07051 Community Organizing

Learn from the people.
Plan with the people.
Begin with what they have.
Build on what they know.
Of the best leaders.
When the task is accomplished.
The people all remark.
We have done it ourselves.
— Lao-Tzu Tao Te Ching

The grand-daddy of community organizing was Saul Alinsky, whose career made him famous — or infamous — depending on which side you take. His books Rules for Radicals and Reveille for Radicals inspired generations of community organizers to make a difference for truth, justice, beauty, and wisdom.

His work continues through the organization he began, the Industrial Areas Foundation, known as the IAF. The IAF provides expert trained organizers to help communities organize to achieve their goals. The methods they use have evolved over time from the original tactics of Alinsky, whose tactics developed in earlier times with different circumstances. The fundamental principle of relational organizing remains a common thread through the group’s history.

One way to do this kind of community organizing is to raise the funds to contract with the IAF to send a full-time organizer to jump start the group. If this isn’t possible, here is a basic summary of the technique which can be used in any community to achieve its goals.

Identify stakeholder organizations and develop a Coordinating Council.

In most areas, there will be a variety of organizations interested in uniting around a common platform to save and improve their neighborhood. This list may include churches, schools, unions, health care groups (hospitals, clinics, etc.), other kinds of clubs (ethnic groups, athletic groups, etc.) Leaders of these organizations meet together and discuss their problems. We’ll call this group the coordinating council.

House Meeting Listening Sessions

The coordinating council arranges for a series of house meeting listening sessions. Each organization commits to holding a certain number of these sessions, however many they think they can schedule. Each meeting has a facilitator trained by the coordinating council. The training doesn’t have to be fancy or extended. It involves a basic meeting process that encourages people to share what their greatest problems and issue are in their own lives in the community. Most or all of the coordinating council can be meeting facilitators.

Listening Sessions Agenda

The agenda for the meetings is to listen to people tell their stories. From those stories, the group hopes to understand more about grievances, problems, opportunities, and strengths of the area. We look for the next tier of leadership — the grassroots. Most people get involved because someone asked them to get involved so the coordinating council has to look for people willing to ask their friends, families, neighbors, and co-workers to do something. We’ll call those kind of people our neighborhood leaders, although they may not be a geographical neighborhood. They could be a faith-based “neighborhood” found in a religious organization.

Avoiding problems that kill local organizations.

The program for the group is relentlessly local, non-sectarian, and nonpartisan. The only way that can work is if each of the constituent organizations has an absolute veto on each plank in the group’s eventual program of action. This forces the group to concentrate on issues that unite the various groups and to literally ignore the issues that divide the various groups. A local community group, with a variety of religious people involved, will not take up the issue of abortion, because of religious divisions on that issue. That exclusion doesn’t mean that the group will be bored and lacking for things to do. In every area there are a multitude of issues that people of good faith can agree to work on for the common good of all.

Organizations are accountable for their participation.

Each of the involved organizations delivers on group goals. In the beginning, that will mostly be the process of organizing the house meeting listening sessions, training the facilitators for those meetings, and identifying the next tier of leadership — neighborhood leaders. The process is the result of negotiations among the stakeholders in the developmental meetings of the coordinating council, before they start to hold listening session meetings and schedule other activities. The council does not assign goal. Each individual group in the coalition decides on its goals.

Stories and leadership recruitment.

At these listening session meetings, people tell their stories. Afterwards, somebody writes down notes about the conversations. Besides listening and keeping the meeting going, the meeting facilitator is on the lookout for potential grass-roots leaders. As many of the primary leaders of the stakeholder organizations as is possible should be involved either facilitating or at least attending the listening session house meetings.

Information goes to the coordinating council.

The information developed at these meetings — in the form of meeting notes, attendance records (with names and contact info), and information on potential leaders goes to the coordinating council who sort through and organize the information. This sifting is mostly a judgment call. It is primarily a matter of “how many people mentioned this” and what kind of relevance/importance does the coordinating council — and the individual groups — believe that a given issue has to the larger issue of the deterioration of their community.

Coordinating Council makes a presentation to the organizations.

The coordinating council sends a document summarizing the findings of the listening sessions to the stakeholder organizations. They respond back to the coordinating council. There may be another round of listening sessions perhaps focused on a proposed platform developed from the first round. This goes on until there is a good commitment of all to set of program “planks” — areas of activity that the group wants to work on. Each of these should be accompanied with a short paragraph explaining the problem and what we want to see happen. (The platform of VOICE — Voices Organized In Civic Engagement, which is an IAF affiliate in Oklahoma City, is at the end of this chapter as an example. It took two years for the group to develop this program.)

