The New Generation of Organizers
The progressive movement is seeing a resurgence of younger organizers thanks, in part, to the “Obama effect” of the 2008 campaign, and a renewed attempt to articulate values and build authentic relationships.
In 1831, French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville came to America to investigate American democracy. He worried that citizenship would turn into a series of arid exchanges between isolated individuals and a powerful state as political equality eroded social relationships rooted in family, church, and guild.
Instead, de Tocqueville found a vibrant society, sustained by civic associations that drew people from individualism into shared interests. The fact that these associations were voluntary meant that they could be a source of renewal of civic values. A combination of equal voices could, to some extent, balance domination by those with greater resources. Making democracy work required the creation of collective capacity.
This is what organizers do.
Organizers exercise leadership by taking responsibility to enable others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty. Unlike political “marketers” who sell causes, candidates, or commodities by appealing to the preferences of their customers; unlike philanthropic “providers” who dispense services to needy clients; and unlike social “entrepreneurs” who devise technical solutions to challenging public problems; organizers identify, recruit and develop leaders. They build community around that leadership and create power from the resources of that community.
Today the progressive movement is seeing a new resurgence of young adult organizers. Certainly, there is the Obama effect. His presidential campaign trained 3,000 full-time organizers, most of them in their 20s; it organized thousands of local leadership teams (1,100 in Ohio alone); and it engaged some 1.5 million people in coordinated volunteer activity.
Obama also managed to glamorize the art of community organizing in his memoir, Dreams of My Father. He wrote about meeting with people in their homes and churches, listening to their stories, the failures and the victories. Obama said: “it was the best education he ever had.” Young people see the experience Obama got from community organizing—his concern, the way he relates to everyday people—and they want those same skills.
But what skills are involved in community organizing, and how are young adult organizers putting them into practice?
Marshall Ganz teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and is the author of Why David Sometimes Wins: Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement.
Kate Hilton is a Teaching Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government
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Organization is key to an intelligent mind. Over organization is great but can make people go crazy. Auto Insurance Quote
Minneapolis received about $500,000 from the Home Depot Foundation, the National Tree Trust has a nursery there, and is a product of discussions born out of the Northside Home Fund. A project of the Northside Partnership, NHF is composed of representatives from neighborhood organizations, nonprofit housing and homeownership organizations, governmental and enforcement agencies, community development organizations, private housing developers, and financial institutions.
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The results are wide-ranging. Foreclosures in the area that spans across two counties—Minneapolis in Hennepin County and St. Paul in Ramsey County—were spread over a large area. So rather than attack the whole problem, neighborhoods were segmented strategically into smaller pieces—a “cluster approach”—as a means of neighborhood recovery, infusing capital to produce visible, immediate change on the ground. Corporate Gifts | acne treatments
Credit that Midwestern congeniality. Or maybe there’s something in the water in the land of 1000 lakes. But whatever’s going on in Minnesota’s Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, it’s producing a culture of collaboration that is fighting the foreclosure crisis, by banding together community-based
organizations
, philanthropies, nonprofits, and local government agencies in ways only seen on smaller scales around the country. iphone blog healthy diet SEO Company Promotional Products
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These organizers have taken advantage of the internet and really used their skills to get their message across! This is really amazing to me and hopefully I can be as good as they are.
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These are some great young people. Im glad they are standing up for what they think is the right thing. This country was built on protest and the public voice. Good for them.
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Good organizers make the organization perfect.
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