Community organizing

Community organizing is a process by which people are brought together to act in common self-interest. While organizing describes any activity involving people interacting with one another in a formal manner, much community organizing is in the pursuit of a common agenda. Many groups seek populist goals and the ideal of participatory democracy. Community organizers create social movements by building a base of concerned people, mobilizing these community members to act, and developing leadership from and relationships among the people involved.

Common aspects of organized communities

Organized community groups seek accountability from elected officials and increased direct representation within decision-making bodies. Where good-faith negotiations fail, these constituency-led organizations seek to pressure the decision-makers through a variety of means, including picketing, boycotting, sit-ins, petitioning, and electoral politics.

Community organizing is usually focused on more than just resolving specific issues. Organizing is the business of building a power structure that involves all community members, often with the end goal of distributing power equally throughout the community.

Community organizers generally seek to build groups that are democratic in governance, open and accessible to community members, and concerned with the general health of the community rather than a specific interest group.

There are three basic types of community organizing, grassroots organizing, faith based community organizing (also called institution based community organizing, broad-based community organizing or congregation based community organizing), and coalition building. Additionally, political campaigns often claim that their door-to-door operations are in fact an effort to organize the community, but most often these operations are focused exclusively on voter identification and turn out.

The ideal of grassroots organizing is to build community groups from scratch, develop new leadership where none existed, and otherwise organize the unorganized.

Faith-based community organizing, FBCO, is a deliberate methodology of developing the power and relationships throughout a community of institutions such as congregations, unions, and associations. Built on the work of Saul Alinsky in the mid-1900s, there are now 180 FBCOs in the US as well as in South Africa, England, Germany, and other nations (according to Interfaith Funders' 2001 study Faith Based Community Organizing: State of the Field, by Mark Warren and Richard Wood). Local organizations are often linked through organizing networks such as the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), Direct Action and Research Training (DART) Center, People Improving Communities through Organizing (PICO), and the Gamaliel Foundation. For more information view two videos The Power of New Voices and Faith in Action - The PICO Organizing Model.

Coalition building efforts seek instead to unite existing groups, such as churches, civic associations, and social clubs, to more effectively pursue a common agenda.

Community organizing is not solely the domain of progressive politics, as dozens of fundamentalist organizations have sprung up, such as the Christian Coalition.

History of community organizing in the United States

Robert Fisher and Peter Romanofsky have grouped the history of community organizing in the United States into four rough periods:

1880 to 1900

People sought to meet the pressures of rapid immigration and industrialization by organizing immigrant neighborhoods in urban centers. Since the emphasis of the reformers was mostly on building community through settlement houses and other service mechanisms, the dominant approach was what Fisher calls social work.

1900 to 1940

Community organization was established distinct from social work, with much energy coming from those critical of capitalist doctrines. Studs Terkel documented community organizing in the depression era, perhaps most notably that of Dorothy Day. Most organizations had a national orientation because the economic problems the nation faced did not seem possible to change at the neighborhood levels.

1940 to 1960

The emergence of the distinctive approach of Saul Alinsky spurred new thought and new blood into community movements. Those influenced by Alinsky were (and still are) concerned with social justice without having socialist thought as their primary framework. Alinsky promoted greater awareness of community organizing in academic circles, and those affiliated with Alinsky trained a generation of organizers, including César Chávez.

1960 to present

The American Civil Rights Movement, the anti-war movements, the Chicano movement, the feminist movement, and the gay rights movement all influenced and were influenced by ideas of neighborhood organizing. Experience with federal anti-poverty programs and the upheavals in the cities produced a thoughtful response among activists and theorists in the early 1970s that has informed activities, organizations, strategies and movements through the end of the century. Less dramatically, civic associations and neighborhood block clubs were formed all across the country to foster community spirit and civic duty, as well as provide a social outlet.

Organizations

The following groups are examples of community organizing:

Notable community organizers

External links

Community Organization Fundraising Advice for community fundraisers.