Community Organizing with Women of Color:

The problems of women of color are related to gender, ethnic, and class inequality, yet little attention has been paid to methods for changing these structural conditions; most social work literature on gender and ethnicity has focused on individual models for change. Recent research on feminist organizing has identified ways in which community organization methods can be made more effective for use with groups of women. The implementation of these methods with women of color, however, will require addressing deficiencies of feminist theory in analyzing women's experience. This article presents one approach to organizing with women of color that suggests how race and gender issues can be worked on simultaneously. The issues and practice principles are relevant for both women of color and European American women organizing in communities of color.     

Youth-Adult Partnership in Community Organizing

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of a campaign developed around sexuality education policy by a national youth-focused organization, Advocates for Youth, and its network of youth activists. The paper provides an overview of the national sexuality education debate and the specific strategies youth and adults use in partnership to advocate for a comprehensive approach to the education. The case study of the My Voice Counts!Campaign provides insight into the creation and evolution of a youth-adult partnership approach to community organizing, beginning with an online activism campaign and resulting in local youth-led projects to improve sex education policies and curricula. Following an analysis of the Campaign's accomplishments, the paper lays out recommendations for action and research to demonstrate the positive effects of this form of community practice.     

Neighborhood and Community Organizing in Colonias

ABSTRACT

Promotores are leaders in traditional Mexican communities whose role in agrarian life dates back to the land reform movement following the revolution. Recently, there have been efforts at developing these roles in the colonias in the United States' southwest as a means of providing health education and civic information in these hard-to-reach communities. This paper discusses an example of how community organizers incorporated the promotora concept among a group of women to bring about social and political change in their colonia.     

Rebuilding Community Organizing Education in Social Work

Although the campaign and election of Barack Obama as the nation's first President with a background in community organizing (CO) has boosted the visibility and popularity of the field, graduate social work programs have not taken full advantage of the opportunity. This article, therefore, presents a three-fold argument regarding the future of CO education. There is an increasing demand and need for trained organizers and community organizing education. This historical moment holds significant potential for CO education in social work. Graduate schools of social work with CO programs should broaden their outreach to attract potential students and activists to careers as social change agents.     

Virus interruptus: An Arendtian exploration of political world‐building in pandemic times

Building upon a series of blog posts and conversations, two feminist scholars explore how political community, trust, responsibility and solidarity are affected by the COVID‐19 pandemic. We explore the ways in which we can engage in political world‐building during pandemic times through the work of Hannah Arendt. Following Arendt’s notion of the world as the space for human togetherness, we ask: how can we respond to COVID‐19’s interruptions to the familiarity of daily life and our relationship to public space? By extending relational accounts of public health and organizational ethics, we critique a narrow view of solidarity that focuses on individual compliance with public health directives. Instead, we argue that solidarity involves addressing structural inequities, both within public health and our wider community. Finally, we suggest possibilities for political world‐building by considering how new forms of human togetherness might emerge as we forge a collective ‘new normal’.     

Giving Back in an Asian American Community in the South: An Intergenerational Perspective

This paper explores the intergenerational dynamics of “giving back” among immigrants in an Asian American community in the southern region of the United States. The paper is guided by the intergenerational ambivalence paradigm to explore dynamics between first and second generations in their community involvement. The study used the qualitative method of phenomenological approach to identify emerging themes that include (a) importance of ethnic organizations; (b) defined roles and responsibilities within the ethnic organizations that exist between first and second generations; and (c) the second generation wanting to give back and manage ethnic organizations differently from the first generation.     

Community Organizing and the Detroit Water Struggle: Report from the Front Lines

At this moment in history, both the need for macro social work approaches and interest in macro social practice among social workers are growing. One macro approach that is particularly well-suited to confronting current political and economic conditions is grassroots community organizing. Some authors have suggested that most successful efforts at community organizing are those which can link the lived experiences of grassroots community members to larger movements for social justice. The struggle for access to affordable water in Detroit is a prime example of such an effort. In 2014, indignation at the announcement that the city would be shutting off the water of all those who could not afford to pay their water bills, combined with resistance to the imposition of emergency management on the city, galvanized a movement that brought together a wide variety of community members, activists, and organizers. As a participant-observer in this struggle, I conducted videotaped interviews with 15 organizers and activists concerning their views on the successes and challenges they have witnessed and the crucial “next steps” for community activists in Detroit. This article reports on these interviews and examines the lessons for community organizers that emerged from them.     

