What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8
What is CLOUT?
Citizens of Louisville Organized & United Together (CLOUT) is an organization of religious congregations and neighborhood groups that are working together to strengthen ourselves internally and to empower our mission in the community. We are a grassroots, direct action, multi-issue organization, which has come together in the belief that, united, we can become a powerful voice to work for a greater degree of justice in our community.
What has CLOUT Accomplished?
Since CLOUT's beginning in 1991, we have brought people together from many different religious denominations, different areas of the community, and different races to work together on issues of common concern. These are just a few of the community improvements won by CLOUT since its beginning:
1) We got the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) to develop a program of supervised suspensions, so students on suspension would not be out in the community during the school day getting into trouble and falling further behind on their schoolwork.
2) We got the narcotics department of the Louisville Police to make over 150 arrests of drug dealers in the California neighborhood, which cleaned up the open street sales of drugs in that area.
3) We got JCPS to implement the Direct Instruction (DI) reading curriculum in several struggling elementary schools; the result is that two of the most improved schools in the county are DI schools and hundreds of more kids are reading.
4) We got the Housing Authority of Louisville to commit to replace one-for-one the 728 public housing units that are being demolished for the redevelopment of the Clarksdale Housing Development.
5) We got the Family Health Centers to hire more bilingual interpreters, translate key documents into Spanish, and have all their 270 employees participate in cultural sensitivity training, resulting in improved access to health care for the growing Hispanic/Latino community.
6) In 2006, we got commitments from Mayor Abramson and key Metro Council members to develop an Affordable Housing Trust Fund for Louisville Metro, which, once developed, will provide millions of dollars each year to address the lack of affordable housing in the city.
7) In 2007, we got the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ky. to double the size of the Drug Court program & to provide more training for judges, & we got the head of the Ky. Dept. of Corrections to agree to provide training to probation & parole officers in the area drug & alcohol addiction, in order to address the “revolving door” of the criminal justice system.
8) In 2008, we got state & local health officials to commit to enroll more uninsured children in the Medicaid & KCHIP health coverage programs, with Gov. Beshear eventually committing to enroll 35,000 thousand more , with a total commitment of $112 million, over the next two years.
