Building Coalition Across Sectors

1. Building Coalition Across Sectors 2013 LHA State Housing Conference April 23 &April 24 Baton Rouge, LA Louisiana State Police Training Facility

2. Who is in the room? • Who are you? • Who’s are you

3. Our Current Situation??? • What are the facts? • Who are the power players? • Do we have time to leisurely develop a winning plan?

5. Louisiana is not what is used to be! • Population shifts allow for power to shift—follow the money • Where is the tax base? • South Louisianan funds approx. 60% of the states budget.

7. CHILD POVERTY BY RACE

8. Political Power: UNBALANCED • Constitutionally the governor of Louisiana has more power than any other governor in the Country. • Influences the appointments of the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate • The Speaker and the President in partnership with the governor then appoint all committee chairs • Appoints all Department Heads • The governor has the power to line item veto specific funding requests within the budget

9. Investing in Failure School Districts Receiving a “D” or “F” in 2010 School Districts With Child Poverty Above 30% Source: MEPC analysis of data from Louisiana Department of Education. School District Performance Scores 2010. “D” and “F” school districts are those that received below a 90 in performance score in 2010 US Census Bureau. American Community Survey 2005-09 Averages

11. Organizing Focus • Increased coordination with community partners. • Increased communication between partner organizations. • Increased base of volunteer organizers. • Decreased silos/Unity internally that is observable externally. • Work areas more unified (E.g.“Data driven organizing that will lead to policy change”)

12. Why do we need new cross sector collaborations? …Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. - Frederick Douglass

13. Building Cross Sectors to Win “….We are all in this together”

15. A New Focus : Systems Change • Connecting the working poor to solutions that empower communities • Informing decision makers and communities on inclusive growth and development opportunities • Impacting development and business investment to promote inclusiveness, quality growth, and international /national competitiveness • Growing a multi-generational cadre of equity leaders and policy innovators

16. Cross Sector Preperation • Engage loyal stakeholders in you community and identify new partners with strong bases/customers to begin “dating” . • Host trainings together to reinforce and define “big picture” opportunities and communication goals (focus on values). Create a sustainable local “ground game”. • Encourage neighborhood meetings (Activity Focused: door knocking, phone banking, planning) to increase partner profile and capacity. • Establish trainings to spark leadership development and to build unity, capacity and trust. Build communications plans to target reliable allies. • Ratify all plans for collective engagement with the local infrastructure. • Build communications capacity. (earned media, social media)

17. Unified Strategy: • To utilize a “grassroots” teaching approach to build a home base of “Cross Sector” leaders designed to address the shortage of organized people, money and ideas in the Louisiana. We will focus on “Equity” or shared prosperity by building on our relationships with significant community leaders across sectors. We are committed to working with strong regional partners that will set the pre-conditions for superior growth and prosperity in the state. We will work with the shared understanding that Equity is the Superior Growth Model.

18. Colony Mentality: BREAK IT! • Who’s money is it? • Use community benefits agreements as a tool. • Organize across sectors. • Commit to having conversations with allies who are of good will and are committed to winning for the communities you care about.

20. “Strategy Without Tactics is Dead!!!” • Regional growth and its impact on community “matters” and are inter-connected within our communities. • Meaningful community participation and leadership in all areas sectors are key needed to win. • Equity is the “Superior Growth Model!” The 3 E’s (environment, equity, economy) are connected to economic success of the state. • We need a balance of “people-focused” and “place-focused” solutions when planning for the future housing needs.

21. Full Community Aikido: Our Brand of Organizing • The PSE organizing technique employing every part of ones community (people, business, schools, faith houses, government). Power is displayed when the principle of collective power is used to leverage against an oppositional force. When communities organize and leverage relationships, sustainable change is not far behind.

22. POWER is the ABILITY TO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN. SYSTEMS can CHANGE when POWER is directed towards collective beneficial outcome.

23. POWER • What is Power? • The ability to change people’s actions and to make things happen. • Where does power come from? • Organized money • Organized people • Organized Information • Power is not good or bad • How is power exercised? • Coercion: using strength, force or penalties to get someone to do what they don’t want to do. • Reward: convincing someone it’s worthwhile to do what they don’t want to do. • Mind frame: Getting others to want what you want them to want.

24. Social Change vs. Systems ChangeThis is a long-term proposition Social Change Systems Change Social Process whereby the values, attitudes, or institutions of society, such as education, religion, government, and industry become modified Social change means altering the rules of the game. A phenomenon where individuals, organizations, policies, and regulations come together to create a new way of doing things that is both feasible and sustainable. Means making change that endures and changes at the heart of the system in question. Does not mean tweaking parts of a system but impacting change across all elements of the system. System change means developing brand new rules or replacing the game!

25. Where do we go from here? Moving forward

26. Tools: Basic Power Analysis Who are the decision makers? What are our assets? What are our challenges? Who are our challengers? How do we encourage them to support our cause? Who are our allies? What kind of power do we have collectively?

27. Power mapping should answer: What capacities and infrastructure do you and your allies have and what do you need to have large scale impact? What campaigns or strategies are you/should you employ in the short- and long-term to win change and build power? What forces in your state or community – political, policy, economic, demographic, racial, corporate– provide the best opportunities, or the biggest obstacles to large-scalesustainable change?

28. Campaigns for change • Political climate • Electoral environment • Present & future decision makers • Key issues & battles • Demographic, racial, economic forces • Corporate influence • Media & message shapers • Community organizing • Alliance/coalition building • Data & research • Policy advocacy & lobbying • Electoral (C3 & C4) • Strategic communications • Fundraising & resource development • Issue analysis • Policy, resource or other solutions • Target decision makers & influencers • Organized support • Organized opposition • Threats & opportunities • Strategies & tactics • Context for power • Capacity to win

29. Your position and power Opponents position and power Maps AMOUNT of power and influence on decision maker Maps POSITION on issue Die Hard Die Hard Active Support Active Support Inclined Neutral Inclined Power analysis tool developed by SCOPE, adapted by Terri Bailey for this presentation

30. Long Term Goals: • Leverage our combined assets to advance and coordinate regional equity activities utilizing Shared Prosperity Principles as our platform. • Influence how local and regional decisions are made as they pertain to growth, development, and opportunity structures in Lousianna. • Highlight and support opportunities for Equitable Development and their positive impact on low wealth populations and communities of color. • Promote and encourage equitable opportunities for inclusiveness, quality growth, and regional competitiveness. • Support, develop, and position a multigenerational cadre of leaders and policy innovations for Regional Equity. • Grow a REGIONAL EQUITY MOVEMENT comprised of diverse stakeholders and organizations representing the American South

31. Exposure, training and Support • LHA: www.lahousingalliance.org • One Voice Louisiana: www.uniteonevoice.org • Wellstone Action: www.wellstone.org • Partnership For Southern Equity –www.psequity.org • The Sixth Group: www.thesixthgroup.com