Community Organizing 101

Greater Cleveland Congregations (GCC) is a non partisan coalition of faith communities and partner organizations in Cuyahoga County working together to build power for social justice. GCC unites people across lines of race, class, religion, and geography to promote public, private and civic sector actions which strengthen and improve the quality of life of our neighborhoods.

Key Themes of Community Organizing

 Power  Self-interests  Relationships

Living Between Two Worlds

Engine: Motivation: Glue:

World as it Is

 Power  Self Interest  Relationships

World as it Should Be

 Love  Do good/Altruism  Recognition of common humanity

Definition of Power

 “ To be able ”  The ability to act

Ways of Understanding Power

 Dominant Power    Unilateral (one-way) Zero-sum Power “ over ”  Relational Power    Multi-lateral Increasing Power “ with ”

Discuss with Partner

 Tell a story of a time in you life when you were acted on by dominant power, and what if anything you did about it.

 Keep the story “ public ”  Spend 5 minutes swapping stories.

Sources of Power in a Democracy

 Position  Organized Money  Organized People

Context for Community Organizing Values: administration/control Power: Position Values: Profit Power: Organized $

Public Sector

•Elected officials (national, state, local) •Government Agencies Contracts/grants/ regulations Campaign Donations

Private Sector

•Financial Services •Energy companies •Real Estate/Constr.

•Health Care/Insurance •Manufacturing Voters/Taxpayers

Civic Sector

•Families •Religious Congs.

•Labor Unions •Civic associations •Advocacy Groups Workers/Consumers Values: All other motives Power: Organized People and organized $

Context for Community Organizing Values: administration/control Power: Position Values: Profit Power: Organized $

Public Sector

Contracts/grants/ regulations Campaign Donations

Private Sector

Voters/Taxpayers

Civic Sector

Workers/Consumers Values: All other motives Power: Organized People and organized $

Three Levels of Power

1.

Get to the table 2.

Make a deal 3.

Keep a deal

Context for Community Organizing Values: administration/control Power: Position Values: Profit Power: Organized $

Public Sector

•Elected officials (national, state, local) •Government Agencies Contracts/grants/ regulations Campaign Donations

Private Sector

•Financial Services •Energy companies •Real Estate/Constr.

•Health Care/Insurance •Manufacturing Voters/Taxpayers

Civic Sector

•Families •Religious Congs.

•Labor Unions •Civic associations •Advocacy Groups Workers/Consumers Values: All other motives Power: Organized People and organized $

GCC ’s Purpose: Relational Power for Justice

 Ability to get to the decision making table and negotiate on behalf of our interests and values  Make and keep deals  Organizing our people and our money

Frederick Douglass on Power

 “ Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

”

Paul Tillich on Power

 Power without love = tyranny  Love without power = sentimentality  Power + Love = Justice

Self Interest

  Selfishness (me only) Self interest (

inter-esse:

amongst others) me  Selflessness (others only)

Spectrum of Self-Interest

Self Preservation Self Realization

Rabbi Hillel Says:

 “ If I am not for myself, who will be for me?  “ If I am only for myself, what am I?

 “ If not now, when?

”

Discuss with Partner

 What self-interest brought you here today?

 10 minutes

“Small Change” Discussion

 What key points did you take from this article?

 What were the self-interests of the students who initiated the sit-ins?

 Why these students?

 15 minutes

Joseph McNeil and the Chickens

 Self-interests  Relationships  Tension/agitation  Action/Reaction

How will we build power in the Civic Sector?

 Identifying common self interests we can only realize together  Intentionally building relationships necessary to motivate and sustain action

Two Organizing Tools to Identify Interests and Build Relationships

1.

Individual meetings 2.

House meetings

Definition of Leadership

 Someone who has followers  How many followers do you have?

How do you build your Leadership?

 Intentionally expand your network of relationships.

   Members of your congregation Members of other congregations and organizations Other community leaders.

Individual Meetings

 A 30-60 minute face to face meeting to

explore

possibility of a

public

relationship.

the 

Explore:

initiate with people you are interested in because you imagine that there ’ s something to do together.



Public:

Not friendship, not romance, but respect, an understanding of mutual interests, and a context to work together in the future.

With Whom

?

 Members of your congregation  Members of other congregations and organizations  Other community leaders.

 Anyone who can help you expand your network

Life Lessons from Lois

 “ Meeting someone is not just about meeting someone.

”  “ She had a big job for Helen, she just didn ’ t know what it was yet.

”  “ First, she reaches out to someone outside her world.

”  “ It ’ s not merely that she knows lots of people. It ’ s that she belongs to lots of different worlds.

”  “ (Integration) happened, but it didn ’ t happen by accident. It happened because a certain type of person made it happen.

”  “ When we talk about power, this is what we are usually talking about: money and authority. But there ’ s a third kind of power as well – the kind Lois has. It ’ s social power.

”

Elements of Individual Meetings



Credential:

who and why 

Be interesting

– share your story and interests 

Be interested/curious

– inquire about stories, interests, passions, values, concerns, experiences, talents, public life choices.

 Close with specific

next step

 to further the public relationship another meeting a particular topic    share names of people in their network pull together a house meeting attend an event connected to their interest

Nature of Conversation

Yes

        Intentional Individual Relational Two-way/reciprocal Stories/interests/values Public/probing In Person Art

No

        Casual Group Task-oriented Interview Small talk Private/prying Phone/e-mail/chat Science

Summary

 We build a powerful organization by building relationships between civic sector institutions that have common self interests.

 We unlock the power of organized people by developing leaders with a following.

Context for Community Organizing Values: administration/control Power: Position Values: Profit Power: Organized $

Public Sector

•Elected officials (national, state, local) •Government Agencies Contracts/grants/ regulations Campaign Donations

Private Sector

•Financial Services •Energy companies •Real Estate/Constr.

•Health Care/Insurance •Manufacturing Voters/Taxpayers

Civic Sector

•Families •Religious Congs.

•Labor Unions •Civic associations •Advocacy Groups Workers/Consumers Values: All other motives Power: Organized People and organized $

Greater Cleveland Congregations Organizational Flow Chart  Executive  Committee 

Hires, fires, supervises  Provides guidance,  reports to  Reports to 

Lead  Organizer 

Hires, fires,  supervises 

 

Elects  Sets agenda 

Staff  Staff 

                      Top leaders serve  on (one voting  member per org)  Core teams  constitute     

Strategy  Team 

Takes major  organizational  decisions to for  ratification 

Delegate  Assembly 

  Provides leadership to   Participates in  Provide support and  guidance to 

Issue Action  Teams 

Take GCC decisions  back to for  implementation and  action              · Education  · Jobs  · Health Care  · Criminal Justice  · Healthy Communities  DRAFT  3 Lisa Factora‐Borchers   5/6/11  

Congregations/Organizations 

Core Teams

 5-25 member team who will be responsible for organizing your congregation  Clergy and lay leaders  Leaders from all corners of the congregation  Agenda for Summer meeting  Audit of congregational members connected to each of our issue areas  Strategy for approaching each of the above