OBJECTIVES By the end of this session you will be able to:
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Tasks for this session
Before the start of the eighth class session (which is a Zoom /Classroom meeting):
Read
Read pages 243-301 in Building Powerful Community Organizations by Michael Jacoby Brown (2006) 2h 6 minutes.
Don’t Agonize, Organize: The Ed Markey Organizing Model by Emma Friend. September 20, 2020 in Medium. (17 minutes)
Watch
The 37-minute talk by Barry Oshry Transforming System Blindness, with all its personal and organizational costs, into the creative possibilities that come with System Sight given in 2015 at the Power+Systems 40th anniversary in London, UK 35 minutes.
I would like you to watch this one documentary: Gaining Ground: Building Community on Dudley Street. It is a one-hour documentary on Kanopy, which you will be able to watch if you log-in with your ID and password (the same ones you use on the library.uis.edu website). If you have an extra hour and are really interested in this, I recommend that you watch the earlier documentary on this same community and organization, Holding Ground: The Rebirth of Dudley Street. (Sometimes I have difficulty accessing films on Kanopy through the UIS library on Chrome, but I find that Firefox or Safari will work when Chrome is giving me difficulties).
Tasks
Activity One
In the seventh week of class in Fall 2020 we begin the week with a Zoom class / classroom meeting. So, while you should be participating in the discussion boards on Canvas, take note of how long we meet for the 7th class meeting, and subtract that time from 3.5 hours to see how much time you need to devote to our discussion boards on Canvas.
Activity Two
You should be working on the second experiential learning assignment, where you contact the most influential persons you know (three of them) and ask them about their activities to make the world a better place, ask under what circumstances they might help you if you came to them for help working on a cause, and ask them what they look for when they decide to use their time/money/influence to support a cause. Allocate about an hour to this. You should have time to interview one or two of your contacts, and possibly to write up some notes on the conversation(s) you have.
Activity Three
You should be active in whatever group you have joined this semester (or become more involved with). You need to be participating with this group to such an extent that you can form some informed opinions about how the group is run and what it could do to function better. This week you might focus on how the group is building leadership among members (and thus, power), or how well it holds its meetings.
Activity Four
You should devote some time researching your political opposite to learn more about the areas where you share common interest or opinions with them, and you should be thinking how you might approach them with a proposal to work collaboratively on an issue where you are not in opposition to each other.
Activity Five
In this seventh week you should probably be working on planning or preparing for a meeting with some people you don't know well as well as some people whom you do know well so you can have a social gathering where you will, at some point, guide the discussion toward issues of common concern and problems that everyone faces. You should be at a stage where you have invited people, and you have set a time and place (virtual, possibly), and you are now planning what you will say, how the gathering will go, what people will eat, and things like that.
Activity Six
We will finish up your classes with the United States Institute of Peace this session as you take your second elective course. Take any of the USIP classes you want. I assume you will take a micro-course, and those take about three hours.
Session Time Budget
2h 36m |
Canvas Discussion Board participation |
2h 6m |
Reading Brown, pp. 243-301 |
54m |
Reading the article about the Ed Markey organizing model and watching the video of the lecture by Barry Oshry about system blindness. |
15m |
Assignment related to 1st experiential learning assignment. The meeting with friends and persons you don’t know well. |
1h |
Reflect on your experience on the 2nd experiential learning assignment. Write up an account of your experiences talking to the three most influential persons you know. |
30m |
Begin work on your Grand Challenges paper. Read up on your topic and think about what must happen in order for the profession to address this Grand Challenge. Think about how you will narrow your focus. |
1h |
|
30m |
Work on the fourth experiential learning assignment. Research your political opposite or opponant, and write up a proposal of how you would work with them or how you would approach them, or draft an e-mail or letter you might send suggesting collaboration on an issue where you are connected to your adversary by a common self-interest or shared concern. |
3h |
Do your second elective course with the United States University of Peace. You can take any course you like. |
Discussion Board Questions (Activity One)
Go into Canvas, log in, and respond to the discussion questions for this session.
These are:
DQ 7-1: Check In
Check in for the seventh week of the semester. Tell us what is going on. Share something you have done in the recent days or weeks that you feel good about.
DQ 7-2: Animals
Many people enjoy watching animals. For example, many people like to watch birds, and some put birdfeeders in their yards, or travel around the world to add birds to their list. Other people enjoy going to a zoo, or travelling to exotic places to see animals they might otherwise only see in zoos. Some people like hunting or fishing, which are other ways to appreciate wildlife. Some people collect insects or butterflies. Many people have pets. Consider your own relationship to animals, and share with us some of the ways you enjoy animals. What are some of your favorite animals? What do you like to learn about animals?
DQ 7-3: Reports from the field
Please share any stories or observations you have from your experiential learning assignments. For example, by this point (nearly mid-way through the semester) you should have completed one or two of the assignments (ideally). Have you had a social gathering with some people you don’t know well included among the guests, and did you get a chance to steer the conversation toward issues of common concern? What issues did people identify that were problems where they all shared a common self-interest? Did you talk to your most powerful and influential contacts? What did they say? What group have you joined, and what are you noticing about the way that group is working? Have you identified a political adversary or opponant, and what have you learned about them, and what do you share with them as a common interest? Did you explore human rights advoacy and write a letter to support someone’s human rights? Tell us about that.
DQ 7-4: Agitation
Alinsky described agitation as “rubbing raw the sores of discontent” and Michael Jacoby Brown emphasizes the importance of helping people recognize their self-interest and expands the idea of self-interest beyond “addressing issues causing discontent” to include such ideas as “finding meaningful contributions to make” or possibly other things (transcendence? self-actualization through behaving in conformity to an idealized self-image of one’s potential?).
Please consider this problem of self-interest and agitation. On one hand, Alinsky and Brown are agreed that we do not want “do-gooder types” who remain alienated from the persons they help, and both say that there must be a connection through self-interest. But, isn't it the case that just as we may want more physical security, more just treatment for ourselves, and more protections from misfortune (security in housing, health care, and meeting our nutritional needs), we also want—or actually need—the respect and admiration of others, a sense that what we do is meaningful and worthy, a connection to transcendance, and a sense that are working for our ideals? Surely we cultivate and motivate leadership by pointing out, “this is the right thing to do, and you know these people are counting on you, and you know that doing this is more significant and meaningful than staying at home and not doing this.” And yes, we can also agitate by pointing out, “you and all your allies will benefit if this happens, and your lives will be easier or better after you win this victory, and all of you can improve your conditions by doing this.” It seems Alinsky and Brown are saying that the second approach is more powerful and more likely to work, but Brown is saying that the first approach can work as well.
My question is: how do we we increase the risk that we will have the problem of people who are self-righteous and proud and alienated from the people they are helping when we appeal to psychological or spiritual needs rather than practical material gains?
In answering this, you might consider your own self-interest as a social worker. You are probably entering this profession mainly because of spiritual or psychological needs, and because the work of this profession is a good match to your personality traits and your character strengths. But you also have a basic material interest in earning a decent income, and you will rightly insist that you earn a livelihood from your work as a social worker. Without that material self-interest in getting rewarded (salary, promotion, job security, better work assignments) that creates a connection between your self interest (rewards for doing social work well so that your clients benefit) and your clients’ self interest (they want you to help them solve their problems so they can achieve a more functional and flourishing life), if you were simply motivated by your desire to be good and do good, would you be more vulnerable to alienation from your clients?
DQ 7-5: Grand Challenges
The work to address the grand challenges is divided up in several ways. On one hand, we can think of approaching the grand challenges through education, research, and professional practice. What should we be researching and what questions should we be answering? What should we be teaching people and especially, what should we be teaching social work students? And, what should social workers be doing in their professional practice? On another hand, we can think in terms of level of action: are we working in the immediate area where we live (our community, city, county, or our agency), or are we working on the state level to get state policies and services aligned with the grand challenge goals? Or are we working at the federal level to get national policy improved? There is also the issue of whether we are working mainly toward preventing a problem, or trying to address the problem when it exists, or whether we are trying to help people recover from the problem. As you consider the Grand Challenge that you will be writing about, which of these various types of approaches will you be focusing on? education/research/practice and local/state/federal and prevention/treatment/recovery?
DQ 7-6: Systems Vision
Having watched Barry Oshry give his introduction to his ideas about system blindness, please explain in your own words what system blindness is, and why it is beneficial to a social worker if they can become aware of systems and learn to see them.
DQ 7-7: Ed Markey Organizing Model
Having reviewed Emma Friend’s summary of The Ed Markey Organizing Model, explain how that organizing model might be worthwhile as a guide to policy practice or community organizing for a social worker. What are some of the key elements of the Markey model, and according to your understanding of the world, which of those parts of the model are likely to be most useful.
DQ 7-8: Moving beyond providing services
Most social service and human service agencies have what Michael Jacoby Brown calls a “service” orientation (see page 283). He also describes advoacy and mobilization orientations, and compares these three orientations to an organizing approach. Pages 284-301 in your text (assigned for reading in this session) describe ways to put more organizing into service-oriented organizations, and Brown offers examples of how this has been done. Think of some examples on your own about how an agency (or a person working at an agency) that is mainly providing services, or offering advoacy or mobilizing people, might add in a bit of organizing. Why might it be helpful to your clients if you include some organizing to supplement the services you provide? Consider the “Minnie test” (pages 299-301).
DQ 7-9: USIP courses
What are the main ideas you took from the course on nonviolent action? (This was the micro-class from USIP assigned in the 5th session). What are the optional courses you have taken in the 6th and 7th sessions? What have you learned from those courses?
Study this scenario for a conversation in session 8:
The “Tenderloin” neighborhood is an extremely heterogeneous low income community. It has many immigrant families from Asia and Latin America (mostly Mexican), many African-American single young adults, and a still significant representation of European-Americans, many of them elderly or disabled. It has some of the lowest property values and most affordable rents in the city, which makes it a popular place for elderly residents, disabled persons on fixed incomes, and young adults or families with working-class incomes. The neighborhood is within walking distance of some of the main commercial and cultural areas of the core city center, and there has been some speculative purchasing of land and buildings in the community by developers who see opportunities in the relatively affordable prices. There are many small and quirky stores all over the community, many of them small shops or restaurants run by Asian or Mexican and Central American immigrants. Yet, the Tenderloin has many undesirable aspects as well, including a very high concentration of bars and lounges, associated drunken behaviors (public nuisances, people working in the sex trade, fights), and a high crime rate, and some of the oldest and most decrepit structures in the cities (lots of older buildings and homes that haven’t been well-maintained). The low incomes in this neighborhood have also made it a place for residential hotels, homeless shelters, and other services that have attracted persons who are homeless or coping with mental illness. Persons addicted to drugs also seem concentrated in the community. This neighborhood has not been organized in the past, and has no political power in city politics, because there is no neighborhood association or tenant association or any other group that has been able to mobilize residents or represent the interests of residents in local decision-making bodies such as the City Council or the Planning Commission.
Residents would obviously like to have lower crime in their community, more amenities, improved housing quality, cleaner streets, and so forth, but they could not afford to remain in the neighborhood if rents went up significantly or if property prices (and thus, property taxes) increased. In other words, gentrification could be a real threat to the community. Residents want a few things:
- a better neighborhood (lower crime, safer and cleaner streets, more amenities)
- a neighborhood that retains its residential character (they want to keep the diversity and keep the community a living community, and they don’t want the commercial or industrial areas to expand into their neighborhood and change its character)
- an affordable neighborhood (the survival of their community requires housing prices to remain relatively low, and any significant increases in rental prices or housing prices would displace most of the existing residents, and existing small family businesses would also depart if rents increased).
A team of community organizers have been working with local residents to form a neighborhood organization, “North of Market Planning Coalition” (NOMPC). Through careful work in recruitment, listening to residents, considering strategies and tactics, and the planning process, the NOMPC has created a vision and a mission:
We want to live in a safe and flourishing residential community that remains diverse an affordable. We will act nonviolently and democratically to preserve what we like about our community and protect the community from threats against its sustainability and viability, while working together to solve problems and improve the quality of our lives in the Tenderloin neighborhood.
Situation. Three major multinational corporations all want to build massive commercial and luxury hotel developments in the Tenderloin neighborhood on the end closest to the cultural and commercial center of the city. These groups are Wyndham Worldwide, Marriott International, and the Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG). The proposed developments would put buildings of 32, 27, and 25 stories into the Tenderloin neighborhood.
No residents would be displaced by these developments.
Current zoning would allow these constructions.
The hotel developers are among the most powerful interests in city government.
The city government is very much in favor of hotel development in general.
Most people in the city prefer to have a few luxury hotels with associated shopping over the sort of commercial and residential uses now existing in the Tenderloin.
The hotels are likely to change the character of one end of the Tenderloin neighborhood, attracting chain stores, raising property values, and raising rents.
It is probably impossible to prevent the hotels from being constructed.
Probably a slight majority of residents in the Tenderloin oppose the hotels, but most of their opposition is related to their justified fear that the hotel developments are the start of a gentrification and redevelopment process that will make the neighborhood unaffordable and homogenous, and current residents will have to relocate to less desirable neighborhoods. Almost all residents strongly oppose the likely consequences of the hotels (the loss of affordable housing and the transformation of their community).
Many residents in the Tenderloin care about a social change agenda. They want more power for their community, and they want investment and support from the city and business leaders, so that there will be more job opportunities in the neighborhood.
Many Tenderloin residents are concerned about crime. They want to reduce crime so that they can feel safe. They would be happy to decrease crime by increasing the police presence and the quality of policing. They would be even happier to decrease crime through non-punitive prevention methods (youth employment, community solidarity-building, job training, improved recreational and educational opportunities, drug treatment, etc.).
NOMPC’s central goal in the short-term is to win acceptance of the Tenderloin as an actual neighborhood worthy of assistance from the city.
NOMPC wants the city and people of the city to recognize that the Tenderloin is a residential neighborhood, and ought to remain such.
NOMPC wants the city and its people to recognize that the Tenderloin, as a residential neighborhood, deserves protection through zoning and regulations, just like other residential neighborhoods in the community.
The city planning commission and then the city council must hold public hearings and then provide approval at a public meeting to allow the hotel developments to take place.
Questions:
Should NOMPC fight the three hotel developments? If so, how? If not, why not?
What might NOMPC gain from a fight against the proposed hotel developments?
If NOMPC fights the hotel developments, and loses (as it probably will), what else might it accomplish through the fight against the hotels?
What should NOMPC do or prepare to do as it addresses the issue of the three proposed hotel developments in the Tenderloin?
Interesting Stuff To Explore (optional stuff)
There are currently two women serving in the United States Senate who were social workers. One was a school social worker from 1995 to 2002, and earned her MSW from Arizona State. The other earned her MSW from Michigan State University in 1975, but almost immediately entered politics and became a member of the County Board of Commissioners where she lived. Look up the careers of some of the social workers in the U.S. House and Senate.
As we watched the documentary on Roxbury, you might want to learn more about some Boston community organizing history:
The Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (the community agency featured in the documentary we have watched in this session).
This article: Fixing a Highway-Shaped Hole in the Heart of Black Boston. by Erick Trickey published on August 14, 2017 at the Next City website.
This 2004 report from The Urban Institute describes the first decade of the HOPE VI policy that was so important in transforming public housing in the United States between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s.
You might enjoy checking out more recent articles and report from the Urban Institute's Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center.
Learn about Valley Interfaith.
Learn about the Urban League of Saint Louis and the Urban league of Springfield, Illinois, and the Urban League of Chicago.
Learn about the Faith Coalition for the Common Good.
Learn about the Springfield Coalition on Dismantling Racism (SCoDR), and the meeting they held in 2018.
Come to the next class ready.
Come to class ready to discuss how we can move an organization from a service orientation toward an organizing approach, at least in some areas.
We will also go around and have each of you teach us what you learned in your two elective micro courses.
We will run the simulation of a non-profit board meeting (see activity 6 in session 6 for the situation description) during the 8th session, since we did not have a Zoom meeting this 7th session.