hub, providing political education, skill-share sessions, role-playing exercises, and cohort-based collaboration to build a unified movement and train new organizers across the county based on the needs of our ecosystem. We anchor local hubs and communities of practice for movement orgs, including executive directors, community organizers, operations, and communications. We aim to train not only activists and organizers, but also everyday community members, the neighbors, elders, youth, and workers who keep our communities alive. This will contribute to building real density and strength within our local movement, while continuing to engage in network mapping, identify strategic allies, and intentionally position developed leaders in key roles across civil society in service of our campaigns and the broader movement ecosystem. In doing so, grassroots leaders will be elected into leadership positions within PTAs, childcare associations, and tenant unions, and will serve on advisory boards and public bodies, bringing the lived experience and priorities of working-class communities directly into decision-making spaces where policy, resources, and power are shaped.
Shifting Culture with People-led Narratives
Through oral history, cultural work, narrative strategy, political education, and popular education, we will challenge dominant narratives and shape a shared vision powered by everyday people. This work will build collective analysis, deepen political clarity, and strengthen residents’ ability to interrogate mainstream media narratives. It will equip our communities with practical tools and shared knowledge to identify key system players, understand how systems operate, reimagine what is possible, and take action in alignment with our shared values. As a result, residents will demonstrate greater trust in local institutions, secure stronger and more equitable public-sector investments, and shift media coverage, storytelling, and public discourse to center the lived experiences, leadership, and solutions of grassroots residents and organizers, rather than institutional or elite perspectives. Together, this will help build a durable culture of participation in which working-class residents see themselves as legitimate leaders, decision-makers, and co-architects of Miami-Dade County’s future.
Seeding Projects and Initiatives that Meet the Needs of the People
We envision a shared, community-rooted space that not only strengthens the campaigns and organizing needed to win but also acts as a catalyst to seed and incubate independent, community-led projects that directly meet the needs of everyday people. This space will serve as a cornerstone for strategic initiatives in Miami-Dade County, supporting solidarity-economy efforts, rapid mutual aid in moments of crisis, and new base-building projects designed to engage often-excluded critical constituencies. We envision worker and community cooperatives, neighborhood-based mutual aid networks, and community farmers' markets, along with other community-owned and community-governed projects that strengthen local economic resilience, deepen organizing relationships, and expand pathways for residents to participate in collective leadership and shared decision-making.
A bold future together
This merger is 25 years in the making. It is intentional, strategic, and in recognition that over the past 25 years, MWC and Power U have been strongest when we have been united. We have shared staff, office space, and collaborated on programs and campaigns. This merger brings together our shared history, leadership, and organizing infrastructure so we can meet this moment with greater strength, coordination, and sustainability.
Consolidating leadership, governance, operations, and infrastructure increases our ability to invest in organizer development, deepen base-building, and coordinate campaigns that respond to the scale of the challenges facing our communities.
The merged organization will be guided by a governance structure rooted in community accountability and strong board oversight to ensure the long- term sustainability and responsible stewardship of the organization's work and resources.
This merger positions us to move beyond fragmented efforts and toward a shared strategy capable of confronting a well-funded and coordinated opposition while building power that lasts. The anticipated impact of this merger is a stronger, more resilient movement ecosystem in Miami-Dade County: one where organizing is sustained, leadership is continuously developed, resources are stewarded efficiently, and communities are better positioned to win structural change.
Our vision is clear: a movement that isn’t just fighting against injustice but is actively building the world we deserve.
our leadership
executive directors
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santra denis
Co-Executive Director
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james lopez
Co-Executive Director