Phil Burress

President, Citizens for Community Values

Citizens for Community Values has served the Greater Cincinnati area for nearly two decades. The organization was founded in 1983 by a group of pastors and lay persons who had been praying for the Greater Cincinnati area for a number of years. These people shared a concern about a serious problem they discovered in their community - the pandering of pornography - and the harmful toll it was taking on the lives of men, women, and children. This concern was soon echoed by hundreds, then thousands, of citizens who united - in voice and action - to address the pornography problem in Greater Cincinnati.

We have helped organize local groups in many cities, counties, and states, and coordinate four pornography task forces committed to monitoring and taking action against pornography outlets, and have coordinated a team of letter writers who present a unified voice on issues of community importance. We also organized, coordinate, and chair four pro-family forums that bring together leaders on a regular basis for strategizing, developing policy and mobilizing the grassroots. They are the Ohio Pro-Family Forum, which has been meeting since 1986 and includes most pro-family groups located in Ohio, the Mid-West Pro-Family Forum, a group of pro-family leaders from Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio which meets on an "as needed" basis (last year this forum hosted a training seminar for law enforcement personnel on the issues of obscenity and sexually oriented businesses), and two National Pro-Family Forums - one which focuses on pornography and the other which focuses on homosexuality.

CCV has consistently taken a stand for traditional Judeo-Christian values - values that strengthen the moral character of any community and foster a wholesome environment for family living, and for high community standards.

We recognize that sexually oriented businesses, pornography, obscenity, promiscuity, and sexual abuse threaten the moral fabric of our society. The well being of our communities, the strength of our families, and the hearts, minds, and lives of our children are at risk when traditional values and high community standards are abandoned.

According to U.S. News & World Report, CCV

"...has become one of the largest local grassroots organizations of its type in the nation."

Because of our consistent local community involvement, Greater Cincinnati, the nation’s 23rd largest metropolitan area, has the seventh lowest crime rate of the thirty-eight metropolitan areas that have 1.5 million or more residents. We firmly believe our low crime rate is directly related to the absence of sexually oriented businesses.