Chippewa Valley Indivisible

When an ICE surge reached western Wisconsin in late 2025 — families taken from small towns like Baldwin and River Falls — CVI reached out to help and found no rapid-response or mutual-aid network in place.

Within days, CVI helped stand one up across more than a dozen towns. When ICE reached CVI’s own community weeks later, the network was tested under pressure and held. At its height, the mutual-aid arm alone moved roughly 6,000 pounds of food and personal-care items a month to families who needed it.

The defining lesson wasn’t tactical — it was human. When immigrant community leaders said that publicizing ICE movements was terrorizing the very families it was meant to protect, CVI stopped, listened, and rebuilt its entire approach around what those leaders said they needed. The work was kept deliberately out of public view, at the community’s request.

Most of the valley still doesn’t know CVI did it, and that restraint is the point. The model became something others sought out: CVI was invited to present it on Indivisible’s national “Immigrant Justice Summer” call and helped seed similar networks in five other states. It is the clearest expression of CVI’s oldest principle — put the affected community first, even when that means giving up the credit.

When a federal budget standoff cut off SNAP benefits in early November, families across the Chippewa Valley faced a sudden gap in food assistance. CVI didn’t just protest the gap — it filled it.

On November 4 and 5, volunteers gathered to pack meals for local families caught without the food assistance they depended on. WQOW and the Leader-Telegram both covered the effort.

It was one thread of a standing commitment CVI runs through its Neighbors Helping Neighbors program: meal packing, Hometown Heroes celebrations, support for Sojourner House, seasonal giveaways, and ongoing food service. Most opposition groups only oppose. CVI also feeds people — and that’s a large part of why the community trusts it.

On October 18, roughly 6,000 people marched through downtown Eau Claire for No Kings 2.0 — nearly doubling the 3,200 who came out for the first march just four months earlier. In Chippewa Falls, 280 marched simultaneously, up from 140.

The growth was staggering, and the nation was watching. Three days before the march, NBC News published a feature — “The Cavalry Is Coming: Indivisible Predicts Massive No Kings Turnout” — with CVI’s mobilization at the center of the story. The Contrarian used three CVI-produced 90-second clips in its national live broadcast. Civic Media, WQOW, WEAU, and the UW-Eau Claire Spectator all covered the day.

Two cities mobilized at once, each time larger. The Chippewa Valley wasn’t just participating in a national movement — it was leading it.

On October 9, ABC News published an investigation into the deadly cost of rural hospital closures. Every source in the story came from CVI — including two CVI members. The reporting was powerful enough to prompt a response from the White House.

CVI’s name never appeared in the piece, and that was exactly the point. The story landed harder coming from first responders and patients than it ever would have from an advocacy group. When you put the affected people forward and step back, the truth speaks for itself.

It was the clearest example yet of how CVI operates behind the scenes — not for credit, but for impact. The group that started with 28 people in January had, within nine months, helped produce a national news investigation that reached the highest levels of government.

On September 23, CVI and community leaders rallied in Eau Claire after Rep. Van Orden introduced legislation to block federal funding — a move widely seen as retaliation against communities that dared to speak up.

The protest drew one of the broadest coalitions CVI had assembled: community members, city leaders, and advocates united behind the principle that elected officials don’t get to punish the people they represent for exercising their rights.

The coverage was extraordinary. The Wisconsin Examiner, WQOW, Civic Media, the Barron News-Shield, Up North News, and Eye on Dunn County all reported on the rally. The Dworkin Report — reaching more than 222,000 subscribers — featured it. Jess Craven’s Chop Wood Carry Water highlighted the action in both her newsletter and a “Two Minutes of Wins” Instagram reel.

When a congressman tries to silence his constituents, the Chippewa Valley gets louder.