Cirillo Marie Community Organizing 4

Eighty-one year-old Brooklyn, New York native, Marie Cirillo has spent the last forty-two years of her life as a community organizer in Appalachia. There she has worked closely with natives to the area to create independently run nonprofits, land trusts, Women’s organizations, and living/learning centers. Formerly a member of the Glenmary Home Mission Sisters in Owensboro, Kentucky, she was part of a group of 14 former nuns who quit the convent in order to work in direct service to the people of the region, founding the Federation of Communities in Service (FOCIS) in 1967. She spends this interview discussing how her background led her to community organizing and the successes and struggles she has encountered during her many years of work.