CHANGE organizer is hoping for change

Since graduating from the Wake Forest University School of Divinity in 2007, the Rev. Ryan Eller has counseled Marines and managed a political campaign.

Now, he is the new lead organizer of the CHANGE, or Communities Helping All Neighbors Gain Empowerment. CHANGE is an ecumenical nonprofit organization that has nearly 50 institutions -- including churches, charities and neighborhood associations -- as members.

The organization has pushed for social justice in everything from housing to school-board elections.

"Our philosophy is that the government is organized by political parties, corporations are organized by boards and management, and people oftentimes get left out of the equation because they're not organized," Eller said. "And so our job is to organize people, to organize organizations. And through that, we want to give folks a voice in their own governance in a way that they've never really ever had before."

Eller, 27, started at the job Dec. 15.

He said he plans to continue the work that CHANGE has done.

"What I would like to be a part of is a transformation of the Forsyth County community," he said. "I'm not naive enough to believe I can come in and in a few years all the different subgroups of the community are going to get along with each other, but I really do believe that for us to be a successful community we have to have self-governance, and we have to have justice and equality."

Eller became involved with CHANGE when he interned there during divinity school.

"Up until that point, I had been involved politically and in various different churches, but I had never really merged the two," he said. "It was sort of a new idea to me."

As an intern, Eller researched how voting districts affected people in Forsyth County, and he lobbied for a "bill of rights" for military families. He liked how the organization brought people of all faiths together to work for social justice, he said. And he liked how it combined politics and religion. And, Eller said, he believed that CHANGE could help people around Winston-Salem.

Eller served in the Navy's Chaplain Corps while in divinity school. After graduation, he spent the summer at Camp Lejeune, training and working with Marines.

Then he moved back to Winston-Salem, and he and his wife, the Rev. Laura Barclay -- a graduate of Wake Forest's divinity school whom he married this past summer -- got involved in politics.

For part of 2007 and most of 2008, Eller managed Roy Carter's campaign for the seat in the 5th Congressional District. Carter, a Democrat, lost to the Republican incumbent, Rep. Virginia Foxx. Barclay managed Wade Boyles' campaign for the N.C. House. Boyles, a Democrat, lost to Republican incumbent Rep. Dale Folwell.

Though Eller is a Democrat, CHANGE is nonpartisan.

"What I see them as is a very progressive organization that exists, really, to educate and mobilize the community behind changes that need to occur," said Tim Monroe, the director of the Forsyth County Department of Public Health. CHANGE worked with the department last year to pass tighter restrictions on the amount of lead allowed in paint in homes where children live. "The way they turn out support, the way they educate the group and motivate their members to get involved in issues -- and when it comes time to bring an issue up, a policy change, they turn out the support, and they get out to the process."

Mary Lynn Wigodsky, a member of CHANGE and the chairwoman of CHANGE's action team on health care, said she believes that Eller is the best person to lead the organization because of his energy, experience and passion.

"He has a pretty broad base of experience for his age in this kind of work, with his experience as a chaplain, in his divinity-school experience and, in addition, his political experience. He has the skill set for this job," Wigodsky said. "It's one of those jobs that doesn't pay extremely well and requires someone to be very bright, very energetic and very savvy. And that's a lot to ask. So it's got to be a special person who's willing to give that much."

Eller said he hopes to expand the organization to include more religious institutions and groups from around Forsyth County.

And he wants to include more people with different backgrounds.

"I would like to maintain an organization that is truly reflective of the broader community," he said "And to do that, we're going to have to have folks from all different socioeconomic backgrounds."

Mostly, though, he said he wants to make life a little more fair for everyone who lives in the county.

"And that's going to take not just black and white children succeeding but Hispanic children succeeding, rich and poor children succeeding together as a community," Eller said.

"That's really what I'm trying to do."

■ Laura Graff can be reached at 727-7279 or at lgraff@wsjournal.com.