Community organising is a way of working that trains and builds citizen leaders inside community-based organisations. We need to build strong and vibrant civil society organisations that act for the common good.
Arnie Graf discusses his 45 years of community organising experience, from his early days with Saul Alinsky,
A chat with one of the biggest names in US community organizing, Ernie Cortes, including history, Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) & Saul Alinksy.
Ed Miliband, leader of the United Kingdom Labour Party, describes how political parties can be agents for major change.
Community organiser and Deputy Director of Citizens UK Jonathan Cox discusses the importance of scale in community organising.
Digital changemaking with Meena – Learn how she has created scaled change and worked with communities in the Global South.
A chat with Jane McAlevey, United States social movement organiser and trainer, about organising for workers’ rights.
A chat with Jennifer Dillon, the communications director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance in the US, about workers’ rights and their campaigns.
Interview with Craig Reucassel: How a career as a comedian and political satirist prepared him to talk about climate change with a diverse audience.
Community organising is a way of building people power that focuses on building the capacity, skills and leadership of the people involved in making change. This article explains community organising and its history.
Everyone is talking about the Covid-19 pandemic and the way it is shaking up our lives! You’ll find Coronavirus related content on most podcasts you could listen to. These ones have a particular focus on the implications for social movements.
This article explores the ‘moving the rock’ concept put forward by Daniel Hunter in his book Strategy and Soul. The concept has been valuable for campaigners and organisations reassessing their theory of change and particularly how they engage politicians and supporters.
Nothing precedes purpose. The starting point for every organisation or movement should be the question ‘Why do we exist’? A number of tips for focusing an organisation on vision and purpose. An excerpt from Purpose Driven Campaigning, based on Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church.
Rick Warren focuses on five ‘circles of commitment’ – community, crowd, congregation, committed and core, and argue that it’s important to recognise where your supporters fall in these categories, and develop processes to move them from the outside in. An excerpt from Purpose Driven Campaigning.
Tips for training or other events which connect people to a campaign and help individuals overcome their barriers to action. As organisers we can use the momentum of the group to leverage people to action – like a turbo-charged persuasive conversation.
A process guide to be used in training workshops and planning sessions to develop campaign strategy. This process will help reduce the scope of campaigns in order to focus efforts on where change can really be achieved, and consider the possible consequences of working on one part of a problem rather than others.
The Community Organising Guide is 296 pages of training resources to deepen our understanding of core organising skills: relational meetings and self-interest, the power of story in organising, building alliances, coalitions and networks, holding decision-makers accountable, leadership development, recruitment, doorknocking and phonebanking.
This is a training process guide to explore different approaches to solving community problems, investigate how different problems require different approaches to change to solve them, clarify the differences between community organising, community development, advocacy and service delivery.
This short case study shares some of the keys to success of the Lock The Gate approach – unusual alliances, non-violent direct action & more.
Joel Dignam reviews Marshall Ganz’ approach to story as fundamental to organising. Through story we understand happenings, communicate our values, and make sense of our choices.