community organizing refers to organizing that: 1.is geographic-specific 2.identifies as its primary...
Post on 25-Dec-2015
213 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
COMMUNITY ORGANIZING refers to organizing that:
1. Is Geographic-specific
2. Identifies as its Primary Constituency some set of residents and/or community institutions.
3. Utilizes Issue Campaigns to address specific problems and/or conditions.
4. Consciously and systematically Develops Grassroots Leaders among the Primary Constituency.
5. Seeks to Alter Power Relationships to the benefit of the primary constituency.
6. Builds sustained, ongoing, Independent, Democratic Organization Accountable to the Primary Constituency.CIVIC PARTICIPATION:
Strategies that seek to increase politically conscious voter participation and achieve real democracy through the electoral arena: voter registration, education, and turnout.
Different Types/Arenas of Power:
•Grassroots Lobbying (e.g. letter-writing, delegations with decision-makers, testimony at hearings)
•Direct Action (e.g. Civil Disobedience, disrupting traffic or business)
•Media/ Communications (e.g. press conferences, Op-Ed’s, paid advertising)
•Electoral
1. Watered down because of where elected and voters are
2. Can be illegal for C3
3. Need huge scale to have impact
4. Only targeting voters
5. Leads to more tactical relations with allies
6. The power of money
7. Huge drain of resources
8. Could lose allies (different positions)
9. Not ideological battle where we are setting agenda
10. Short, frantic timeline, then over
11. Less than 10% of people stay involved
12. Mainly opposing things
13. Not about Systemic Change
PROBLEMS-CHALLENGES-LIMITATIONS
1.Can’t ignore issues directly impacting our communities & are hot topics
2.Arena controls how money is distributed
3.Arena is accessible to many people
4.To make allies. A lot of our allies work in this arena
5.Possibility of reaching scale
6.A way to mitigate or stop something
7.It’s a recognized form of power by decision-makers
8.It’s motivating to our leaders
9.It’s a legitimate and important arena where power must be built
REASONS TO BE ACTIVE IN ELECTORAL ARENA
Integrating Electoral Work & Community Organizing1. Developing ONGOING NEIGHBORHOOD ORGANIZING
STRUCTURES (example: Neighborhood Education Teams)
2. Training and DEVELOPMENT OF GRASSROOTS LEADERS (e.g. increasing skills & ownership) during NON-election cycles.
3. Recruiting and EXPANDING MASS MEMBERSHIP/ BASE by focusing on precincts/ groups of voters based on organizing goals.
4. Using LIVING DATABASE to make ongoing work more strategic and effective (analysis, targeting, tracking, evaluating)
5. Using other Technologies to make work more strategic and effective (e.g. GIS mapping, barcode scanning)
Different Approaches to Voter Outreach…
•MEDIA: TV and Radio ad’s; Press events; Newspaper Advertisements
•MAIL: Flyers, brochures, post cards, etc.
•FIELD/ ONE-ON-ONE: Precinct Walking; Phonebanks; On-site Outreach, House Meetings
•Others: “Robo-Calls”, church announcements, …?
“OCCASIONAL” VOTERS: • Vote in some elections, but not an “Always” voter—e.g. only vote in presidential elections or local
races.• Demographics: Higher concentration of young voters, low-income and people of color voters.• Focus is issue education AND energizing them to turn out. • These voters are our edge—pollsters don’t count them and most traditional programs ignore
these voters.
“ALWAYS” VOTERS:• Very likely to vote in most elections, based on voting history.• Demographics: Tend to be older, wealthier, lower % of people of color than general electorate.• Focus with these voters is issue persuasion
“NEW” VOTERS:• Newly eligible voters (new citizens or just turned 18) or recently moved into the area• Like Occasional voters, turnout with these voters tends to be low- around 20-25% in LA County• Focus is issue education AND energizing them to turn out.
Occasional Voters are our edge:
•the folks who don’t get polled;
• higher % of younger, poorer, people of color voters;
•if we don’t reach out to these voters, no one else will.
Voter ID/ Education• Precinct walks• Phonebanks
GOTV• Confirm Support• Remind Targeted Voters
Election Day Turnout/ Election Protection
• Walk to Targeted Voters• Poll Checking/ Watching
Why THREE contacts?
Montana
Idaho
Iowa
ColoradoMissouri
California
Nevada
Massachusetts
New MexicoAlabama
New York
Kentucky
Mississippi
CA STATE ALLIANCE1. Progressive State Electoral Network
2. Collaborative Progressive State Public Policies Initiatives (Tax & Fiscal, Apollo Alliance, Issue Hubs)
3. Organizational Capacity-Building in Strategic Regions (20 groups, 6 regions)
SCOPE1. Multi-Racial Base-Building & Leadership development
2. Regional Strategic Alliances & Capacity-Building
3. Strategies to Intervene in the Regional Economy
4. In-Depth Civic Participation.
ALLERT• Civic Participation to Scale• Ongoing regional Coalition• Living Voter database/ voter base• Indigenous Precinct network
PUSHBACK NETWORK
1. Anchor Organizations/ Coalition with common programs in 8 states (red/ blue).
2. Long-term Strategies for progressive shift in States’ Power Equation (base & “swing” constituencies).
3. Collaborative Capacity-Building.
Introduction to S.C.O.P.E.
