Power For Social Change

“Power For Social Change”

November 13, 2012 Webinar

Tom’s background…

ACTOR

INTERNET MARKETER

COMMUNITY

DEVELOPER

PRODUCER

EDUCATOR

“The Artist As Activist” –

DePaul Art Department

EXEC ED

DESIGNER/

FACILITATOR

Recent Civic Projects

www.publicassets.us

www.nogameschicago.com

www.civiclab.us

Agenda

• The Big Picture

• Organizing 101

• Stories About Power

• Building Infrastructure

• Expand Your Vision, Get Busy

• Who’s Ready? What’s Next?

> Q&A via email = [email protected]

> Twitter: #nppower

> http://afterschooladvocacy.wikispaces.com

THE BIG PICTURE

Challenge to the field

• Isn’t time to get out from BEHIND the

elephants?

• Isn’t it time to SET the agenda and not

REACT to the agenda?

ORGANIZING 101

INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

“The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims have been born of struggle…Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning…Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out what the people will submit to, and you have found the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

- Frederick Douglass, Letter to an abolitionist associate, 1849

Direct Service

Self Help

Education

Advocacy

Direct Action

Source: Midwest Academy

FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING –

TYPES OF HELPING ORGANIZATIONS

Direct Service

Source: Midwest Academy

United Way's mission is to improve lives by

mobilizing caring people to invest in the

community where their resources are

needed most.

FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING –

TYPES OF HELPING ORGANIZATIONS

Self Help

Source: Midwest Academy

Alcoholics Anonymous is a voluntary, worldwide fellowship of men

and women from all walks of life who meet together to attain and

maintain sobriety. The only requirement for membership is a desire to

stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for A.A. membership.

FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING –

TYPES OF HELPING ORGANIZATIONS

Education

Source: Midwest Academy

FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING –

TYPES OF HELPING ORGANIZATIONS

Advocacy

Source: Midwest Academy

The mission of the ACLU is to preserve these protections and guarantees:

Your First Amendment rights-freedom of speech, association and assembly.

Freedom of the press, and freedom of religion supported by the strict

separation of church and state.

Your right to equal protection under the law - equal treatment regardless of

race, sex, religion or national origin.

Your right to due process - fair treatment by the government whenever the

loss of your liberty or property is at stake.

Your right to privacy - freedom from unwarranted government intrusion into

your personal and private affairs.

FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING –

TYPES OF HELPING ORGANIZATIONS

Direct Action

FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING –

TYPES OF HELPING ORGANIZATIONS

National People's Action (NPA) is a network of grassroots organizations with a fierce

reputation for direct action from across the country that work to advance a national

economic and racial justice agenda. NPA has over 200 organizers working to unite

everyday people in cities, towns, and rural communities throughout the United States

through direct-action, house meetings and community organizing.

NPA and its affiliates range from farmers in rural Iowa to youth in the South Bronx.

We have affiliate organizations in 14 states with remote network offices in

Washington D.C., California, New York and a central office in Chicago. Our target

population is not limited to a geographical area or regional group but rather works

with and on behalf of hard working Americans everywhere to ensure an equitable and

just democracy.

THREE PRINCIPLES OF

DIRECT ACTION ORGANIZING

Source: Midwest Academy

1.Win real, immediate, concrete improvements in people’s live

2.Give people a sense of their own power

3.Alter the relationships of power

FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

Dire

ct Serv

ice

Self H

elp

Educa

tion

Advoca

cy

Dire

ct Actio

nAccepts ExistingPower

Relationships

ChallengesExistingPower

Relationships

Source: Midwest Academy

Dire

ctServ

ice

Self H

elp

Educa

tion

Advoca

cy

Dire

ct Actio

nAccepts ExistingPower

Relationships

ChallengesExistingPower

Relationships

Source: Midwest Academy

Level of involvementof people directly

affected by problem

FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

Dire

ctServ

ice

Self H

elp

Educa

tion

Advoca

cy

Dire

ct Actio

nAccepts ExistingPower

Relationships

ChallengesExistingPower

Relationships

Source: Midwest Academy

Change of people involved in problem

FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

Dire

ctServ

ice

Self H

elp

Educa

tion

Advoca

cy

Dire

ct Actio

nAccepts ExistingPower

Relationships

ChallengesExistingPower

Relationships

Source: Midwest Academy

Level of structural change

FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

Dire

ct Serv

ice

Self H

elp

Educa

tion

Advoca

cy

Dire

ct Actio

nAccepts ExistingPower

Relationships

ChallengesExistingPower

Relationships

Source: Midwest Academy

Level of Conflict

FORMS OF COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

www.industrialareasfoundation.org

Saul Alinsky (1909 – 1972)

• Pioneer in grassroots

democracy theory and

practice

• Founder of the Industrial

Areas Foundation (IAF)

• Master organizer and

challenger of the status quo

“Change means movement.

