Citizens Coal Council (CCC)
                SOCM is a founding member of CCC, a coalition of grassroots citizen organizations from throughout the country who live in areas affected by coal development and are organizing around the impacts of irresponsible strip mining.  SOCM members have always served on CCC’s coordinating committee, working on issues of common concern in the coalfields.  You can contact CCC at:  P.O. Box 964, 670 Jefferson Ave., Washington, PA 15301.   Phone: (724) 222-5602

Community Media Organizing Project (CMOP)
                SOCM joined other community organizations in the South in this collaborative effort to more effectively use media as one among many strategies in organizing campaigns.  Esopus Creek Communications media consultants (Jane Wholey, Boomer Winfrey, and others) work with member organizations, providing opportunities for advanced training and sharing of “best practices” with other community organizations.  CMOP is governed by the member organizations.

Community Shares
                Community Shares is a cooperative of social change organizations in Tennessee whose purpose is to raise funds for member organizations, primarily through payroll deduction.  A sort of “social change” United Way, Community Shares must recruit businesses, organizations, education facilities, and public agencies to ask if they will allow Community Shares to organize a workplace giving plan.  SOCM receives between $10-15,000/year in income from Community Shares each year.

Dogwood Alliance
                The Dogwood Alliance is a coalition of groups that are fighting chipmills and promoting better forestry practices throughout the Southeast.  The alliance has played an important role in raising public awareness throughout the Southeast about the chip mill issue.

Southern Empowerment Project (SEP)
                SOCM is a founding member of this “cooperative” that formed out of the need to recruit and train organizers for the region.  SEP now includes twelve membership-based organizations from Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia, and North and South Carolina.  The organizations are rural and urban, African-American and white.  SEP coordinates organizer trainings which most of SOCM’s new organizers have attended.  A member of each organization serves on the SEP board.

Tennesseans for Fair Taxation (TFT)
                TFT is a coalition of about 40 community, service, church, senior, low income, and labor organizations working to bring about a fairer state tax structure in Tennessee.  With the highest sales tax in the country, one on food and other necessities, the state’s tax structure places the heaviest tax burden on those of lesser means.  TFT’s plan calls for eliminating the sales tax on food, lowering the sales tax on other items, and establishing a personal income tax with generous exemptions per individual in the family.