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Community Organizing

Any plan to address any aspect of racism, privilege, power or oppression will very likely include some form of community organizing. Community organizing techniques can be applied to a wide variety of settings and groups - neighborhoods, parents, a school community (administrators, teachers, students, families), a community of decision makers on a particular issue (voters, state legislators, the insurance industry, doctors and other health care providers), etc. Thus, organizing strategies can come very early in a process to work toward racial equity, or later, and they can be used to organize from outside, from within, or both. Further, organizing can include collaborative and pressure strategies - often strategically applied together. Further, almost all successful community change efforts have used the principles of very good organizing - learning what individuals want and are willing to work for, early actions that lead to tangible successes, relationship building, power analyses, building leadership continually and from within, etc.

Many of the most effective campaigns and social justice movements also illustrate the very skillful use of a variety of organizing strategies - for example, President Obama's presidential campaign; the Civil Rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's; the Feminist Movements of the 1920's and 1970's. This section provides case studies, tools and other content about community organizing.