Movement means friction. Only in the

frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent

abstract world can movement or

change occur without that abrasive

friction of conflict.” - Saul Alinsky

Challenge to the field

• Being right means NOTHING.

• What is your POWER analysis for

getting your agenda accomplished?

A POWERFUL ORGANIZATION

2010 revenue =

$227,811,279

• 4.3 million members, mostly gun owners.

• Grassroots connections with extensive membership, NRA affiliated state

associations, local gun clubs, the Boy Scouts and other organizations

•. When restrictive gun legislation is proposed at any level, NRA members and

supporters are alerted and respond with individual letters, faxes, emails, and calls

to their representatives.

• Several websites and seven monthly publications for subscribers and

newsstands to get its message out.

• 2010 revenues = $227,811,279

• Federal level lobbying = between $1.5 million and $2.7 million from 2001 - 2010.

• During 2010, they spent over $7.2 million at the federal level.

• 2010 federal congressional elections = NRA contributed $902,700 to Republican

candidates and $373,350 to Democrats.

• Some statistics show that the NRA and its allies outspend gun control groups by

27 to 1.

• Members of Congress have ranked it as the most powerful lobbying

organization in the country several years in a row.

• Seven permanent lobbyists in DC.

• 200 pro-gun members of Congress.

• NRA particularly effective in influencing swing voters.

“During my career as a trauma surgeon at Cook

County hospital, we saw a lot of gun violence

victims. I became an advocate for gun control,

even being invited to give testimony before the

senate subcommittee concerning the assault

weapon ban. At every turn the NRA was there. It

is an extremely powerful, well organized machine,

that just bulldozes over its enemies.”

- Former student in Tom’s “Public Policy” class

POLITICIANS HAVE A REPTILIAN BRAIN…

Challenge to the field

• Do NRA members care more for the Second

Amendment and their guns than do the leaders

of America’s nonprofit sector care for social

justice and their constituents?

A STORY OF INFRASTRUCTURE

2011 revenue =

$9,168,949

LI programs trains thousands of people each year to:

• Form independent conservative student groups

• Manage grassroots-oriented campaigns

• Publish independent conservative school newspaper

• Succeed in the competitive field of broadcast media

• Run successfully for elected office

• Communicate a conservative message using the media

• Formulate policy as elected officials or key staff members

Offers 40 types of training schools, workshops, and seminars

and a top-notch intern program.

Since 1979, the Leadership Institute has trained more than

100,000 students. Graduates include US Senators and

Congressmen, governors and state legislators, city council

members and local mayors, and conservative activists and

officeholders at every level. The Institute's unique college

campus network has grown to more than 1,400 conservative

campus groups and newspapers.

Challenge to the field

• What does OUR Leadership Institute look

like?

• Would YOU sign up?

IT’S TIME FOR US TO BE DIFFERENT!

Operation 2014 – Seek out, train, support

50 nonprofit leaders to run for local office

as champions of a Human Agenda.

Donna Edwards was elected in 2008 as a Democrat to represent Maryland’s fourth district in

the House of Representatives. Most of her previous experience was in the nonprofit

world, including jobs as:

• Lobbyist, Public Citizen’s Congress Watch project, 1992-94

• Executive director, Center for a New Democracy, 1994-96

• Co-founder and executive director, National Network to End Domestic Violence, 1996-99

• Executive director, Arca Foundation, 2000-8

Ms. Edwards says she loved working for

nonprofits but appreciates “the power of the

voice and the office” that she now enjoys as

a lawmaker.

“Being a member of Congress is like a big

bully pulpit for the things you feel passionate

about,” she says, recalling that two decades

ago she worked with a group that was

pushing to overhaul the health-care system.

“Then I get to come to Congress,” she adds,

“and I preside over the health-care debate

and [help] pass what is probably the most

significant legislation we’re going to have in

a generation that’s really going to make a

difference in people’s lives.”

Watch video @ http://afterschooladvocacy.wikispaces.com/Background

312-804-3230

[email protected] - @tomstee

www.tresser.com

www.civiclab.us