Unity In Action Upstate
Structured Crime Prevention Through Grassroots, Resident-Led Engagement
Unity In Action Upstate Founder
Sheila Dogan
Sheila Dogan is a seasoned community organizer and movement leader based in Greenville, South Carolina. As the Founder of Unity in Action Upstate, she leads a dynamic grassroots network dedicated to empowering residents, strengthening neighborhood leadership, preventing crime, and advancing community-driven solutions. With more than two decades of experience spanning nonprofit leadership, community development, political strategy, grant writing, administrative operations, and public safety, Sheila equips communities with the structure, strategy, and systems needed to organize effectively, influence policy, and achieve measurable, lasting change.
In the early 1990s, Sheila began organizing in Spartanburg’s Northside community through the Stop the Violence initiative, trained with the Midwest Academy, a nationally recognized institute for grassroots community organizing and movement building, where she gained practical skills in strategy development and leadership.
Her work is grounded in lived experience, having grown up in Spartanburg during a time of economic and social inequality, and is further informed by her studies in nonprofit leadership and political science at USC Upstate. Drawing from both personal experience and formal training, Sheila has consistently translated conviction into meaningful community impact. Her early grassroots organizing efforts helped lay the foundation for one of the largest community revitalization efforts in Spartanburg’s history.
These experiences helped shape the prevention and community engagement framework now implemented through Unity in Action Upstate.
Unity in Action Upstate is entering its next phase of prevention development. We are actively building structured community systems designed to reduce risk, strengthen accountability, and stabilize neighborhoods before conflict escalates.
Below are selected examples demonstrating the measurable impact of our structured, resident-led crime prevention model.
In 2003, grassroots organizing through the Stop the Violence initiative in Spartanburg secured a $1 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance to expand crime prevention efforts.
This investment helped reduce victimization in targeted neighborhoods and laid the groundwork for models of proactive, resident-led safety strategies that continue to guide Unity in Action Upstate today.
A National Case Study Showcasing Unity In Action Upstate Founder-Led Community Development
(page 9)
We Believe
We believe safer communities are built — not policed into existence.
We believe residents are the experts of their neighborhoods.
We believe prevention works when it is organized, strategic, and sustained.
And we believe lasting change begins at the grassroots.