The Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 10, 2026
Hi everyone! My name is Elizabeth, and I’m a community organizer with Action in Montgomery. Thank you so much for having me today.
While I share my story with you, I’d love for you to sit with a question in your mind: when did you realize that social justice mattered to you? Who taught you that? Was it a moment, a person, an experience?
At the end, I’ll ask two or three of you to share your answer. So keep it in the back of your mind.
Let me start at the beginning.
I was born in Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. My mom was born in a very small town in the state of Boyacá, in the early 1970s. My grandparents had ten children. My mom is number nine.
My grandmother’s name was Eulogia. She was strong, bossy, and full of joy.
My grandfather worked for a French company that was building a dam in the mountains, what is today known as the Chivor dam. He worked underground, digging tunnels through rock. He would be gone for two weeks at a time, and when he came home on weekends with his paycheck, that was when the family could eat meat. Meat was a luxury they couldn’t afford every day.
My grandmother was arrested more than once at the local police station. Not because she did anything wrong, but because she fought for her rights. Literally. She would go to the butcher to buy meat and get upset when they didn’t give her the best cut. She would argue loudly. And the whole family remembers one phrase she used to say: “My money is worth the same as the mayor’s money. If he were here buying today, you would give him the best cut. I want the best cut too, because my money is worth the same.”
When my mom finished high school at 18, she decided she wanted to go to university. She was the first in her family to finish school, and then the first to get a college degree. She moved to Bogotá alone, a city where she barely knew anyone. She met my dad, but that story didn’t end very well. So she raised my sister and me on her own
She has been an elementary school teacher for almost 40 years and is about to retire. She is the kind of teacher who knows which students come to school without breakfast, so she always brings extra snacks. My mom was never arrested like my grandmother. But she taught me that we are social beings, that we need community to move forward.
I am a community organizer today because I am my grandmother’s granddaughter and my mother’s daughter. I have lived in the DC area for six years. I came to this country as an au pair because I wanted to improve my English, although I still can’t say the word “availability” without embarrassing myself.
I have been working with Action in Montgomery for two and a half years, organizing in District 20 of Montgomery County, which includes Silver Spring, Takoma Park, and part of Bethesda and Potomac.
Last year, AIM celebrated its 25th anniversary. We organized a big birthday party. And today we work alongside more than 35 different organizations including faith congregations, tenant associations, and community schools. We are nonpartisan, multifaith, multiracial, multilingual, and I’ve been thinking lately that we are also multigenerational.
Last year we began a new cycle. That means we wanted to realign our work with what communities are actually living through right now. We saw the changes happening around us, both because of what is happening at the federal level and because this year there are local elections in Maryland. This new cycle started with listening sessions. Between fall and winter of last year, we heard from more than 1,800 people in Montgomery County, and nearly 4,000 across Maryland. We asked one question: what is keeping you, your family, or your community from thriving?
We published a full report on our website, but the three main issues were:
Immigration. We live in strange times where having an accent, a certain skin color, or simply looking too different can be a reason for someone to stop you on the street. Many people are afraid for their future, or for the future of their friends and neighbors. This is a diverse area, and that diversity is our strength. But that strength is being threatened.
Housing. The American dream has long included the step of buying a home. But today, home prices make that dream feel further and further away. Building a family in this county feels almost impossible for people my age. There is not enough subsidy, not enough supply, and not enough stability.
Healthy homes and affordability. High costs don’t only affect the ability to buy a home. Theyaffect the ability to simply live in this area with dignity. Many rental apartments are neglected, with maintenance problems that affect families’ health. Energy bills keep rising. Families are asking: how do we live well when everything costs so much?
After identifying these issues, we organized into teams where organizers and volunteers from different communities work together across congregations, schools, and neighborhoods.
Our first big project was the Candidate Forum on April 22nd. For months, we worked together to make it happen. We organized issue teams around each of our three priorities. We crafted the questions together, drawing directly from what people told us in the listening sessions. We built interview teams across congregations and communities. We studied the candidates, prepared our moderators, and practiced. Our frame for the whole evening was simple: this is a job interview. The candidates are applying for a job. And everyone who votes is the hiring committee.
On April 22nd, 450 people showed up. Our community asked the questions. The candidates answered. In six simultaneous rooms, our leaders interviewed 18 at-large council candidates. And then 450 people came together in one room to hear from the six candidates running for County Executive.
We called it People. Power. Purpose. That name came out of a conversation with a leader from a local synagogue, as we were talking about how meticulous, exhausting, long, and deeply engaging the process of building every detail of that forum had been. (showing photo) That is what organized people power looks like. Now, this month of May, we are taking that same energy to the district level, interviewing candidates for County Council in each district of Montgomery County. If you live in Montgomery County and want to meet the candidates competing to represent you on the County Council, join us for the virtual forums we are organizing.
And what comes next for AIM? We have a summer of training and learning ahead. Each issue team will be organizing sessions on different topics. Housing will be learning how this fight has unfolded in other states. Healthy Homes will be diving into local legislation proposals around AI data centers, which consume unimaginable amounts of energy. And the immigration team will be learning what kinds of local legislation can protect immigrant families. Starting this fall, we will begin building campaigns around what we have learned. Campaigns designed to drive structural change at the government and legislative level, with real and lasting impact on the lives of communities in this county.
I want to share a small secret with you. At AIM, we don’t call our volunteers volunteers. We call them leaders. We are interested in seeing the leadership qualities that every person brings, and that is always valuable. It is one of the things I love most about my work: the opportunity to meet hundreds of people with remarkable stories, with talents and skills that benefit their communities.
In the neighborhood of Northwest Park in Silver Spring, our group of leaders is made up mostly of mothers. They call themselves “Mothers in Action.” They are a group of mostly immigrant women who have fought hard to be recognized, to have a PTA, to improve the quality of education for their children and the quality of life in their homes. Many of their apartments don’t have enough ventilation. Their kitchens have had gas leaks and dangerously high levels of nitrogen dioxide and methane. When I work with them, I think a lot about my mom, about her story of migration within Colombia, and about the way she raised me.
I am a community organizer because I am my mother’s daughter and my grandmother’s granddaughter.
What about you?
Elizabeth also shared her slides with us: