Community Organizing

As an idea, community organizing has recently gained ascendancy within community development discourse. With varying meanings, community organizing is understood to mean mobilizing people to work together to solve a shared problem. It is essentially a process in which people organize themselves to take charge or control of their situation and, in doing so, develop a sense of ownership of their community.

When people or communities become marginalized and disempowered, community organizing can be a powerful tool in bringing awareness to people to take action against the forces that discriminate against them. As such, organizing essentially involves two major things. First, it rectifies the challenges of power dynamics. Although this is not easy to do, it is through the process of organizing people that there is a shift in power from the dominant forces (corporate and social institutions) to ordinary people as the process itself enhances accountability and transparency for both parties. Second, organizing people is about transforming people's attitudes. Thus, by organizing people, individuals and communities become authors of public good rather than just passive recipients of things, processes, and decisions decided elsewhere without their participation.

Community organizing does not occur in a vacuum;rather, it is carried out under clear guidelines and a set of rules and principles. It is underpinned by philosophies. The central ingredient of effective community organizing that distinguishes it from other social change strategies is the fact that it builds power that is meant to result in social justice. To achieve this power, the following contemporary principles are employed:

• Participation—Community organizing organizations view participation as an end in itself, particularly through skills development, knowledge building, and being responsible custodians.
• Inclusiveness—It is fundamentally vital for communities to be as inclusive as possible. Often, membership of the group is drawn from a diverse section of communities, in most cases, those that are usually at the periphery of decision-making processes or from minority groupings.
• Scope of mission and vision—Community organizing requires clear and precise aims and goals. This principle is about ensuring that the mission and vision cover broader issues that affect community rather than being narrowly focused.
• Critical perspective—In trying to change the behavior of social institutions, community organizing groups can be a polarizing force. However, viewed from a broader context, community organizing is about advocating for positive policy and institutional change. [Page 384]When governed well, community organizing can stimulate active participation, encourage ownership, and institutionalize accountability and transparency in organizations and institutions that marginalize people.

Community organizing, while focusing on solving present-day problems, gains its strengths from history. Those involved in organizing or mobilizing communities build their confidence by reflecting on the success and failures of the past social movements and social change groups. History is rich with stories of patience, persistence, courage, triumph, and victory against all odds. Against this background are also lessons about tactics and strategies that previous activists used in solving their problems and achieving social justice. In brief, the history behind community organizing is about sensitizing the present generation to the problems and possibilities of positive change.

Community organizing takes different forms in different parts of the world. In the United States, for example, neighborhood organizing is a form of community organizing. In the United States, the history of community organizing is divided into seven distinct periods.

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