Community Organizing
Overview
Most efforts to address any aspect of racism, privilege, power or oppression begin with or eventually end up including some form of community organizing. Community organizing strategies and tactics can be used to organize from outside an organization, institution, community or issue area, from within, or both. Further, organizing can include both collaborative and pressure strategies - often strategically applied together. Many community change efforts also apply principles, strategies or tactics of high quality organizing, such as learning what individuals want and are willing and able to work for, early actions that lead to tangible successes, relationship building, power analyses, building leadership continually and from within, etc. Organizing, as is true of many of strategies noted on this site, has also evolved over the years. For example, the Social Justice Leadership Institute talks about Transformative Organizing, “Most social justice organizing in the United States has focused outward, on building grassroots leadership and community power to change local conditions, public policy and the allocation of resources. It generally has been pragmatic in its orientation, focusing on short- to medium-term change. While this approach has won important victories that have affected the lives of millions, its potential has been greatly limited by its strict focus on external fights and short-term change. Transformative Organizing combines an ambitious emphasis on long-term vision, ideology and movement building with attention to internal personal and organizational transformation. The result is an approach to social change that can be far more powerful than the sum of its parts.”
Community organizing techniques can be applied to a wide variety of settings and groups. This section provides case studies, tools and other content about community organizing.
Key sites
- Center for Third World Organizing
- Organizing Upgrade Web site
- Black Organizing Project
- Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity
- LeftRoots: Grassroots Struggles. Strategy for Liberation
- Pico Network
- Black Lives Matters
Practices
- Changing the Story: Story-Based Strategies for Direct Action Design
- Community Organizing: People Power from the Grassroots
- Co-op America's Boycott Organizer's Guide
- Fertile Ground: Women Organizing at the Intersection of Environmental Justice and Reproductive Justice
- Integrating Political And Organizational Questions Into 'Building A Core Group' Discussions, A Draft Set of Some Preliminary Political Questions
- Making the Case: Supporting Community Organizing in The Nation's Capital
- Report Summary Promising Practices in Revenue Generation for Community Organizing
- Shining the Light: A Practical Guide to Co-Creating Healthy Communities
- A Katrina Reader:
- Class and Community Organizing
- Showing up for Racial Justice - SURJ
- One Step Forward On The Path To Liberation
- Catalyzing Liberation Toolkit: Anti-Racist Toolkit to Build the 99% Movement
- Building A Pipeline for Justice: Understanding Youth Organizing and the Leadership Pipeline
- How Trayvon Martin’s Death Launched a New Generation of Black Activism
- Keeping Ferguson Alive!
- How to Prepare Yourself for a Protest—and What to Do If You End Up in Cuffs
- 2016 Election Curriculum: Power Point Presentations, Facilitator's Guides, Supplementary Resources
- Resistance Manual
- Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda
- Toolkit for Black and Non Black POC Organizers and Activists on the 5th Anniversary of Trayvon's Death
- Beyond the Moment Resources
- Whites Only: SURJ And The Caucasian Invasion Of Racial Justice Spaces
- Anti-Racist Neighborhood Watch: A Quick-Start Manual and Resource Packet
- Changing the Converstion: Philanthropic Funding and Community Organizing in Detroit
- BOLD Report 2017
- Movement Mic Check: Rapid Response to Racial Disasters
- Jemez Principles for Democratic Organizing
- Healing in Action: A Toolkit for Black Lives Matter Healing Justice and Direct Action
- Organizing Transformation: Best Practices in the Transforming Organizing Model
- Organizing Engagement
- Infiltration At Protests And Online
- Week of Action in Defense of Black Lives
- It takes Roots to Challenge Philanthropy
Case studies
- Alliances for Change: Organizing for the 21st Century
- Building the Anti-Racist, Anti-Imperialist United Front: Theory and Practice from the L.A. Strategy Center and Bus Riders Union
- Labor/Community Strategy Center Case Study
- Organizing with Love: Lessons from the New York Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Campaign Center for the Education of Women
- The Road to Reform: Collaborative Model for Reforming the Taxicab Industry
- Southern Echo Case Study
- Transforming Lives, Transforming Movement Building: Lessons from National Domestic Workers Alliance
- Organizing Transformation: Best Practices in the Transformative Organizing Model
- A Rose in L.A.
Concepts
- Beyond the Whiteness-- Global Capitalism and White Supremacy: Thoughts on movement building and anti-racist organizing
- Bridging Research and Education Organizing: Can we strengthen our combined power?
- Get in the Game: Civic Participation and Community Organizing
- Social Justice Organizing In the U.S. South: The Southern Scan Research Project
- Building Bridges, Building Power: Developments in Institution-based Community Organizing
- Cultivating The Grassroots: A Winning Approach for Environment and Climate Funders
- Transformative Organizing: Towards The Liberation Of Self & Society
- The Demands
- What Happens When Communities Organize?
- Left Strategy as 2020 LoomsLeft Strategy as 2020 Looms
