California Redistricting
Since 2019, Catalyst California has played a crucial role in convening coalition spaces to ensure low-income communities and communities of color fully engage and participate throughout California’s 2021 redistricting process.
IVE Redistricting Alliance
In 2021, the California Citizens Redistricting Commission (CCRC) redrew lines for congressional, state legislative, and Board of Equalization districts. The CCRC’s process was public and included various opportunities for residents to provide input on the lines of their communities.
To empower residents from communities adversely impacted by racial and economic disparities to participate in the CCRC’s process and strengthen the organizational ecosystem needed to sustain long-term, equity-centered change, Catalyst California convened the Integrated Voter Engagement (IVE) Redistricting Alliance. Partners included statewide and regional networks of community-based organizations (CBOs) that implemented IVE strategies and prioritized issues of racial and economic equity.
This Alliance focused on: Community empowerment to engage residents in the CCRC’s process and supply technical assistance in drawing community maps and Movement building to strengthen members’ capacity to integrate redistricting into their ongoing organizing programs and strategies for systems change. Through a process of course correcting the CCRC’s line drawing, these collective efforts resulted in final CCRC maps that closely reflected Alliance partners’ district line configurations and recommendations. The new maps maximized the number of minority-majority districts and minority-influence districts and protected many of our partners’ communities of interest (COIs). The success of our collective advocacy has built momentum for future opportunities to further community power building and elect candidates of choice.
IVE Redistricting Alliance Members:
- AAPIs for Civic Empowerment Education Fund
- Alliance San Diego
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus
- California Black Census and Redistricting Hub
- California Calls
- California Environmental Voters Education Fund
- California Native Vote Project
- Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE)
- Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)
- Communities for a New California (CNC)
- Council on American-Islamic Relations – California (CAIR-CA)
- Dolores Huerta Foundation
- Equality California
- Inland Empire United
- Mi Familia Vota Education Fund
- Orange County Civic Engagement Table (OCCET)
- People’s Bloc
- PICO California
- Power California
Redistricting California Collaborative
In 2019, Catalyst California co-convened the Redistricting California Collaborative (the “Collaborative”) with California Common Cause during the application and selection process of the California Citizens Redistricting Commission (CCRC). The Collaborative is a collection of statewide and regional organizations working together to empower demographically and geographically underrepresented communities to fully participate in the CCRC’s redistricting process. During this period, the Collaborative focused on increasing and expanding the diversity of CCRC applicants and commission members.
Between 2020-2022, Catalyst California continued participating as a member of the Collaborative.
For more information about the IVE Redistricting Alliance or the Redistricting California Collaborative, please contact Alejandra Ponce de León at aponcedeleon@catalystcalifornia.org.
For additional background about our efforts and the redistricting landscape in California and L.A. County, click here.