Strategic Concepts in Organizing & Policy Education
AGENDA
• Building powerful grassroots organization in South L.A.
• Models for multi-ethnic organizing & leadership development
Los AngelesMetro
Alliance• Building
regional strategic alliances
• Building new grassroots organizations across L.A.• Proactive regional issue
campaigns
• Non-partisan voter education & participation
Strategic Initiatives
Environmental & Economic Justice Project Power Analysis Training
4Taken into Account
Can Get Attention
3
6Major Influence in decision-making
8Active Participant in Decision-making
10Decisive Decision-making Power or Influence
2Not on Radar
Die HardDie Hard Inclined Towards Active SupportActive Support Inclined Towards
STEP 2:Sketch the Competing Agendas. The agenda of the forces who are causing or perpetuating the problems, and your agenda (i.e. the vision you want to bring about)
STEP 3:Sketch the major centers of Decision-making Powerover the problem conditions
Board of Supervisors
State Legislature
City Council
STEP 4:Sketch Current Key Issue or Policy Battlesrelated to major problems & conditions STEP 5:
Sketch major organized Opposition Groups
STEP 6:Sketch Organized Progressive Groups (on your side)
STEP 7:Sketch key unorganizedsocial groups (who you think are most important to be organized)
STEPS TO POWER ANALYSIS
STEP 1:Define the major economic, political, and/or social Conditionswhich are negatively impacting primary constituencies
• Training & Strategy Tools to Help Build the Capacity of Social Justice Organizations.
• Regional, State, and National Alliance Building
• Civic Participation alliances and capacity-building.
Research & Training
• Community-based research for organizing & campaigns
• Strategic Research & Analysis (local, state, national, international)
• Education & training tools for participatory research
• Training & Technical Assistance
Proposition 187: Made it illegal for undocumented residents to access social service programs.
1994
Proposition 184:One of the first “three strikes you’re out” laws in the nation. Disproportionately impacted people of color.
Proposition 209:Eliminated Affirmative Action programs in the state of California.
1996
Proposition 226:Restricted Labor Unions ability to raised political money from it’s members.
1998
Proposition 227: Eliminated bilingual education programs.
1998
Snapshot of SCOPE’s Tactical Electoral Work 1994-2001
Propositions 21 and 22“Juvenile Injustice” and Anti-Gay MarriageProposition 38: School Vouchers.
2000
Developing Leaders• Organizing Skills• Political Education• Developing/Maintaining Membership Base
Expanding Neighborhood Education Teams
• Building a Permanent Network of Power • Building an On-Going Relationship with Voters• Connecting Electoral and Policy Arenas
Educating Public About Campaign Issues
• Education/Surveys on key campaign issues• Signing Petitions, Post Cards, etc.• Mobilizing to Campaign Actions
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!!
!
!
!
!
!
!!
!
!! !
!
!
!
!!
!
!!
!
!
!
!
!!!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!!
!
!
!
!
!
!!!
!
!
!
!!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
k k
k
k
k
k
k
k
k
k
k
k
k
k
k
k
kk
k
k
k
k
k
k
k
k
k
k
kk
k
k
§̈¦10
£¤Hollywood
§̈¦110
Weste
rn
Slauson
Florence
Vernon
Cr e
nsha
w
Bro
ad
wa
y
Arl
ingto
n
Ve
rmo
nt
Co
mp
ton
Exposition
Martin Luther K ing
State
Washington
Ve
rmo
nt
Washington
Slauson
Arlin
gto
n
Ve
r mo
nt
la C
iene
ga
Co
mp
ton
Jan 05 Occasional Voters
21 - 341
342 - 444
445 - 542
543 - 652
653 - 1004
k AGENDA NET Leaders
! AGENDA NET Mbrs
Initial Neighborhood Education Team Targeting
NETs
• Teams of 2-4 People in a Precinct / Neighborhood• On going education and mobilization of Neighbors• Permanent base and infrastructure of power
SCOPE’S 2006 PROGRAM1. Test Program to Train NETs in Winter ’06
• Training and Tracking with PDAs• 4 Trainings and 3 Saturday Mobilizations with 60 Leaders
2. June Voter Education and Mobilization Program Contacting 5,000 Voters
• 4 Door-to-Door Mobilizations with 115 Precinct Leaders • A Street Action Team of 10 people for 3 weeks • A three day Get-Out-the-Vote Program which reminded
1,250
3. November Voter Education & Mobilization Program Contacting 8,600 Voters
• 4 Door-to-Door Mobilizations with 148 Precinct Leaders • A Street Action Team of 17 people for 4 weeks• A three day Get-Out-the-Vote Program which reminded
1,030 voters
SCOPE’s Increasing Scale of Contacts in 2006
Total Voters Contacted: 14,245
Non-Duplicative Contacts: 10,871
574
4,989
8,682
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
9000
Winter Spring Fall
top related