During the General Election, Republican candidate for Vice President Sarah Palin inadvertently did social justice movements a favor when she said, “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.”
(see related article: www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-09-04-community_N.htm – 56k -)
While trying to take a jab at her opponent’s former occupation, she turned the spotlight on folks who work hard often for little pay to bring people together to do what they couldn’t do individually.
President Obama’s win further highlighted the work of community organizers everywhere. With the rise of a former organizer to the role of President, we at WMN asked ourselves if Community Organizing might be a model for accomplishing the things we want to see done in ’09.
WMN has always been community organizer-friendly, but during our first meeting of the year we took time to learn a little bit more about what goes into the work of an organizer by talking to Dawn Shirreffs of Clean Water Action. In the process, we also learned more about the issues that Clean Water Action works on, and followed up on what WMN members were doing around the issue of the Parkland Development and the Urban Development Boundary (UDB).
Dawn identified some key questions and points that anyone thinking about taking on an issue in their community should keep in mind. Here is some paraphrasing of the steps she outlined at the meeting
1. Identify a problem
2. Decide what you want. What is the ‘ask’?
3. You don’t have to be an expert. Instead, tap someone who is an expert. Enlist their help.
4. Who can help you? Who has power?
5. Choose the right message and make it matter.
To learn more about Clean Water Action in Florida visit http://www.cleanwateraction.org/fl
To find out more about the UDB and the Hold the Line Campaign visit http://www.udbline.com/campaign.htm
