Based in Las Cruces, NM, Comunidades en Acción y de Fé (CAFé) is a faith-based, non-profit and non-partisan organization devoted to community organizing. The organization works within local, state, and national levels to advocate for needs in the colonias and border towns on the US – Mexico border. CAFé structures their organizing on a “faith-first” scripture-based model rooted in the principle that people must seek social justice for the most vulnerable. Johana Bencomo, Community Organizer for CAFé, believes that “Faith calls us to something bigger than to let people suffer in silence.” CAFé partners with eight churches of different denominations throughout southern New Mexico. Despite differences in their religious beliefs, the churches, leaders, and congregations strive for a common goal of social justice and advocacy for all people in Doña Ana, Deming, and Luna counties.

Sarah Silva, CAFé’s founder, worked for twelve years with People Improving Community while Organizing (PICO) before coming back to her hometown of Vado, New Mexico. Once home, she listened to people’s struggles and dreams of safer communities and better quality of life in Vado, Las Cruces, and nearby colonias. She realized there was a local need for a group like PICO. Sarah created Comunidades de Acción y de Fé/Communities of Action and of Faith (CAFé) in 2009. Through its first project, working with families facing foreclosure, CAFé succeeded in saving the homes of twenty to twenty-five families. As a faith-based organization, CAFé brings the colonias together by reaching out to churches and their congregations to step up and take on a community organizing role. Right now, CAFé has five anchor congregations, and looser partnerships with another ten to fifteen community churches.

CAFé uses a specific four-step organizing process in order to recognize and respond to community issues. First, CAFé meets one-on-one with local people and with people who hold power to assess their needs and hopes. Johana explains that CAFé wants communities to lead themselves. Therefore one of their main goals is to create local leaders, by looking for people who are willing to share their experiences, work to solve community problems, and develop leadership skills. Johana maintains that “people who are closest to the pain should be leading efforts in their communities.” CAFé recognizes that local people know what needs to be done in order for the community to heal and move forward.

CAFé’s second step attempts to identify other towns that have had similar issues, inform themselves on successful solutions that others have applied, finally adapt and implement those solutions to their local context. In the third step, Café, their community leaders and other residents take action. They all get the word out about the campaign or project they are fighting for through public protests, lobbying, and even appearing on TV shows. They believe that the shared power and strength of a united community will encourage county commissioners and other elected officials to believe in the cause. Finally, CAFé’s fourth step reflects on the course of action they took asking themselves: what went well? What did not go well? What can we do next time? What should we do next time that worked well this time? What other resources do we need? With reflection, they hope to adjust their strategy to make future endeavours even more successful.

With this four-step strategy, CAFé and their leaders successfully advocated for a Raise the Minimum Wage campaign in 2014.  In 2019, the minimum wage will increase to $10.10 in Las Cruces. Currently, CAFé focuses on gaining funding to build and repair infrastructure for the Vado colonia, a bordertown that lacks safe paved roads.