Community Organizing 101

1. Community Organizing101

2. 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.

3. Key Themes of Community Organizing • Power • Self-interests • Relationships

4. World as it Is Power Self Interest Relationships World as it Should Be Love Do good/Altruism Recognition of common humanity Living Between Two Worlds Engine: Motivation: Glue:

5. Definition of Power • “To be able” • The ability to act

6. Ways of Understanding Power • Dominant Power • Unilateral (one-way) • Zero-sum • Power “over” • Relational Power • Multi-lateral • Increasing • Power “with”

7. 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.

8. Sources of Power in a Democracy • Position • Organized Money • Organized People

9. Context for Community Organizing Values: Profit Power: Organized $ Values: administration/control Power: Position • Public Sector • Elected officials • (national, state, local) • Government Agencies • Private Sector • Financial Services • Energy companies • Real Estate/Constr. • Health Care/Insurance • Manufacturing Contracts/grants/regulations Campaign Donations • Civic Sector • Families • Religious Congs. • Labor Unions • Civic associations • Advocacy Groups Workers/Consumers Voters/Taxpayers Values: All other motives Power: Organized People and organized $

10. Context for Community Organizing Values: Profit Power: Organized $ Values: administration/control Power: Position Public Sector Private Sector Contracts/grants/regulations Campaign Donations Civic Sector Workers/Consumers Voters/Taxpayers Values: All other motives Power: Organized People and organized $

11. Three Levels of Power • Get to the table • Make a deal • Keep a deal

12. Context for Community Organizing Values: Profit Power: Organized $ Values: administration/control Power: Position • Public Sector • Elected officials • (national, state, local) • Government Agencies • Private Sector • Financial Services • Energy companies • Real Estate/Constr. • Health Care/Insurance • Manufacturing Contracts/grants/regulations Campaign Donations • Civic Sector • Families • Religious Congs. • Labor Unions • Civic associations • Advocacy Groups Workers/Consumers Voters/Taxpayers Values: All other motives Power: Organized People and organized $

13. 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

14. Frederick Douglass on Power • “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

15. Paul Tillich on Power • Power without love = tyranny • Love without power = sentimentality • Power + Love = Justice

16. Self Interest • Selfishness (me only) • Self interest (inter-esse: me amongst others) • Selflessness (others only)

17. Spectrum of Self-Interest Self Preservation Self Realization

18. 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?”

19. Discuss with Partner • What self-interest brought you here today? • 10 minutes

20. “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

21. Joseph McNeil and the Chickens • Self-interests • Relationships • Tension/agitation • Action/Reaction

22. 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

23. Two Organizing Tools to Identify Interests and Build Relationships • Individual meetings • House meetings

24. Definition of Leadership • Someone who has followers • How many followers do you have?

25. 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.

26. Individual Meetings • A 30-60 minute face to face meeting to explore the possibility of a public relationship. • 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.

27. With Whom? • Members of your congregation • Members of other congregations and organizations • Other community leaders. • Anyone who can help you expand your network

28. 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.”

29. 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

30. 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 Nature of Conversation

31. 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.

32. Context for Community Organizing Values: Profit Power: Organized $ Values: administration/control Power: Position • Public Sector • Elected officials • (national, state, local) • Government Agencies • Private Sector • Financial Services • Energy companies • Real Estate/Constr. • Health Care/Insurance • Manufacturing Contracts/grants/regulations Campaign Donations • Civic Sector • Families • Religious Congs. • Labor Unions • Civic associations • Advocacy Groups Workers/Consumers Voters/Taxpayers Values: All other motives Power: Organized People and organized $

34. 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