Organizing Cyberspace: Strategies for Teaching About Community Practice and Technology

Summary

The coming millennium will bring new challenges and opportunities to those who struggle for the survival of communities. The incorporation of information technology is important to the conduct and teaching of community practice. This paper discusses how technology is changing community practice and considers the implications for social work education. The paper has three parts. First, it will consider the role of information technology in changing the context for community practice. Second, it will examine the incorporation of information technology into current and emergent community practice interventions. Finally, the paper will explore ways that these issues can be taught within the community practice curriculum.     

Utilizing Digital Advocacy in Community Organizing: Lessons Learned from Organizing in Virtual Spaces to Promote Worker Rights and Economic Justice

This article discusses the usefulness and challenges associated with utilizing social media technologies in the context of community organizing practice, often referred to as digital advocacy. We ground the analysis of digital advocacy in the context of a recent organizing effort undertaken by social work academics, grass roots organizers, and allies to support the boycott of Hyatt Hotels in San Antonio, Texas, by marginalized hotel workers and labor unions through advocating that the Society for Social Work Research relocate their 2014 conference from the Grand Hyatt, San Antonio, and to work toward better conference planning procedures in the future.     

An Analysis on Political Speech from the Perspective of Cohesion and Coherence

本论文采用衔接性和连贯性理论重点分析政治演讲,并尝试深入研究理论。本论文观点是正确的使用衔接性和连贯性可以提高语言的感染力和说服力,可以充分显示个人魅力。     

Advocating for Community Services Coordination: An Empowerment Perspective for Planning AIDS Services

With the progression of the HIV pandemic and the unique challenges it brings to community-based health and social services, comprehensive service planning becomes essential for the well-being of those affected by AIDS. This article reports on an educational program using an empowerment-based community practice model in responding to the AIDS crisis. This was a service planning coordination effort tbat included compiling a comprehensive directory and profile of local services, measuring practitioner knowledge and attitudes toward working with persons affected by AIDS, and analyzing planning policies of HIV service agencies. This joint work included faculty, students, and community service providers.     

The Organizational Context of Faith-Based Community Organizing: Effects on Member Civic Engagement

This article explores the congregation as a conduit for civic engagement. Specifically examined are the effects of participation in congregations engaged in faith-based community organizing (FBCO). Civic engagement is examined by comparing FBCO-affiliated congregation members to non-FBCO-affiliated congregation members, local school participants, neighborhood association members, and those without such affiliations. Findings reveal that those engaged in FBCO evidence higher rates of civic engagement than members of the other groups. Implications for the field and future study are discussed.     

中东民主化进程：一个政治经济学的视角

作为上层建筑的转型，中东民主化受到了经济基础的制约。该地区依赖自然资源的经济模式、经济增长缓慢、既得利益集团的抗拒都对民主化形成阻障。只要这些阻碍民主化的经济因素不消除，中东民主化的前景仍不乐观。     

中东民主化进程:一个政治经济学的视角

作为上层建筑的转型,中东民主化受到了经济基础的制约,该地区依赖自然资源的经济模式、经济增长缓慢,既得利益集团的抗拒都对民主化形成阻障.只要这些阻碍民主化的经济因素不消除,中东民主化的前景仍不乐观.     

Making Connections: Community Organizing,Empowerment Planning,and Participatory Research in Participatory Evaluation

This article shows the intersections of participatory research, popular education, empowerment planning, and community organizing with participatory evaluation. It argues that a truly successful participatory evaluation involves participants in guiding and even conducting the research, doing a process of self- and program study, creating plans for change, and organizing themselves for implementing these plans. Next, the chapter shows how these elements played out in a participatory evaluation of a community organizing training and technical assistance project in Toledo, Ohio. The first year of the project was facilitated by participatory evaluation that helped identify early successes and problems so participants could make programmatic changes early in the process. The telling of the story also develops practices of participatory evaluation, including planning the evaluation, doing the research and adapting it to changing conditions, uncovering creative tensions, participatory validity checking, and linking the process to planning and action. The chapter concludes with some lessons for participatory evaluation practice.     

Opportunities for Community Organizing in the Realm of Economic Justice and Low Wage Worker Struggles

ABSTRACT

The new upsurge in labor organizing among low-wage workers provides community organizing with opportunities to engage in economic justice struggles. Low-wage workers are organizing in many sectors of the workforce that are difficult to organize. Their issues are part of the larger discourse concerning inequality in the United States. New forms of community organizing are developing in some areas that embrace economic justice issues. However, many of the national networks have yet to become involved in issues of community members in the capacities as workers. Macro social work needs to revisit its origins and forge a new tradition that incorporates the problems that inspired Jane Addams and her contemporaries, the issues of workers and immigrants.