Regional Power Building:Creating Labor-Community Coalitions with the Power to

Govern

Civic Leadership Institute for Organizers

Co-Sponsored by Community Labor United and UMass Boston Labor Center

Boston February 7-8, 2008

Building Partnerships USA www.building-partnerships.org

CLIO Goals

1. Introduce Regional Power Building (RBP) as a way of thinking about deep coalition building

2. Discuss strategies for moving labor-community partnerships from transactional alliances to deep coalitions

3. Show how BPUSA’s Civic Leadership Institute can be a tool for deepening coalition work, by creating shared vision and language

Session 1:Regional Power Building and

Organizing Strategies for Building Deep Labor-

Community Partnerships

Civic Leadership Institute for Organizers

Underlying Assumptions of Regional Power Building

1. We are not a Presidential election away from real power.

2. Taking back the Congress will not ensure a politics that puts the concerns of working families, women, immigrants and communities of color at the center for political decision-making.

3. In spite of a global economy and the impact of freely-roaming capital, a range of political decisions are made at the local and regional level that have enormous impact on the economic well-being of our families and the social well-being of our communities.

Underlying Assumptions of Regional Power Building

4. The Labor Movement must be able to build sectoral and geographic power (these are not mutually exclusive goals)—and must become an institution that represents the broad interests of all working people.

5. Progressives can make great gains at the local level by creating new organizations and infrastructure, as well as new models of organizing and shaping public policy.

Case Study Presentations

1. How do they tell their story?

2. What problems are they trying to solve?

3. Pay particular attention to how they talk about issues in ways that represent a broad public interest.

4. What groups & individuals had to come together in order to be successful?

5. Assuming that many of these same people were already working on these issues, what is different about today’s approach?

6. What will our region need to be able to do similar work?

7. How will we know if we are successful – short-term, mid-term and long-term?

Case Studies of CCNE and CLU

Lisa Clauson, Exec. Dir., CLU, Andrea van den Heever, President, CCNE

• Background/History• How did the long-term vision for labor-

community partnerships influence your programs and the way you work?

• What was the strategic purpose of the CLI to your work?

• How did you integrate research into your organizing programs?

• Challenges and barriers to the work

Small Group Breakout #1 – What is Regional Power Building?

1. How did CLU and CCNE define the ultimate goals of their regional work?

2. Who did they bring to the table as core partners? How did the regional work redefine the relationship among these groups in ways different than what would have happened with one-shot issue or support campaigns?

3. What kinds of resources did leaders pull together or established new?

4. What challenges did the leadership face that might compare to situations in your community? How were these challenges addressed?

Session 2:Building Towards a New

Majority

Civic Leadership Institute for Organizers

Small Group Breakout #2 – How do we apply this to our region?

In small group breakouts, delegates from each region identify:

• What is the goal of our regional work? Where do we want to be in 5 years?

• What capacities do we need to create to foster the relationships and what already exists?

Building a New Majority

…means building organizations that are both strong and smart, and can:

• Frame public debate

• Educate & train a cross-section of leaders

• Promote proactive policy proposals

• Make a strong case for unions and an activist public sector

Building Strategic Partnerships

• Building Coalitions within the Labor Movement– (Shore up your own foundation before adding more

floors to the building)

• Labor-Minority & Immigrant – (There isn’t enough of us—we need to add more to

our side)

• Developing a Sophisticated Approach to Employers– (It’s not smart to annoy everyone at once)

• Fostering bridge builders– (We need more leaders capable of thinking outside of

their silos)

Case Studies, Part 2

Lisa Clauson, Exec. Dir., CLU,

Andrea van den Heever, President, CCNE

• How did you get key partners involved and keep them engaged?

• What is the governance structure of CCNE, CLU and why did you set it up that way?

• What are other challenges they confronted in building long-term core partners, choosing campaigns, capacity?

Case Study – Hartford

Renae Reese, Director, CCNE-Hartford

• What does new coalition work in a low-growth, service dominated economy look like?

• Hartford CCNE is a start-up organization in a regional economy that has experienced significant decline

• Needed a way to create new space to build new types of relationships

• How the CLI was a part of their organizing strategy and what were some key outcomes

• Q & A

Small Group Breakout #3 – Identifying Core Partners

In small group breakouts, delegates from each region identify:

• Who are potential core partners that share a similar vision to long-term power building?

• What is a potential outreach strategy you could use to gather feedback about this long-term work?

• How could the CLI be a potential space to redefine coalition relationships and build common vision?

Session 3:The Civic Leadership Institute

as a Vehicle for Moving Community-Labor Partnerships from

Shared Interests Shared Values Shared Power

Civic Leadership Institute for Organizers

Key Goals for Session 3

• Show how each of the CLI modules connect with a broader power-building strategy

• Illustrate why modules are designed as they are, by presenting Module 1 for participants to experience directly

• Highlight importance of creating opportunities for leaders to get to know each other

How the CLI creates strategic opportunities

• Understand how this is going to help your coalition move in a different direction

• How each module contributes to:– Relationship development;– Common understanding of the regional economy &

existing power relationships;– Recognition of shared interests; and

• Ultimately, a foundation for deep partnership & regional power building.

Module 1 – Understanding the Regional Economy

• Why regional thinking is so important• Economic Issue Scan using “Four Families”

Exercise• Examination of regional employer group

materials & what they say about development priorities

• How we can develop our own language & measures to frame the debate around issues that matter to working families

What is a Civic Leadership Institute?

Simply stated:

The CLI is a 6-7 week leadership development program that brings diverse progressive leaders together to learn about / from each other, and from other local experts on the regional economy and public policy mechanisms.

However, • It is not the typical “individual” leadership

development program;• Of chief importance:

– who is in the room – what the CLI is doing for your organizing needs

How the sessions create strategic opportunities

Finally, the CLI must reflect your coalitional and organizational needs:

• Outreach to leaders you want to bring closer to your work or to turn existing allies into your champions;

• Research for modules can form the foundation for your framing report and build institutional relationships with academics who can help advocate for the work;

• Potential or current campaigns can be explored through the Power Analysis

Using the resources of BP

Planning for a Civic Leadership Institute can deepen institutional relationships and enhance your organizing and research capacity

Building Partnerships:Building Partnerships:• comprehensive training

program for grass-roots leaders;

• a road-map and materials for local implementation;

• hands-on support in customizing to local organizing needs; and

• help with strategic planning and outreach.

Sponsoring group:Sponsoring group:• assigns staff to lead local roll-

out;

• invites key local leaders to participate;

• recruits local facilitators and content experts to make presentations; and

• produces research on regional economic trends and power structures.

“Civic LeadershipInstitutes provide a physical and

mentalspace outside of day-to-day

campaignwork where grass-roots leaders cancome together with New partners and allies, and begin

tolook beyond theirtraditionally

separateinterests and constituencies.”

Connecting the Dots