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Learn More About Community Organizing

BY JUDITH TACKETT

Federal edicts and missiles over these past couple of weeks have created chaos among nonprofit organizations, state and local agencies and others who are focused on serving people who struggle to make ends meet.

Among some of the confusion created by the White House was the threat of halting a large portion of federal grant funding that Congress has allocated for agencies serving some of the most vulnerable populations in our nation. It remains unclear what direction the federal government intends to take next. Add all the uncertainty from the federal level with the Tennessee’s legislature’s approach to target marginalized populations and those who offer support, no wonder that fears and tensions run high.

The question becomes, what can we do after an election that reinstated representation we have at the state and the federal government? First off, while in a democratic election, the majority wins, there is something like a social contract in which that majority works in collaboration with others. Second, in a representative democracy such as the United States of America, elected officials are supposed to represent their constituents to create and vote on laws, policies and other matters of government. Third, in a democracy, you have a voice and need to find ways to be heard by your representative.

In reality, however, representatives cannot please everyone in equal measures. Thus, the louder and stronger the voice, the less likely it is for representatives to ignore them. So, how then can you be heard and feel heard? How can you, regardless of whether your party is in power or not, participate in the process in an active and productive way?

That’s where community organizing can play a significant role. It takes the concept that democracy truly starts at the bottom with the people, at the grassroots level. And for democracy to survive, I believe we need to develop strong leadership at that local community level around the question of what we want our community to look like and how we can get there.

In an ideal scenario, democracy is based on working together in a collaborative way, which may include compromising. It means respecting each other and striving to create a community that offers opportunities for all.

The weakness of democracy lies in the danger that corruption and wanting power may gain a hold over representatives who start to listen to their party or a small group of people who then control the country. Thus, true representation has deteriorated.

Community organizing is not simply posting and commenting on social media. It is not mobilizing for a single event or participating in single protests. It is not solving a problem for a neighborhood or community without empowering the people living in that neighborhood or community to take action themselves. It is not instigating a rebellion to put a specific person in charge.

“Organizing is a learnable craft,” writes Marshall Ganz in his recently published book People Power Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal. Ganz is the Rita T. Hauser Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing, and Civil Society at the Harvard Kennedy School. He outlines five key practices of organizing:

• Building Relationships

• Telling Stories

• Strategizing

• Acting

• Structuring

Rather than go into theories about leadership and organizing, I asked several of my friends, all known leaders in our community, about what community organizing means to them. I also want to mention that I choose the term community organizing rather than simply organizing or grassroots organizing or civic leadership or any other term because I like to highlight that we first need to think about what community means to us before we truly can get involved in defining what we want to organize around.

When I conducted my interview for the Q&A section of this paper (see Pg. 3), I asked Mike Hodge, I asked Mike Hodge, who until his retirement in 2022 worked with Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (NOAH), what community organizing meant to him. From his perspective, there were several levels of community organizing.

“The basic one is helping people find their common interests and build the power to make change,” he said, adding this was going beyond mobilizing. “I mean there is a place for mobilizing, but to me, mobilizing is when you have already figured out what you want to have happen and you’re trying to go drag other people along with you.”

The second level of organizing, “is really building community through relationships of trust and respect,” he continued. “It’s sometimes harder to get to that level, but relationships are the building blocks of communities.”

Finally, “the third level for me is challenging one another to find what we’re called to do and then act on that.”

Hodge explained that to reach the third level, people will have to understand who they are and what moves them. They need to dig deep and look at the values that they hold and how they act on those values.

Hodge said that building community — whether through congregations, unions or some kind of association — and challenging each other to find our calling, “is really the way we’re going to live through Trump.”

Alisha Haddock has over a decade of experience in community development, social justice, and strategic leadership and recently took the helm at Neighbor 2 Neighbor, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting local residents and neighborhood organizations.

“Community organizing is the collective work of bringing people together to build power, advocate for justice, and create meaningful change,” Haddock said. “It’s about equipping everyday people with the tools, relationships, and strategies they need to challenge systems of oppression and shape the policies and practices that affect their lives.

“At its core, community organizing is about shifting power, from institutions and individuals who hoard it, to the people who are directly impacted by inequities. It’s about transformation, both in our communities and within ourselves, as we learn to stand together, listen to one another and demand better.”

Posting on social media is not real action. It is a way to sit safely in our little cocoon and, for some of us, hide behind an avatar to rant and feel empowered. It is often about ourselves rather than implementing the key practices that Ganz outlines in his organizing framework.

Organizing is empowering each other and practicing leadership by, “enabling others to achieve shared purpose under conditions of uncertainty,” according to Ganz.

In essence, organizing is creating and shifting power. And, according to Ingrid McIntyre, who is a pastor for community engagement, the power created through community organizing is based on local knowledge. “Community members understand their needs and circumstances better than outside experts.”

Organizing can be messy. For one, if done right, it is a passionate process that can lead to heated disagreements, even when everyone shares a vision. Secondly, when disagreements happen, it quickly can feel personal. Another struggle around organizing is that the drive toward action and the urgency involved can result in impatience and an unwillingness to work through issues to find common ground.

I have seen too often organizers who engage vulnerable populations, such as people experiencing homelessness, bring them in to mobilize a response to a political issue, then when the media leaves, they pack up and go home. But consequently, those whom I have seen left behind when the cameras were turned off were the people who did not have a home to go to. That, to me, is the main difference in organizing and mobilizing. Mobilizing can be a part of organizing, but true organizing goes several steps further. It is building leaders among the community who ultimately take over the organizing amongst themselves. Ultimately, it is about empowering community voices to speak for themselves, rather than calling on people to come out and support someone else’s agenda.

The Rev. Stephen Handy of McKendree United Methodist Church said that “without community organizing efforts, local communities lose their voices and the ability to generate trust and unity.”

Handy brought up another interesting point. “Every community needs an organizing plan that is not reactionary, but more proactive.” He elaborated that “based on the ongoing strategies of discrimination and divisive actions, communities must formulate strategies to counter being silenced and become aware of the political undercurrents by working collaboratively toward creating and sustaining cultures of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Part of writing this column for me is creating a space where we think about the fact that we can find a role when we start in our local community, listen to each other, and ask ourselves what our core values are and how we, together, can fight for how we build our own community, starting at the local level.

Community empowerment creates a seat at the table.

“Organizing is how we build collective power, hold institutions accountable, and make sure that our voices are not just heard but actually drive decision-making,” Haddock said. “It’s the antidote to apathy, isolation and the belief that we are powerless in the face of injustice.”

Haddock added that change does not happen while waiting on elected officials, corporations, or even well-intentioned nonprofits. “It comes from us.”