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CCESL Community Organizing Handbook 2009

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CCESL Community Organizing Handbook 2009 Community Organizing Handbook 3Rd Edition Acknowledgements The CCESL Community Organizing Handbook has evolved over the years with input, ideas, and feedback from many individuals. We would like to acknowledge the significant contributions of the following individuals to the three editions: 3rd Edition (2014): Cara DiEnno, Ryan Hanschen, Iman Jodeh, Jane Sundermann, MacKenzie Burdic, Stephen Hathaway, and Jessica Hathaway. 1st Edition (2010) & 2nd Edition (2011): Jenny Whitcher, Frank Coyne, Sarah McCauley and Sarah Rauenhorst, Harry Boyte, author of The Citizen Solution and co-director of the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the Augsburg College in Minneapolis; Ed Chambers, author of Roots for Radicals and Executive Director of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF); and The Gamaliel Foundation’s National Leadership Training, where CCESL staff are trained in community organizing. Copyright © 2014 University of Denver (Colorado Seminary). All rights reserved. The University of Denver is an equal opportunity affirmative action institution. 3rd Edition CCESL Community Organizing Handbook Contents About us ............................................................................................................................................................ 1 How to Use this Handbook ............................................................................................................................... 2 Core Concepts & Terms .................................................................................................................................... 2 Community Organizing ................................................................................................................................... 6 Community Organizing Overview ...................................................................................................................... 7 Community Organizing: THE CCESL Graphic ................................................................................................... 8 What makes Community Organizing Different? ................................................................................................. 9 Relationship Building .................................................................................................................................... 10 Building Relationships In Community Organizing ............................................................................................ 11 Privilege, Oppression and Identity (POI) .......................................................................................................... 12 Self-Interest Assessment ................................................................................................................................. 14 One-to-One Relational Interviews .................................................................................................................... 16 Agitation .......................................................................................................................................................... 17 Collective Self-Interest .................................................................................................................................... 19 House Meetings .............................................................................................................................................. 20 Issue Selection .............................................................................................................................................. 22 Identifying Problems & Selecting Issues .......................................................................................................... 23 The World As It Is, The World As It Should Be ................................................................................................. 24 Issue Research .............................................................................................................................................. 26 Researching the Issue ..................................................................................................................................... 26 Root Causes .................................................................................................................................................... 28 Power .............................................................................................................................................................. 29 Power Mapping ............................................................................................................................................... 30 Taking Action ................................................................................................................................................. 32 Strategy & Tactics ........................................................................................................................................... 32 Public Action ................................................................................................................................................... 34 Reflection & Evaluation ................................................................................................................................. 36 Critical Reflection ............................................................................................................................................ 36 Evaluation & Assessment ................................................................................................................................ 39 Celebration & Closure...................................................................................................................................... 40 Community Organizer Spotlights ................................................................................................................. 42 Introduction to the Spotlights .......................................................................................................................... 43 Resources ...................................................................................................................................................... 58 Making it Public: Opportunities to Share Your Community-organizing Knowledge and Skills ......................... 59 Funding your Work ........................................................................................................................................ 603 Learn more About Community Organizing ...................................................................................................... 61 Works Cited................................................................................................................................................... 636 3rd Edition CCESL Community Organizing Handbook The Center for Community Engagement & Service Learning About us The Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning (CCESL) embraces the vision, values and mission of the University of Denver (DU). In turn, CCESL’s vision is to lead the campus in embracing the University of Denver’s commitment of “being a great private university dedicated to the public good.” CCESL values the public good, inclusive excellence and social justice, and, as part of higher education’s civic mission, building community capacity and engagement. CCESL’s mission is to educate, engage, and equip the campus community to accomplish tangible, public work that improves the lives of people in our communities. Our Approach: Whether training students, offering faculty development programs or accomplishing our work with communities, CCESL’s work is grounded in principles of community-engaged scholarship and teaching as well as in the community organizing model. Community Organizing: Community organizing has a rich history in American social movements and is about people working together for systemic social change. Community organizing focuses on developing collective self- interests by working with others and taking action on issues the community cares about through true democracy, in which the power is with the people. Our organizing model is not about the short-term mobilization of protests or rallies. Rather, it is about achieving long-term change through building powerful, public relationships; influencing and negotiating with government, corporations and institutions; achieving direct representation; and holding decision-makers accountable to the people through public actions. About this Handbook: The CCESL staff have written this Community Organizing Handbook for use in trainings, civic engagement programs and courses. This handbook can be used as a tool to develop public skills, and as a guide to organizing people for change. To access a copy of this handbook electronically, please visit www.du.edu/ccesl. We provide this tool as a public resource; if you have questions or would like to distribute this handbook, please contact us at: 2050 E. Evans Ave Ste 22 Denver, CO 80208 303.871.3706 [email protected] www.du.edu/ccesl 3rd Edition CCESL Community Organizing Handbook | 1 How to Use this Handbook This community organizing handbook is intended to serve as a guide to the processes and practices of organizing. Each concept included in this handbook is a piece of the larger process of community organizing. The concepts have however been created so they may also stand alone when needed for teaching purposes. Each concept description includes what
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