Stir It up : Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy / Rinku Sen.—1St Ed
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fm.Sen 2/1/03 5:46 PM Page vii Y STIR IT UP Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy Rinku Sen fm.Sen 2/1/03 5:46 PM Page i fm.Sen 2/1/03 5:46 PM Page iii STIR IT UP fm.Sen 2/1/03 5:46 PM Page v THE MS. FOUNDATION FOR WOMEN For thirty years, the Ms. Foundation for Women has been a leading advocate for women and girls, naming the issues in their lives, investing in their strengths, and helping them take crucial leadership roles in their lives and communities. Founded in 1972 by Gloria Steinem, Marlo Thomas, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, and Patricia Car- bine, the Ms. Foundation was the first national, multi-issue women’s fund. Marie C. Wilson has led the foundation as our president since 1985. Under her direction, the Ms. Foundation has created groundbreaking national programs and granted millions of dollars to grassroots organizations working to move women toward economic self-sufficiency, to safeguard reproductive rights, and to support health and safety for women and girls. Executive Director Sara K. Gould joined the Ms. Foundation in 1986 and propelled the Foundation into the public eye as the recognized national leader in the field of women’s microenterprise development. The Ms. Foundation’s hallmark is our support of the right idea at the right time, whether it is seen as possible or popular. Our work is guided by our vision of a just and safe world where power and possibility are not limited by gender, race, class, or sexual orientation. We believe that equity and inclusion are the cornerstones of a true democracy in which the worth and dignity of every person is valued. Our many accomplishments include: • Creating the award-winning Take Our Daughters To Work® Day, a nationwide pub- lic education campaign that seventy-one million people have participated in since 1993. Through its new program, Take Our Daughters And Sons To WorkSM Day, the Ms. Foundation is addressing the competing challenges of work and family life. v fm.Sen 2/1/03 5:46 PM Page vi vi The Ms. Foundation for Women • Receiving a Presidential Award for Excellence in Microenterprise Development for our long-standing commitment to improving economic prospects for low- income women, their families, and their communities. • Conducting the national Raise the Floor public education campaign promoting minimum wage, child care, health-care, and tax policies that would ensure that low-income families in this country can meet their basic needs. • Being one of the first national organizations to acknowledge that the real bat- tleground for reproductive rights is at the state level, and supporting groups that combat the hundreds of antichoice measures introduced every year in state leg- islatures. • Becoming one of the first national funders to address violence against women by funding shelters and crisis hotlines, and helping to create a movement to end all violence. • Creating the Women and AIDS Fund, the only project in the country that identi- fies and supports community-based organizations run by and for women living with HIV/AIDS. The Ms. Foundation’s work is guided by our mission to support the efforts of women and girls to govern their own lives and to influence the world around them. We believe that economic security is key to women’s choices and their ability to make their voices heard. Women’s wages and working conditions affect not only their family’s livelihood but also their access to health care and quality child care and their ability to escape abusive relationships. Since our inception, therefore, the Ms. Foundation has supported women’s efforts to organize for better wages, benefits, and improved working conditions and to mobilize their collective power to influence government policy. Women can affect crucial issues by taking charge and organizing for change. The Ms. Foundation grantees profiled in this book offer lessons and insights not only for other groups mobilizing low-income women but for any effort aimed at cre- ating lasting social change. Take Our Daughters To Work® and Take Our Daughters And Sons To WorkSM are registered marks of the Ms. Foundation. fm.Sen 2/1/03 5:46 PM Page vii Y STIR IT UP Lessons in Community Organizing and Advocacy Rinku Sen fm.Sen 2/1/03 5:46 PM Page viii Copyright © 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741 www.josseybass.