CLOUT

Citizens of Louisville Organized and United Together (CLOUT) is a grassroots, community led, non-partisan, nonprofit that has been working in Louisville for 34 years to create systemic change to make Louisville a better and more equitable place.

We’re made up of 24 religious congregations from all parts of the city who have come together to work for improvements on problems such as housing, mental health & addiction, transportation, education,  policing, and many more. We are religiously, racially, and economically diverse and always seek to grow our congregations base. 

We are not a social service organization. We don’t provide services to treat the symptoms of serious community problems. Instead, we find solutions to problems, and we bring together large numbers of people to hold public officials accountable to implement those solutions. Each year, CLOUT’s assembly is the largest gathering of citizens in Louisville to solve serious community problems, with around 1,000 people attending each year. 

As a grassroots organization our work is driven by hundreds of volunteer leaders across the county. All the problem areas we address are surfaced in our annual community-wide listening process and voted on by members. Our research teams and spokespeople are everyday members of our community who are committed to improving Louisville for future generations. The largest part of the CLOUT budget goes to training these grassroots leaders in national best practices for this work.

Some highlights of our work:

• The unanimous approval of a “Ban the Box” ordinance to open opportunities to help the 160,000 adults in Louisville Metro to get a job

• The creation of a new TARC circulator bus to the Riverport Industrial Park to improve access to the 7,000 jobs there

• The investment of over $100 million into the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which has resulted in the creation or preservation of 5,100 (and growing!) units of affordable housing

• The enrollment of over 60,000 additional uninsured children in the KCHIP (Kentucky Child Health Insurance Program)

• The “Bank On Louisville” program, which has benefitted over 13,000 formerly unbanked households

Learn more about the impact of our work here!