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The recent political firestorm over the ACORN should not detract from the important role community organizing can play in the struggle to alleviate and eradicate poverty.
Poverty is not just a lack of things. Numerous social scientific studies have shown that poverty is the result of a failure of social systems, the exclusion or marginalization of certain people from the institutions that govern their lives, bring prosperity and affirm their worth as human beings.
As long as our economy is unable to provide meaningful employment, our society stigmatizes particular people, our health system is unable to treat affordably and our political process marginalizes cries for help, certain groups will inevitably lose out.
Community organizing tries to reverse this situation by bringing marginalized people together, encouraging them to work on problems as a group (more minds are always better than one when trying to solve a difficult issue) and to negotiate with authorities as a group, to ensure their voices are heard.
A community organizer is not a Santa Claus. He or she does not walk around the community giving handouts. Rather, organizers push people to think critically about their situation and get involved in the difficult but ultimately empowering process of making a difference.
Neither is a community organizer a militant revolutionary. Time after time, we have seen ‘revolutions’ tear societies apart and empower violent and ruthless men. Rather, community organizing is about slow, steady, patient and nonviolent social reform.
When good organizers enter a community they do so quietly and respectfully. They get to know the people in the area, visit them in their homes, chat with them at the store and sit next to them in church. They try to learn about the situation and history of the community.
They begin to gently prod people into identifying some of the problems they face. They ask probing questions, like ‘Why are things the way they are?’ ‘Why has no one done anything to solve this issue?’ Slowly, they bring people together who face similar problems and encourage them to think of possible solutions.
As these small groups grow, they begin planning ways to address the issues using resources inside and outside. Group members fan out into the community to get their friends and family involved in mobilizing to create self-help projects or to put pressure on public officials and other authorities.
Eventually, when these various groups have worked together for some time, the organizer helps them coalesce into a registered grassroots nonprofit organization that can carry out community development projects and advocate for local people.
In other words, rather than simply throwing money at poverty, community organizing builds long-term sustainable structures that solve local problems, give people a voice in decisionmaking and supply alternative new leaders.
Community organizing is not a threat to America, it embodies the very best of American ideals – building democracy from the grassroots and enabling communities to pull themselves out of poverty through creativity, hard work and local cooperation.
The recent political firestorm over the ACORN should not detract from the important role community organizing can play in the struggle to alleviate and eradicate poverty.
Poverty is not just a lack of things. Numerous social scientific studies have shown that poverty is the result of a failure of social systems, the exclusion or marginalization of certain people from the institutions that govern their lives, bring prosperity and affirm their worth as human beings.
As long as our economy is unable to provide meaningful employment, our society stigmatizes particular people, our health system is unable to treat affordably and our political process marginalizes cries for help, certain groups will inevitably lose out.
Community organizing tries to reverse this situation by bringing marginalized people together, encouraging them to work on problems as a group (more minds are always better than one when trying to solve a difficult issue) and to negotiate with authorities as a group, to ensure their voices are heard.
A community organizer is not a Santa Claus. He or she does not walk around the community giving handouts. Rather, organizers push people to think critically about their situation and get involved in the difficult but ultimately empowering process of making a difference.
Neither is a community organizer a militant revolutionary. Time after time, we have seen ‘revolutions’ tear societies apart and empower violent and ruthless men. Rather, community organizing is about slow, steady, patient and nonviolent social reform.
When good organizers enter a community they do so quietly and respectfully. They get to know the people in the area, visit them in their homes, chat with them at the store and sit next to them in church. They try to learn about the situation and history of the community.
They begin to gently prod people into identifying some of the problems they face. They ask probing questions, like ‘Why are things the way they are?’ ‘Why has no one done anything to solve this issue?’ Slowly, they bring people together who face similar problems and encourage them to think of possible solutions.
As these small groups grow, they begin planning ways to address the issues using resources inside and outside. Group members fan out into the community to get their friends and family involved in mobilizing to create self-help projects or to put pressure on public officials and other authorities.
Eventually, when these various groups have worked together for some time, the organizer helps them coalesce into a registered grassroots nonprofit organization that can carry out community development projects and advocate for local people.
In other words, rather than simply throwing money at poverty, community organizing builds long-term sustainable structures that solve local problems, give people a voice in decisionmaking and supply alternative new leaders.
Community organizing is not a threat to America, it embodies the very best of American ideals – building democracy from the grassroots and enabling communities to pull themselves out of poverty through creativity, hard work and local cooperation.
