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Community Organizing

Terms in this set (25)

Community Organizing
process through which communities are helped to identify common problems or goals, mobilize resources, and develop and implement strategies for reaching their goals they have collectively set; term coined by American Social Workers; means getting people together and helping them help themselves
Saul Alinsky
Father of community organizing
Who is it effective for?
particularly effective for the poor and powerless as they determine for themselves the actions they will take to deal with the essential forces that are destroying their community and consequently causing them to be powerless
What 6 concepts do the 3 methods share in common in order to achieve and measure change?
Empowerment, community capacity, participation, relevance, issue selection, critical consciousness
Empowerment
a social action process through which people gain mastery over their lives and their communities; community members assume greater power, or expand their power from within, to create desired changes
Community Capacity
characteristics of a community that affect its ability to identify, mobilize around, and address problems; community members participate actively in community life, gaining leadership skills, social networks, and access to power
Participation
engagement of community members as equal partners; reflects the principle, "never do for others what they can do for themselves"; community members develop leadership skills, knowledge, and resources through their involvement
relevance
community organizing that "starts where the people are"' community members create their own agenda based on felt needs, shared power, and awareness of resources
Issue Selection
identifying immediate, specific, realizable targets for change that unify and build community strength; community members participate in identifying issues; targets are chose as part of a larger strategy
Critical Consciousness
awareness of social, political, and economic forces that contribute to social problems; community members discuss the root causes of problems and plan actions to address them
Assumptions of Community Organizing
1. Communities of people can develop the capacity to deal with their own problems; 2. people want to change, and can change; 3. people should participate in making,a dusting, or controlling the major changes taking place in their communities; 4. Changes in community living that are self imposed or self developed have a meaning and a permanence that imposed changes do not; 5. A "Holistic approach" can deal successfully with problems with which a "fragmented approach" cannot cope; 6. Frequently, communities of people need help in organizing to deal with their needs, just as many individuals require help with individual problems.
What are the two models?
problems/needs based and strengths based
problems/needs based
community development: collaboration for consensus building; social action: advocacy to address conflicts (community resistance, liberation struggles)
strengths based
community development and capacity building: consensus building; empowerment oriented social action: conflict; regardless of which model, the common theme is that the work and resources of many have a better chance of solving problems than the work and resources of few
Three methods of community organizing:
locality development; social planning; social action
locality development:
a broad self help method in which local citizens develop new skills and become more self sufficient; stresses consensus and cooperation; desire to build group identity, sense of community and cohesion
Social planning:
stresses problem solving, utilizes skilled volunteers or expert practitioners in the community; uses a technical process of problem solving; heavily task oriented
social action
a technique that involves the redistribution of power and resources to disadvantaged segments of the population; aims to increase communities' capacity to solve problems and achieve real change
Three types of community organizing:
grassroots; faith based community organizing; coalitions
Grassroots:
ideal to build community groups from scratch; helping with new leadership and helping unorganized groups become organized; typically are very small and often geographically based with efforts organized around low and moderate income people; ACORN; Grassroots is best because it starts from scratch, reaches all people not just church goers, can also be referred to as "door knocking"
faith based community organizing:
rooted in bringing people together through local religious institutions to work on communities behalf; San Antonio--COPS (communities organized for public service)
Coalitions
centered around mobilizing groups, public interest groups, unions, etc. that are already established in order to affect public policy or to address a common concern such as a crisis in school; INTERFAITH COALITION FOR WORKERS RIGHTS
Ten steps in Community Organizing:
1. recognizing the issue; 2. gaining entry into the community (if coming from outside community, THIS IS MOST CRUCIAL STEP); 3. organizing people; 4. assessing the communities needs and strengths; 5. determining the priorities and setting goals -- MUST PRIORITIZE and address the right topics; 6. arriving at a solution and selecting intervention strategies; 7. Implementing the plan; 8. Evaluating outcomes of plan of action; 9. Maintaining outcomes in the community; 10. Looping back
Initial organizer:
person who decided to do something about the issue; can be internal or external person; be very careful if coming from outside the community to tell them about the problem (Show that you care)
gatekeepers:
"don't tell us how much you know until you show us how you care"
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