There are two foot steps to community service …
- Direct service to meet community needs,
- Community organizing is the other foot step to address the root problems,
o Using the democratic process to engage in policy change that invites our engagement.
o Reduce the social pressures on low and moderate income families so they can succeed and thereby reduce poverty.
There is a critical need for grassroots organizing because in order for our communities to change, we must have power. If we don’t have money, and we don’t, we only other form of power is organized people who collectively work for public policy change and civic engagement, voting.
Florida is a 43% multi cultural state and we don’t see that representation in the statehouse, and we don’t see it in the policies that affect our families … Medicaid Expansion, housing, PayDay lending, public education, voting rights, etc.
But Grassroots Community Organizing (should not be) …
- As its name implies – manipulation – “organize the community” because the community is not capable. The community is plenty capable; they just need to know how to make the system work for them.
- Implies that the “organizer” or staff really makes the decisions.
So community organizing should be done in moral just frame work … success should be measured by
- Grassroots volunteer community members making decisions on issue identification and strategy; staff training and coaching leaders to success,
- Transparent and authentic
- A long lasting leadership base is built.
- My vision is that families are raised knowing that their civic duty is to organize others, participate in the public policy debate with, and speak out.
501c3 organizations and lobbying have more freedom than many thinks
- Educate on an issue
- Election H
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