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-750-4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201-748-6008, e-mail: [email protected]. Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact Jossey-Bass directly call our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-956-7739, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993 or fax 317-572-4002. Jossey-Bass also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Take Our Daughters To Work® and Take Our Daughters And Sons To WorkSM are registered marks of the Ms. Foundation. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sen, Rinku. Stir it up : lessons in community organizing and advocacy / Rinku Sen.—1st ed. p. cm.—(Chardon Press series) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-7879-6533-2 (alk. paper) 1. Community organization—United States. 2. Social action—United States. 3. Community development--United States. 4. Community power—United States. I. Title. II. Series. HN90.C6S46 2003 361.8'0973—dc21 2003001221 Printed in the United States of America FIRST EDITION PB Printing 10987654321 fm.Sen 2/1/03 5:46 PM Page ix THE CHARDON PRESS SERIES Fundamental social change happens when people come together to organize, advo- cate, and create solutions to injustice. Chardon Press recognizes that communi- ties working for social justice need tools to create and sustain healthy organizations. In an effort to support these organizations, Chardon Press produces materials on fundraising, community organizing, and organizational development. These resources are specifically designed to meet the needs of grassroots nonprofits—organizations that face the unique challenge of promoting change with limited staff, funding, and other resources. We at Chardon Press have adapted traditional techniques to the circumstances of grassroots nonprofits. Chardon Press and Jossey-Bass hope these works help people committed to social justice to build mission-driven organizations that are strong, financially secure, and effective. Kim Klein, Series Editor fm.Sen 2/1/03 5:46 PM Page xi CONTENTS Exercises and Exhibits xiii Preface xv The Author xxiii Profiles xxv Introduction: Community Organizing—Yesterday and Today xliii 1 New Realities, Integrated Strategies 1 2 Organizing New Constituencies 24 3 Picking the Good Fight 48 4 Ready, Set, Action! 79 5 Leading the Way 97 6 Take Back the Facts 116 7 United We Stand 135 8 Speaking Truth to Power 148 9 Education for Engagement 165 xi fm.Sen 2/1/03 5:46 PM Page xii xii Contents Conclusion: Community Organizing—Tomorrow 183 Resources 185 References 193 Index 197 fm.Sen 2/1/03 5:46 PM Page xiii EXERCISES AND EXHIBITS Exercises 1.1 Reflection Questions: New Realities 19 2.1 Reflection Questions: Constituencies and Structure 35 2.2 Reflection Questions: Organizational Culture 38 2.3 Outreach-Planning Worksheet 44 3.1 Reflection Questions: Criteria for Issue Development 57 3.2 Issue-Development Worksheet 68 3.3 Framing Worksheet 73 4.1 Direct Action Worksheet 83 4.2 Planning Worksheet 90 4.3 Campaign Design Chart 95 5.1 Curriculum-Planning Worksheet 107 6.1 Target-Research Worksheet 122 6.2 Research Worksheet 132 7.1 Potential-Allies Assessment Sheet 145 9.1 Survey for Political Education 175 xiii fm.Sen 2/1/03 5:46 PM Page xiv xiv Exercises and Exhibits Exhibits 2.1 Basic Approaches to Outreach 40 3.1 A Practical Look at Issue Development 74 4.1 Sample Campaign Design Chart 94 5.1 Leadership Development Chart 100 6.1 Sample Research Worksheet 131 8.1 How to Pitch Stories to the Press 161 9.1 The Seven C’s of Curriculum Design 176 intromatter.Sen 1/20/03 11:17 AM Page xv PREFACE ike some young people of the mid-1980s, I experienced organizing for the L first time on my college campus. In a year that included efforts to fight race discrimination, prevent violence against women, win the university’s di- vestment from South Africa, take a stand against nuclear weapons, and expand the rights of gay and lesbian students, I got a firsthand look at a process that has obsessed me since. I watched, then participated, as people got together, analyzed their conditions, confronted an institution, and, win or lose, came back to fight another day. I didn’t fall immediately—friends had to push me to move from ob- server to activist—but I became increasingly hooked after the first four-hour strat- egy meeting, the first action, the first victory.