The group adopts the platform.

The coordinating council can then schedule a large group meeting, where each stakeholder organization works to maximize attendance. At that time, the group votes to accept the program platform. Any vetoes that any of the member groups want to use should already have been exercised so at this point, the stakeholder organizations have broad agreement as to the suitability of the platform.

Looking for grassroots leadership

Who are good potential leaders? According to the Industrial Areas Foundation, they look for (1) a sense of self-interest in getting involved, (2) the willingness to act, (3) a sense of “cold” or “controlled” anger. “They also look for a sense of humor, imagination, maturity, risk-taking, responsibility, aggressiveness, integrity, and a healthy ego.”

Relationship organizing.

This form of community organizing is relentlessly relational. It is about people developing trusting relationships outside of individual groups and neighborhoods with other people.

The group takes action.

The coordinating council organizes task forces for each of the program planks, who in turn propose actions to the coordinating council and the constituent groups.

Praxis is critical for the long term success and development of the organization.

Praxis is “action grounded in knowledge combined with reflection and evaluation.” Immediately after an action, leaders meet and discuss what has just happened. As a result of this process, over time personal self interest comes into line with group objectives.

House meetings continue.

The coordinating council will organize additional rounds of house meetings about specific issues the group works on.

More info.

You can read more about this kind of IAF organizing at http://www.citizenshandbook.org/iaf.pdf.

Most IAF affiliate organizations have a budget of about $150,000, which covers the salary of a full time organizer and other expenses. Member organizations pay dues, often a percent of their revenues.

The key to their success.

It seems to me that the keys to the IAF success are —

  • The agreement to concentrate on issues that unite rather than issues that divide.
  • A combination of grassroots involvement with effective leadership.
  • Relational organizing.
  • An emphasis on praxis, not just doing stuff.
  • The use of stories and deep listening.

Any kind of community organizing will benefit from these principles.

The Three Radical Truths of Community Organizing:

  1. Heart work is hard work.
  2. You have to keep dancing even when you can’t hear the music.
  3. The path that makes you afraid is the path to take. (FACE)

VOICES ORGANIZED IN CIVIC ENGAGEMENT FRAMEWORK OF ISSUES

Author's Note: This is the platform of the Oklahoma City IAF affiliated organization, Voices Organized in Civic Engagement. It was developed during a two year period of organizing and listening.

These are the areas to which our work is limited. They have come from the stories of people in our member congregations and have been shaped by the religious traditions that call us to seek justice.

SENIOR CARE/RETIREMENT. Our religious traditions call us to “honor your father and mother,” not throw them away when they are no longer economically viable. Our seniors need adequate food, shelter, and access to dependable transportation. Programs that serve these needs must be funded adequately and demonstrate accountability to the well-being of their charges.

INFRASTRUCTURE. Our neighborhoods must be safe places for children, their families, and our seniors. We need sidewalks and safety.

IMMIGRATION. As our nation struggles to come up with an immigration policy that protects our borders and addresses current needs, our Metro-area focus will be protecting immigrants from local abuses.

TRANSPORTATION. Public transportation must work for families, especially children going to and from school, adults who rely on it as their sole means to and from employment, and seniors who become isolated once they are no longer able to drive. Improved schedules and routes are essential.

HEALTH CARE. We seek better access and more affordable health care, both physical and mental. We are committed to educating ourselves about ever-changing health care policies and understanding and implementing strategies that will work more effectively for families on the local community level.

ECONOMIC JUSTICE. Our families want to identify the best opportunities for jobs that will support them without assistance. We want to make existing jobs better and work to improve job training programs.

FAMILY SUPPORT. Families have taken on increasing levels of risk and responsibility; when extraordinary circumstances occur, they must have support. We need adequate programs for mental health, domestic violence, drug rehabilitation, special needs, and support for families of returning military personnel.

PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION. Our children must receive high-quality education in a safe environment; our teachers must be supported, made to feel safe, and provided with optimum classroom environments.

PRISON JUSTICE. We propose to examine the laws and structures that make our state the number one incarcerator of women and act together so that we can reclaim women and men and reintegrate them back into our families and the greater community.