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The following is an excerpt from "Unlocking the Power of People"

There is no simple recipe for social progress, but the ingredients invariably include people taking matters into their own hands to find practical solutions to pressing problems. From the first Minimum Wage laws to the Civil Rights Movement, collective action by those too impatient to wait for help from above sparked many of America's greatest achievements.

This is the story of PICO.

Families in Camden, New Jersey, take on public corruption and neglect in order to rebuild their inner-city neighborhoods. Low-income parents in Oakland, California launch a Small Autonomous Schools Movement that in six years has created 48 new high quality public schools serving one-third of students in the public school system. Faith communities across the country come together with allies to help pass federal legislation that will expand health insurance to 4 million previously uninsured children.

In these successes, PICO sees a pattern of social action that holds the key to transforming American society: meet people where they are - in their congregations, their schools, their neighborhoods; find out where they want to go; and give them the tools, training and motivation to get there. PICO unlocks the power of people and harnesses it to create lasting solutions to some of society's most pervasive problems.

With 53 local and regional federations in 150 cities and 17 states, PICO National Network is an integral part of a growing movement of families, religious congregations and social organizations working to improve communities and expand opportunities for working families in the United States. Our shared fight - for safe neighborhoods, good schools, healthy families, economic opportunities and affordable housing - is America's unfinished agenda.

We believe that the stories in this report demonstrate that it is possible to increase the social impact of community organizing while keeping this grassroots movement firmly rooted in the values and control of local communities; that religion can unite families around a common vision of a better, more just society; that there is power and durability in network that cannot be found in top-down hierarchical organizations; and that our nation and the world needs more PICO, more organizing, and more democratic government to make the arc of justice a reality in our lifetimes.